Durban band, GANGS OF BALLET sign to EMI

As if out of nowhere, Gangs of Ballet have gone from Durban’s best-kept secret to Top 10 modern-rock hit makers and opening act for Switchfoot’s SA tour.

South Africa clearly loves the band’s first single “Breaking the Silence”, ever since 5FM’s drive-show tastemaker, Catherine, spotted and championed the talented four-piece.
From there, airplay and demand for Gangs of Ballet’s fresh and inviting anthem secured their ride straight to the top of the charts.

Made up of brothers Brad and Josh Klynsmith, Jonathan Rich and Hardus de Beer, the band with a name no-one’s likely to forget in a hurry, have a 5-track EP prepped for digital release and work is also afoot for a full-length major-label debut album in early 2013. “The EP is our first draft, a calling card if you will?” lead vocalist and guitarist Brad says of their digital first delivery.

The quartet has been playing together for years as friends, but over the past 12 months the chemistry heard on the single, and across the EP, has morphed into a sound that’s malleable, inviting and entirely their own. “We create music out of understanding,” Brad says. “People get that.” Their songs also have an uncanny ability of easily attaching themselves to realities beyond their own, not dissimilarly to the kind of refrains Switchfoot have been writing, recording, and successfully performing for more than a decade.”

Thanks to massive airplay, and a Cell C ‘Be’ campaign musical inclusion, what started out as a side-project has turned these four Durbanites into hot property. “When “Breaking The Silence” climbed to Number Seven on the 5fm chart our phones didn’t stop ringing,” Josh recalls. “When EMI called it was clear they shared our passion and vision so it made logical sense to commit.”

With a record contract in place and a single enjoying airtime (pretty much everywhere), Gangs of Ballet’s distinctive energy is charged and set to explode. “The rules are breaking down around us,” Brad says of how their music, and hit trajectory is writing its own rulebook. “People are drawn to our dynamism. Everything we do has an element of that. ”At times ethereal, at others urgent and intense, the music of Gang’s of Ballet gives unselfishly to everyone open to sharing in their fledgling verve.


Comfortably familiar and undeniably original, Gangs of Ballet write music intended to best be enjoyed on big stages – and this month another of the band’s dreams come true when they get to unleash “Breaking The Silence”, “Hello Sweet World”, “Hurricane”, “This Love” and “Warm Skies” before San Diego’s Switchfoot foster and fuel the flames ignited by a young Durban band about to set the world on fire.