3RD WORLD SPECTATOR is:
Peter Crafford (Vocals, Guitar, Piano)
Justin Versfeld (Guitar)
Louis Kuhn (Bass)
André Wentzel (Drums)
Elan Schnider (Synths, Keys)

With their infectious blend of soaring, operatic vocals, haunting melodies, huge guitars 
and rolling drums, 3RD WORLD SPECTATOR has treaded lasting tracks in the South 
African music scene. With the release of their debut album ‘The Theory of Everything’ in 
late 2011 - to critical acclaim from music critics and fans alike - the band eradicated all 
doubt as to their position as one of the top acts South Africa has to offer. Their first single 
‘Ambulance’ exploded onto radio and digital charts around the country whilst cracking the 
National Top 40. The video for “Ambulance’ also reached number 2 on the MK Top 10 
Music Video Chart, placing the band firmly at the forefront of the local rock scene.

Well known for their meteoric rise to first place during the Virgin Mobile Road to V 
competition late 2008, 3RD WORLD SPECTATOR have been making headlines ever since. 

Not content to be just another local act, their performances transcend the ordinary. Part 
theatre and part rock star-chic, their live music is fraught with energy that consumes the 
senses and elevates the soul. Sharing the stage with the likes of international bands such 
as Maroon5, OneRepublic and Hard-Fi confirmed their status as a highly engaging stage 
act.

The band completed work on their debut full length album entitled 'The Theory of 
Everything' in 2011 with the recording sessions taking place at Sunset Recording Studios 
with award winning producer and engineer Jürgen von Wechmar (Springbok Nude Girls, 
Foto Na Dans, Jax Panik, Karen Zoid) at the helm of the production. The album is 
mastered by John Davis (U2, Florence + The Machine, The Prodigy, Snow Patrol) at 
Metropolis Studios in London. 

In June 2011 3RD WORLD SPECTATOR signed a record deal with Universal Music and the 
album was released at the start of November 2011 to critical acclaim. 3RD WORLD SPECTATOR has featured in every major publication, been named one of 
‘The Top 10 Acts To See' by Tonight, signed major endorsement deals with PF Flyers 
International and Jay Jays South Africa. 

Since the release of The Theory of Everything, 
3RD WORLD SPECTATOR has elicited extensive coverage in the press and media, has 
done countless radio interviews, performed live on national TV shows such as SABC 2’s 
Hectic Nine 9, MK’s Studio 1, ETV’s Frenzy and has toured South Africa extensively. The 
follow up singles 'Sparks' and 'The Hiroshima Lovers' also achieved great success on 
national radio stations. 

At the end of 2012 the band were chosen as one of six South African artists to participate 
in the Sanlam Sing 'It 2013 Lyric Competition and won this prestigious contest. 

Subsequently they have released their latest single 'Once More, With Feeling' to national 
radio with the accompanying music video enjoying high rotation on MTV. 

3RD WORLD SPECTATOR are exclusively sponsored by clothing brand Markham. 
They will be releasing their sophomore album 'Days Of Silver' in 2014.

MEDIA QUOTES: 
“Ambitious...this Stellenbosch quartet make a bold stab at a cohesive stream of songs 
knotted together by tales of doomed lovers and lone survivors.” - 
Diane Coetzer, Rolling Stone South Africa 
"An impressive debut album...haunting and beautiful." - Lisa-Marie Els, Heat Magazine 
“Epic, emotional rock.” – Clarissa Grobler, JIP 
“’The Theory of Everything’ is a highly impressive debut from a gifted band.” - 
Sergio Perreira, MusicReview.co.za 
“An act you must see.” – Therese Owen, Tonight 
“They are a viable musical export: a solid band with a great vocalist and clear musical 
direction” - Your LMG 
“No lead singer in South Africa can match Peter Crafford’s singing ability.” - 
Deonette Theart, SA Music Scene
"Simply put, 3rd World Spectator’s debut album is full of beautiful pop/rock ballads and 
those uplifting up-tempo tacks... 3rd World Spectator are going places." - 
People Magazine 

3RD WORLD SPECTATOR Online:
Website: http://www.3rdworldspectator.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/3rdworldspectator
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/the3rdworld
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/3rdworldspectator

BOOKINGS:
Peter Crafford - THE HELIX KID 
E-mail: petercrafford@gmail.com 
Phone: +2783 699 2666 

PRESS & MEDIA:
Peter Crafford - THE HELIX KID 
E-mail: petercrafford@gmail.com 
Phone: +2783 699 2666 
or 
Rachelle Crous- RACHELLE CROUS PUBLICITY 
E-mail: rachelle@rcpublicity.com
Phone: +27 82 084 6724

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Two-Lefts-Right-of-Wrong/121398171204763

“I use my gut, and my gut don’t lie to me” is more than just a lyric in Twin Forks’ exuberant “Something We Just Know,” it is a kind of mission statement for the quartet. If you’ve ever been to a musical performance that made you lose all sense of time and place and give in to the cathartic feeling of clapping and dancing and singing along, you’ve already visited the sweet spot where Twin Forks have made it their mission to reside. “Whatever makes the audience stomp their feet and sing at the top of their lungs, that’s what I want to be doing,” says singer/guitarist Chris Carrabba. “I want to be generating that spirit from the stage.

Carrabba figured out the guiding principle for Twin Forks before he even knew exactly what the project would sound like. During recent solo tours, Carrabba -- whose Dashboard Confessional grew from an intimate solo-acoustic affair to a bona fide arena rock band during the mid ‘00s -- says he was reminded how important that audience connection had always been to him as a performer.

He also knew he wanted to craft a sound closer to the music he’d loved as a kid -- classic folk, country and roots music. Growing up outside Hartford, Connecticut in an area he describes as “half-rural, half-city,” Carrabba developed an early fondness for acoustic singer-songwriters he heard on the radio -- Cat Stevens and John Denver and Gordon Lightfoot -- as well as the more obscure Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan and Guy Clark LPs he found in his mother and step-brother’s record collections. “At the beginning of Dashboard, I wanted to write an acoustic record, but every time I played a D,C, or G chord -- which are called the ‘cowboy chords’ -- I would think about how Tom Petty or Cat Stevens or John Denver or Gordon Lightfoot did this already,” says Carrabba. “That’s when I started tuning my guitars all to hell and back, just so they sounded weird to me. I was probably playing DCG anyway, but I didn’t know anything about guitar, and that was how I could get myself feeling like I was in new territory.”

“When I started playing acoustic-based music, I wasn’t trying to avoid traditional folk because I didn’t love it -- I just loved it so much and didn’t wanna do an injustice to it,” Carrabba notes. “And I had other influences and I thought, why can’t I combine this punk and hardcore feeling with this classic folk feeling -- because they were both such massive loves of mine. But right now I’m more excited about utilizing the age-old, time-tested thing and trying to excel within the parameters of a traditional template.”

He still wanted to be in new territory, though, so when he started writing songs for the project that would evolve into Twin Forks, he wanted to add a new twist. So Carrabba spent three years teaching himself traditional fingerpicking technique. “There’s magic in that kind of playing, where you’re managing two guitar parts,” he says. “I have always found it fascinating and it just seemed like it was calling to me.” Equipped with that new set of skills, Carrabba started writing his most delicate, musically articulate compositions yet, temporarily setting them aside for he-didn’t-know-what. In the interim, making his 2011 covers album, “Covered In The Flood,” gave him the chance to explore his relationship with songs by some of his favorite folk and country artists, both classic and contemporary, including Clark, John Prine, Justin Townes Earle and Corey Brannan. He then worked up those covers for a performance at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival.

The experience was a major awakening. “Onstage at HSB, we were elated. All I want to be is elated while I’m performing. Why else should we be getting onstage? We’re not up there to be some good-time charlie band, but we are not hiding the fact that we are elated to be onstage with you and we’re choosing the songs that are giving us the best edge to be able to do that.”

After Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Carrabba returned home with a new sense of purpose and a clarity of vision for Twin Forks. In the previous two years, he had been sticking to a temporary rule he’d imposed on himself as a songwriter: “I had made this rule that I would not say ‘love’ or ‘heart’ in my lyrics,” he explains. “I would talk about those things but I wouldn’t say them. So when I came home from that festival and I did write the first song and it did say both ‘love’ and ‘heart,’ they felt like the right words, after not having used them for so long. I let the songs happen and found a tempo that suits what Twin Forks became.”

“Something We Just Know” came to him first, and then, the flood -- another eight songs in the following eight days. Twin Forks began tracking the new songs whenever they could, between tours with other projects, in a multi-purpose space Carrabba had converted into a studio. Over the course of several weeks starting last fall, they managed to record more than twenty tracks that they plan to whittle down to eleven or twelve for the debut LP they plan to release later this year. “We tracked everything live, and I have this tendency to get really excited about what everyone is doing and I’ll make a little hoot or shout, and you can hear all those things in the final versions of the songs,” says Carrabba. “On ‘Scraping Up The Pieces,’ everytime I listen to it and hear Suzie laughing, I’m dying to remember what could have been so funny. Then we additionally multi-track, which we figured was a thoughtful way of approaching the record. You get the error-prone thing that has all the magic in it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t chase a little more precision. But the goal is always to do our best to get it right in the same room with each other, looking at each other, laughing with each other. I think you can feel that all over the songs.”

Originally recorded with musician friends including mandolin player Suzie Zeldin, bassist Jonathan Clark and drummer Ben Homola, Twin Forks has evolved as a live band to include Kimmy Baranoski on backing vocals, Kelsie Baranoski on mandolin and Shawn Zorn on drums.

Some are songs I like, some are songs I make

I play a bunch of instruments and write music. I also host/produce the music podcast Strong Songs, as well as the video game podcast Triple Click. Pics by Alicia J. Rose. Thanks for listening!

I still don't really know what I'm doing.

I also write and produce for this project called Hoarder: https://open.spotify.com/album/7KAgOZHqTQCa2dvJ0gA44t?si=Bu2Y6-fLRgOowZMtbg1gUQ

...and play drums in this band (Friends With Pools): https://open.spotify.com/artist/3NPWoA7g83BwdDyA2AoQKw?si=LyDenfTaRymQslA7nB2_GQ

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