The Woman Running African Metal From Behind A Screen

In this explosive interview, we dive into how Alana Britz became the digital force behind Emalyth, Metal4Africa, and Wacken Metal Battle Sub-Saharan Africa, helping shape the online identity of Africa’s loudest metal festivals.

Lana opens up about:
- How she got into running social media for metal institutions  
- Emalyth’s approach to booking bands and scouting talent  
- Whether bands need a polished EPK to get booked  
- Her thoughts on allegations that Wacken Metal Battle favours South African acts  
- Reports of African bands feeling sidelined at the WMBSSA  
- The July Jol Wacken warm-up party  
and more!

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Transcript

00:29.75
Sludge Underground
How's it going, ladies gentlemen? It's Nasiphi. Zwane is my surname. I'm the founder of Sludge Underground podcast today. I've got Lana, who is one of the most amazing creators or people behind ah the scene.

00:40.71
Sludge Underground
And we're going to be talking to her about all the things she does under Emalyth, Metal4Africa. There's so much that she's doing. And that's partly the reason why I actually invited her onto the show, because I believe there's just a lot that she does behind the scenes. And I feel like a lot more people should be recognizing what she's doing.

00:58.78
Sludge Underground
So, Lana, how are you doing today?

01:02.01
Lana
Good and you, Naz. Thank you for having me.

01:04.11
Sludge Underground
I'm doing good. I'm doing good. Thank you for for pulling through it today. I really appreciate this. um Let's talk a bit about, you know, what you do. i don't think quite quite a lot of people know, but the first time that I met you was about two years back at Ramfest when we were shooting quickies there. And that was around about the time that you actually started, you know, doing what you do for Emelith and the other entities as well. So tell me a bit about that in case anyone doesn't know.

01:32.09
Lana
So um I joined the emulet team last year just after the first Vulcan heat actually. um Me and Sash met at the emulet fest last year 2024.

01:46.44
Lana
We haven't actually known each other that long but like we built our bond very quickly. There's actually a video on TikTok where you can see me and her like talking and then giving each other a hug and then running into a mosh pit.

01:58.24
Sludge Underground
Thank

01:58.33
Lana
I kind of like solidified and then I was like always keen to get back into the scene and do the things and then I messaged her and I was like if you need any help anytime or we actually were having me and her and Kim were having wine and I said so if you need help like you're doing a lot I'm keen to help you and yeah and I got into it and yeah I am two years later um doing the social media for Emmylith and Bakken and Patrick from Metal for Africa has

02:38.93
Lana
It's not just the entity as the promoter company. It's like they promote any music across, like alternative music across any platform in Africa. So it's a very cool platform to get involved in.

02:51.30
Lana
People should go and take a look at it as well. And we also very confident on that.

02:57.87
Sludge Underground
Yeah, I mean, obviously, you you mentioned they're running the social media for those pages. So is there a bit of a history when it comes to social media? Is this what you were doing maybe before? How did you sort of get into that position within these entities?

03:10.47
Lana
So ah obviously everybody knows that social media is not the hardest thing to do to do, but to get like the right algorithms that to the right, your stuff to the right people, because it's easy to post something and be like, oh look cute, look at me.

03:26.38
Lana
But to promote shows and to build your page and get your reach to the right people within your like space is it' quite difficult. Like I think you guys can understand as well. It's, you have to have the right look, the right like content that you put out. So we, um ah never really like studied social media. It kind of something that s just been a niche for me. And I m not somebody that s like, oh, look, I m going to post something about food. It s always been like music and like art stuff. So Sasha said to me she really needs to help with the social media. i was like,

04:03.76
Lana
I'm a girl, let's go. And yeah, it's been a wild ride. um We actually invest a lot of time and effort and money into our look for our social media. So we pay for our art, we pay for our like reels. We make sure that everything is professionally done and not just like cookie cutter, smack a date and a time on a post and be like, aware here's a show. We put a lot of effort into it. So yeah.

04:32.16
Lana
makes my social media life a bit, or work a bit easier.

04:36.86
Sludge Underground
What actually goes into, you know, some of the posts that you guys put up? Because as you say, you know, it's very professional. You can see that this isn't done by and some Corin out there in the wild, you know, just piecing stuff together.

04:48.84
Sludge Underground
Is there an art to this at all?

04:49.23
Lana
yeah Yeah, so we um have Steph, she actually works with Planet Caravan. Maria is from Crash and the Voice Girlfriend. She is insanely talented.

05:03.41
Lana
um She does all of our art pretty much. she's got a style that we really love. And I think if you can look at all of our posters, you can see it's kind of like the same style that we have. And every year, like July Joel is the little ghoul monster thingy that every year changes and we like incorporate with what but like the theme that we have for that year.

05:24.80
Lana
yeah her art is insane. So we happily pay her to make sure that our art for any show looks amazing.

05:33.38
Sludge Underground
Mm.

05:33.28
Lana
um We also have, well with the Valken stuff, we had Russell involved with the reels and all of the fu up the video footage. Kaylee also did some of the video footage we had.

05:44.80
Lana
Try and have photographers at every um show also to give us great content of not just the bands, but the people at the shows as well, because without the people, we are nothing.

05:58.22
Sludge Underground
Walk me through your process. you know you you You guys get a band you know that that comes through or you guys are putting together a show. Walk me through your process you know from the beginning, the moment you guys get the band to the moment that you know stuff needs to be done for social media, whether it ended up looking the way that it generally looks when we see it.

06:12.78
Lana
you

06:17.69
Lana
So there generally is like the same order of events that we have with when we plan a show. So Sash is the the mastermind behind all the logistics for any show. we She actually like plans her shows in November. So for this year in November, she'll already have next year's shows planned out, calendars booked, chenage booked, whatever she needs to.

06:42.26
Lana
um And then we do send the car the the band's contracts where we state that we want certain footage from them. There is information that they need to give us.

06:53.85
Lana
So they need to give us all of their social media handles. We need tech writers. We need. their logos, images, all of that, so we can make artist cards, so we give them time frames as well. So we kind of like promoting two months before a show, so we can get enough reach and enough people know about a show.

07:12.04
Lana
And it's not just my responsibility to make sure that social media is flooded with Emmalith and Bakken and Middle for Africa stuff, it's the bands as well. So any band member you ask, you can...

07:24.49
Lana
answer will probably be, Alana is quite hectic on their arse all the time, their WhatsApp groups, shame, when they see my name. At least I'm nice to them, I'm not, but um yeah, I'm quite hard on them to say, I want my stuff, I need a post, shit needs to happen, tag your friends, go actually, go and like and comment and but do the things on the post yourselves.

07:38.38
Sludge Underground
Yeah. yeah do you do Do you ever get any stragglers? I mean, there's always going to be one or two people that don't really conform, you know, that that are always sending things late and so on. How do you sort of deal with that?

07:57.28
Lana
oh shit um no I'm joking yeah there was always like a late one or two but then like I literally kindness doesn't cost anything so I'll give them a phone call because a life gets hectic and I know life gets hectic so if don't get something in time ah pick up the phone and call them or send them a WhatsApp and be like Tom I need your stuff send it to me like if you give me a time frame and say like about Wednesday because I have a Like my whole life is a spreadsheet. i'm also like a distribution manager and logistics analyst. So like everything is on spreadsheets.

08:34.29
Lana
Mine and Sasha's stuff is to the T. So I have a whole plan for the year of what I post and how I post it so we can keep up. Because I also have ADHD. So if don't ticket and make sure where I've posted today.

08:46.16
Lana
So yeah, I do calendarize the, yeah, with the band.

08:54.46
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

08:55.36
Lana
not my postings to try as well.

08:55.69
Sludge Underground
I know it makes a lot of sense.

08:58.86
Sludge Underground
You mentioned the distribution there. Tell me about that a bit more. What goes into that?

09:04.47
Lana
Oh, I have not just been doing ban stuff, I actually have a day job that pays my bills. So like the band stuff is something that I do because I love it, I don't get paid for that.

09:16.24
Lana
I get paid from going to a nine to five every day.

09:16.75
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

09:18.36
Lana
So I'm a distribution manager and logistics analyst for Average Length, like a cosmetics company. So I am a goth girl that runs a cosmetic world. It is fun. I came from like Buffalo, the company that is Sheen and Timu. So that is where started my logistics career.

09:36.61
Lana
And yeah, and I moved over to cosmetics. It is great. I enjoy every moment of it. It is quite hectic, balancing Emelith, Wacken, social media,

09:47.46
Lana
um a relationship, a day job, having a puppy, family, friends, it's quite a thing, but we do, we move.

09:59.65
Sludge Underground
Yeah, it's absolutely beautiful.

10:00.05
Lana
Without fear of nothing.

10:00.89
Sludge Underground
You know, i feel like ah feel like ah the South African sort of alt scene isn't really, what can I say, you can't necessarily depend on just that, you know, in terms of making a living.

10:12.04
Lana
No.

10:13.82
Sludge Underground
Yeah, you got to balance it out.

10:15.05
Lana
No, not at all. It's 100%. It's crazy. And like, I know there's not a lot of us. So like for me, I'm one of like three alternative people in my company and it's a cosmetics company. So there's like cool people. But like when I tell my boss, listen, I need to take two weeks off because i'm going to Germany for a metal festival. He's like, ah, cool.

10:35.04
Lana
And then I hear my sales directors like been to download three times and stuff like that. So it's becoming like normalized that alternative people can actually like

10:40.71
Sludge Underground
Yeah,

10:47.18
Lana
Run companies, it's cool.

10:49.61
Sludge Underground
yeah yeah, it's absolutely beautiful. And with someone who's been so hands-on, you know, you've been hands-on with lot of these bands, you know, from South Africa, and obviously some international bands as well that are coming over, you know, what would you say is, how can bands sort of best represent themselves when it comes to working with you know, an entity like Imbalith or the Valken guys, Metal for Africa, what are some of the best practices you've sort of seen bands, you know, you harnessing, you know, versus, you know, some some amateur level type stuff, you know, rookie mistakes or whatever the case is. for This is for even a band that might be thinking, hey, I want to work with Imbalith somehow, you know, what what is the best sort of practice and the best sort of way of doing things when it comes to that?

11:33.21
Lana
So, like, there's been a lot of, like, controversy and word behind Tweenie, like, send your press kits, do this to this, do this, do this. For us, it's, if you want to be in the scene, be involved in the scene.

11:45.98
Lana
Come to our shows. Check out the social media. If we see you, we see your presence online, and we see you at shows, you'll probably have better a better chance of getting booked for an MLS show, like, bands like Ozaias.

12:01.55
Lana
We saw them once at a show, very young guys, but they are super talented, and we were like, Sash went to them and they said to them, enter the metal battle, and they were like, well, they don't really have, we were like, just enter the metal battle, play a show, do a thing, and they played with Walkie Skies, and since then, people, like, they've been buzzing about them, we've booked them for another show, they played, what, Mayhem, insane, so just small things like that, have social media presence, be involved in the scene, and not just with Emelith,

12:31.95
Lana
Be involved with the other bands as well. Like, you can't be like, okay, cool, I'm a band, and that's me. That's it. And I don't get involved with other. Watch other bands go, like, if you don't have plans on a Saturday night there's a show happening, go watch the homies.

12:45.33
Lana
Like, my weekends are pretty booked with shows, like we book, but I still make an effort to go to other shows that it's not an Emmylith production because we support the scene.

12:56.36
Lana
It's not just, oh, we just take care of ourselves. We need to take care of everybody. So, young bands... be involved. Social media wise, like do your thing. it's It's not that hard to give a like or a comment or like make a story. It really doesn't take that much.

13:14.50
Lana
It costs you nothing.

13:16.88
Sludge Underground
I've been seeing a lot of talk about Preskits and I must be honest, it's something that took me by surprise personally because I mean, obviously I i knew about Preskits when it comes to, for me, it's mainly in the hip hop scene because working with a lot of the hip hop guys in the past,

13:32.10
Sludge Underground
you will find that for them, an EPK was something that was required if they want to be on radio, maybe if they want to get a radio interview or they need radio play.

13:38.58
Lana
Yeah.

13:41.07
Sludge Underground
It's not something that I've necessarily encountered in the alt scene. I mean, even with Thorns of Ivory, you know, we were active for about six years or so. And any of the shows that we literally played, like, Pescat has never been in the conversation. It's literally just been...

13:54.98
Lana
you know

13:55.38
Sludge Underground
you know As you were saying, you get seen at a show, you play, you know and then you know rock up at shows, attend other people's performances, and so on. So how important would you say a press kit is? Is this something that has been recently introduced within the alt scene to get bands onto these lineups?

14:10.99
Sludge Underground
Or would you say that it's enough to do the other stuff and so on? Shed some light on that for me.

14:18.61
Lana
So like, I think for something like, let's say you want to go to Varken, because it's not just the metal battle that will take you there. Like any band can email Varken or search for the email address and email them and say, hey guys, I want to play Varken.

14:35.21
Lana
Then yes, you send your press kit. For us personally, it's not every promoter's um niche. Some promoters do want it, some promoters don't. Yes, send your press kit, Varken, but A press kit doesn't tell me what your band sounds like. press kit doesn't tell me if you guys are lack of people. press kit doesn't tell me if you're talented. A press kit doesn't tell me what your social media presence is like, actually, because you can tell me you have 2,000 followers or 10,000 followers, but how many of those are bots? How many of those are bots? How many of those are bots?

15:05.08
Lana
How many those are real people that engage in your post? Because you can have 20,000 followers, but if you get five likes on a post, it means nothing in my life. um So, yeah, press kit is important for, I think, if you want to yourself out there and on an international level somebody that might have never heard of you.

15:22.46
Lana
But locally, it's one of those things like rather come to the show and introduce yourself and be like, how's it?

15:29.36
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

15:31.93
Lana
I have a cool band. Give me your Spotify. Let me go listen. If I like it, let's go.

15:37.86
Sludge Underground
Yeah, for sure.

15:37.93
Lana
Well, not me. I'm not social media. Sash likes it.

15:42.47
Sludge Underground
yeah yeah for sure ah how do you how do you guys sort of handle any you know a backlash because obviously when it comes to anything that anyone does there's going to be people that are in support of what you're doing there's always going to be people who you know feel like you know they've sort of gotten the short end of the stick we saw it with um when i had that conversation with no closure we were talking about how there were ah quite a few social media posts of people mentioning bands that should have been on the ram fest lineup and so on you know Things like that.

16:12.54
Sludge Underground
How do you sort of handle you know anything that you know goes against any maybe positivity, if I can say, at all? you know How do you sort of make sure that it doesn't sort of get to you to a point where you feel like what you're doing isn't necessarily great?

16:29.04
Lana
So it's sometimes very hard because we are like kind of in the public eye like anything i might say wrong or do might get scrutinized more than like other people because I needed to understand in the beginning very quickly that not everybody is your friend, not everybody has your best interest at heart and everybody is out for themselves. So like if a band doesn't like the fact that we booked them and not, or didn't book them and we booked somebody else, there'll be other shows.

17:00.90
Lana
Like it, just because you can't play this weekend at a show, doesn't mean that you can't play in the next two, three, ten years. I've just been doing Emmylith for 20 years. So like with the whole Ram thing, like that's not something that was our decision.

17:15.40
Lana
um

17:18.06
Lana
The bands that are playing are flipping insane. Last year the bands that play, it's it's not up to us. It's something that's done and it's one of those things. Like if you're going to be sad about not playing, put yourself out there more. Go play more shows. Go support other bands.

17:34.06
Lana
so Support the people that actually like organize the shows. So like for me, I have gotten some backlash last year around Halloween time and that quickly opened my eyes towards how malicious people can get because you are in the public eye like jy and and like scrutinizing others is not my thing.

17:55.13
Lana
And my kind little heart is just like, oh let's just all get along. And unfortunately, it's not like that. So just how you deal with it. Like I'm not somebody that's going to hold things against other people, but just don't be a dick, bro.

18:11.33
Lana
Simple as that. Let's just all get along.

18:14.26
Sludge Underground
Yeah, yeah. I mean, are while we're still on that on that sort of you know negative sort of tip as well, you know obviously there was, and I'm not going to mention this person's name. Between you and I, I'm not going to mention the person's name because I don't think we need to give them any clout.

18:28.00
Sludge Underground
And also, if you if you if you feel like you don't want this to come up in the interview, you can let me know in the end. I can just like edit it out. But, you know, there's been, this thing has been happening, or rather it did happen in the in in the public.

18:35.66
Lana
problem.

18:41.29
Sludge Underground
You know, it was public. There were posts back and forth on Facebook as well. But obviously a party claiming that, you know, there's some of the ah bands that were involved in the, you know, Vakin Metal battle up from Africa that weren't happy and so on. I mean, officially, yeah.

18:57.24
Sludge Underground
I would say that as a person that was there at the event myself doing quickies, im not once did I see anyone that was not content. um It was to the contrary, actually. Everyone seemed really happy.

19:08.69
Sludge Underground
You know, I had a chat with some of the bands that were coming through from Africa you The whole vibe was just absolutely amazing. So when you see posts like the ones that were made on Facebook by particular party, you know, it makes you wonder, like, you know, what what what was actually sort of going on then? Because we were actually literally there and didn't really see anything, you know, being amiss.

19:29.82
Sludge Underground
So what would you say to those things that were being said?

19:30.21
Lana
No,

19:32.58
Sludge Underground
You know, apparently people not being happy, some of the bands that were being booked, not having the right accommodation, all the things that were going on around that time. And as I said, you won't mention the person's name because you don't want to give them clout. They don't deserve it, really.

19:43.08
Lana
no, no. That person can sit in the corner and weep. um So just to start off, it's now what, four months or two months later and That person's quiet.

19:59.58
Lana
Every single year, that person will come up and they will badmouth divide the battle. It's pure, from my point of view, and it's my personal opinion, and I'm allowed to have an opinion, ah jealousy because we are two females that are making massive waves in the metal industry within South Africa and now within Africa. And like none of the bands came to us and said, listen, I'm not happy about this. I'm not happy about that.

20:25.28
Lana
It was myself, Sash, and Sam, organizing everything for more than 160 people. She took care of 40 men, Sam, made sure that they all have a bed to sleep in, ride to and from the show. She didn't have to do that. We didn't have to do that, but we did because it's something that we care about.

20:45.42
Lana
um None of the bands came to us and said, oh, like, what the hell is going on here? What what are you doing? the-dada Everybody had a great time. Like, we had dinner with the Kenyans just before they left, and they were like, we love you guys.

20:55.57
Sludge Underground
Mm-hmm.

20:59.94
Lana
Please, we'll come back, and you guys must come to Kenya, and, like, we have a holiday home, and we made such good friends. It's not just all of the bands played at the Valken Metal Battle. We made friends. And if you can't understand that, it's not just about a competition.

21:12.10
Lana
It's about... uniting Africa and making sure that we all grow our scenes within our relevant countries. Like NULA that is coming South Africa now. do know if you have seen, when they post something, their whole country loses their minds.

21:26.28
Lana
Within 15 to 20 minutes, there is like more than a thousand likes and comments on one post, which is crazy.

21:26.68
Sludge Underground
Yes. Yeah.

21:32.96
Lana
Where South Africa can really learn something from that. They get

21:37.04
Sludge Underground
Hmm.

21:38.13
Lana
They support each other so much and they don't hate. So if you're going to like spew hate the whole time, you're not unifying the that the scene. You're just breaking it down even more. And that's ridiculous, actually. So like they also get international acts. Like this specific person is like, oh, I want to bring an international act. know much it costs to bring an international band to South Africa?

22:01.30
Lana
It's not just, oh, just bring this band. Like, it's something that annoys us as well. Like, I'll go to a CAIR and people will be like, oh, why did you just bring this band South Africa? Okay, do you have 500,000 rand for me? Then shop, I'll bring whatever want, macho.

22:14.74
Lana
Laka, but I don't have that money. It's crazy.

22:17.29
Sludge Underground
Yeah. Yeah.

22:17.65
Lana
They can bring those bands because they don't just tour in Argentina. They tour in, like, all the different countries within the the southern or South America. So, like, if we can grow our scene within Africa, then we can bring bands like Flippa and, don't know, want to mention the band that he wants to bring.

22:33.68
Lana
Like,

22:35.17
Sludge Underground
yeah

22:35.04
Lana
Spirit Box, let's bring Spirit Box to South Africa. Cool, they can play South Africa, they can play Botswana, they can play Zimbabwe, make it worth it for them. But to come to South Africa for two shows, like we don't have the money to pay for that.

22:46.28
Lana
It's ridiculous.

22:47.03
Sludge Underground
no Yeah, yeah.

22:48.04
Lana
So, yeah.

22:48.83
Sludge Underground
And that's absolutely brilliant. I mean, what would you say as well about the the structure? Obviously, one of the things that came up was the structure of, obviously, the events with South Africa being overly represented.

23:01.22
Sludge Underground
you know Is that the case? For me, personally, um i think the fact that you guys are even... at at a stage where you're able to run something, you know, you're doing something, I feel like is is is proper work enough? You guys are are doing enough to sort of, you know, push the culture forward and so on.

23:20.20
Sludge Underground
But it's obviously in addressing the concerns of there being more South African bands and therefore the battle not being fair, what would you say to that?

23:30.39
Lana
So, me and Sash had a ah live the one night about all of the um issues that came up with the battle, especially after all of the posts from this person. And we said, come, ask us these questions, your thing, and people were just like, okay.

23:45.44
Lana
So we kind of like South Africa isn't overrepresented. We just have the biggest scene in Africa right now, which the whole point of the battle is to build the scene in the other countries as well.

23:57.98
Lana
Like each country has its own promoter and those promoters work really hard to find bands, to like have shows during the course of the year, to, if they have enough bands, they can also have two or three or five years, but we're not going to,

24:12.69
Lana
minimise the talent that we have in this country because, okay, we can only have one heat and we have five bands a year competing in what, but what how do we like learn about new bands? The amount of new bands that we had in South Africa competing this year was insane and beautiful.

24:28.12
Lana
so how are we going to find that? how are we going to grow the scene if we can, we just like, oh no, South Africa, you have too many bands, but it's your country that you live in. So what? If we have 20 bands competing, like it.

24:39.54
Lana
If Botswana, Angola bowaana and gola Kenya can also have 20 bands competing, awesome. But they don't have the bands to compete. So let's grow those scenes. And every year there's another band or another two bands or another three bands, which is awesome. That's the point.

24:53.70
Lana
So The more the scene grows in each country, the more heats they'll have and the more we'll adjust the ways of how we do the battle. It's not something that's set in stone and these are the rules and like if we say, like Botswana has six heats as well, cool, bring those six bands.

25:02.32
Sludge Underground
yeah

25:11.16
Lana
Then we have a 24 hour day because it's already a 16 hour day at the finals.

25:11.92
Sludge Underground
yeah

25:18.10
Lana
I don't care, we have more bands playing, it's fine.

25:19.76
Sludge Underground
yeah

25:22.26
Sludge Underground
yeah for sure no that makes a lot of sense i want us to touch on something you mentioned a bit there we almost at the tail end as well but we can't you know drop out the episode without actually touching on this you mentioned nulo coming through from argentina you guys obviously managed to get devil wears pride coming through for ram what goes into actually getting a band like that you touched on it a bit people's expectations like oh bring so and so it's like dude you have fucking 500 days if i can get the band down and stuff you know

25:28.48
Lana
Yeah.

25:48.30
Sludge Underground
So obviously, financially, it means that it's it's quite a lot that goes into that. But how do you guys go about even getting in touch with these bands and getting them to actually agree to come through to South Africa?

25:53.66
Lana
no

26:00.69
Lana
So with Ram, yeah that's mainly Rob. Rob is ah insane human being that has so many connections, but also Rob tours and goes to shows and goes to festivals and meets these people.

26:13.59
Lana
It's not just picking up the like I can message Kubla Khan on Instagram and be like how's Do you want to come South Africa? They'll never read my message. I'm nothing to them. Like Rob actually goes to America and to Europe and goes to these festivals and meets these people and is like hi my name is Rob Pereira.

26:30.54
Lana
I am in South Africa. lala La la la la la.

26:34.61
Lana
What would it take for you to come to my country? That's what it takes. Like within our our country that I mentioned now, go to shows and like show your face. That's what Rob does. He goes to shows and he shows his face and that's how he can get these bands here.

26:48.18
Lana
Like with Nulo, Sash met them at the Wacken finals in Germany in 2023 when she took middle grounds and she made really good friends with them, loved their music, been in touch and she was like, you guys need to come to our country and she's made it happen two years later. Like Hearns, Sinaj,

27:09.27
Lana
are making sure that things happen and it costs a lot of money. Like, us MLS girls are going to work hard to pay off that debt.

27:20.11
Sludge Underground
On average, how much are you looking at bringing someone like, you know, DevAlways Prado, for example?

27:27.38
Lana
They always brought not sure.

27:29.58
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

27:29.62
Lana
I know an average international band can cost anything between 120 to 150k just for the show.

27:30.60
Sludge Underground
Okay, Nulo?

27:36.32
Sludge Underground
Damn.

27:37.05
Lana
If not their plane tickets, that's their standard rate that they ask.

27:41.36
Sludge Underground
wow

27:41.76
Lana
So like it's not just a little two days in the rankings, it's a down payment on a car.

27:49.60
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

27:49.76
Lana
like a big like yeah with Nulo the guys ah they love Sash and they were like oh well let's come to your luck we want to come to your country so we do have a plan that we have to like financially stick to because obviously we need to like cover their plane tickets and and and and and the accommodation stuff like that so with not that Nulo is a small band but a smaller band in

27:52.57
Sludge Underground
That is true.

28:01.14
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

28:08.29
Sludge Underground
Yes.

28:16.00
Lana
always brought up, but they are growing at a massive rate. It is insane. um For them to be like, will wear plane tickets and accommodation, and we make sure that they are fared and all of that. So, it still costs a lot of money, because plane tickets are expensive, but you know, it is not, it is doable.

28:30.09
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

28:35.02
Lana
But we need sponsors.

28:35.65
Sludge Underground
For sure.

28:36.42
Lana
Hey, where is those boo sponsors, guys? Come, Jagermeister Jack Daniels.

28:42.83
Sludge Underground
i want I want to ask a real question for Durban right now because obviously these bands are obviously limited to Cape Town and Joburg. Even with MLith shows, you guys are mainly operating ah operating in those two two provinces.

28:54.73
Sludge Underground
What can Durban do to catch up? What can Durban do to get these MLith shows happening this side and get these international acts also coming in through here? What are we missing?

29:04.57
Lana
Man, me and Saj love Durban. Like, we went down to Westville Wales for the fucking Durban heat, and We bring your cynical sanity up, like, at least two or three times a year because we love them.

29:19.11
Lana
Like, I ah think it's venue-wise and just the the general... Because there is a scene there, and the scene is lucky. Like, you guys have really good bands in Durban. I think just venue-wise, like, the burn used to be there, which was a big place, and then there was a, like, it used to be Durban, Cape Town, Joburg.

29:36.72
Lana
Those are the three places that bands would go if they come here. So, I don't know if there's, like... I don't know of a big venue in in Durban at the at this stage. So like, obviously you have to host something there. It is adding another leg and we did think about it, but yeah, i think it's just logistics wise.

29:54.86
Lana
Yeah, we need a place to come and have the bands there.

30:01.95
Sludge Underground
Yeah, so it's mainly just like a venue issue at the moment.

30:06.30
Lana
yeah I mean Westmore House is great but like for the sheer volume that we bring to shows it's it's not big enough and we don't want people to get squished like mosh pits get hectic yeah

30:08.14
Sludge Underground
No.

30:12.07
Sludge Underground
Yes.

30:20.95
Sludge Underground
Really well said there, Lana. I really appreciate you having this conversation with me, getting into some of the nitty gritty as well. know it can be uncomfortable, but appreciate you know the way in which you got the answers there.

30:31.68
Sludge Underground
You even mentioned the live that you guys did, which unfortunately I missed, but I'm really hoping that this does shed some light for those that maybe weren't part of that live that you guys did. um And, you know, these things happening in the public eye as well. It's good for people to know. Anyone does does have any questions and so on, we try to sort of cover that as much as we can.

30:50.44
Sludge Underground
So thank you for for this. I really appreciate it What else can people look forward to when it comes to, you know, Emelith, Middle for Africa, the rest of 2025? What do you guys have sort of planned that we could look forward to? Besides, obviously, Nulo and any of the stuff, Ramfest, any of those stuff, what else can we expect?

31:09.17
Lana
obviously Mulan Ramfest. We have sirens coming back this year. It's on the 26th of September. Also my birthday weekend, so come partake with me. um We wanted to take a few months off, but we are not. There is another show that we're planning, so Keep an eye out.

31:29.00
Lana
Medal for Africa on the 26th of July is also having the Winterfest, which is one of the winterfest and summerfest. Winterfest also the 26th, which is going to be a lack of big show. Really cool bands.

31:40.20
Lana
if you're in Cape Town, get your ticket. um Yeah, we have ah Halloween. We're not doing a Halloween horror. Obviously, we're doing it with Ramfests from here on out. So yeah.

31:52.28
Lana
It's one of those things. And then July, Joel, at the end of this month, which is going to be the Wacken warm-up party as well. um yeah We have lacquer bands. We have fallen profits coming up from Cape Town, which I'm very excited about. Chameyante, Walkie Skies, Marshmallow. It's going to be a Joel and a half and a whole bar.

32:11.98
Lana
Very excited to tour with those boys. Yeah. Wild. Wild.

32:15.87
Sludge Underground
No, 100%. If people want to work with you guys or reach out to you as Lina, maybe with some social media stuff, whatever the case is, what are your handles for them?

32:25.39
Lana
So my handle is Lana Kapana. Sash is Sashkita. We have emulet events, medal for Africa. The Bakken medal battle page is bmbssa.official.

32:42.19
Lana
And then if you need a send us some stuff, my email address is on emuletsocialmedia.gmail.com. Easy peasy.

32:51.72
Sludge Underground
Epic. And for SledgerNaghan, we are at SledgerNaghan on Instagram. And you can catch all our episodes on YouTube. Do remember to subscribe. And yeah, guys, it's been a really awesome one. If you want to get in touch with me, it's at Zwan here with you one.

33:05.12
Sludge Underground
And I'll catch you guys next week. It is bye for now.

33:11.80
Sludge Underground
Yo, dude.

33:12.27
Lana
Lacquer.

33:12.44
Sludge Underground
How are you feeling?