Paul Riekert

The published facts about Paul include the following:- he has an artistic background, having studied fine art. He likes to work on the graphical side of Battery 9's albums as well, although I think he has little time for it. Musically, he is formerly of Joos Tonteldoos en die Dwarstrekkers, but he broke away to form Battery 9 as a project based around samples and industrial-techno. This freed him from the constraints of a conventional rock band. He recorded Bierbaard with At and Huyser in 1994, calling themselves Breinskade, and doing brief, violent live gigs where they dressed in bizarre costumes and destroyed things as loudly as possible. Then in April 1995, the first Battery 9 album, Protskrog was produced, and was distributed under the Tic Tic Bang label, although it was produced by Paul's own label One F Music. The live band comprises Paul, At and Huyser, with the addition of Arnaud Van Vliet. His drinks of choice are Black Label, bourbon and tequila.


Image courtesy of Matrex

Paul's selection of instruments have included a corrugated air vent, guitar, and voice. He left the airvent behind when he was last in Cape Town. He is the driving force behind the band; writing, recording and mixing all the studio versions of the music. I asked him what was happening with the next album, since when Gris was released, he had about eight songs ready for it. An interesting facet of Paul came up. He told me that when he wrote those songs, he was staying "in a basement" - I'm not sure if he meant it literally, but somewhere clearly depressing - and that the experience badly affected the music he wrote. When he moved out after a year or so there, he looked at the material he had written, and immediately trashed it and went back to the drawing board. He is strongly affected by his environment and his life situation, and that is reflected in the music he writes. Interestingly enough, I received the impression that he likes to write in seclusion, even out of the city, which is, at least on the surface, in contradiction to the style of music. He also likes to work on songs in the studio, just experimenting as he goes along.

Onstage he is forceful and dominates the crowd, but without being insulting or condescending. He has a keen sense of humour, but subtle enough for the finer nuances to be lost on the unwary. He is equally fluent in both English and Afrikaans - like the rest of the band, his background is Afrikaans - although he has no accent worth speaking of and has a good English vocabulary. He has an almost menacing air about him when he performs, in stark contrast to the man offstage, who is quiet and obviously highly intelligent.

At Nel

I spoke to him and Arnaud after the Playhouse gig on Friday 27th March 1998 in Cape Town. He told me some of the background to Battery 9, what the origin of the band's name is (the electrical battery/cell, signifying a power source and potential, coupled with assault and battery. The 9 is from Cloud 9 - they enjoy what they do!), and a bit about himself. He was brought up on a farm - when I asked about industrial music as his medium of choice, and how he got into it, he said he grew up on the farm hitting things. It seems his musical background is classical, he has been playing for some years. He has a conventional 9 to 5 job, just like the rest of us lowly mortals, where he works as a sportshoe rep, for Adidas I think.

Huyser Burger

He plays percussion and does backing vocals for some of the songs, as well as wielding a mean paintbrush onstage doing the "active painting". His instruments of choice are a forty gallon drum, a drill, and a konka. He used to play the Kreepy Krauly for Breinskade, until it broke. His preferred drinks are Black Label, Jim Bean or tequila. Officially, he is listed in the Battery 9 lineup as a percussionist.

I noticed a few things about him from (almost) first-hand experience. The pictures I have of him are all out-of date, he had much less hair when he was in the Cape, a small fringe and stubble. He is large, over 6ft tall, I think - the largest member of the band, and he spent the weekend in a White Zombie "More than human" T-shirt and camouflage pants. He has a massive laugh, that seems to infect everyone else around him - you can't help but join in, even if like me, you don't really understand Afrikaans. Onstage, he looks completely psychotic, as though he might just leap out into the crowd at any moment and do something drastic. Offstage, like the rest of the band, he seems to undergo a 180-degree personality switch, and suddenly he's very friendly and approachable.

Arnaud Van Vliet