At the age of 10 Mauritz Lotz laid eyes on a guitar for the first time and the rest is history.
Lotz can be described as a behind-the-scenes man – he is a music producer, solo artist, composer and a session guitarist all rolled into one.
“I played in orchestras and bands throughout high school and after school I started performing at clubs and venues and playing at gigs and performing became part of my everyday life.”
He released his first solo album, Six String Razor, but he described the second album as his turning point and it was aptly named Turning Point.
“At the age of 27 I decided it was time to travel outside of South Africa and I have toured the continent with PJ Powers and after the tour I was approached by a band that asked me to play with them abroad in Las Vegas.”
Lotz explained that he sold everything he had and moved to LA with a dream of performing.
“I was abroad for six months and at the start, I noticed that the band liked to write songs but they didn’t ever perform them or do any shows. I sat long and hard, thinking about everything – if I was in LA for the right or the wrong reasons and I realised that I could do everything in South Africa with the number of artists we had over here. That was the turning point, so I packed up and moved back and I recorded and released the second album in 1995.”
Lotz and his band Razor opened for an international jazz and blues artist, Robben Ford in the ’90s and subsequently, he has also shared the stage with the likes of The Bee Gees, The Rolling Stones, Ronan Keaton, Eric Clapton, Sting, Midnight Oil, Spice Girls and Belinda Carlisle.
“The Bee Gees concert was one of the fondest memories as we opened that show for them in a packed Loftus stadium with 50 000 people in the audience. After opening, we stood behind the stage and listened to two of their songs and then we had to go to a small venue to perform a show to 80 people. About an hour before the show the power went off, so we decided the show must go on and we lit candles and asked the audience to sit closer to the stage and we sat on the edge of the stage and performed for a small audience with candlelight in the background. It was one of the most magical shows that I have ever played as every song came from the heart.”
According to Lotz, the ’90s was a profound period as South Africa had a large influx of international artists and talent from abroad.
He said, “Back in the day, you used to rock up to a studio and when you arrived you met the artist and you would start jamming immediately. What made it so amazing is that I worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry and as soon as I walked into the studio they felt like family. Currently, it’s a lot different when you go to a studio to record an album with a big artist as you go in and do your piece and the artist does his piece somewhere else in the world and it’s all mixed together with electronic wizardry.”
“If I can give any new upcoming artists one tip – that is to love what you are doing and to commit to it because commitment equals longevity in the music industry,” concluded Lotz.
