Necklace
Johannesburg’s NECKLACE make their Slovenly Recordings debut with Manual Breather, a six-song LP arriving November 13, 2026. Raw, repetitive, wired and strangely joyful, the record pulls from the primitive throb of Suicide, the damaged rock and roll of The Stooges and the narcotic cool of The Velvet Underground without sounding like a band trying to recreate somebody else’s New York. This comes from somewhere else entirely. Johannesburg is a city built on what was pulled from underneath it. Gold made the place, mine dumps still rise above parts of the skyline, and the underground keeps finding its own rooms between Soweto, Braamfontein, Melville and the sprawling city in between. Punk shows collide with skate culture, graffiti, zines and backyard DIY. Concrete holds the day’s heat. Highveld dust hangs in the dry-season air before summer storms come down hard and fast. NECKLACE belong to that Johannesburg, not as scenery or some exotic footnote, but as four people making loud, immediate music inside a city where contradiction is part of the daily weather.
Introduce yourself… (Where are you from, what band do you play in etc..) D: My name is Dino. I’m from Johannesburg, South Africa and I play in Necklace.
Why do you play music? D: I don’t know, I’m not very good at it.
Manual Breather is out November 13 via Slovenly Records
What was a major influence on you as an Artist/Band? D: In the band every one is shaped by different music and perspectives. A big influence on lyrics came from certain individuals that are close to us. A few of our songs are about them. The city we live in is an influence. Dreams and absurdism can be an inspiration too.
My favorite movie D: White Diamond by Werner Herzog.
Do you prefer the recording process or performing live? D: Performing live. It’s often messy and a bit of a daze. But it’s exhilarating performing in front of people, especially when it’s my turn to sing. I love the attention.
What would be a dream collaboration? D: A lot of the individuals I’d want to collaborate with are dead. So I’d probably want to collaborate with a philharmonic orchestra and combine electric instruments with walls of amplifiers to create a massive-sounding drone-symphony.
Describe a favourite album. D: Station to Station by David Bowie.He has a lot of incredible albums but this to me is his best, down to the album art. The title track is one of my favorite songs of all time. That opening bassline is so simple yet so mean and sleazy. And the second part of the song is just glorious, like a mountain range. Wild Is the Wind is also his greatest vocal performance… an ecstatic album.
What's your favourite local haunt? D: This pub called The Irish. They have everything a great pub should - great food, Guinness, and shitty music.
What's your strangest experience while performing live? D: This time I looked at the crowd and they seemed to be really enjoying it.
If I were pursuing anything other than music it would be… D: A monastic life.
What are some of your favourite aspects of being a musician in Johannesburg? D: It's gritty, troubled, temperamental, yet somehow welcoming. There’s not a lot of competition in the scene, which can be a bad thing, making you complacent. But it’s also not like you’re a band in a place like London where I imagine you’re one fish out of thousands flopping in the air to get noticed.
If you weren’t playing music in Johannesburg where would you be ? D: I would be in the exact same place except I’d be more miserable.
Any sage advice for young musicians? D: No.
Manual Breather by Necklace releases on November 13… find it at SLOVENLY RECORDS!!!
Follow NECKLACE HERE: INSTAGRAM
Follow SLOVENLY HERE: INSTAGRAM