15 questions for Coenie de Villiers

1. Describe yourself in a hashtag.

#keeptrying

2. What do you read first thing in the morning?

The Guardian, The New York Times, Vrye Weekblad, overnight emails.

3. Which international publications do you read?

The Atlantic, The New Yorker and Hodinkee.

4. What do you listen to in your car? Your top five songs.

Eish. Songs will be a challenge. 1) Rock for the road, from Led Zeppelin to Imagine Dragons 2) Jazz, from Keith Jarrett and Oscar Peterson to Snarky Puppy 3) World music, from Lokua Kanza to Ali Farka Touré 4) Opera, especially as performed by Anna Netrebko 5) Above all and everybody, JS Bach.

5. Who are your favourite South African poets?

Eybers, Krog, Van Wyk Louw, Hambidge, Opperman, Breytenbach, Tom Dreyer — do I really have to choose?

6. And your favourite songs in Afrikaans?

The sparseness of Koos du Plessis's As Almal Ver Is. The darkness of Lucas Maree's Sunnyside. The production values of Die Heuwels Fantasties's Koeëlbaai.

7. Who inspires you in the music industry?

Sting. Yo-Yo Ma. Francois van Coke. Hunter Kennedy. Paul Simon. Yunchan Lim. Dave Koz. And Billy Joel (yeah, yeah — I know!).

8. With whom do you still want to work?

You can catch me in a trap with a collab. I have been able to work with everybody from John Kani and Hugh Masekela to Laurika Rauch and David Kramer. But I am available if Sting has a little spot …

9. What are you a sucker for?

Koeksisters. Braais. Good wine. Music.

10. If you could exchange your life for someone else's, whose would it be?

I am happy with my lot. I believe good and suffering are part of everybody's destiny. But I think it must have been nice to be Rassie Erasmus after the World Cup.

11. Who do find sexy?

Freida Pinto.

12. If you could invite three people for dinner, dead or alive, who would they be?

Stephen Fry. Yuval Noah Harari. My departed friend Lucas Maree.

13. What would you do if you inherited R20 million right now?

Pass away in shock.

14. Name five movies you would watch over and over?

Casablanca. Cries and Whispers. Citizen Kane. Annie Hall. Ratatouille (really).

15. What do you look forward to?

Sustained electricity and water where I live.

♦ VWB ♦

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