Nineties metal shaped Ballito rocker [Watch]

From rock, to metal and grunge, Ballito musician Chuck Bowden’s voice has taken him to great heights and lows over his almost 35-year-long career.

Sporting a four-octave vocal range, Bowden’s passion for music was born at age 14, when while at boarding school he was introduced to a friend’s steel string guitar.

Before long he began writing his own music, setting him square on the road to building a career in music with his high school band, Crimzon Rose.

Speaking about his inspirations, 49-year-old Bowden said: “U2 was a huge influence for me, as was Guns and Roses especially who constantly pushed what could be done on the mic.”

While they had some success over the years, even releasing their first extended play around 1992, Bowden later joined Urban Assault as the band’s lead vocalist just as the underground metal scene began taking off in Gauteng.

Urban Assault went on to make some changes, and Jaded Jane was born, a band which established itself as one of the top South African metal bands of the time.

Soon enough, Jaded Jane went on tour with top acts such as Metalmorphosis, Sacrifist and Insurrection. Bowden started building a name for himself, enjoying radio interviews and extensive coverage of his music on radio.

“Each venue we played at became bigger and bigger,” Bowden said.

After releasing their second album and playing at the Oppikoppi music festival during the late 90s, Jaded Jane landed support gigs for established local line-ups, but they would eventually be deemed as too heavy for the time, further struggling to land deals with established labels.

Bowden becoming disillusioned with the South African music industry and almost threw in the towel on his music career.

He emigrated to the United Kingdom, eventually joining up with a band called Swarm, a group of Durban guys who had set up shop in London.

While they were primarily a live cover band, they did write some of their own music. Bowden later went his own way and formed Quicksand, in which he focused on his own original material.

They eventually landed a deal with Hi-Note Records.

But in 2012 the band split up and after one more band, Bowden took a break from the music industry.

Bowden and his family moved back to South Africa in 2014.

But it was not long before Bowden could not resist the urge to perform again.

“Music always calls. My music gear had been wrapped up in the garage for about three years before we started going out again, just watching some of the local talent. My wife at the time told me that the guys needed some inspiration and competition. I thought to myself, why not pick up the guitar and just do it for fun,” he said.

Today, you can catch Bowden performing live around Ballito, mostly at The Market where he plays cover songs from John Legend to Queen and more.

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