Cullinan songbird Ilse Lotz (42) comes from an artistic and creative family.

Her brother, Daniel Lotz, aka Diamond D, is a tattooist in Cape Town, her
mother, Kathryn Harmer Fox, is an artist in East London, and her late father
was the musician, singer and multi-instrumentalist George Lotz, who was part
of The Silver Creek Mountain Band.

He initially inspired her to move into a musical career.

“Music has always been a part of my life,” said Lotz, who could sing before
she could talk. Aged 15, she joined her father on stage for the first time, and
the rest, as they say, is history.

In later years, Lotz found inspiration in artists such as Iris DeMent, The Be
Good Tanyas, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan,
who, she says, made her heart stop.

Lotz briefly studied music but realised she already had the best teacher she
could ask for. “I didn’t learn anything that I hadn’t picked up from my father
and performing with him,” she explained.

When she was about nine, she played her first instrument, a guitar, which she
regrets not continuing. She fondly recalls the first ‘concert’ she attended,
although she does not remember it all. “I have a blur of happy memories as a
kid on a Christmas bed underneath tables at various venues listening to my
dad play and falling asleep content and full from restaurant food.”

Lotz, whose band is named after her, said once an interviewer called her style
‘Africana’, a play on the genre, ‘Americana’. “My sound is acoustic. Usually,
I’m accompanied by a guitar and a backup singer on certain songs, but in
previous bands, I had violinists, keyboardists, drummers, bassists, and
trumpeters on stage with me.”

Her creative process is to sit with her guitarist, André Fourie, and learn the
songs. “If it’s a song someone else wrote, we’ll work out how to bring our
voice to the music and lyrics. “If it’s one that he or I composed, we’ll start by
creating a vocal line and then figure out how to arrange it. How many bars for
the introduction, when to put lead breaks into the song, and how to begin and
end it.
“We will then run it over and over until we have the sound we want,” said Lotz.

She finds her inspiration in the music itself. “I love singing and am passionate
about chord progressions. I couldn’t live without it.”

Her go-to is breakup songs, but she has also written a few songs bout her
father’s death. She says he did great work and made a living in a country
notoriously lacking a booming music industry. She does quite a few upbeat
songs in bluegrass style to liven up an audience. “I also talk about each song
before I start singing and can usually engage listeners like that.”

If she has one message for fans, it would be to “buy albums and singles. If
you can’t, go to gigs. If you can’t, share event information. There are a lot of
ways to support local musicians.”

Readers can follow her on her Facebook page, Ilze Lotz, where she launches
new songs and announces upcoming gigs.

“André, who plays the guitar with me and does harmonies on some of our
songs, wrote a beautiful Afrikaans song, not my first language, called
Winterhuis. We’ve recorded it at a top studio, Ludwig Bouwer’s One Big Room
Studios in Pretoria, and will release a radio mix on all platforms this week. A
live version from our most recent gig is viewable on my Facebook artist’s
page, Ilse Lotz.”

They also plan to release an EP together in May.

When Lotz is not singing, she does freelance writing and hangs out with her
Boston terrier and Bulldog, Billy and Betty, and her cat, Clemmie. She does a
lot of work for the band, like writing lyrics, arranging tracks, deciding on keys,
and more. She also enjoys FaceTiming her boyfriend.

“He lives in Centurion, and I’m in Cullinan, so God bless Apple for the video
calls,“ she smiled.