Lizette: Danie, where did your music career start?
Danie: I was a member of the Alabama Student Revue group at Potchefstroom University and later on started singing with 2 friends at variety shows with my dad, actor/commentator Dana Diehaus, who used to compare these shows. My first song was written when I was a late 29, whilst working at the SABC in Sea Point and my first album was recorded in 1985 and released the next year.
Lizette: You are proficient in a variety of genres - what is your favourite music style?
Danie: I love a good melody, therefore I prefer ballads.
Lizette: What do you listen to in the car?
A: A huge variety, whatever is in the car at the time, sometimes the same 4/5 cd’s for a year long. Neil Diamond, Joe Niemand, Faith Hill, Shaun Phillips, whatever.
Q: You live in Bloubergstrand. Tell us about your homelife?
A: I stay alone in a house in a security area in Bloubergstrand but my sound engineer has been staying there as well for quite a while after moving to Cape Town from Kuruman. I sleep very lightly and mostly go for a jog or a swim in the sea early mornings. There after I do admin and working on my laptop in a nearby restaurant. I eat in a restaurant three times a day as I am not really a good cook!
Q: Are you currently working on any special projects? Is there an album inthe pipeline?
A: I finished my new CD, called FYNSKRIF, earlier this year and will probably only record again next year.
Q: What are your future plans?
A: I’m leaving for New Zealand mid December for a series of Christmas concerts for ex-pats over there till mid January. I will also do some travelling in a hired camper I guess. I have started a new band which will probably accompany me more next year. We are also working towards a six piece group of artists for a special project in 2008. I will also be making a live DVD of one of my shows.
Q: What do you do to relax?
A: I have a boat at Langebaan where my son stays and kites and I go there as often as I can. We both love the sea and go boating together. Sometimes I go on short weekend trips with my Honda Goldwing motor cycle or play golf.
Q: You write your own songs - do you write about your own life experiences?
A: I write mostly about my own experiences mixed with a bit of imagination. But yes, there is a lot about my life in these songs - happy and sad.
Q: Please tell us about your song entitled 466664?
A: I have been to Robben Island many a time during the past 20 years, and it’s always been a place of great interrest to me. The quarry, the famous cell, the hardship, the larger than life portrayal of some, the lies, the truth, the history and also because the island is right in front of me every day as I awake.
Q: What is your view on the current state of Afrikaans music in South Africa and the world as a whole?
A: The standard has surely picked up, but we are still lacking behind the Western music world in general. What we think is new, has been done 20 years ago - still it is good to see us catching on. the Afrikaans youth has certainly latched on in a big way (I still can’t figure out what caused the mind set change, because anything goes nowadays, even stuff that we regarded as old hat and tacky way back then). The market isn’t really growing that much because there are too many Idol contenders flooding the already small market and producing a karaoke type sound. We need new sounds and new ideas.
Q: Tell us something we don’t know about Danie Niehaus?
A: I have very little patience and can’t stand lazy people with no gusto or self respect.
Thank you, Danie, for this interview and good luck with all the new projects and especially your tour to New Zealand.
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