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In Garret and Laura's Hands
Koko, aka Garret Van Der Spek, grew up in Durban, South Africa playing odes to western pop in the limited venues available to him: Restaurants and the lobbies of pay-by-the hour hotels.
He moved to Seattle to go to school at the University of Washington where he met Laura. The two fell in love and—after going back to Durban, founding a traveling live music party and getting married—they started a new Seattle band together, Koko and the Sweetmeats, which you can catch at spots like Nectar.
Their songs are focused on Garret's striking falsetto and the couple's affinity for Brit-pop. True to their 90's English idols, Koko often plays the washed up rock star, bleary from years of excess followed by years of being forgotten.
He sings: "Who could blame me I was tired baby and this drink is what's keeping me down." It's an interesting choice, a foreign listener adopting the cliches of a western genre. In Garret and Laura's hands, it's genuinely moving.
The duo dropped by the PubliCola offices last week with a guitar, tambourine, accordion, and harmonica to play some songs and chat about gigs at "those kind of places."
Listen to my PubliCola podcast with Koko and the Sweetmeats here.
He moved to Seattle to go to school at the University of Washington where he met Laura. The two fell in love and—after going back to Durban, founding a traveling live music party and getting married—they started a new Seattle band together, Koko and the Sweetmeats, which you can catch at spots like Nectar.
Their songs are focused on Garret's striking falsetto and the couple's affinity for Brit-pop. True to their 90's English idols, Koko often plays the washed up rock star, bleary from years of excess followed by years of being forgotten.
He sings: "Who could blame me I was tired baby and this drink is what's keeping me down." It's an interesting choice, a foreign listener adopting the cliches of a western genre. In Garret and Laura's hands, it's genuinely moving.
The duo dropped by the PubliCola offices last week with a guitar, tambourine, accordion, and harmonica to play some songs and chat about gigs at "those kind of places."
Listen to my PubliCola podcast with Koko and the Sweetmeats here.
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