August 18, 2025 • 40 mins
Few artists bring a perspective to country music as unique as Chris Erasmus. Growing up in a game reserve in Zimbabwe before relocating to South Africa, Erasmus developed an authentic connection to rural life that most country singers can only romanticize. On this captivating episode, he shares stories of herding buffalo on horseback, working as a genuine cowboy in Montana, and how these experiences naturally translated into a country music career based in London.
"I didn't set out to do country music," Erasmus reveals with a laugh. "I wrote music and everyone was like 'oh, this is country.'" This organic evolution speaks volumes about the authenticity underpinning his work. Drawing inspiration from storytellers like Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen, Erasmus brings a global perspective that challenges conventional genre boundaries while honoring country music's narrative traditions.
What truly sets Erasmus apart is his multidisciplinary approach to performance. A former national-level decathlete who studied business at the University of Queensland, worked as a stuntman, and performs in musical theater, he applies the discipline from these varied pursuits directly to his music career. "If you stop practicing guitar, you're going to get worse. If you stop singing, you stop writing," he explains, drawing parallels between athletic training and musical development. "When you're not working is the time you've got to be working hardest to be ready."
Currently working on a new album featuring collaboration with diverse musicians and producers, Erasmus offers fascinating insights into his creative process, alternating between starting songs with lyrics or exploring melodies on various instruments. From his resonator guitar to experimenting with cello instead of traditional fiddle, his willingness to push boundaries while respecting tradition creates a sound that's both familiar and refreshingly different.
Listen now to discover how Chris Erasmus's extraordinary journey across continents has shaped a musical perspective that stands out in today's country music landscape. With a new single dropping this month and album on the way, this is the perfect time to familiarize yourself with this rising global talent.
Links
- Jay Franze: https://JayFranze.com
- Virtually You: https://www.virtuallyyouva.com/
- Chris Erasmus: https://www.chriserasmus.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tony Scott (00:05):
Welcome to The Jay Franze Show, a
behind-the-curtain look at theentertainment industry, with
insights you can't pay for andstories you've never heard.
Now here's your host, JayFranze.
Jay Franze (00:33):
And we are coming at you live.
I am Jay Franzee and with metonight the bunny to my Clyde,
my beautiful co-host, MissTiffany Mason.
Tiffany Mason (00:43):
I thought I was going to be the bunny to your
jelly roll.
Jay Franze (00:47):
That would probably work better.
If you are new to the show,this is your source for the
latest news, reviews andinterviews, so if you'd like to
join in, comment or fire off anyquestions, please head over to
jayfranze.
com.
All right, folks, tonight wehave a very special guest.
We have a country musicrecording artist, and then some
Hailing from not the great state, but hailing from London.
(01:10):
We have Chris Erasmus.
Chris, sir, thank you forjoining us.
Chris Erasmus (01:16):
Thanks for having me, Jay, nice to meet you and
Tiff.
Jay Franze (01:19):
It is our pleasure to have you here Right out of
the gate.
I just have to know what isgoing on in the music scene in
London these days.
Chris Erasmus (01:27):
London music scene is always an interesting
one.
A lot of country artists comingthrough.
Actually, at the moment Acouple of the up-and-comers
coming through.
We've always got Country toCountry, which is getting bigger
and bigger every year.
It sells out the O2 in a matterof days, so a lot of good
things happening.
We've got Camden.
It's like our little Nashville.
There's always something goodbrewing over there and a lot of
talent coming out of there allthe time, so it's always a good
(01:49):
place to find a good gig, goodmusic and a huge variety of
music up here actually, so itkeeps you on your toes.
Not as much country as I wouldlike, but we're working on it.
Jay Franze (01:58):
But it's well-received.
Chris Erasmus (02:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the good stuff's well
received.
They love the Americanrecording artists that come over
.
You know, yolani Wilson's,stapleton's, luke Combs came
through, sold out the O2, Ithink, three nights straight.
So yeah, there's a huge, hugereception here for good country.
Tiffany Mason (02:17):
What is the O2?
Chris Erasmus (02:20):
The O2 is like our big venue essentially our
arena venue that it's the bigstep up in London.
The O2 is like our big venueessentially our arena venue.
It's the big step up in London.
If you want to sell out a place, that's the place to do it
Madison Square Garden, theequivalent.
Tiffany Mason (02:32):
Got it.
Jay Franze (02:33):
Yeah, so I want to get deep into your time in
London and the scene and all.
But how did you get from Africato London in the first place?
Chris Erasmus (02:43):
Oh man, that's a journey.
I actually I'm a country boy,so I grew up in a place called
Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe,which is actually in a game
reserve, so it's a naturalreservation area.
We did a lot of conservation ofwildlife and then, when
Zimbabwe got a little tricky tolive in with the political
situation, we moved down toSouth Africa Still got a farm
(03:05):
tricky to live in.
With the political situation,we moved down to South Africa uh
, still got a farm down there,and it was kind of a progression
.
Where I was working in, Iactually went over to Australia
to study.
Before that I was in in Montana.
I did a season as a cowboy up upin Montana, which is pretty
cool, uh, up by Red Lodge and,um, I got invited over to the
States to actually, so I was inAmerica before I was in London.
I got invited over to thestates to actually, so I was in
(03:25):
america before I was in london.
I got invited over to thestates and I was.
I was uh, studying, studyingmusic and acting over there and
kind of.
Then I've got an irish passport, so so once my time in the
states kind of came to an end, II kind of naturally came across
the the pond and ended up inlondon, and I've been hustling
away here ever since all right,you mentioned aust Australia you
said studying in Australia.
Jay Franze (03:46):
What did you study and where did you study it at?
Chris Erasmus (03:49):
Well, I studied two things in Australia.
I studied in Queensland, theUniversity of Queensland, that's
in Brisbane, yeah, on the GoldCoast, mike, a lot of good
science over there and I wasthere kind of doing athletics,
decathlon and studying marketingand business as well as tourism
(04:09):
.
And then I did a master'sdegree in business.
Whilst I was doing that, I wasstudying music and acting kind
of alongside it, because theywouldn't let me stay there and
just do that, so I had to kindof diversify a little bit.
Jay Franze (04:21):
I laugh because I graduated from their business
school with a master's inbusiness.
Chris Erasmus (04:26):
Oh cool, so we would have been in the same, in
the same bottle of water.
Jay Franze (04:28):
Possibly.
Chris Erasmus (04:30):
You're probably a bit more efficient than me.
It's a long climb.
Jay Franze (04:33):
But it was a great school.
I loved every bit of it.
Chris Erasmus (04:36):
Yeah, they're on top of their stuff over there.
Yeah, it's a great school.
Jay Franze (04:38):
So you go there.
And then you said you went toMontana but you were invited.
Chris Erasmus (04:46):
I actually went up to Montana.
My family went on holiday tothe States and my mom's a horse
master, so we grew up on horseson the farm, working animals,
and we found ourselves justended up on a dude ranch.
I say dude ranch, they were aworking ranch that every now and
again voted some people thatthey got to pay to do the manual
labor, until you got invited todo it for free.
(05:09):
So initially we were actuallythere as guests and they kind of
realized that we were ridingringer on the cowboys because we
grew up on horses.
And one of the bosses jokinglywas like hey, you know, if you
wanted a job, if you can justcome over here.
And I was like, well, I'm notdoing anything for the next six
months.
And they were like cool, so Iwent, went back, sorted out
stuff in Australia and went andworked the season over there.
Tiffany Mason (05:30):
Yeah, wow, that's amazing yeah, it was cool.
Chris Erasmus (05:33):
I mean, who doesn't want to be a cowboy,
right?
Tiffany Mason (05:35):
right?
Well, it gives you a lot moreum credibility now with your
country music, right?
Yeah, look I agree, I think.
Chris Erasmus (05:42):
I think there's a lot of credibility.
I still didn't really sing thatmuch about my truck getting
stuck in the mud, because I didhave a truck in London and it
did get stuck in the mud butit's hard to have a truck in
London.
Find that my music kind ofreally walks the line between
very much country and then kindof Indamericana, your folk kind
(06:07):
of world sometimes, andsometimes people be, because at
my other job I do a lot ofmusical theater.
Sometimes they tell me that itsounds like it's in a musical
theater show, which means Iusually have to add a bit more,
a bit more steel string in there.
That's funny.
Jay Franze (06:21):
You mentioned going into London and not being able
to have a truck, so I want toknow how it fits into London.
But why aren't you able to havea truck in London?
Tiffany Mason (06:33):
Like New York City.
Chris Erasmus (06:34):
Yeah, essentially , but they charge you tax for
different vehicles and stuffhere.
So if you're living in the city, charge a tax and you're trying
to find a place to park it, itcan get tricky.
Unfortunately, our trucksaren't quite the size of your
trucks.
We drive something a little bitslightly smaller with the fuel
prices over here.
But yeah, I had a truck for abit and eventually just had to
(06:56):
let it kind of pass on.
It was just too much of anightmare trying to find parking
for it everywhere I went.
Tiffany Mason (07:02):
How do you bring your guitar with you everywhere,
then?
Chris Erasmus (07:05):
Yeah, I tie it on the roof.
Tiffany Mason (07:07):
I've got a little suit.
Don't say that I just puteverything in.
Jay Franze (07:12):
You play a Taylor right.
Chris Erasmus (07:15):
No, I play something called an Atkin, which
is a British maids guitarcompany.
They're really really good atwhat they do.
They make a very good versionof some very similar to the J45,
which you would get in theGibson range.
Because they don't make it atkind of as big a scale, you can
be a bit more sure that you getone, that the wood sits just
right.
The sound's kind of in a goodplace.
Jay Franze (07:36):
Until you strap it to the roof of your car.
Chris Erasmus (07:39):
Yeah, well, that's got to add a little bit
of age to it too.
Jay Franze (07:44):
That don't quite sound right so you take this
interest in music and now you'vetravelled around the world,
experienced a few differentcountries you end up in London.
Now you're starting to putsongs together.
At what point did you decideyou wanted to take a run at this
?
Chris Erasmus (08:01):
well, I was always a singer.
So I used to I mean, I still dosing for my supper.
You know whether it's the kindof classics and cabaret you know
sinatra bube I grew up watching, you know gene kelly, fred
astaire, all those classics.
We didn't have direct linktelevision on the farm so my
grandma had all the vcr tapes oflike fred astaire and gene
kelly, errol flynn, you knowrobin hood and all that stuff,
(08:25):
john Wayne, and then obviouslythe records that they had were
of kind of your Hank Williams,johnny Cash, louis Armstrong,
springsteen, you know.
So it was like it was a hugekind of race Storytellers, huge
range of music.
You had guys who could reallysing.
You had guys who didn't need tosing because they were such
(08:45):
good storytellers not that theycouldn't, but but you know you
like your bruce springsteen'sand your cashers, they've got
beautiful voice but they're nothaving to riff to get a point
across, right.
So I find that that reallyinteresting and and and really
kind of picked.
That really started it.
So I was always singing thosekind of songs and then one day
like well, why don't you writeyour own stuff?
You know you could record itand I had a run at it and wasn't
(09:11):
entirely sure about it.
I think imposter syndrome is areal thing.
I think it doesn't matter whoyou ask.
And then I kind of tracked thesesongs, put them away and then
even did some covers, trackedsome covers actually in Cape
Town.
A friend of mine he actuallyreminded me of this a while back
(09:31):
and he said you know that, uh,darius rocker, when he, when he
did wagon wheel, he did it likein a different tempo.
We tracked that same song in afour, four tempo about three
years before he did listen.
His version is amazing, don'teven run, but it just.
It gave me the confidence to belike oh, you're actually not,
you're not, you're not acomplete idiot.
You're seeing things and you'retelling stories and your ear is
hearing things and you cantrust it and kind of.
I went with that and recorded abit.
(09:53):
We had a cover in New York whenI was in New York, not
necessarily country, but it wentinto the Billboard charts,
which is pretty cool.
First single, which was nice,right, I was like this is easy
cool first single, which wasnice right.
Tiffany Mason (10:09):
Um, yeah, I was like this is easy, uh, but it
had to have given you a littlebit more of that.
Um, you know, like you weresaying I'm not saying you're an
idiot, but you were saying youknow, like I'm not an idiot,
yeah, I had to give you justthat much more reassurance and
your self-confidence yeah, Ithink that's a huge thing, I
think, for any artist.
Chris Erasmus (10:24):
and, and even now , like I'm busy writing an album
at the moment, and the amountof times you run into a brick
wall and you're going, I don'tknow what I'm doing, I'm using
the same chords, everything'sboring.
You know the same stuff that wethrow at each other all the
time.
These lyrics suck.
But yeah, I also was reallylucky that you know, I am a
working actor and I was studyingan extravagant woman called
Susan Batson in New York and shewas really interesting because
(10:46):
she always focused on telling,just telling the stories like
service, the material, and Ididn't just apply that to like
scripts, I applied that to musicand songs and that's kind of
why I found that guys like BruceSpringsteen, johnny Cash's got
a vehicle for events which youguys might know of.
They're such genuinestorytellers.
So that, for me, was the likething that I kind of grabbed
(11:06):
onto and really wanted to putinto my music when I did do it
do you think Johnny Cash beingone of your influences, is why
your music has a little bit ofthat Americana feel to it?
yeah, the Cash stuff also.
I love Stapleton.
I think he's, he's prettyspecial and also I, you know you
tell stories that you know Ididn't set out to actually do
country music.
Tiffany Mason (11:27):
I wrote music and everyone was like oh, this is
country oh right, because yourtruck got stuck in the mud,
right, exactly funny enough,that wasn't the one that.
Chris Erasmus (11:38):
That was not one we recorded, but yeah, so it
came from.
It was almost like it came fromthe other side, where I wrote
what I knew.
And what I knew was country.
Not necessarily an Americancowboy, but you know, I was a
cowboy.
I've worked horses, workedcattle all over the world.
One stage I heard a buffalo onhorseback.
(11:59):
That was one of the stupidthings I've done in my life.
You know African buffalo, thatwas wild.
They were doing a photo shootand they had us riding.
How none of us died is amiracle.
But you know, you tell thosestories and then and essentially
, country is, is country?
So many different things can becountry, which is what I think,
what makes it such a magicalgenre and sometimes what makes
(12:21):
people argue about what iscountry and what isn't, as
you've kind of seen in the lastkind of year.
Yeah, everyone's got somethingto say about country or
something to you know relates toit and at its core, I think you
know relates to it and at itscore I think you know the genius
that started.
You know you've got your reallykind of bluesy guys.
You know the Johnsons and youknow it's just.
(12:42):
You know I love everything thatkind of comes together and kind
of combines with what we end upcalling country or Americana or
you know wherever my music kindof fits too.
But I find you know that youlook at the line of rock and
roll and how many brucespringsteen songs could you be
like?
Is that country?
Or you know, you know how manystapleton songs could be rock oh
(13:04):
, absolutely yeah, so I love it.
I love it and and I kind offocus on telling the music,
trying to make sure it's goodquality and I let everyone else
decide where it lands, whatgenre it is.
Jay Franze (13:17):
Well, I'll tell you, I spent decades living in
Nashville and I'm the furthestthing in the world from a cowboy
, so I don't think locationreally matters.
Chris Erasmus (13:27):
Yeah, I mean, listen, I agree with you.
I think what kind of cowboymakes is also a difference.
I mean, there's some cowboysout there that'll kick my ass,
that's for sure.
But including my friends who Iwork with, and they keep me
pretty straight.
If I release a song before I'mwriting a song and I'm like, hey
, is this too cheesy, I'll sendit to them and they're literally
busy branding cattle orsomething They'll call me up and
(13:49):
be like yeah you can't say that, or all right, cool, I'm gonna
wear another one back.
Tiffany Mason (13:54):
Uh, so I do have a sony board.
Chris Erasmus (13:55):
I was gonna say, at least they've got your back.
Oh, they do, and they'll, andthey'll give it to me.
They'll be like, yeah, that hatin that photo shoot was
terrible.
And I'm like, yeah, but it wasthe hat I work with.
And they're like, we know, butyou need, you need to just get
just here.
And then they sent me off to,like when I was in montana, off
to, to, to kind of one of thehat shops.
Jay Franze (14:10):
Well, you're wearing hats for a purpose.
They're wearing hats for aphoto shoot.
Chris Erasmus (14:15):
I've got my hats now, so I've got a couple of
good hats.
Jay Franze (14:17):
You've got your photo shoot, hats.
Chris Erasmus (14:20):
Well, I work in them as well, so they kind of
just do both.
Jay Franze (14:23):
Nice.
Like I said, I've lived therefor decades and I've worked with
all the people in the musicindustry and none of them are
actual cowboys.
It's in the music industry andnone of them are actual cowboys.
Chris Erasmus (14:34):
You know, it's just a different lifestyle.
That's all it is.
It is.
Being a cowboy is tough man.
There's some, there's some.
Jay Franze (14:37):
They're really tough yeah, I can't even imagine.
Nope, not my thing at allespecially when it's like
freezing cold.
Chris Erasmus (14:44):
In montana that's when I went home.
They were like, hey, do youguys want to stay?
It was like snowing outside.
I'm like, yeah, I'm good, I'mtime to go.
Tiffany Mason (14:50):
I'm an.
Chris Erasmus (14:51):
African cowboy.
This is not.
Tiffany Mason (14:53):
London is calling Nice.
Jay Franze (14:58):
I don't want to go too far off on a tangent, but
you mentioned musical theaterand you mentioned dance and all
this stuff.
How do you apply that knowledgeand that experience into your
music?
Chris Erasmus (15:09):
I think, a understanding what a song is
saying.
A lot of singers will stand upon stage and try to be like I've
got to show people I can sing,or I've got to show people how
good I am, but what a lot of themusical theatre people that I
really like working with andlook up to, or the dancing.
It's not about showing how goodyou are.
It's about telling the storyand finding that essence of
(15:30):
storytelling within the music.
Showing how good you are.
It's about telling the storyand finding that's that essence
of storytelling within, withinthe music.
You know, somebody likeSondheim will, will actually the
music will tell you exactlywhat he's feeling and then the
words will back that up.
And and that's quite a coolthing to play with as a, as a
songwriter, and you're standingon the back of people who can
really really, you know, tell,tell stories and have throughout
(15:52):
the years in such a major rangeof genres.
I mean you get country versionsof country musical theatre, you
get pop, rock, classical.
It also taught me to sing a lotof different ways.
So I'm not locked into, like Ican only do this.
I'm like, oh, that sounds cool,let's try it.
It might sound terrible, butlet's try it.
And the other thing I get to dois because I'm auditioning and
(16:13):
I'm getting to perform in frontof people a lot in a lot of
different ways.
It helps me be less nervous Iwouldn't say it stops me being
nervous but in front of peopleperforming a lot more, there's
less time between gigs, so tospeak.
Jay Franze (16:28):
Right Well, the nerves go away with experience,
the more experience you have,and you in multiple, not only
genres of music but dance anddifferent types of entertainment
.
That's things that most peoplecan't do.
So that's got to give you alittle bit of confidence, which
will take away some of thosenerves.
Chris Erasmus (16:48):
Well, and constantly being thrown out of
your comfort zone in a lot ofways, not just musical theater,
screen stuff that I've done too.
If you're running aroundpretending you're a beach ball,
it'll put you out of yourcomfort zone.
Tiffany Mason (17:01):
Well, I have to assume too that because of the
different paths you've walked inlife, it's made you a little
bit more authentic, and the factthat you appreciate the
storytelling.
I have to assume that when youget on the stage you're just
authentically being yourself andpeople relate to authenticity.
We're all just looking for realpeople, not fake surface level.
Chris Erasmus (17:24):
Yeah, I mean, I think there's different levels
of that and different wayspeople present that, which I've
seen.
And yeah, I I just try kind oflet everyone be who they they
feel they need to be and andreally just focus on trying to
tell the stories that I'm maybelucky enough people want to hear
you know and hope that the resttakes care of itself, although
(17:47):
my manager will keep telling meto post more on Instagram.
That's weird.
Jay Franze (17:55):
That's not the first time we've heard that huh Jay.
I'm sure that one's come up.
Yeah, so can you tell us aboutyour writing process?
Chris Erasmus (18:02):
Yeah, sure, a lot of this stuff comes from.
I'll sit down and I approach itin two ways.
Sometimes I've just got anearworm or I hear something in a
lyric or a line that I'mwriting down and I'll sit and
I'll play with that.
So I'll sit, I've got myguitars here, I've got my
resonator, I've got a littleguitar in here, I've got my
electric over there and I'llliterally just grab it and sit
(18:24):
and try to work something out.
I'll try it in differenttunings.
This one's always tuned intoopen, kind of an open string
tuning.
So I'll sit and just bash itout so I can kind of find
something.
Sometimes I will feel like Iwant to tell a story and I'll
sit down and be like, oh, thisis a funny story or something,
and then I'll literally write itdown.
I'd break it up and then belike, oh, that could be a chorus
(18:44):
, that could be a thing, andthen I will sit down and see
what comes of it.
Other days, especially when I'mback home on the farm, which is
now cape town, I've got a littlepiano in the corner.
It's about used to be my great,great grandmother's piano.
She brought in on oxwagon andand I will um, sit and just play
.
I'm not a particularly goodpianist.
I I know chord progressions andI can figure out like what goes
(19:07):
where and I will just have myphone recording and I'll just
play.
And a lot of the song listencame like that.
You know, 2 am, thank goodnessI live on a farm and I was out
in the corner playing the songand it just came out.
I was feeling that I wasn'theard and stuff in the music
(19:27):
industry and I sat down and Iwrote about being listened to
and the stuff and the song cameout relatively quickly.
I wish that they all did likethat.
So it's a lot of.
I try to stay as open as I canbetween the two.
Sometimes I like to collaborate.
I haven't done a lot of that onthe songs that are out already.
There's only one song that'sbeen heavily collaborated.
But this new album that we'reworking on, I'm working with a
(19:51):
lot of different people.
I'm trying a lot of differentways of writing.
I've got great producers on it,beautiful musicians, a couple
of musical theatre MDs coming in, musical directors.
I've got really great countryartists writing on it.
I love collaborating as well.
So it's nice to sit down, comeup with an idea and then have
somebody be like that's reallydumb, let's try it this way.
(20:11):
You know, I love, I love kindof the to and fro, or sitting in
a room and starting withnothing and building something
up, you know, uh, working withsomeone who's got a different
process.
Somebody's like, oh, I'm, Ilike starting with these chords,
and then you progress from themand, well, I can't sing it up
that high.
Let's, you know, uh, go fromthat, or I can, I need to sing
it higher.
So usually that's how I, how Ikind of approach, approach it
(20:33):
and then and then nailing itdown, and then I'll have a few
sounding boards, some friendsthat I'll be like, hey, listen,
does this go into the trash canor or the trash pile, or does it
go into the?
Does it go into the let's,let's develop this idea pile?
And I think it's important tohave, you know, people that you
trust around you to be able tobe like, yeah, that's, that's
not good or that sounds great,give it to somebody else saying
it's not in your space which youknow it's also something that
(20:56):
happens and I think it's.
Jay Franze (20:58):
A lot of really good songs have been ruined by well,
not necessarily ruined, butjust not done justice because
they've been sung by the wrongperson so what I'm hearing from
your description of your processis that there's times where
you're inspired by a lyric andthen there's times where you sit
down at a piano and you startwith music.
So is there one of thoseprocesses that you lean into
(21:22):
more often than the other?
Chris Erasmus (21:25):
Yeah.
So if I, if I'm really kind of,I'm on the go a go a lot and I
like to write down stuff, so I'malways carrying a notebook
around, so a lot of it comesfrom lyrics.
I like it when it comes fromlyrics.
I think if lyrics work, a lotof the time it'll give you the
melody, it'll give you the wayit wants to go.
You know, if you use threewords in a verse, then it can
(21:51):
give you a lot of space in thesong, whereas if you want to
kind of tell a story, sometimesyou find yourself talking like
this and then you go on and findthe melody from this and then
you go from there, you know,find the if it's on guitar, find
that progression and find thatstrumming pattern.
So yeah, I do like to grow fromlyrics if I can, but sometimes
if I've got something in my heador there's a cool instrument
(22:14):
that I want to mess around withand figure out, sometimes that
gives you a couple of reallygood ideas.
Jay Franze (22:20):
I've always started lyrics first.
Chris Erasmus (22:23):
Oh yeah, you're a lyrics first guy.
Yeah, fair enough.
Jay Franze (22:24):
You have to do lyrics first and, like you
mentioned, the melody comes andthen you can build the music
around that.
Tiffany Mason (22:30):
Yeah, it kind of suggests itself yeah.
Jay Franze (22:33):
Yeah.
Tiffany Mason (22:34):
I love all of the musical instruments behind you
so clearly.
You play guitar.
You mentioned you play piano.
What other instruments do youplay?
Chris Erasmus (22:43):
I played violin for seven years.
I tend to leave that up to theprofessionals.
It is ugly when I do it.
It really is, but it's the onlymy housemates and neighbors
genuinely complain is when I doit.
My housemates and neighborsgenuinely complain when I'm
trying to work something out onthe violin.
It's ugly.
I've played violin for sevenyears.
Oh my goodness, it sounds likeI'm hitting it on the head.
(23:04):
My mom doesn't talk at all.
She's very, very good.
She likes it when I'm workingand I'm singing, if I use violin
or harmonica.
Oh, I'm singing along, yeah.
So I'm always open to playingwith stuff and I find any
instrument that it's in thatkind of realm I can figure out
(23:25):
enough to kind of try something.
Resonating guitar, slide guitarI'm very kind of rookie at, but
I find it really puts me in avery uncomfortable place and
trying different things that wedon't really have resonating
guitars where I'm from or whereI studied and I know a lot of
that comes from the States.
You know you're RobertJohnson's and you're Right and I
love that kind of feel of music.
(23:47):
So kind of playing around withthat, but not trying to be too
appropriate, is really funbecause it pushes you into a
realm that you wouldn't normallydo and you would listen to it
differently.
Tiffany Mason (23:57):
I love how much you love pushing yourself out of
your comfort zone.
I mean, I feel like you almostseem to thrive there, or you
look for opportunities for that,which is pretty cool.
Chris Erasmus (24:07):
Yeah, sometimes, sometimes it gets you injured,
yeah.
Tiffany Mason (24:12):
I like that.
Sometimes it gets you injured.
Jay Franze (24:18):
When you play the harp there, do you stick to a
certain key or do you havedifferent harps or different
keys?
Oh, I've got a whole whack ofthem.
Chris Erasmus (24:26):
Yeah, depending on what key I'm writing in,
usually I will pick this up andput it in afterwards or see,
kind of try to replace theguitar solo with that or
something.
Tiffany Mason (24:38):
I always think and then I'll go and find
somebody who can do it.
Chris Erasmus (24:40):
If I'm over-tracking, I'll get them to
do it.
Right, leave it to a personlike exactly yeah, oh yeah, you
gotta, you gotta, respect the,the high guns.
There's some, there's some guysout there who are just just
beautiful what they're doing andeither hours I put into my
voice, so you know they put intoa guitar over there their
instrument.
The one thing I do like to dosometimes, instead of using a
fiddle, I'll use a cello, oh,yeah, higher.
(25:02):
So I've got a song coming out.
Uh, we don't have an officialdate for it, but after the
single that's coming out thismonth, we're gonna have another
one come through.
It's actually almost like aduet.
So the way I'm singing thatthis is almost playing a country
type style song, but it'sfollowing my uh, vocal patterns,
very high cello as opposed to afiddle, and it just gives it a
(25:25):
different feel, which I think ispretty cool.
Tiffany Mason (25:27):
I feel like you might have been reading my mind
because it seems like it keepscoming up in all of our
conversations, and so I wasgoing to ask if you had fiddle
coming up in any of your songs.
But interesting that youreplace it with the cello
sometimes.
I think that's very creative.
Chris Erasmus (25:42):
Yeah, it was creative, and I don't think I
could get a hold of a goodfiddle player at the time, and
there was a guy from Juilliardwho was fresh out.
He was like, hey, it wascreative, amazing.
So yeah.
Tiffany Mason (25:56):
Creative resourceful whatever.
Jay Franze (26:00):
Well as we talk about the musicians and the
instruments, can you tell usabout your relationship with
Scott and how things are going?
Chris Erasmus (26:04):
Oh yeah, I love Scott.
Scott and I met actually Ithink he did the vocals on that.
He was just mixing the vocalson the song Fires, which went to
the dance charts Right, and Ikind of yeah, we kind of stayed
in touch and I always bouncethings off of him and he's such
a wonderful kind of open man.
He's very thoughtful, veryresourceful and very kind of
(26:29):
intelligent, not just not justknowledge based, but like
musical based.
So he's a producer you canreally trust when you, when
you're working on on things.
I love what he does with vocals.
He's he's just brilliant withvocals.
His work kind of speaks, speaksto that as well.
And yeah, we just kind of weget in a studio, I mean we can,
(26:50):
we, we kind of work on the samelevel.
I mean, I think the last timewe recorded together we got
through four songs in one studiosession.
Yeah and like, so we can bevery efficient when we work
together, which is nice as well.
And then obviously, like thenobviously he always kind of
takes these crazy ideas out ofthe like let's try cello, or
(27:11):
let's bring this in, and he'salways open to it and he always
finds a way to make it work, orhe knows someone, or he you know
.
If I want to steal a steelstring or something in there, we
can always find someone to doit, but do it in a way that kind
of fits my vision for things,and he's also very good at being
like no, you absolutely cannotdo that.
Jay Franze (27:32):
Does he play any instruments?
Chris Erasmus (27:34):
I think Scott can play pretty much everything,
but his specialty is keys.
Tiffany Mason (27:39):
And he's got a great ear, perfect pitch.
Chris Erasmus (27:41):
Yeah, I lean on him pretty heavily when we're in
the studio because if I'vemissed a or something on one of
my progressions a bit clunky,he'll be like oh, try this or
try that, and he's very quick topick that stuff up, so we don't
we don't waste a lot of timetrying to figure out every key
on the keyboard and, yeah, it'sa great relationship and I've
been working with him now sincelike 2016 oh, wow, so then yeah,
we've kind of, we kind of he'shad to put up with me for a long
(28:04):
time.
Jay Franze (28:05):
Right.
I can only assume that perfectpitch is what makes him so good
at coaching you, along withvocals.
Chris Erasmus (28:12):
Yes and no.
I think he also finds a way ofhe kind of he can manage people
very well, scott.
He manages people really reallywell and he's very, very kind
and he never feels judged in thestudio, which is a big thing.
You're going in, you've gotthese hot musicians and you've
got Duff and you're trying toexplain to the guys just come
(28:33):
off tour with Ed Sheeran or thatguitarist, that sounds wrong
and he really finds a way tokind of run.
No one ever works from a placeof ego, no one ever works from a
place of defense.
So yeah, musically andpitch-wise and stuff, it helps.
But I think he can do that andhe does it all very easy.
(28:53):
But the real genius is gettingpeople in a comfortable place
where they can expressthemselves and bring something
of their own to the music.
Jay Franze (29:01):
What would be a negative to having perfect pitch
?
Chris Erasmus (29:06):
I think listening to modern concerts, sometimes I
say cringingly, or going tocertain shows I mean I don't
have perfect pitch.
I wish I did.
But even though I've sat insome concerts and been like dang
, that makes its way off.
I'm sure you've done it.
Jay Franze (29:23):
I hear a lot of people who say that have perfect
pitch saying that they wouldprefer not to have it.
They would prefer to haverelative pitch.
Tiffany Mason (29:30):
Yeah, I wouldn't wish that on anybody.
Perfect pitch.
Chris Erasmus (29:34):
Yeah, a lot of perfect pitch.
People end up as producers, oryou know Mozart's or Bach's, or
you know.
I had a couple of friends whenI studied music and I was
studying music and they wereperfect pitch and they very
quickly became 90 professors.
Jay Franze (29:49):
yeah, you lose the creative part.
Chris Erasmus (29:52):
Yeah, you're no longer being artistic, which
Scott seems to have notstruggled with at all, which is
quite cool.
He manages to keep both, whichis kind of that genius, I
suppose.
Jay Franze (30:03):
Well, you have a lot of things going on in your
world, sir, between your theater, your dancing, your music.
So how do you balance it all?
Chris Erasmus (30:13):
I mean, the cool thing is it all falls into a
similar kind of basket.
One thing pays for the other,and when the one thing is not
paying for the other thing, Ican go to the other thing to pay
for it.
Jay Franze (30:24):
Right.
Chris Erasmus (30:25):
But I think, luckily for me, it's all kind of
.
You know, I've been cast asJohnny Cash and I've been in
musicals and I've been so a lotof it.
Sometimes I can learn from bothsides.
So, as much as it's really busyand it takes a lot of
commitment I don't think more sothan maybe you know your nine
to five jobs, outside of thefact that I'll keep working
(30:47):
until 2 am or until I get a ride, or you know, you've got to
have that self-discipline topractice singing two hours a day
and then practice guitar anhour a day and then get up and
get your ass off the couch andgo running because you've been
in the studio all day.
Tiffany Mason (31:08):
It's a lot of the self-discipline and the
regulation and and and the sportuh, that I was lucky enough to
do really help.
I love that you use the worddiscipline, because I think so
many people look for motivationor willpower and I don't think
that that's the right word.
I think it's discipline.
I think you're absolutely right.
I mean.
Chris Erasmus (31:19):
Motivation is great, but it comes and goes.
Consistency, discipline inanything, is what I try to rely
on when you're under pressure oryou think.
A Gary player said the more Ipractice, the luckier I get.
Jay Franze (31:34):
Can we take that a step further?
You're an athlete and you'revery, very fit and you take on a
lot of different disciplines,whether it be, like you
mentioned, horse riding.
I've seen pictures youkickboxing, you're out with the
crossbow, I mean you're doingall sorts of things.
So how do you take that drive?
(31:55):
Can you make the parallel toapplying it to the music world?
Chris Erasmus (32:00):
Yeah, um, I mean.
So a lot of that stuff was Idid.
I worked as a stuntman on a fewprojects, especially after
COVID when there was no work, sothat pays better than most
things All of it.
Yeah, pretty much paid thebills for a while, that's how
you got injured.
(32:21):
Funny enough, actually, thestunts I was fine with, believe
it or not.
I don't know how.
It wasn't through lack oftrying.
We always had great stuntcoordinators and they made sure
we were pretty safe.
But I think the best way tolook at it is, if you ignore
your scales or the basics on aguitar or doing your vocal
exercises every day, that's whatthat is.
(32:43):
It's doing the basics andtrusting that the basics will
give you the advanced stuff andyou keep learning and keep
trying new things and if youstop, you're going to get unfit.
If you stop practicing guitar,you're going to get worse.
If you stop singing, you stopwriting.
It's it so that it's that's.
It's the same constantimprovement is what you're
looking for yeah, it's that sameprogram, it's the same level of
(33:06):
focus and and drive that youneed.
You know being a performer isis hard work.
I mean going on tour isexhausting.
You're traveling, you eatingfood, you're not used to you,
you're lack of sleep, you'retalking in loud areas all the
time, your voice is fatigued.
If you haven't been doing likethe training to be in position
to succeed, you're going to notbe able to finish a tour.
(33:27):
And I mean, if you look throughthe history of a lot of these
young performers and I'm notsaying that it can't happen, it
does happen if you get ill orsomething but the old school
performers who had to reallykind of grind it out, you know
your Bruce Springsteen's and Iuse him as an example because
it's so impressive that he'sstill doing it at his age, at
the level he's doing it at.
You know it's a full-on concertthat.
(33:47):
And the guy's what?
Late 70s, right and wild.
It's unbelievable.
I saw him play Wembley lastyear.
I was going.
How is he not playing?
He's got the same energy as 21year old.
It's unreal.
But he preps for it and hetrains it and he and he works
really hard.
He keeps himself in shape.
You eat right, you know it's,it's, it's the same approach.
(34:08):
And musical theater if you did,if just I think that taught that
that really did teach to melike musical theory.
People doing hs a week andyou're doing hs a week, whether
it's 100 degrees out, if you'refeeling sick, if you like,
you've got a show's got tohappen.
So that taught me a lot aboutlike being prepared.
You've got to the show's got tohappen.
So that taught me a lot aboutlike being prepared.
When you're not working is thetime you've got to be working
hardest to be ready for thatstuff.
Tiffany Mason (34:28):
Mm-hmm Interesting.
Jay Franze (34:31):
When you were at UQ.
What was it?
You said, you played.
Chris Erasmus (34:35):
I did decathlon, decathlon.
Jay Franze (34:37):
So obviously you had to train extremely hard for
that as well.
Chris Erasmus (34:41):
Yes, sir, I was lucky enough to be.
I went to two nationalchampionships and I was lucky
enough to be in a team with theLone Olympians.
It was quite a cool experience.
That I've told you a lot.
Jay Franze (34:51):
You're really making me feel bad.
Today, when this is over, I'mgoing to be running around the
blocks several hundred timestoday.
Tiffany Mason (35:00):
Now he's going to go redeem his McDonald's reward
.
Chris Erasmus (35:04):
Everyone's got to focus on what works for them,
and that just kept me sane andit kept me in a place when I was
studying business, which I wasvery grateful to study, but my
passion was performing andacting and music and singing it
kept my head straight.
Jay Franze (35:17):
That's a good point too.
I've got that dual backgroundbetween business and music or in
my case it was engineering.
So do you find yourselfapplying that business
background to your music career?
Chris Erasmus (35:34):
Very rarely Money well spent.
That's what the PR firm is for Ithink for me it helps me
understand my value.
I think that's really importantas a performer.
Sometimes you don't understandthe value of what you can bring
to the table.
Recently I had a gig, not incountry music but in cabaret.
They changed the deal on me andthey changed it and I was like
(35:55):
cool and I walked away.
No one else did, I was the onlyone who did and everyone else
wishes they had now.
But it's understanding yourvalue.
And if, if, everyone's willingto work for, not for no money,
then they're going to hire it.
Tony Scott (36:07):
No money yeah.
Chris Erasmus (36:09):
so there is an and we don't really have a very
strong equity here compared towhat you have in the states,
especially like the unions, forlike acting and performing.
So we need to find a way to dothat.
But I think, as a businessperson, looking at contracts,
understanding your value,understanding the value of
something, this is great, buthow many hours am I putting into
it?
How many hours is that takingaway from me doing other things
(36:31):
or doing other gigs?
It gives you a bit ofconfidence when somebody puts a
contract on in front of you, andunderstanding when they're
talking about marketing,although marketing's landscape
in the last five years haschanged so drastically with
TikTok and they keep changingtheir platform and Spotify keeps
changing their platform, so Ithink those kind of things might
have changed.
(36:51):
But just understanding yourvalue and the value of something
and looking at yourself as aproduct can sometimes be
beneficial.
Jay Franze (37:00):
You mentioned that willing to work for lower rates,
and I used to teach at theAudio Engineering College in
Nashville and we used to havestudents that would go out into
the field all the time andeverybody always tried to take
gigs for free.
They would always go out thereand say, well, let me just start
, let me get a couple under mybelt.
But what they're notunderstanding is there was a lot
(37:21):
of time that they put intolearning their craft.
There was a lot of money thatthey put into paying for that
school.
There has to be a base ratethat you've established just
from that, just from the timeand money that you've put into
learning your craft.
And what ends up happening is,when you're willing to work for
free or lower rates, you're justknocking it down for everybody
else that's worked their way up.
(37:42):
So there should be some sort ofstandard.
Chris Erasmus (37:45):
I completely agree, and I think another way
to look at it is are you doingthis as a hobby or are you doing
this as a profession?
Right?
Tiffany Mason (37:52):
Yeah, a lot of perspective.
Chris Erasmus (37:55):
Yeah, and if you want to be a professional,
you've got to get paid,otherwise you're not a
professional.
Jay Franze (38:02):
Chris, we do this thing here.
We call Unsung Heroes, where wetake a moment to shine the
light on somebody who's workedbehind the scenes or may have
supported you along the way.
Do you have anybody that you'dlike to shine a little light on?
Chris Erasmus (38:11):
Oh, I mean, I've got to say my parents, my dad
and my mom, my long-sufferingparents who really saw their son
going to business school andthey ended up being an actor and
a performer, but they've really, they've really found a way to,
to their credit, support methrough every step and an
industry they really don'tunderstand, to really kind of
(38:32):
support me and and you know,there's been months where I
haven't been able to pay therent or there's been months
where I need a little extra forfood and and I've been lucky to
have that support base and Idon't think I would be here
without that.
So I've really got to givecredit to them and the kind of
opportunities that they've givenme and coming from Africa, you
know that's not easy to do.
Jay Franze (38:51):
Understood, all right.
Well, we have done it.
We have reached the top of thehour, which does mean we have
reached the end of the show.
If you've enjoyed this show, aswe say, tell a friend, miss
tiffany.
If not, tell two.
If not tell two, you can reachout to all three of us over at
jayfranze.
com.
We will be happy to keep thisconversation going.
(39:11):
Chris Sir, we cannot thank youenough for being here with us
today.
Can we leave the final words toyou?
Chris Erasmus (39:17):
oh well, guys, thank you so much for having me.
I'm on instagram cj rasmus, ifanyone wants to reach out.
Uh, have a chat.
Uh listen to my music onspotify.
And chris erasmus got newsingle dropping this month.
Uh, we've got a new albumcoming, so keep a lookout for
that and I hope to see you guysalong the way soon perfect and I
will put all the links to allthat in the show notes for
everybody appreciate it have agood day.
Tony Scott (39:41):
Thanks for listening to The Jay franzy Show.
Make sure you visit us atjayfranze.
com.
Follow, connect and say hello.
Welcome to The Jay Franze Show, a
behind-the-curtain look at theentertainment industry, with
insights you can't pay for andstories you've never heard.
Now here's your host, JayFranze.
Jay Franze (00:33):
And we are coming at you live.
I am Jay Franzee and with metonight the bunny to my Clyde,
my beautiful co-host, MissTiffany Mason.
Tiffany Mason (00:43):
I thought I was going to be the bunny to your
jelly roll.
Jay Franze (00:47):
That would probably work better.
If you are new to the show,this is your source for the
latest news, reviews andinterviews, so if you'd like to
join in, comment or fire off anyquestions, please head over to
jayfranze.
com.
All right, folks, tonight wehave a very special guest.
We have a country musicrecording artist, and then some
Hailing from not the great state, but hailing from London.
(01:10):
We have Chris Erasmus.
Chris, sir, thank you forjoining us.
Chris Erasmus (01:16):
Thanks for having me, Jay, nice to meet you and
Tiff.
Jay Franze (01:19):
It is our pleasure to have you here Right out of
the gate.
I just have to know what isgoing on in the music scene in
London these days.
Chris Erasmus (01:27):
London music scene is always an interesting
one.
A lot of country artists comingthrough.
Actually, at the moment Acouple of the up-and-comers
coming through.
We've always got Country toCountry, which is getting bigger
and bigger every year.
It sells out the O2 in a matterof days, so a lot of good
things happening.
We've got Camden.
It's like our little Nashville.
There's always something goodbrewing over there and a lot of
talent coming out of there allthe time, so it's always a good
(01:49):
place to find a good gig, goodmusic and a huge variety of
music up here actually, so itkeeps you on your toes.
Not as much country as I wouldlike, but we're working on it.
Jay Franze (01:58):
But it's well-received.
Chris Erasmus (02:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the good stuff's well
received.
They love the Americanrecording artists that come over
.
You know, yolani Wilson's,stapleton's, luke Combs came
through, sold out the O2, Ithink, three nights straight.
So yeah, there's a huge, hugereception here for good country.
Tiffany Mason (02:17):
What is the O2?
Chris Erasmus (02:20):
The O2 is like our big venue essentially our
arena venue that it's the bigstep up in London.
The O2 is like our big venueessentially our arena venue.
It's the big step up in London.
If you want to sell out a place, that's the place to do it
Madison Square Garden, theequivalent.
Tiffany Mason (02:32):
Got it.
Jay Franze (02:33):
Yeah, so I want to get deep into your time in
London and the scene and all.
But how did you get from Africato London in the first place?
Chris Erasmus (02:43):
Oh man, that's a journey.
I actually I'm a country boy,so I grew up in a place called
Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe,which is actually in a game
reserve, so it's a naturalreservation area.
We did a lot of conservation ofwildlife and then, when
Zimbabwe got a little tricky tolive in with the political
situation, we moved down toSouth Africa Still got a farm
(03:05):
tricky to live in.
With the political situation,we moved down to South Africa uh
, still got a farm down there,and it was kind of a progression
.
Where I was working in, Iactually went over to Australia
to study.
Before that I was in in Montana.
I did a season as a cowboy up upin Montana, which is pretty
cool, uh, up by Red Lodge and,um, I got invited over to the
States to actually, so I was inAmerica before I was in London.
I got invited over to thestates to actually, so I was in
(03:25):
america before I was in london.
I got invited over to thestates and I was.
I was uh, studying, studyingmusic and acting over there and
kind of.
Then I've got an irish passport, so so once my time in the
states kind of came to an end, II kind of naturally came across
the the pond and ended up inlondon, and I've been hustling
away here ever since all right,you mentioned aust Australia you
said studying in Australia.
Jay Franze (03:46):
What did you study and where did you study it at?
Chris Erasmus (03:49):
Well, I studied two things in Australia.
I studied in Queensland, theUniversity of Queensland, that's
in Brisbane, yeah, on the GoldCoast, mike, a lot of good
science over there and I wasthere kind of doing athletics,
decathlon and studying marketingand business as well as tourism
(04:09):
.
And then I did a master'sdegree in business.
Whilst I was doing that, I wasstudying music and acting kind
of alongside it, because theywouldn't let me stay there and
just do that, so I had to kindof diversify a little bit.
Jay Franze (04:21):
I laugh because I graduated from their business
school with a master's inbusiness.
Chris Erasmus (04:26):
Oh cool, so we would have been in the same, in
the same bottle of water.
Jay Franze (04:28):
Possibly.
Chris Erasmus (04:30):
You're probably a bit more efficient than me.
It's a long climb.
Jay Franze (04:33):
But it was a great school.
I loved every bit of it.
Chris Erasmus (04:36):
Yeah, they're on top of their stuff over there.
Yeah, it's a great school.
Jay Franze (04:38):
So you go there.
And then you said you went toMontana but you were invited.
Chris Erasmus (04:46):
I actually went up to Montana.
My family went on holiday tothe States and my mom's a horse
master, so we grew up on horseson the farm, working animals,
and we found ourselves justended up on a dude ranch.
I say dude ranch, they were aworking ranch that every now and
again voted some people thatthey got to pay to do the manual
labor, until you got invited todo it for free.
(05:09):
So initially we were actuallythere as guests and they kind of
realized that we were ridingringer on the cowboys because we
grew up on horses.
And one of the bosses jokinglywas like hey, you know, if you
wanted a job, if you can justcome over here.
And I was like, well, I'm notdoing anything for the next six
months.
And they were like cool, so Iwent, went back, sorted out
stuff in Australia and went andworked the season over there.
Tiffany Mason (05:30):
Yeah, wow, that's amazing yeah, it was cool.
Chris Erasmus (05:33):
I mean, who doesn't want to be a cowboy,
right?
Tiffany Mason (05:35):
right?
Well, it gives you a lot moreum credibility now with your
country music, right?
Yeah, look I agree, I think.
Chris Erasmus (05:42):
I think there's a lot of credibility.
I still didn't really sing thatmuch about my truck getting
stuck in the mud, because I didhave a truck in London and it
did get stuck in the mud butit's hard to have a truck in
London.
Find that my music kind ofreally walks the line between
very much country and then kindof Indamericana, your folk kind
(06:07):
of world sometimes, andsometimes people be, because at
my other job I do a lot ofmusical theater.
Sometimes they tell me that itsounds like it's in a musical
theater show, which means Iusually have to add a bit more,
a bit more steel string in there.
That's funny.
Jay Franze (06:21):
You mentioned going into London and not being able
to have a truck, so I want toknow how it fits into London.
But why aren't you able to havea truck in London?
Tiffany Mason (06:33):
Like New York City.
Chris Erasmus (06:34):
Yeah, essentially , but they charge you tax for
different vehicles and stuffhere.
So if you're living in the city, charge a tax and you're trying
to find a place to park it, itcan get tricky.
Unfortunately, our trucksaren't quite the size of your
trucks.
We drive something a little bitslightly smaller with the fuel
prices over here.
But yeah, I had a truck for abit and eventually just had to
(06:56):
let it kind of pass on.
It was just too much of anightmare trying to find parking
for it everywhere I went.
Tiffany Mason (07:02):
How do you bring your guitar with you everywhere,
then?
Chris Erasmus (07:05):
Yeah, I tie it on the roof.
Tiffany Mason (07:07):
I've got a little suit.
Don't say that I just puteverything in.
Jay Franze (07:12):
You play a Taylor right.
Chris Erasmus (07:15):
No, I play something called an Atkin, which
is a British maids guitarcompany.
They're really really good atwhat they do.
They make a very good versionof some very similar to the J45,
which you would get in theGibson range.
Because they don't make it atkind of as big a scale, you can
be a bit more sure that you getone, that the wood sits just
right.
The sound's kind of in a goodplace.
Jay Franze (07:36):
Until you strap it to the roof of your car.
Chris Erasmus (07:39):
Yeah, well, that's got to add a little bit
of age to it too.
Jay Franze (07:44):
That don't quite sound right so you take this
interest in music and now you'vetravelled around the world,
experienced a few differentcountries you end up in London.
Now you're starting to putsongs together.
At what point did you decideyou wanted to take a run at this
?
Chris Erasmus (08:01):
well, I was always a singer.
So I used to I mean, I still dosing for my supper.
You know whether it's the kindof classics and cabaret you know
sinatra bube I grew up watching, you know gene kelly, fred
astaire, all those classics.
We didn't have direct linktelevision on the farm so my
grandma had all the vcr tapes oflike fred astaire and gene
kelly, errol flynn, you knowrobin hood and all that stuff,
(08:25):
john Wayne, and then obviouslythe records that they had were
of kind of your Hank Williams,johnny Cash, louis Armstrong,
springsteen, you know.
So it was like it was a hugekind of race Storytellers, huge
range of music.
You had guys who could reallysing.
You had guys who didn't need tosing because they were such
(08:45):
good storytellers not that theycouldn't, but but you know you
like your bruce springsteen'sand your cashers, they've got
beautiful voice but they're nothaving to riff to get a point
across, right.
So I find that that reallyinteresting and and and really
kind of picked.
That really started it.
So I was always singing thosekind of songs and then one day
like well, why don't you writeyour own stuff?
You know you could record itand I had a run at it and wasn't
(09:11):
entirely sure about it.
I think imposter syndrome is areal thing.
I think it doesn't matter whoyou ask.
And then I kind of tracked thesesongs, put them away and then
even did some covers, trackedsome covers actually in Cape
Town.
A friend of mine he actuallyreminded me of this a while back
(09:31):
and he said you know that, uh,darius rocker, when he, when he
did wagon wheel, he did it likein a different tempo.
We tracked that same song in afour, four tempo about three
years before he did listen.
His version is amazing, don'teven run, but it just.
It gave me the confidence to belike oh, you're actually not,
you're not, you're not acomplete idiot.
You're seeing things and you'retelling stories and your ear is
hearing things and you cantrust it and kind of.
I went with that and recorded abit.
(09:53):
We had a cover in New York whenI was in New York, not
necessarily country, but it wentinto the Billboard charts,
which is pretty cool.
First single, which was nice,right, I was like this is easy
cool first single, which wasnice right.
Tiffany Mason (10:09):
Um, yeah, I was like this is easy, uh, but it
had to have given you a littlebit more of that.
Um, you know, like you weresaying I'm not saying you're an
idiot, but you were saying youknow, like I'm not an idiot,
yeah, I had to give you justthat much more reassurance and
your self-confidence yeah, Ithink that's a huge thing, I
think, for any artist.
Chris Erasmus (10:24):
and, and even now , like I'm busy writing an album
at the moment, and the amountof times you run into a brick
wall and you're going, I don'tknow what I'm doing, I'm using
the same chords, everything'sboring.
You know the same stuff that wethrow at each other all the
time.
These lyrics suck.
But yeah, I also was reallylucky that you know, I am a
working actor and I was studyingan extravagant woman called
Susan Batson in New York and shewas really interesting because
(10:46):
she always focused on telling,just telling the stories like
service, the material, and Ididn't just apply that to like
scripts, I applied that to musicand songs and that's kind of
why I found that guys like BruceSpringsteen, johnny Cash's got
a vehicle for events which youguys might know of.
They're such genuinestorytellers.
So that, for me, was the likething that I kind of grabbed
(11:06):
onto and really wanted to putinto my music when I did do it
do you think Johnny Cash beingone of your influences, is why
your music has a little bit ofthat Americana feel to it?
yeah, the Cash stuff also.
I love Stapleton.
I think he's, he's prettyspecial and also I, you know you
tell stories that you know Ididn't set out to actually do
country music.
Tiffany Mason (11:27):
I wrote music and everyone was like oh, this is
country oh right, because yourtruck got stuck in the mud,
right, exactly funny enough,that wasn't the one that.
Chris Erasmus (11:38):
That was not one we recorded, but yeah, so it
came from.
It was almost like it came fromthe other side, where I wrote
what I knew.
And what I knew was country.
Not necessarily an Americancowboy, but you know, I was a
cowboy.
I've worked horses, workedcattle all over the world.
One stage I heard a buffalo onhorseback.
(11:59):
That was one of the stupidthings I've done in my life.
You know African buffalo, thatwas wild.
They were doing a photo shootand they had us riding.
How none of us died is amiracle.
But you know, you tell thosestories and then and essentially
, country is, is country?
So many different things can becountry, which is what I think,
what makes it such a magicalgenre and sometimes what makes
(12:21):
people argue about what iscountry and what isn't, as
you've kind of seen in the lastkind of year.
Yeah, everyone's got somethingto say about country or
something to you know relates toit and at its core, I think you
know relates to it and at itscore I think you know the genius
that started.
You know you've got your reallykind of bluesy guys.
You know the Johnsons and youknow it's just.
(12:42):
You know I love everything thatkind of comes together and kind
of combines with what we end upcalling country or Americana or
you know wherever my music kindof fits too.
But I find you know that youlook at the line of rock and
roll and how many brucespringsteen songs could you be
like?
Is that country?
Or you know, you know how manystapleton songs could be rock oh
(13:04):
, absolutely yeah, so I love it.
I love it and and I kind offocus on telling the music,
trying to make sure it's goodquality and I let everyone else
decide where it lands, whatgenre it is.
Jay Franze (13:17):
Well, I'll tell you, I spent decades living in
Nashville and I'm the furthestthing in the world from a cowboy
, so I don't think locationreally matters.
Chris Erasmus (13:27):
Yeah, I mean, listen, I agree with you.
I think what kind of cowboymakes is also a difference.
I mean, there's some cowboysout there that'll kick my ass,
that's for sure.
But including my friends who Iwork with, and they keep me
pretty straight.
If I release a song before I'mwriting a song and I'm like, hey
, is this too cheesy, I'll sendit to them and they're literally
busy branding cattle orsomething They'll call me up and
(13:49):
be like yeah you can't say that, or all right, cool, I'm gonna
wear another one back.
Tiffany Mason (13:54):
Uh, so I do have a sony board.
Chris Erasmus (13:55):
I was gonna say, at least they've got your back.
Oh, they do, and they'll, andthey'll give it to me.
They'll be like, yeah, that hatin that photo shoot was
terrible.
And I'm like, yeah, but it wasthe hat I work with.
And they're like, we know, butyou need, you need to just get
just here.
And then they sent me off to,like when I was in montana, off
to, to, to kind of one of thehat shops.
Jay Franze (14:10):
Well, you're wearing hats for a purpose.
They're wearing hats for aphoto shoot.
Chris Erasmus (14:15):
I've got my hats now, so I've got a couple of
good hats.
Jay Franze (14:17):
You've got your photo shoot, hats.
Chris Erasmus (14:20):
Well, I work in them as well, so they kind of
just do both.
Jay Franze (14:23):
Nice.
Like I said, I've lived therefor decades and I've worked with
all the people in the musicindustry and none of them are
actual cowboys.
It's in the music industry andnone of them are actual cowboys.
Chris Erasmus (14:34):
You know, it's just a different lifestyle.
That's all it is.
It is.
Being a cowboy is tough man.
There's some, there's some.
Jay Franze (14:37):
They're really tough yeah, I can't even imagine.
Nope, not my thing at allespecially when it's like
freezing cold.
Chris Erasmus (14:44):
In montana that's when I went home.
They were like, hey, do youguys want to stay?
It was like snowing outside.
I'm like, yeah, I'm good, I'mtime to go.
Tiffany Mason (14:50):
I'm an.
Chris Erasmus (14:51):
African cowboy.
This is not.
Tiffany Mason (14:53):
London is calling Nice.
Jay Franze (14:58):
I don't want to go too far off on a tangent, but
you mentioned musical theaterand you mentioned dance and all
this stuff.
How do you apply that knowledgeand that experience into your
music?
Chris Erasmus (15:09):
I think, a understanding what a song is
saying.
A lot of singers will stand upon stage and try to be like I've
got to show people I can sing,or I've got to show people how
good I am, but what a lot of themusical theatre people that I
really like working with andlook up to, or the dancing.
It's not about showing how goodyou are.
It's about telling the storyand finding that essence of
(15:30):
storytelling within the music.
Showing how good you are.
It's about telling the storyand finding that's that essence
of storytelling within, withinthe music.
You know, somebody likeSondheim will, will actually the
music will tell you exactlywhat he's feeling and then the
words will back that up.
And and that's quite a coolthing to play with as a, as a
songwriter, and you're standingon the back of people who can
really really, you know, tell,tell stories and have throughout
(15:52):
the years in such a major rangeof genres.
I mean you get country versionsof country musical theatre, you
get pop, rock, classical.
It also taught me to sing a lotof different ways.
So I'm not locked into, like Ican only do this.
I'm like, oh, that sounds cool,let's try it.
It might sound terrible, butlet's try it.
And the other thing I get to dois because I'm auditioning and
(16:13):
I'm getting to perform in frontof people a lot in a lot of
different ways.
It helps me be less nervous Iwouldn't say it stops me being
nervous but in front of peopleperforming a lot more, there's
less time between gigs, so tospeak.
Jay Franze (16:28):
Right Well, the nerves go away with experience,
the more experience you have,and you in multiple, not only
genres of music but dance anddifferent types of entertainment
.
That's things that most peoplecan't do.
So that's got to give you alittle bit of confidence, which
will take away some of thosenerves.
Chris Erasmus (16:48):
Well, and constantly being thrown out of
your comfort zone in a lot ofways, not just musical theater,
screen stuff that I've done too.
If you're running aroundpretending you're a beach ball,
it'll put you out of yourcomfort zone.
Tiffany Mason (17:01):
Well, I have to assume too that because of the
different paths you've walked inlife, it's made you a little
bit more authentic, and the factthat you appreciate the
storytelling.
I have to assume that when youget on the stage you're just
authentically being yourself andpeople relate to authenticity.
We're all just looking for realpeople, not fake surface level.
Chris Erasmus (17:24):
Yeah, I mean, I think there's different levels
of that and different wayspeople present that, which I've
seen.
And yeah, I I just try kind oflet everyone be who they they
feel they need to be and andreally just focus on trying to
tell the stories that I'm maybelucky enough people want to hear
you know and hope that the resttakes care of itself, although
(17:47):
my manager will keep telling meto post more on Instagram.
That's weird.
Jay Franze (17:55):
That's not the first time we've heard that huh Jay.
I'm sure that one's come up.
Yeah, so can you tell us aboutyour writing process?
Chris Erasmus (18:02):
Yeah, sure, a lot of this stuff comes from.
I'll sit down and I approach itin two ways.
Sometimes I've just got anearworm or I hear something in a
lyric or a line that I'mwriting down and I'll sit and
I'll play with that.
So I'll sit, I've got myguitars here, I've got my
resonator, I've got a littleguitar in here, I've got my
electric over there and I'llliterally just grab it and sit
(18:24):
and try to work something out.
I'll try it in differenttunings.
This one's always tuned intoopen, kind of an open string
tuning.
So I'll sit and just bash itout so I can kind of find
something.
Sometimes I will feel like Iwant to tell a story and I'll
sit down and be like, oh, thisis a funny story or something,
and then I'll literally write itdown.
I'd break it up and then belike, oh, that could be a chorus
(18:44):
, that could be a thing, andthen I will sit down and see
what comes of it.
Other days, especially when I'mback home on the farm, which is
now cape town, I've got a littlepiano in the corner.
It's about used to be my great,great grandmother's piano.
She brought in on oxwagon andand I will um, sit and just play
.
I'm not a particularly goodpianist.
I I know chord progressions andI can figure out like what goes
(19:07):
where and I will just have myphone recording and I'll just
play.
And a lot of the song listencame like that.
You know, 2 am, thank goodnessI live on a farm and I was out
in the corner playing the songand it just came out.
I was feeling that I wasn'theard and stuff in the music
(19:27):
industry and I sat down and Iwrote about being listened to
and the stuff and the song cameout relatively quickly.
I wish that they all did likethat.
So it's a lot of.
I try to stay as open as I canbetween the two.
Sometimes I like to collaborate.
I haven't done a lot of that onthe songs that are out already.
There's only one song that'sbeen heavily collaborated.
But this new album that we'reworking on, I'm working with a
(19:51):
lot of different people.
I'm trying a lot of differentways of writing.
I've got great producers on it,beautiful musicians, a couple
of musical theatre MDs coming in, musical directors.
I've got really great countryartists writing on it.
I love collaborating as well.
So it's nice to sit down, comeup with an idea and then have
somebody be like that's reallydumb, let's try it this way.
(20:11):
You know, I love, I love kindof the to and fro, or sitting in
a room and starting withnothing and building something
up, you know, uh, working withsomeone who's got a different
process.
Somebody's like, oh, I'm, Ilike starting with these chords,
and then you progress from themand, well, I can't sing it up
that high.
Let's, you know, uh, go fromthat, or I can, I need to sing
it higher.
So usually that's how I, how Ikind of approach, approach it
(20:33):
and then and then nailing itdown, and then I'll have a few
sounding boards, some friendsthat I'll be like, hey, listen,
does this go into the trash canor or the trash pile, or does it
go into the?
Does it go into the let's,let's develop this idea pile?
And I think it's important tohave, you know, people that you
trust around you to be able tobe like, yeah, that's, that's
not good or that sounds great,give it to somebody else saying
it's not in your space which youknow it's also something that
(20:56):
happens and I think it's.
Jay Franze (20:58):
A lot of really good songs have been ruined by well,
not necessarily ruined, butjust not done justice because
they've been sung by the wrongperson so what I'm hearing from
your description of your processis that there's times where
you're inspired by a lyric andthen there's times where you sit
down at a piano and you startwith music.
So is there one of thoseprocesses that you lean into
(21:22):
more often than the other?
Chris Erasmus (21:25):
Yeah.
So if I, if I'm really kind of,I'm on the go a go a lot and I
like to write down stuff, so I'malways carrying a notebook
around, so a lot of it comesfrom lyrics.
I like it when it comes fromlyrics.
I think if lyrics work, a lotof the time it'll give you the
melody, it'll give you the wayit wants to go.
You know, if you use threewords in a verse, then it can
(21:51):
give you a lot of space in thesong, whereas if you want to
kind of tell a story, sometimesyou find yourself talking like
this and then you go on and findthe melody from this and then
you go from there, you know,find the if it's on guitar, find
that progression and find thatstrumming pattern.
So yeah, I do like to grow fromlyrics if I can, but sometimes
if I've got something in my heador there's a cool instrument
(22:14):
that I want to mess around withand figure out, sometimes that
gives you a couple of reallygood ideas.
Jay Franze (22:20):
I've always started lyrics first.
Chris Erasmus (22:23):
Oh yeah, you're a lyrics first guy.
Yeah, fair enough.
Jay Franze (22:24):
You have to do lyrics first and, like you
mentioned, the melody comes andthen you can build the music
around that.
Tiffany Mason (22:30):
Yeah, it kind of suggests itself yeah.
Jay Franze (22:33):
Yeah.
Tiffany Mason (22:34):
I love all of the musical instruments behind you
so clearly.
You play guitar.
You mentioned you play piano.
What other instruments do youplay?
Chris Erasmus (22:43):
I played violin for seven years.
I tend to leave that up to theprofessionals.
It is ugly when I do it.
It really is, but it's the onlymy housemates and neighbors
genuinely complain is when I doit.
My housemates and neighborsgenuinely complain when I'm
trying to work something out onthe violin.
It's ugly.
I've played violin for sevenyears.
Oh my goodness, it sounds likeI'm hitting it on the head.
(23:04):
My mom doesn't talk at all.
She's very, very good.
She likes it when I'm workingand I'm singing, if I use violin
or harmonica.
Oh, I'm singing along, yeah.
So I'm always open to playingwith stuff and I find any
instrument that it's in thatkind of realm I can figure out
(23:25):
enough to kind of try something.
Resonating guitar, slide guitarI'm very kind of rookie at, but
I find it really puts me in avery uncomfortable place and
trying different things that wedon't really have resonating
guitars where I'm from or whereI studied and I know a lot of
that comes from the States.
You know you're RobertJohnson's and you're Right and I
love that kind of feel of music.
(23:47):
So kind of playing around withthat, but not trying to be too
appropriate, is really funbecause it pushes you into a
realm that you wouldn't normallydo and you would listen to it
differently.
Tiffany Mason (23:57):
I love how much you love pushing yourself out of
your comfort zone.
I mean, I feel like you almostseem to thrive there, or you
look for opportunities for that,which is pretty cool.
Chris Erasmus (24:07):
Yeah, sometimes, sometimes it gets you injured,
yeah.
Tiffany Mason (24:12):
I like that.
Sometimes it gets you injured.
Jay Franze (24:18):
When you play the harp there, do you stick to a
certain key or do you havedifferent harps or different
keys?
Oh, I've got a whole whack ofthem.
Chris Erasmus (24:26):
Yeah, depending on what key I'm writing in,
usually I will pick this up andput it in afterwards or see,
kind of try to replace theguitar solo with that or
something.
Tiffany Mason (24:38):
I always think and then I'll go and find
somebody who can do it.
Chris Erasmus (24:40):
If I'm over-tracking, I'll get them to
do it.
Right, leave it to a personlike exactly yeah, oh yeah, you
gotta, you gotta, respect the,the high guns.
There's some, there's some guysout there who are just just
beautiful what they're doing andeither hours I put into my
voice, so you know they put intoa guitar over there their
instrument.
The one thing I do like to dosometimes, instead of using a
fiddle, I'll use a cello, oh,yeah, higher.
(25:02):
So I've got a song coming out.
Uh, we don't have an officialdate for it, but after the
single that's coming out thismonth, we're gonna have another
one come through.
It's actually almost like aduet.
So the way I'm singing thatthis is almost playing a country
type style song, but it'sfollowing my uh, vocal patterns,
very high cello as opposed to afiddle, and it just gives it a
(25:25):
different feel, which I think ispretty cool.
Tiffany Mason (25:27):
I feel like you might have been reading my mind
because it seems like it keepscoming up in all of our
conversations, and so I wasgoing to ask if you had fiddle
coming up in any of your songs.
But interesting that youreplace it with the cello
sometimes.
I think that's very creative.
Chris Erasmus (25:42):
Yeah, it was creative, and I don't think I
could get a hold of a goodfiddle player at the time, and
there was a guy from Juilliardwho was fresh out.
He was like, hey, it wascreative, amazing.
So yeah.
Tiffany Mason (25:56):
Creative resourceful whatever.
Jay Franze (26:00):
Well as we talk about the musicians and the
instruments, can you tell usabout your relationship with
Scott and how things are going?
Chris Erasmus (26:04):
Oh yeah, I love Scott.
Scott and I met actually Ithink he did the vocals on that.
He was just mixing the vocalson the song Fires, which went to
the dance charts Right, and Ikind of yeah, we kind of stayed
in touch and I always bouncethings off of him and he's such
a wonderful kind of open man.
He's very thoughtful, veryresourceful and very kind of
(26:29):
intelligent, not just not justknowledge based, but like
musical based.
So he's a producer you canreally trust when you, when
you're working on on things.
I love what he does with vocals.
He's he's just brilliant withvocals.
His work kind of speaks, speaksto that as well.
And yeah, we just kind of weget in a studio, I mean we can,
(26:50):
we, we kind of work on the samelevel.
I mean, I think the last timewe recorded together we got
through four songs in one studiosession.
Yeah and like, so we can bevery efficient when we work
together, which is nice as well.
And then obviously, like thenobviously he always kind of
takes these crazy ideas out ofthe like let's try cello, or
(27:11):
let's bring this in, and he'salways open to it and he always
finds a way to make it work, orhe knows someone, or he you know
.
If I want to steal a steelstring or something in there, we
can always find someone to doit, but do it in a way that kind
of fits my vision for things,and he's also very good at being
like no, you absolutely cannotdo that.
Jay Franze (27:32):
Does he play any instruments?
Chris Erasmus (27:34):
I think Scott can play pretty much everything,
but his specialty is keys.
Tiffany Mason (27:39):
And he's got a great ear, perfect pitch.
Chris Erasmus (27:41):
Yeah, I lean on him pretty heavily when we're in
the studio because if I'vemissed a or something on one of
my progressions a bit clunky,he'll be like oh, try this or
try that, and he's very quick topick that stuff up, so we don't
we don't waste a lot of timetrying to figure out every key
on the keyboard and, yeah, it'sa great relationship and I've
been working with him now sincelike 2016 oh, wow, so then yeah,
we've kind of, we kind of he'shad to put up with me for a long
(28:04):
time.
Jay Franze (28:05):
Right.
I can only assume that perfectpitch is what makes him so good
at coaching you, along withvocals.
Chris Erasmus (28:12):
Yes and no.
I think he also finds a way ofhe kind of he can manage people
very well, scott.
He manages people really reallywell and he's very, very kind
and he never feels judged in thestudio, which is a big thing.
You're going in, you've gotthese hot musicians and you've
got Duff and you're trying toexplain to the guys just come
(28:33):
off tour with Ed Sheeran or thatguitarist, that sounds wrong
and he really finds a way tokind of run.
No one ever works from a placeof ego, no one ever works from a
place of defense.
So yeah, musically andpitch-wise and stuff, it helps.
But I think he can do that andhe does it all very easy.
(28:53):
But the real genius is gettingpeople in a comfortable place
where they can expressthemselves and bring something
of their own to the music.
Jay Franze (29:01):
What would be a negative to having perfect pitch
?
Chris Erasmus (29:06):
I think listening to modern concerts, sometimes I
say cringingly, or going tocertain shows I mean I don't
have perfect pitch.
I wish I did.
But even though I've sat insome concerts and been like dang
, that makes its way off.
I'm sure you've done it.
Jay Franze (29:23):
I hear a lot of people who say that have perfect
pitch saying that they wouldprefer not to have it.
They would prefer to haverelative pitch.
Tiffany Mason (29:30):
Yeah, I wouldn't wish that on anybody.
Perfect pitch.
Chris Erasmus (29:34):
Yeah, a lot of perfect pitch.
People end up as producers, oryou know Mozart's or Bach's, or
you know.
I had a couple of friends whenI studied music and I was
studying music and they wereperfect pitch and they very
quickly became 90 professors.
Jay Franze (29:49):
yeah, you lose the creative part.
Chris Erasmus (29:52):
Yeah, you're no longer being artistic, which
Scott seems to have notstruggled with at all, which is
quite cool.
He manages to keep both, whichis kind of that genius, I
suppose.
Jay Franze (30:03):
Well, you have a lot of things going on in your
world, sir, between your theater, your dancing, your music.
So how do you balance it all?
Chris Erasmus (30:13):
I mean, the cool thing is it all falls into a
similar kind of basket.
One thing pays for the other,and when the one thing is not
paying for the other thing, Ican go to the other thing to pay
for it.
Jay Franze (30:24):
Right.
Chris Erasmus (30:25):
But I think, luckily for me, it's all kind of
.
You know, I've been cast asJohnny Cash and I've been in
musicals and I've been so a lotof it.
Sometimes I can learn from bothsides.
So, as much as it's really busyand it takes a lot of
commitment I don't think more sothan maybe you know your nine
to five jobs, outside of thefact that I'll keep working
(30:47):
until 2 am or until I get a ride, or you know, you've got to
have that self-discipline topractice singing two hours a day
and then practice guitar anhour a day and then get up and
get your ass off the couch andgo running because you've been
in the studio all day.
Tiffany Mason (31:08):
It's a lot of the self-discipline and the
regulation and and and the sportuh, that I was lucky enough to
do really help.
I love that you use the worddiscipline, because I think so
many people look for motivationor willpower and I don't think
that that's the right word.
I think it's discipline.
I think you're absolutely right.
I mean.
Chris Erasmus (31:19):
Motivation is great, but it comes and goes.
Consistency, discipline inanything, is what I try to rely
on when you're under pressure oryou think.
A Gary player said the more Ipractice, the luckier I get.
Jay Franze (31:34):
Can we take that a step further?
You're an athlete and you'revery, very fit and you take on a
lot of different disciplines,whether it be, like you
mentioned, horse riding.
I've seen pictures youkickboxing, you're out with the
crossbow, I mean you're doingall sorts of things.
So how do you take that drive?
(31:55):
Can you make the parallel toapplying it to the music world?
Chris Erasmus (32:00):
Yeah, um, I mean.
So a lot of that stuff was Idid.
I worked as a stuntman on a fewprojects, especially after
COVID when there was no work, sothat pays better than most
things All of it.
Yeah, pretty much paid thebills for a while, that's how
you got injured.
(32:21):
Funny enough, actually, thestunts I was fine with, believe
it or not.
I don't know how.
It wasn't through lack oftrying.
We always had great stuntcoordinators and they made sure
we were pretty safe.
But I think the best way tolook at it is, if you ignore
your scales or the basics on aguitar or doing your vocal
exercises every day, that's whatthat is.
(32:43):
It's doing the basics andtrusting that the basics will
give you the advanced stuff andyou keep learning and keep
trying new things and if youstop, you're going to get unfit.
If you stop practicing guitar,you're going to get worse.
If you stop singing, you stopwriting.
It's it so that it's that's.
It's the same constantimprovement is what you're
looking for yeah, it's that sameprogram, it's the same level of
(33:06):
focus and and drive that youneed.
You know being a performer isis hard work.
I mean going on tour isexhausting.
You're traveling, you eatingfood, you're not used to you,
you're lack of sleep, you'retalking in loud areas all the
time, your voice is fatigued.
If you haven't been doing likethe training to be in position
to succeed, you're going to notbe able to finish a tour.
(33:27):
And I mean, if you look throughthe history of a lot of these
young performers and I'm notsaying that it can't happen, it
does happen if you get ill orsomething but the old school
performers who had to reallykind of grind it out, you know
your Bruce Springsteen's and Iuse him as an example because
it's so impressive that he'sstill doing it at his age, at
the level he's doing it at.
You know it's a full-on concertthat.
(33:47):
And the guy's what?
Late 70s, right and wild.
It's unbelievable.
I saw him play Wembley lastyear.
I was going.
How is he not playing?
He's got the same energy as 21year old.
It's unreal.
But he preps for it and hetrains it and he and he works
really hard.
He keeps himself in shape.
You eat right, you know it's,it's, it's the same approach.
(34:08):
And musical theater if you did,if just I think that taught that
that really did teach to melike musical theory.
People doing hs a week andyou're doing hs a week, whether
it's 100 degrees out, if you'refeeling sick, if you like,
you've got a show's got tohappen.
So that taught me a lot aboutlike being prepared.
You've got to the show's got tohappen.
So that taught me a lot aboutlike being prepared.
When you're not working is thetime you've got to be working
hardest to be ready for thatstuff.
Tiffany Mason (34:28):
Mm-hmm Interesting.
Jay Franze (34:31):
When you were at UQ.
What was it?
You said, you played.
Chris Erasmus (34:35):
I did decathlon, decathlon.
Jay Franze (34:37):
So obviously you had to train extremely hard for
that as well.
Chris Erasmus (34:41):
Yes, sir, I was lucky enough to be.
I went to two nationalchampionships and I was lucky
enough to be in a team with theLone Olympians.
It was quite a cool experience.
That I've told you a lot.
Jay Franze (34:51):
You're really making me feel bad.
Today, when this is over, I'mgoing to be running around the
blocks several hundred timestoday.
Tiffany Mason (35:00):
Now he's going to go redeem his McDonald's reward
.
Chris Erasmus (35:04):
Everyone's got to focus on what works for them,
and that just kept me sane andit kept me in a place when I was
studying business, which I wasvery grateful to study, but my
passion was performing andacting and music and singing it
kept my head straight.
Jay Franze (35:17):
That's a good point too.
I've got that dual backgroundbetween business and music or in
my case it was engineering.
So do you find yourselfapplying that business
background to your music career?
Chris Erasmus (35:34):
Very rarely Money well spent.
That's what the PR firm is for Ithink for me it helps me
understand my value.
I think that's really importantas a performer.
Sometimes you don't understandthe value of what you can bring
to the table.
Recently I had a gig, not incountry music but in cabaret.
They changed the deal on me andthey changed it and I was like
(35:55):
cool and I walked away.
No one else did, I was the onlyone who did and everyone else
wishes they had now.
But it's understanding yourvalue.
And if, if, everyone's willingto work for, not for no money,
then they're going to hire it.
Tony Scott (36:07):
No money yeah.
Chris Erasmus (36:09):
so there is an and we don't really have a very
strong equity here compared towhat you have in the states,
especially like the unions, forlike acting and performing.
So we need to find a way to dothat.
But I think, as a businessperson, looking at contracts,
understanding your value,understanding the value of
something, this is great, buthow many hours am I putting into
it?
How many hours is that takingaway from me doing other things
(36:31):
or doing other gigs?
It gives you a bit ofconfidence when somebody puts a
contract on in front of you, andunderstanding when they're
talking about marketing,although marketing's landscape
in the last five years haschanged so drastically with
TikTok and they keep changingtheir platform and Spotify keeps
changing their platform, so Ithink those kind of things might
have changed.
(36:51):
But just understanding yourvalue and the value of something
and looking at yourself as aproduct can sometimes be
beneficial.
Jay Franze (37:00):
You mentioned that willing to work for lower rates,
and I used to teach at theAudio Engineering College in
Nashville and we used to havestudents that would go out into
the field all the time andeverybody always tried to take
gigs for free.
They would always go out thereand say, well, let me just start
, let me get a couple under mybelt.
But what they're notunderstanding is there was a lot
(37:21):
of time that they put intolearning their craft.
There was a lot of money thatthey put into paying for that
school.
There has to be a base ratethat you've established just
from that, just from the timeand money that you've put into
learning your craft.
And what ends up happening is,when you're willing to work for
free or lower rates, you're justknocking it down for everybody
else that's worked their way up.
(37:42):
So there should be some sort ofstandard.
Chris Erasmus (37:45):
I completely agree, and I think another way
to look at it is are you doingthis as a hobby or are you doing
this as a profession?
Right?
Tiffany Mason (37:52):
Yeah, a lot of perspective.
Chris Erasmus (37:55):
Yeah, and if you want to be a professional,
you've got to get paid,otherwise you're not a
professional.
Jay Franze (38:02):
Chris, we do this thing here.
We call Unsung Heroes, where wetake a moment to shine the
light on somebody who's workedbehind the scenes or may have
supported you along the way.
Do you have anybody that you'dlike to shine a little light on?
Chris Erasmus (38:11):
Oh, I mean, I've got to say my parents, my dad
and my mom, my long-sufferingparents who really saw their son
going to business school andthey ended up being an actor and
a performer, but they've really, they've really found a way to,
to their credit, support methrough every step and an
industry they really don'tunderstand, to really kind of
(38:32):
support me and and you know,there's been months where I
haven't been able to pay therent or there's been months
where I need a little extra forfood and and I've been lucky to
have that support base and Idon't think I would be here
without that.
So I've really got to givecredit to them and the kind of
opportunities that they've givenme and coming from Africa, you
know that's not easy to do.
Jay Franze (38:51):
Understood, all right.
Well, we have done it.
We have reached the top of thehour, which does mean we have
reached the end of the show.
If you've enjoyed this show, aswe say, tell a friend, miss
tiffany.
If not, tell two.
If not tell two, you can reachout to all three of us over at
jayfranze.
com.
We will be happy to keep thisconversation going.
(39:11):
Chris Sir, we cannot thank youenough for being here with us
today.
Can we leave the final words toyou?
Chris Erasmus (39:17):
oh well, guys, thank you so much for having me.
I'm on instagram cj rasmus, ifanyone wants to reach out.
Uh, have a chat.
Uh listen to my music onspotify.
And chris erasmus got newsingle dropping this month.
Uh, we've got a new albumcoming, so keep a lookout for
that and I hope to see you guysalong the way soon perfect and I
will put all the links to allthat in the show notes for
everybody appreciate it have agood day.
Tony Scott (39:41):
Thanks for listening to The Jay franzy Show.
Make sure you visit us atjayfranze.
com.
Follow, connect and say hello.
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