Music
Francois Van Coke: An Open Letter to My Younger Self
The iconic rock vocalist and guitarist shares the insights he's picked up through his almost two decade long career
Dear Younger Self,
I know you don’t have a clue what to do, but you love music. You’re going to study sound and you’re gonna enjoy it, but you really want to play music. I think at the end of the day, 18 years down the line you’re gonna be able to do it for a living, you’re gonna be able to pay for a house, you’re gonna have a child and everything is gonna be okay.
Francois Van Coke
© Jonathan Ferreira
Your dream at this stage would be to be an international rock star; it’s not gonna happen exactly like that. You’re gonna travel a bit and play music. You’re gonna travel South Africa a lot. But don’t worry about it, your rockstar aspirations aren’t completely in vain; you’re gonna have a following in South Africa and you’re going to play music to people that really want to hear it. The biggest stumbling block along the way is that it’s going to be financially hard play rock music in this country. It’s a hard nut to crack financially and you’re going to have to do it without money for a very long time. It will pay off at the end.
Francois Van Coke
© Jonathan Ferreira
I sometimes think about what you might think of me, the older you. I think you’ll be happy where we ended up. I think we have grown a lot over the past 15 years of playing music. I’ve doubted myself at times, wondering if you would be proud of what I’m doing, but I think you would be happy; I think you would be stoked and I think it worked out for the both of us.
Francois Van Coke
© Jonathan Ferreira
You’re gonna party very hard, especially in the next few years to come. At times it’s gonna be amazing, at times it’s gonna be bad, but you’re also going to work that out. You’re gonna make amazing friends. The guys that you are gonna play with are gonna become like brothers and they’re going to be friends for life.
I think at the moment you feel a bit unsure about being a songwriter. It’s going to stay like that for quite a long time. You’re gonna work with people that are amazing writers and you’re not gonna feel very confident about your own abilities but I think the best way to start is to start writing and you’re going to do it eventually. You’ll get better the more you write and you’ll see that as you get older.
Francois Van Coke
© Jonathan Ferreira
I don’t think you’d expect this at all, but you’ll become a solo artist eventually. I know you always wanted to play in bands, but I think this way we’re going to have longevity and we’re gonna do exactly what we want until we die. In a band, you’re always gonna be married to four or five other people and their ideas and their ideas of what to do for a future for themselves. You’re still gonna play with a band, I promise we won’t play with backtracks ever and these people that you’re going to play with are going to become good friends of yours and you’re gonna play with the best.
The guys that you are gonna play with are gonna become like brothers and they’re going to be friends for life.
Finally, I just want to add that it gets better. You feel very unsure and confused at this stage of your life, but it gets better in all aspects. Music is something you want to do, but you don’t think it’s a possibility, but it has done everything. It has set up my life for where I am at the moment, so it’s gonna be fine. You’re gonna be fine, it gets better.
Love,
Older Self
