Durban’s Matt Vend to perform at Poetry Africa

PART poet, part musician is how Matt Vend describes himself, adding as an afterthought, ”I'm more of a poet though.”

Vend, who turns 31 on Sunday, said he has been performing since the age of 15, having spent more than half his life chasing what he loves to do. Vend is passionate about words, being in a song or poem it matters not. His first instrument was a bass guitar, although he explains he is somewhat of a multi-instrumentalist with the guitar being the instrument he uses more than any other. Vend, currently on his third album, has been on tour over the past few years.

He described his move from music to poetry as not particularly drastic, and says he still performs music and has not abandoned it to any degree.

The Durban born poet says that it is not a huge jump from music to poetry and likens writing poetry to song lyrics.“Poetry is about storytelling to a certain extent, I’m influenced by my surroundings, I look at the old traditions, capture and try to put a modern spin or my own spin on them,” he said.

Having travelled throughout the country as well as the USA and Asia, Vend has plans to promote his third album by touring next year to get his message across. “The message is all that matters,” he said. Matt Vend will launch his third album at Poetry Africa 2015, and you can catch his performance this Friday, 16 October at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theater.