Stoker (or stylised as ⚡toker) is a

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band from

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

consisting of two sets of brothers from two rural country towns in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

. The current lineup was established in 2013 when Redge (lead guitar) and Morgan O'Kennedy (drums) joined Chris (vocals, rhythm guitar) and Jurgen Bornman (bass), the latter two having originally started as a three-piece with drummer Joe Theron. While establishing themselves on the local live scene over the next year, the band recorded their debut EP, ''Fox in a Hole'', in 2014. After several single releases during 2016, they released their

eponymous An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

full-length album in early 2017 to local critical acclaim.

History

The band formed in 2011 as a three-piece rock outfit consisting of the Bornman brothers (originally from Rawsonville) and drummer Joe Theron from the band Woodstock Mafia, releasing the single "Stuck in the Alcohol". During this time they played as many shows as they possibly could, regardless of whether they were paid for them or not and according to vocalist Chris Bornman "it wasn't until our drummer at the time left the band and the O'Kennedy brothers joined the band, that we really found our sound and started to play the festival circuits." The O'Kennedy brothers, who were originally from

Malmesbury Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the up ...

and had played in several bands over the years, cemented the current line up in 2013. The band went on to perform at several local festivals including: ''

Oppikoppi Oppikoppi was a music festival held in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, near the mining town of Northam. The festival started off focusing mostly on rock music, but gradually added more genres and now plays host to a complete mixed bag of ...

'' in 2014 and 2015, ''Up the Creek'' in 2015 and 2016, '' Ramfest'' in 2014, ''Synergy Live'' in 2011 and 2014, and ''Zeegunst'' in 2015. In 2014, the band went into the studio to record their debut EP, ''Fox in a Hole'', with recording and engineering duties undertaken by George van der Spuy of

Taxi Violence Taxi Violence is a South African rock band from Cape Town. The group consists of George van der Spuy (vocals), Jason Ling (bass), Louis Nel (drums), Rian Zietsman (guitar) and Loedi van Renen (guitar/bass). They have released five studio albums ...

. After releasing three singles with accompanying music videos in 2016, the band entered the studio that same year to start working on their first official full-length album. The eponymous album was released to local critical acclaim in February 2017.

Members

;Principal members * Chris Bornman — vocals, rhythm guitar * Jurgen Bornman — bass guitar * Redge O'Kennedy — lead guitar * Morgan O'Kennedy — drums ;Past members * Joe Theron — drums

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Fox in a Hole'' (2014) * ''Stoker'' (2017)

Videography

* "Evil Shaker" (2016) * "A Stranger Throne" (2016) * "Take a Stab" (2016) * "Forever Drive" (2017)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoker South African rock music groups 2011 establishments in South Africa Musical groups established in 2011 Sibling musical duos