What does Neshamah mean?
Jen: neshamah is a Hebrew word for breath of God, or breath of life..

How did the band get together?
jen: well im matts girlfriend and when the previous bassist left, matt knew I had always wanted to play bass, so they hooked me up, and gave me 3 months to learn how to play bass as well as the neshamah stuff, it was hectic but got me where I am today...our old drummer left for London, so our guitarist decided to leave too cos he didn’t wanna do the whole training up kids again with the old neshamah stuff...so we asked a good friend of ours juan who had been playing guitars for years, and also wanted to play hardcore, but because the scene was only introduced to hardcore through neshamah, there were no other kids playing hxc, so we asked him...Justin is an ancient friend of matts, they were at school together, but he was in a rock band...and quite the rock star so we had to get him saved [ha ha jokes] so he started to play drums with us, and ever since we have been a tight knit...we are really good friends and hang out all the time...it’s how bands should be...right??

How would you describe your own sound, and what’s one of your shows like?
Jen: heavy jumpy aggressive hardcore, pretty much in your face..if its not fun, its not worth it, hehe we play danceable hardcore, cos I believe if you cant go off to a band its really boring, Justin our drummer has a thing for fire so he lights his cymbal on fire when we do our intro..hehe, we all go crazy, and have kids singing along and running on the stage...it’s awesome and soo much fun!!

You guys are from S.Africa, what kind of hardcore scene you got going on there?
Jen: well our dress style is totally different, we wear loin cloths and stuff..animal skins too sometimes..haha jokes..the scene is pretty new down here because before neshamah there were no hardcore bands, the scene is really underground..we get from 150-500 kids at a show, depends how well we push it..there is 2 other harcore bands here one is also in cape town with us called aftertaste and another up country called crossing point, a sxe band, there are way too many punk/ska bands here..WE NEED MORE HXC hehe..

What does everybody do away from the band?
Jen: well I do web design, and a paper zine called silent screams [www.punk.co.za/silentscreams] I also run a small distro, matt manages a sport/skate shop, Justin and juan work in a music store..

Where was your first show and how did it go, whats been your best show, and your worst?!
Jen: well the first show I did it was only 3 months after I had ever played a bass guitar, so my shoulder and fingers were killing me hehe..it was a massive festival too, so I drown on a massive stage..i never ever got stage fright so that’s cool..though I had guys cheering me on cos im a girl, and I don’t think they have seen that too often here..expecially in heavy music..but our first show as neshamah with all the members we have now..was awesome..it was a start of a rad scene to be..cos from that night kids just started coming to shows and getting into the whole vibe, it was awesome..a show is what you make of it, and we enjoy most of our shows because of the super support we get..its all good..and fun!!

You got to do some shows in the USA, how did that go?
Jen: the shows were ok, it was like playing on tv..hahaha..what I mean is that we weren’t at home playing there..where we would usually go mad and stuff we were like a bit nervous not only because we were in a foreign country for the first time, but because we were playing with our favourite bands, and playing a huge festival cornerstone..i mean it’s a kids dream over here to go to cornerstone festival, never mind play it..though it was super fun..the heat totally killed us, and the sound guy didn’t seem to like us..think he was frying hamburgers when supposed to be doing our sound, but it was an awesome experience and I cant wait to go over again!!

Is there a message/philosophy with Neshamah, what do your lyrics deal with?
Jen: yeah, well we are all Christians, but don’t believe in forcing of opinions, after all hxc is about respecting each others beliefs, we sign about social and everyday life..basically anything that kids have to deal with through life one time or another..

Whats the best...and...worst thing about hardcore/ the hardcore scene?
Jen: the best thing is that every one is accepted for whatever they do, we are all friends, and that’s awesome, there’s nothing worse than these rock star attitudes that most bands give off...play a show and leave, without spending time and chatting to the kids around you, the kids who support you...you gatta be there so if they wanna ask you something you can try and answer them...there’s been so many times where I’ve wanted to go chat with a few bands members, but they just disappear...and that sucks, rad thing is that we all support each other, even is don’t play a show, we still support the other bands playing, I love it, I don’t think there is anything negative that I can think of...just that some guys can be chauvinistic...but ill survive I’m hardcore remember hahaha..

What kinds of things do you think record labels should do for bands?
Jen: get the bands out there to the kids who would love to hear us, for us we are pretty much secluded, on the other side of the world, so we’d like a label who could get us out into the world…let kids know that there is a scene in south Africa..

You seem to have good distro for your CD, Facedown in the US and GoodLife in Europe, how’s the CD doing?
Jen: “the grass withers” has done quite well seeing it was all DIY, we were sponsored with the cash to record and press them, so all distribution has been done by us surfing the net, and asking labels or distros to distro it..i run a distro so I get it out to all the other distros here in south Africa, though with the help of friends we have made over chats and the net, we have been able to do some rad pushing of the cd..im pretty stoked..now we have to start from sctrach with the new ep being released end of feb..never ending story hehe

What would you consider to be the most rewarding and most frustrating aspects of being in a band?
Jen: most rewarding is seeing kids getting involved and into the whole scene, being accepted by people with similar taste and views..its awesome...frustrating I guess comes with money. Flights have gone up 45% so it costs us an arm leg and head to get over to tour. Its also frustrating when our local radio station calls everything heavy or slightly heavy hardcore, so kids end up thinking nu metal bands and stuff are hardcore..and they’re not!!

Do you guys have any scary or humorous stories of things that have happened while you’ve been our tour?!
Jen: yeah the one night touring up country we stopped on the side of the road to have some food and stuff...we didn’t know there were wild lions around, I promise, but yeah we were all chilling, threw down a picnic blanket...when all of a sudden this massive wild lion comes out of the bush next to us..roaring its head off…we freaked and jumped into the car...obviously Justin was first in the car hehe...but that was really scary...hahaha aren’t we gullable!? Hehe nah no wild lions for us tho with Justin [our own tom green] tours are always humerous, guess youd have to tour with us to find out!! J

Thanks a lot for doing the interview. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Jen: yeah check out www.neshamah.com for any info on us, or contact details..also if you have aim you can chat with us im xjen24, matt is MattNeshamah and Justin is XmeatcoreX..see you and thanx for the interview!

NESHAMAH SOUTH AFRICAN HARDCORE
www.neshamah.com
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