Known for changing the face of instrumental music in South Africa with their extraordinary fusion of virtuosity, fresh beats and undeniable X factor, Sterling EQ returns with a brand new album, PULSE. We chatted with Carina Bruwer (who plays pop flute) about the bands hot new album…

How excited are you about the new album? 

Incredibly excited! It’s taken a long time to conceptualise and complete, and we are extremely proud of the end product. We’re blown away by the response to it thus far.

There’s a change in the type of music that’s on this album from previous ones – why did you decide to go this route?

We wanted to create an album that represents our growth as a group, and that offers something fresh and exciting to the genre of instrumental pop music – not only locally, but also internationally – and we feel that we’ve done that and more

Pulse is our third studio album (and our fourth release, together with our live DVD), so we’ve sort of been around the block a bit. We’ve had time to find ourselves and decide what we want to say with our music.

The genre is a tricky one in the sense that we’ve had to actually create it ourselves and establish it within the South African music industry.  As a result there aren’t many rules and guidelines, apart from what works for us and our fans – this is both a benefit and a challenge when it comes to creating a new sound.  Ultimately, we spent a lot of time researching music trends from various mainstream genres and incorporating some elements and strategies that inspired us, into a new sound which we wanted to be as commercial as our instruments can possibly sound at this stage, without moving away completely from what has inspired us up until now.

What do you enjoy most about creating music together?

The fact that we are at a stage in our career as a band, where there are actually fans (existing and prospective!) who are waiting for our music; who are anticipating the release of new singles and albums, is so exhilarating for us, having come from a relatively non-commercial place only a few years ago.  And surprising ourselves with the outcome – realising that we’ve gone where we never dreamed of going with our instruments – both in terms of playing techniques, musical achievement and the success of the band – is just awesome.

What is your process when creating a new track?

It starts with a meeting between the producer and executive producer, in this case Mauritz Lotz and me.  We talk about the song-to-be, potential production and playing techniques that will be explored, and how it will potentially be arranged in terms of the quartet parts as well as other sessions.

The criteria for us when it comes to choosing and recording a track is whether we can say something new through it; something that hasn’t been said quite in the same way before.  We don’t simply want to recreate something that another act has done, or that we’ve done in the past (even if it’s a winning recipe!).  Some tracks have fallen away as we simply couldn’t find the “cool factor” at the time; while with others, the cool factor jumped at us as soon as we started!  Then, from Mauritz Lotz’ genius in creating the backbone of the track, we move to workshop with the full quartet and producer, to develop the arrangement concept and find room for improvisation.

What are some of your favourite tracks on the new album?

Between the four of us, there are as many favourites!  Ones that stand out for us (probably for the impact it had on us personally during the recording process) include the epic Mauritz Lotz original, Genesis, AR Rahman’s out-of-this-world Mumbai Theme, the spectacularly virtuosic Asturias and the Latin-inspired Carnaval.  These are also huge crowd pleasers, together with Bravo, Khulu’s Groove, Sarabande and Pulse.