Ilse Lotz, the songbird of Cullinan soars
Talented artist grew up with the stage and music in her veins.
Cullinan songbird Ilse Lotz (42) comes from an artistic and creative family.
Her brother, Daniel Lotz, aka Diamond D, is a tattooist in Cape Town, her mother, Kathryn Harmer Fox, is an artist in East London, and her late father was the musician, singer and multi-instrumentalist George Lotz, who was part of The Silver Creek Mountain Band.
He initially inspired her to move into a musical career.
“Music has always been a part of my life,” said Lotz, who could sing before she could talk.
Aged 15, she joined her father on stage for the first time, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In later years, Lotz found inspiration in artists such as Iris DeMent, the Be Good Tanyas, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, who, she says, made her heart stop.
Lotz briefly studied music but realised she already had the best teacher she could ask for.
“I didn’t learn anything that I hadn’t picked up from my father and performing with him,” she explained.
When she was about nine, she played her first instrument, a guitar, which she regrets not continuing.
She fondly recalls the first ‘concert’ she attended, although she does not remember it all.
“I have a blur of happy memories as a kid on a Christmas bed underneath tables at various venues listening to my dad play and falling asleep content and full from restaurant food.”
Lotz, whose band is named after her, said once an interviewer called her style ‘Africana’, a play on the genre, ‘Americana’.
“My sound is acoustic. Usually, I’m accompanied by a guitar and a backup singer on certain songs, but in previous bands, I had violinists, keyboardists, drummers, bassists, and trumpeters on stage with me.”
Her creative process is to sit with her guitarist, André Fourie, and learn the songs.
“If it’s a song someone else wrote, we’ll work out how to bring our voice to the music and lyrics.
“If it’s one that he or I composed, we’ll start by creating a vocal line and then figure out how to arrange it. How many bars for the introduction, when to put lead breaks into the song, and how to begin and end it.
“We will then run it over and over until we have the sound we want,” said Lotz.
She finds her inspiration in the music itself.
“I love singing and am passionate about chord progressions. I couldn’t live without it.”
Her go-to is breakup songs, but she has also written a few songs bout her father’s death. She says he did great work and made a living in a country notoriously lacking a booming music industry. She does quite a few upbeat songs in bluegrass style to liven up an audience.
“I also talk about each song before I start singing and can usually engage listeners like that.”
If she has one message for fans, it would be to “buy albums and singles. If you can’t, go to gigs. If you can’t, share event information. There are a lot of ways to support local musicians.”
Readers can follow her on her Facebook page, Ilze Lotz, where she launches new songs and announces upcoming gigs.
“André, who plays the guitar with me and does harmonies on some of our songs, wrote a beautiful Afrikaans song, not my first language, called Winterhuis.
“We’ve recorded it at a top studio, Ludwig Bouwer’s One Big Room Studios in Pretoria, and will release a radio mix on all platforms this week. A live version from our most recent gig is viewable on my Facebook artist’s page, Ilse Lotz.”
They also plan to release an EP together in May.
When Lotz is not singing, she does freelance writing and hangs out with her Boston terrier and Bulldog, Billy and Betty, and her cat, Clemmie. She does a lot of work for the band, like writing lyrics, arranging tracks, deciding on keys, and more. She also enjoys FaceTiming her boyfriend.
“He lives in Centurion, and I’m in Cullinan, so God bless Apple for the video calls,“ she smiled.
