Arno Carstens is also a celebrated fine artist, who paints in oils on canvas. The 2014 album cover for ‘Lightning Prevails’ was designed using an original painting done by Arno in 2006.
Arno’s live performance set includes the hits from his career as front man of The Springbok Nude Girls, many of the beloved and most celebrated songs from his career as a platinum selling, award winning English solo artist and some popular cover tracks. Arno performs a bilingual set, and includes the hits from the acclaimed album, “Die Aandblom 13”. The first single from the album, Ontwaak, recently won Song of the Year at the Bok radio annual awards and the music video has achieved over 115 000 views on YouTube.
In September 2016, Arno released his debut Afrikaans album, and to honour his roots, called it ‘Die Aandblom 13’. Thirteen tracks that tell loosely fact based stories about who he is and where he’s come from; he grew up in Worcester at Aandblom Straat 13, and still goes there as often as possible.
Once the album was completed, Arno went back to Aandblom Straat 13 to photograph the album cover artwork, so look closely at the album sleeve and you will see a montage of the inside of the house where he grew up. It's truly a full circle album!
‘Another Universe’, Arno’s debut solo album, was released in 2003 and as one of the most anticipated solo projects in South African music history, did not disappoint, becoming the biggest selling South African English rock album this side of the millennium. The platinum selling album won a SAMA Award for Best Rock Album in 2004.
Arno’s 2nd solo album, ‘The Hello Goodbye Boys’ was released in 2005. Produced by well-known South African studio maestro Brian O’ Shea (USA’s Seether), The Hello Goodbye Boys went gold and won a SAMA award in 2006.
Arno Carstens’ debut UK album ‘Wonderful Wild’ released in 2010 was written, recorded and mixed in London & Spain with co-songwriting contributions from Giles Martin, James Walsh, Jim Duguid and Youth. The album was produced by legendary British producer Youth (The Verve’s Urban Hymns) and Jim Duguid (Paulo Nutini’s These Streets). Final mix on the album is by Tim Bran (The Verve’s recent UK#1 album). Hits from this album were playlisted on radio throughout UK and Europe.
2012 was a milestone year for Arno. Besides touring and recording with Springbok Nude Girls, and working on “Arno Plus” (Arno’s first solo art exhibition) with accompanying collaborative Blind Tiger sessions, Arno released his 4th solo album, which is the landmark 10th studio album of his 20-year music career.
Titled ‘Atari Gala’ (a Japanese translation that implies a warning cry or celebration) the album was written in part in New York, London, Johannesburg and Cape Town and produced by Arno and Brendan Jury.
In 2013 Arno started working with (producer) Dan Roberts with the intention to re-write and record an acoustically driven album to include some orchestral versions of some of his most popular career tracks. Two months later, they emerged from studio with something completely different.
The result, ‘Lightning Prevails’ was released in 2014 and boasts a seductive departure from the comfortable and familiar Arno Carstens sound. There are the same thought provoking, profound lyrics and melodies that soak into the skin, but this time the marriage of organic sound and electronic beats are made lusher, with a big brass section and the powerful backing vocals of Jamali’s Mariechan.
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