The singer and songwriter Juan Boucher is still touring the country at full steam with his popular Afrikaans hits, but it is in the heart of Paarl in the Western Cape where his young family keeps waiting for him to come home.
Juan and his wife, Shamodene, and their two-year-old daughter, Novah, recently exchanged Pretoria for this picturesque Cape town. A baby boy, whose name is not yet known, will also make his appearance soon.
“Pretoria will always remain in my heart, but I moved to Paarl, close to the Language Monument,” says Juan in RNews’s studio.
“I wanted to capture the spirit of the area in my writing, and we also want to send our children to school there. The family is getting bigger, the music is getting bigger and it’s nice to be in South Africa at this stage.”
Juan’s latest single, “Suid”, together with the singer Tasché Burger, is currently a firm favorite among Afrikaans music listeners and currently holds the 13th position on the RNews Afrikaans Top-20.
“Tasché and I wrote the song together in Paarl. We struggled to think of a title, but we knew we had to write a song that came from the heart.
“We were sitting at the foot of Paarlberg with the sliding door wide open and the last of the autumn wind blowing outside. People also like to fly with their pigeons in the Paarl, and we wrote down: ‘The leaves fall, the pigeons fly south’.
“From there we finished writing and recording the song, and shot the music video in Dwarskersbos.”
The music video has already been viewed more than half a million times on YouTube. The song appears in Juan’s latest album, titled The Robberwhich contains eight tracks.
“The eight songs on The Robber is a reflection of my soul. It’s wonderful that I still have (the music) so deep inside me, it flows out of me. That’s why I do it, for no other reason. I do it to be with people connect. Thanks for everyone listening together.”
He says he has a holiday home on Dwarskersbos and it is time to kick off his shoes there.
“It is such a lovely place, because it is as African as Pretoria. Staying in the Paarl, between the mountains, is incredible.
“We are blessed to be able to stay where we want, but the Paarl is one of those places that one has to experience to appreciate it.”
The Robber and “South” is available on all major digital platforms. Listen to the full interview with Juan Boucher at the top of the report.
Watch the music video for “South” here:
