Top 8 Things You Didn’t Know About Dear Reader

Dear Reader is an alternative/pop band from Johannesburg, South Africa. The band was founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Cherilyn MacNeil and producer/bass player, Darryl Torr. Dear Reader is now the solo project of Cherilyn MacNeil.

Here’s a list of things you may have or may not have known about Dear Reader:

1. Dear Reader has 4 Known albums  Replace Why With Funny, We Followed Every Sound, Idealistic Animals, Rivonia.

2. Dear Reader was formally known as Harris Tweed, when they were forced by some Scotsmen to abandon the name, they changed it to Dear Reader.

3. Dear Reader albums are traditionally visual. MacNeil has this uncanny knack of making music that, paired with her stories, create pictures in the listener’s head. Vivid, textured pictures, making the songs more relatable, more personal.

4. Having won a South African Music Award and wowing crowds and earning thousands of fans accross our country and Europe alike, MacNeil and Torr amicably parted ways and Cherilyn relocated to Berlin – where she still lives.

5. The video for ‘Took Them Away’ was directed by a guy called Rob Savage from London. He saw Dear Reader play at shows a few back and became a Dear Reader fan, and then he approached them to use one of their  songs in his first feature film (which he completed at age 18!) 

6. Dear Readers favourite city to play in is Hamburg -“We’ve never had a bum gig there. Even the very first gig we ever played there, back when we were still Harris Tweed, was an incredible experience. Hard to say why it’s always a good one for us, but somehow it always is.”

7. Dear Reader’s new album, Rivonia, boldly broaches a diverse range of South African history. Amongst these is the raid on Liliesleaf farm, which led to the infamous Rivonia Trial from which the album derives its title. The decision for this focus was prompted by Cherilyn tackling Mandela’s mammoth doorstopper of an autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.

8. Dear Reader was in South Africa recently for a winter tour. Trying her best to break the vicious cycle of playing in the usual places, Cherilyn chose eclectic venues such as the Fugard Theatre and Moyo in Kirstenbosch Gardens for the Cape Town leg.