"I just want to hear it again. All the parts of this song work together so cohesively. What a hook! You've basically got two choruses here...amazing! This song definitely doesn't feel sorry for itself... Though this person has Evaporated, the song is still feisty and strong. I feel like I really get a sense of what you are like. Great, great work."
"To close out the evening, Zarni De Wet walked out on stage and performed three of her original songs as a representative for Berklee’s Songwriting Department. De Wet captivated the audience with her fiery presence, flirtatious persona, and talented command of her artistic voice. A slightly, harder edged Sara Bareilles, De Wet showed the audience her fiery, flirtatious side, her emotional, heavy-hearted side, and finally her poppy, romantic personality all in one evening. A beautiful woman and an even more beautiful performer, this songwriter is sure to turn heads in the professional songwriting community."
"Rustic Theatre On Main hosted Zarni on Friday night 08 Jan 2010. It was our first gig of the year and wat a way to start the year!!! Zarni you swept everyone off their feet. Your talent, charm and stage presence is amazing. Thank you for chosing us and we will gladly host you any day. Rustic Theatre says thank you and ...may your CD enjoy more success. Cheers and good luck!"
"Zarni's music has the fire-in-the-belly grit of someone who is grappling with true emotion yet she delivers her soul in a way reminiscent of one's own ability to handle the same experiences with wit, charm and extreme grace."
"In 32 years in the radio business, I've rarely heard a young singer/songwriter with so much talent. She's a hit every time she plays our club and it's been my pleasure to book her time and time again. Her music comes from the heart and a place beyond her years. Zarni's an original."
After College, Zarni looks "Straight Forward" to the future
Yes, local music fans, it's true: Zarni de Wet who started performing around the region in her mid-teens and has blossomed into a gifted singer/songwriter is now a college graduate. A couple of weeks ago, de Wet earned her degree in music education and songwriting from Boston's famed Berklee School of Music. Four years of study among some of the world's top young virtuosos proved to be valuable for honing her songwriting craft but now her eyes are on the future. "I had a great time at Berklee and I feel like I got what I needed out of it," de Wet said in an interview last week. "Although I'm sad it's over, I'm definitely ready to get on with the next thing."First up is a concert Friday night at the Endicott Performing Arts Center, where the South Africa native will share songs from her upcoming sophomore album, "Straight Forward." Accompanying her passionate piano playing and soulful vocals at the show will be the Berklee crew; Andrew Nault (Drums) Tyreek Jackson (Bass) and Alex Smith (Guitar)
De Wet has never shied away from writing honestly about her own experiences good or bad and she said a recurring theme on this album will be her transition from college life to the "real world" beyond."I was going through some changes relationship-wise and school-wise and friends-wise, and I was at a point where I needed to move on from a lot of things, so I thought 'Straight Forward' is a nice direction to move putting a lot of things in the past," she said. Compared to her debut, last year's "Friday Night Lights," de Wet feels like she's gone to a less-is-more approach to lyrics."I've definitely simplified a lot. The emotional content is still heavy but delivered in a more accessible way saying something powerful with fewer words. It's much more difficult to say less than to say more!" she said with a laugh.
Music-wise, she recruited producer Matt McArthur to help capture the best possible sound and to provide objective feedback on the performances. "The last album, I really came into it blindsided; it was me and the sound engineer, and we were just pressing 'record' and going with it," she said. "This album, there was months of pre-by the time we went into the studio, everyone knew what they were playing and the songs were arranged down to the tiniest detail. ... There's not a single sound, instrument or vocal line on the album that wasn't well thought-out. Every song had its own life, and we tried to make it all cohesive and work emotionally as well as it could."One song on the album, "Evaporated," got a very special endorsement a few months ago, when de Wet and 11 other students were selected to perform for John Mayer at a Berklee master class."I was near the end and was getting pretty nervous, because he's honest he says it as it is. He had something good to say about all the songs, but there were some that he definitely critiqued a little bit more," she said. "So by the time he got to me, I thought, 'Oh God, I'm going to have to redo this whole thing!' ..."The first thing he said when I got done playing was, 'Man, I just want to hear that again!' ... He was such a cool dude, so laid back and very genuine. He definitely made it a human experience we forgot he was John Mayer by the end of it, because we were hanging out and cracking jokes." For now, de Wet will move back to Johnson City as a home base for touring both casinos and coffeehouses to build up a fanbase; not that she thinks she'll be at home very much."I have so many connections now because of Berklee — that's one of the best things" she said. "I have friends in every big city in America, so I'll always have a place to stay and people to help me set up gigs."
Johnson City resident is a fresh face with an old soul
Those who have watched Zarni De Wet grow up as part of the local music scene know the secret to her songwriting:
Behind that fresh young face is an old soul guided by an emotional wisdombeyond her years.The Johnson City High grad — now in her third year at Boston’s famed Berklee College of Music — wraps catchy piano melodies and soulful vocals around mature tales of complicated love and fraying relationships. At 20 years old, De Wet captures moments that sometimes elude songwriters twice her age — and all of them are inspired by her own experiences
Zarni de Wet is a junior at Berklee College of Music in Boston, which if I guess correctly makes her about 20. For her years, she has remarkable poise. Happiest it seems when she's on the stage and behind a piano. For nearly an hour she entertained a packed house with songs from her debut CD, "Friday Night Lights," (a light pop-jazz masterpiece), before taking a break.
Article by Craig Ostroff Montgomery News
Perhaps the best career advice Zarni de Wet ever received came from John Majhor, a radio broadcaster and promoter who discovered her at the tender age of 16.
“He gave me very, very valuable advice,” said the South Africa native, who moved to Binghamton, N.Y., at age 11 with her mother and stepfather. “He said, ‘You’re not always going to be 16 and awesome. Just remember that.’
“And it’s true. It’s much more impressive if a young kid can sit there and accompany herself than a 21-year-old. So I’ve actually found that I have had to work a little bit harder as I got older.”
It’s advice that’s served her well. No longer simply a curiosity as a piano-playing teenager, de Wet is now 21 years old, four semesters away from graduating from the Berklee College of Music with a double major in music education and songwriting. And while she’s up against the legion of other young singer-songwriters looking to make names for themselves, de Wet is proving to have the ability to stand out from the crowd with her warm, soaring vocals and bouncy piano-driven songs. Her first CD, “Friday Night Lights,” was released in January.
And as happy as de Wet is with the finished CD, she’s already looking ahead to the next step on her musical journey, with new songs she can’t wait to share.
“I am happy with [‘Friday Night Lights’]. I’m happy with the songs, they’re all real,” she said. “It’s really simple — it’s not a produced album at all. Going into it, I didn’t know as much about production as I do now, nor did I really realize the importance of it, so it’s a very bare album. It’s got a lot of content; it ranges from love songs to divorce songs … but I think it’s a very lyrical album more than anything.
“What I’m doing now is a little bit different than the style that’s on the CD. I’ve written about 10 new songs that I’m pretty happy with, and I’ve heard from people that it’s almost like a world’s difference. I figure it really takes a while for the [lessons taught at Berklee] to take effect; it takes a while for it to become like muscle memory. So I think I’ve really honed into a lot of the skills I’ve learned and they are showing a lot more on the newer songs than they were on the CD.”
And she’ll get a chance to show off her already impressive catalog of songs when de Wet makes her local debut at the MilkBoy Acoustic Café, 824 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, at 7:30 p.m. June 8, touring along with the Mike Lombardo Trio in what promises to be an evening of impressive piano-driven tunes.
“I started playing in bars when I was 16, and I liked the repertoire that I was able to do with the piano,” de Wet said. “I knew that a lot of popular songs by people like Billy Joel, Elton John — their really famous hits were piano-based.
“And just because of the nature of the piano I can kind of simulate a lot of instruments — the left hand provides like the base line, then whatever rhythm I’m playing is also the drums … so it gives you a good orchestrating tool to have the piano.”
She’s been honing her piano skills since the age of 6. Inspired by her songwriter mother and musicians as varied as the Piano Man, the Rocket Man, Norah Jones and Joni Mitchell, de Wet performed in numerous talent shows in South Africa as a youngster and began writing what she now looks back on as “a couple stupid little songs” at a young age. But even those songs set the stage for a future in music. In fact, de Wet said, part of the reason her family relocated to the United States was because of the opportunities it afforded to her musical career.
“My stepfather was transferred to Binghamton,” she said. “But part of the reason why they came was because they could see that I had a passion for music and thought, ‘What better place than America?’ for my opportunities here.”
And despite all the time she’s spent riding on airplanes across oceans, or in cars to the next gig, de Wet never grows tired of traveling. She still visits family in South Africa at least once a year, just recently visited Mexico and has backpacked through Europe.
And she has aspirations of booking and performing an extended tour of shows across the U.S.
“I am addicted to traveling,” de Wet said with a laugh. “I love it. If I could do that for a living, I would. I’m a very emotional, sentimental person, so I love different sights and sounds and smells. It’s not that I don’t like staying in one place, it’s just that I love going to different ones.
“And I’ve always loved performing. It feels very natural to me. There is nothing else I would rather do.”