Can of Worms Selected to Play at CMJ Music Marathon 2016

2015 has been an incredible year for Can of Worms. Having got together earlier this year the band is growing from strength to strength. Having been given the opportunity to attend SA Indies Music Week in Gold Reef City last week after auditions earlier in the year with the Independent Music Exporters of South Africa (IMEXSA), Can of Worms are extremely excited to share the news that we've been selected to play at CMJ Music Marathon in New York in 2016.

Can of Worms perform at the Lyric Theatre on Friday 18th Dec as a part of SA Indies Music Week

"Uncle Bobo" Allen Johnston
industry professional
sharing insight into the
music business

SA Indies Music Week was an absolutely amazing experience for us - with talks from international music and industry greats Allen Johnston, Karen Marie Mason, Christophe Chiappa and Almudena Heredero as well as local professionals Vovee Batala, Gwiba Nkonki and Beverly Gough amongst others, the band was given great insight into music as a business, practical advice how to become professionals in the industry and grow what is now simply a passion, into a livelihood. We learned at least 50 new things a day and can't wait to take action and begin to grow Can of Worms into a musical brand.

On Friday 18th we performed at the Lyric Theatre sharing the stage with some really incredible Eastern Cape musicians. We felt that our performance went well and we managed to fill the large stage with our personalities and sound.

Finishing the week with a bit of fun at Sunday's
cocktail party

Sunday 20th saw all attending musicians and delegates coming together for a cocktail party and announcements of the selected musicians for a range of international festivals in 2016 including Midem in France, South by South West in the US and Primavera in Spain. Much to our excitement Can of Worms have been selected to play at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York in October 2016. 

We want to thank IMEXSA for affording us the opportunity to take part in such an incredible event as last week, for housing us, feeding us and allowing us to learn so much from such experienced and open, honest people. 

Voting "rivals" SMS performing at the Lyric Theatre

We also want to thank our fans, friends and families for supporting us through the public vote - achieving an incredible total of almost 14 000 votes! We have been overwhelmed by the support from everyone around the world who appreciate our music, our energy and the potential of the worms. Although we were pipped to the post at the ninth hour by our voting "rivals" Soul Music Sensations (SMS) their performance on Sunday evening was great - they were the right guys for the job. We also had a great time connecting with them during the week with friendly banter being shared to and fro, jamming together at the Gold Reef Theme Park street party on Saturday 19th and sharing our passion for music. SMS were selected to be a part of the Midem Artist Launch in France in 2016!

Jamming with our extended musical family at the
Gold Reef Theme Park street party

The lady with THE VOICE -
fellow East London artist
Vuyolwethu jamming with
drummer Steve

We want to share our excitement and congratulations to all of the artists who were selected for festivals next year - the standard of musicianship at the Lyric was extremely high and we're looking forward to spending more time with our musical family as we all grow from this experience. 

So what's next? It's time to up our game - to be ready for international performance in 10 months will be a great challenge but one that we're ready to take on with all of our hearts.

Thanks again for all of your support!

The Worms

We found this little guy outside our apartments as we left
for our last day at Gold Reef - fancy worm :)