One of my secret passions is playing the drums. No, let me rephrase that. It’s thinking that I can play the drums. Because, see, I’ve never actually played drums. (The closest I came was to buy drumsticks…) But I’m sure I would like it. And I’m also pretty confident (and naive) that I’d be good at it.
So when I discovered Cobus Potgieter a couple of years ago on YouTube, he kind of made up for me not making the effort of actually finding a drum set, sitting down and start hitting. Cobus is probably South Africa’s most famous musician (although relatively uncelebrated in his own country). Self-taught, his videos have become YouTube sensations – notably Kelly Clarkson’s My Life Would Suck Without You – and he now counts more than 100 million views. (My favourite still is 30 Seconds to Mars’s Vox Populi.) He has collaborated with various artists, and now spends most of his time at the Drum Channel in the US.
Enter his next project: to create an album from scratch by inviting musicians from all over the world to collaborate. He’ll fly them to Los Angeles, put them together in a room for a few weeks, and produce an album. I guess this is the Cobus version of The World’s Got Talent.
But even if you’re not a musician – like me – you can contribute. He’s opened a Kickstarter project that will allow you to contribute anything from $1 to $10000 to make this album happen. (He’s already received more than the $35000 minimum.) I donated $30 and will receive a signed album due in October, an album that still has no songs, no vocalists, and only one drummer. But it’s Cobus. And that’s good enough for me.
