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Crimson House

“World Class Act”

“Potent as whisky, wild as the desert, and fiery as all hell.”   – Rolling Stone Magazine

Crimson House make what they call "Gypsy Jungle Music" having a mix of South African Inspired Gypsy infused blues with an exhilarating live performance.

Having been hailed as one of the greatest live acts in South Africa. With 3 albums under their belt and a series of radio rotating songs around the globe they have no intention of slowing down.

The band creates a high energy dance fueled set that leaves people exhilarated and bouncing with reckless abandon. The interaction with the audience makes them feel as though they are a part a of show.

Since 2013 the band has traveled to the USA and toured throughout the country annually during the summer in the states. They have also made Cayman islands their annual home during the South African winters where they perform various sell out events on the island paradise.

Fronted by Riaan Smit who leads the mad troupe of musicians including Nick Becker on Alto Sax, Gareth Harvey on Baritone sax, Christoph De Chavonnes vrugt on drums, Arno Van Zyl on guitar, and Jacques Jansen Van Rensberg on Bass. Together this band of brothers & sisters create an energy so high that everyone feels the vibrations of friendship and fun.

forwarduse

Crimson House was founded in Namibia in 2010 by Arno Van Zyl & Riaan Smit

Their mission was to find within themselves a sound that would give them the feeling of bliss they sought in their music.

They recruited Christoph de Chevonnes Vrugt on drums and Jacques Jansen Van Rensburg on bass. This rhythm section was completely different from other blues bands as they were more familiar with punk and metal.

The music then took a direction no-one saw coming. It went from blues, to bluegrass western punk with a Tom Waits/Joe cocker styled vocals soaked in gypsy undertones. This unique factor and a relentless gig schedule molded them into a live musical act that could not be contained.

After coming together they wrote an albums worth of songs that would become “smoke, dust & Whiskey’

The Album received rave reviews from media and radio though it was recorded in their friend Alan Simmonds lounge with nothing but some borrowed microphones, a PC with Cubase and whole lot of determination. Though having it mastered by Cape town top mastering engineer Simon “Fuzzy’ Ratcliffe’ (LARK) at sound & motion studios definitely helped

The single from the album “Breaking down low’ became a college radio hit and they created a music video with the help of a friend at the

Soon they found themselves booked at all major festivals and even scoring a publishing deal from Sheer music.

During the course of 2013 they established themselves in South Africa through relentless touring and performing major festivals such as Synergy, Up the Creek, Splashy Fen, Flam Jangled tea party, Namrock, Rock the River, Table Mountain Blues Summit, Kleinmond Blues festival and venues big and small across the country.

As luck would have it their bassist Jacques entered the band into a battle of the bands type competition hosted by AFM radio, and by surprise the band won the competition. This enabled the band o record their second full length album “Red Shack Rock”

The album was recorded by Wouter De Venter at VHmusic& Publishing

The album also received top reviews and is now playlisted on various radio stations including mattie fm, tuks fm, and DMX radio on DSTV.

While recording the album they enlisted the help of Nick Becker to add horn sections to songs like ‘Pindrop circle‘ which also featured Mr Cat & the jackal on Accordion and the saw.

After the collaboration with Becker and his Alto saxophone skills had grown to a point where he was performing all major dates for a number of months the band decided to make him an honorary member of Crimson House.

The bands music now took a different turn with all the new experiences and inspiration brought by this new tone brought by Becker. They found themselves back in studio, this time however they had a new plan on how to execute the recording process.

They heard of a producer who lives in the Karoo who could record the band the way they wanted to be recorded, live. Jo Ellis was a name they heard around and he had previously recorded all of Willim Welsyn’s (Riaan’s cousin) albums.

After securing a recording date with Jo Ellis the band made their way to Ladismith and began recording what the future sound of Crimson House was and is to be.

They released their 3rd album “Come Alive” seeing the band take a whole new direction in their style and sound.

Come Alive won critical acclaim for its instrumentation and lyrical content boasting a wide selection of genre, nearly every one of the 16 songs is a completely different genre.

In 2014 the band received multiple invitations to perform in the USA.

The two members were Riaan and Nick who embarked on a 3 month journey where they performed festivals in Arizona, the Casbuh in San diego, L.A, San francisco, New Orleans, Nashville, Memphis, and multiple dates in New York City.

Whilst in the states they were invited to record with Alan Sanderson, who had previously produced hit albums for Rollings Stones, Fleetwood Mac, BBKing, and Elton John.

They had one studio day and no band but in the end they recorded 2 works. one original and one version of a 400 year Irish drinking song St James Infirmary

They returned to the USA annually ever since becoming a festival favorite at a few prime select music festivals.

Crimson House was previously known as “Crimson House Blues’ but they dropped the blues in the name as they felt they didn’t want to limit themselves to a genre. They are known for jumping between genres with ease. In one set you can expect Latin, Gypsy, Folk, Blues, Rock, Punk, Metal, Grunge, Funk, Jazz, Country and Bluegrass.

In 2016 they took on Baritone player Gareth Harvey as the 6th and final member of Crimson House.

While the meaning of the bands name can be attributed to Red House by Jimi Henrix is wasnt actually intended to be. It means a house of solace, where are all are welcome in. In the Crimson House all cultures, creeds, colors, breeds and seeds are welcome. We do not discriminate here, just leave your baggage at the door.

The band now shares common goal to explore the Jungle Gypsy side of their sound that they discovered and bring it to world.

Their live shows have been cited as the best live to have ever been seen by spectators