Photo by Toast Coetzer

Trike is a Johannesburg-based power duo consisting of Drikus Barnard (vocals, instruments) and Esmé Evakwaad (vocals). They initially met at a Battery9 gig in the late 1990’s, but it was only during 2001 that they would officially collaborate under the name Plank, playing a furious old-school brand of in-your-face punk, in Afrikaans.

Barnard is a prolific songwriter, and was also churning out a different, quieter type of song; more dark, menacing and lo-fi. Trike was born out of an occasional performance band that the two called “The suicide sets”. Paul Riekert liked it so much that he offered to record them, and the result was their first album Volle Militêre Eerbetoon (2003).

Their second album Kennis Van Die Oggend was recorded at Drikus’ home studio (Lekker-Rus Studios) with the help of the talented Lazarus van Aswegen and released in 2005. This album is far darker than the first incarnation with the lyrical content leaning more to matters of the heart and those things associated with it.

The third offering, Vingerbakatel, sees Trike going a different route with the marked twisted notes, and faults that can only be intentional. Trike never fails to deliver the melancholy. 2006 must have been a hell of a year.