Based: Cape Town
Dave Knowles is an unfailingly powerful and intimate performer with an innovative style and eloquence of substance. With a prolific appetite for creation,Knowles’ music blurs elements of Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, Radiohead and PJ Harvey in an expression truly his own. Besides his singer-songwriter performance,Dave has developed a progressive and experimental live-looping performance which include elements of improvisation which adapts depending on the audience he is performing for. Over the decade since departing from his Manchester band, Shinobi, Knowles’ style has been catalyzed by his exposure to percussive guitar and beatboxing, experiments in looping and sharing stages with the breadth of South Africa’s top guitarists. Upon completing his studies in Grahamstown, Knowles began establishing himself as a full-time artist in Cape Town, performing the range of the city’s venues and booking regular tours up the coast.
Since joining our family in May 2016, Dave has performed over 60 shows across the country – proving his capabilities as a nomadic performer-powerhouse. He was featured in Cape Town at the Nu-Breed concert of the Cape Town Acoustic Music Festival where he performed alongside the likes of Matthew Mole, Majozi, Matthew Field (Beatenberg) and the Johnson twins (Al Bairre). 2016 also saw him shine as the musical director for the theatre production “No Fun Ction All Anguage” directed by Jayne Batzofin as well as coproducer for the soundtrack of “The First Week” for the 48 Hour Film Project which was nabbed 1st place in 6 categories including Best Film, Best Original Score and Best Sound Design. After years of organic growth and exploration, 2017 is proving to be a watershed for Knowles’ career and with new productions, collaborations, videos and recordings on the way, there is much to watch from this emerging artist.
