15 questions for Deon Maas

1. You were a big fan of the Bee Gees in your youth. Do you still listen to that kind of music?

I have never had any love for them. As a punk in the disco era, I can't think of a greater enemy. I suspect you're using the same researcher as the one who did my Wikipedia entry.

2. Your favourite poet?

If I'm trying to impress people: Johan Myburg. When I'm homesick: Churchil Naudé.

3. What are you currently reading?

Berlin Blues [Herr Lehmann in German] by Sven Regener, but it could just as well be Ernst Haffner's Blood Brothers or Jenny Hval's Paradise Rot.

4. What talent would you most like to have?

The ability to make money.

5. What is the most overrated quality in people, in your opinion?

Kindness.

6. What would you like to change about your appearance?

Currently? More hair, less belly. In the past, it would have been red hair, freckles, crooked teeth and acne.

7. What is your favourite anecdote about Benjy Mudie [music industry veteran]?

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

8. Which Afrikaans muso  do you consider to be completely underrated? And who was overrated?

David de Lange. Many people still don't understand the role that boeremusiek played in the formation of the urbanised Afrikaner psyche in the 1930s. Everyone talks about the blues and admires the musicians, but no one looks at our own blues. Furthermore, almost everyone associates the boeremusiek of that time with the boeremusiek of today, and I don't think you can get two planets more distant from each other.

When it comes to overrated, I can give you a top 10 and a top 20 list, but for the sake of peace, I'd rather not. Commercial success doesn't mean you contribute to a genre. It means you stimulate capitalism. There's a big difference between the two.

9. What does a typical day in Berlin look like for you?

There's very little routine in my life. An average day means going for a walk with the dogs, a patisserie, a museum or art gallery, or maybe a ride on the public transportation system while staring out the window, having a beer at Taqueria Florian, doing some work, buying groceries, then having an evening beer at Sunrise or Rabauke.

10. What are your pets' names?

Bart (named after Neil Sandilands' character in Sewende Laan) and Watson (because he'll always be Bart's sidekick).

11. If you had to date yourself, why would you leave yourself?

I am an acquired taste, I'm pedantic, difficult, and have high expectations. There's no chance I would date myself. It would be way too much work.

12. Your favourite takeout food?

Depending on the previous night's adventure, it's either a KFC Rounder or sushi.

13. Who inspires you?

I come from an era where it was very inappropriate to have heroes, and I quite like that ideology.

14. Name three songs you would like to have played at your funeral.

No songs will be played at my funeral. There will be complete silence so that everyone can hear each other sob and weep. Nothing that happens at your funeral really matters because it's not about you. It's about what other people think you would have wanted. Maybe everyone can play a few songs they think I would have liked, and the rest of the people can rate how well they knew me or not.

15. Late night: tequila or Jägermeister?

I prefer mezcal, but late at night it doesn't really matter, right?

♦ VWB ♦

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