Twenty years into a career spanning indie rock, Afrikaans rap and film scoring, Peach van Pletzen talks Van Pletzen’s new album ‘Benaaihilism’, his three-take studio philosophy and what music he has on repeat I speak to Peach van Pletzen on the same day he’s releasing the music video for his group Van Pletzen’s song Dis nie so diep nie (It’s not that deep) and he’s buzzing. It’s a maximalist electronic dance music anthem in which Van Pletzen encourage listeners to live life to the fullest because none of us will be here in 80 years. It’s bursting with the kind of irreverent lyrics that have become Peach’s signature across five albums with the most recent, Benaaihilism, being released in April this year.
Even the album title gestures towards the irreverent worldview of the duo consisting of Peach van Pletzen (Born Pierre-Henri van Pletzen) and Nik Nax (Matthieu Auriacombe). “Benaaihilism” is a portmanteau of the Afrikaans slang word benaai, which doesn’t really have an English equivalent but kind of means having a blast, living large or full of reckless fun and “nihilism”, the philosophical belief that life has no inherent meaning or purpose. Peach has described the concept as “when existential dread meets the dance floor”.
“We’ve always been an act that’s driven by balancing between the absurd and the realities of life, balancing between humour and seriousness,” he says of the album title during our chat. “As human beings, we do the same thing. We wake up one day and life feels fantastic and everything just feels great.
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Then a day or two later you wake up and you’re feeling a bit nihilistic with everything going on in the world. “It’s just how you are always in a push and pull between those two states and so is the world. And that’s just the reality of being human.
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