Ramone Pickover of Grand Mirage discusses their single, Ill-Gotten Gains.
🎙️ Episode Summary
What happens when you take twenty years of international touring, a childhood spent in the South African metal scene, and a deep-seated love for rhythm, and distill it into a guide for personal growth? In this episode, Tim sits down with Ramone Pickover, the powerhouse drummer for Grand Mirage.
Ramone shares the story behind their gritty new single, “Ill-Gotten Gains,” including a look inside the sawdust-filled Welsh love spoon workshop where they filmed the music video. We also dive into his debut book, Life in 8 Beats, exploring how drumming principles like tempo and “hitting hard” can help anyone—musician or not—overcome adversity and reach their goals.
🎧 Key Takeaways
- The “Dave Grohl” Philosophy: Ramone discusses why being a “hard hitter” with a driving groove can often be more impactful than being the most technical player in the room.
- Welsh Love Spoons & Narrative: A behind-the-scenes look at the symbolism of Welsh love spoons and how a traditional craft workshop provided the perfect (if slightly toxic-fumed) backdrop for their latest music video.
- Rhythm as a Life Tool: How the concept of “tempo” applies to daily habits, sleep schedules, and personal discipline.
- Turning Adversity into Drive: Ramone opens up about his upbringing in South Africa and how facing early independence fueled his ambition to achieve his goals.
⏱️ Timestamps
- [00:00] – Introduction: Meet Ramone Pickover.
- [01:22] – Musical Roots: From Shade in Klerksdorp to touring with Ill System.
- [04:30] – Joining Grand Mirage and the AI-themed album, The Vision of Blue.
- [06:30] – The making of “Ill-Gotten Gains”: Music videos and Welsh love spoons.
- [10:37] – Drumming Styles: Finding the right “fit” and the power of the groove.
- [12:42] – Life in 8 Beats: Translating the drummer’s mind into a book.
- [15:30] – Why an audiobook? Accessibility and the South African connection.
- [17:45] – The Fire Within: How personal history shapes ambition.
- [21:13] – The Future: New recordings at Longwave Studios and a potential SA tour.
- [24:16] – Where to find Grand Mirage and Ramone.
🔗 Links
- Website: grandmirage.co.uk
- Bandcamp: grandmirage.bandcamp.com
- Instagram: @grandmirageband
- YouTube: @grandmirageband
- Amazon: Life in 8 Beats
📃 Transcript
Tim Smal [host]: Hi everyone, and welcome to the show. My name is Tim Smal. My guest today has a story that reads like a rhythmic map of the last two decades. From watching his father, David Pickover, command the legendary staccato kit in Potchefstroom, to touring the UK with Ill System, alongside acts like Fear Factory and Bullet For My Valentine, Ramone Pickover has lived a life defined by the beat. But he’s more than just the man behind the kit for Grand Mirage. At 42, he’s distilled his decades of touring, music journalism, and even his early career in the gaming world into his debut book, Life in 8 Beats: A Guide to Using Rhythmic Principles for Personal Growth. We’re here to talk about that philosophy and the band’s brand new single, Ill-Gotten Gains. Ramone, welcome to the show.
Ramone Pickover [guest]: Thanks for having me, Tim. Really excited.
Tim [1:00]: Awesome. So much to talk about today. The new single from Grand Mirage is sounding awesome, and it’s accompanied by an absolutely brilliant music video. So can’t wait to talk about that. But first things first, you certainly have lived a very exciting life and you’ve released a book called Life in 8 Beats. So tell us more about the last couple of years and what the book is all about.
Ramone [01:22]: Yeah, so the book, it opens up with a little bit of a short biography of my life. And then, you know, it kind of goes into basically lessons I’ve learned through drumming that you can apply to life, really. You know, how to achieve your goals, etc. If I think about the last couple of years, I started my journey very young. I started at 8, initially playing drums. But I only really got into it quite fully when I was like 14 or so. And then during that time, I was in many bands. I think the first band that I was in that was kind of like relevant was a band called Shade. So we were in Klerksdorp. Interestingly, one of the band members in the band, Jonathan Mellor, he actually lives here in Cardiff now. And we’ve been friends ever since then. So I was like 13, 14 at the time. And that band, the first gig that we ever played was at the Klerksdorp Street Festival. And it was in front of 20,000 people. It was like in front of the town hall. And it was absolutely bananas. And it was quite hilarious because as we came on stage, they introduced us and the presenter was Afrikaans. And he said, “This is Skaduwee”. And I was like, “Oh no, we called Shade and that doesn’t really translate very well into Afrikaans.” It was quite embarrassing, but anyway…
But leading on to that after that, I think the more kind of prominent band I was in after that was Ill System, which was in the early 2000s. I was actually their second drummer. I was always like a big fan of theirs. And when I heard that their drummer was leaving, I immediately raised my hand to audition. At the time, I had kind of like imposter syndrome. I never thought I would ever be able to actually get it. And I did. And I got on with the guys really well. So a few years after that, we moved to the UK. So that was in 2004. And I actually lived in Cardiff at the time where I am now, which is actually why I’m here sort of, but I’ll get to that point. And then, so we did amazingly during that time. We toured the whole of the UK. We won the UK Battle of the Bands at the time. We flew to Germany, played with Bloodhound Gang and a few others, etc. We released an album. We were on like local radio and all that kind of stuff during that time. And it was an amazing experience. But then I had to come back. I came back to South Africa. And then the band kind of was on hiatus for a while because the bassist stayed here in the UK. Same with the guitarist, stayed in the UK. And then a few years after that, they came back and then we started again.
But prior to that, in between the time, I was in a band called Arc Reactor, which also did quite well in South Africa. We were kind of like a new metal outfit. So that band also did very, very well, we released an album. And it did very well in the local metal scene in Cape Town. We played in Joburg a few times as well at the Krank’d Up Festivals, that was also quite cool. And then I joined Ill System again. And it feels like that’s like my main band in my artist background really. So yeah, Ill System is still going. I had to obviously leave when I came to the UK. They’re still going and my good friend Art Pereira is on the drums now. So if any of the listeners… go and support Ill System, they’re a great band. It’s a mixture between reggae, metal, african percussion, and just good vibes really. Yeah, anyway.
Okay, right. So moving on to the next part, I’m going to talk about Grand Mirage now. So I moved to the UK because I was approached by a company, and I’m actually a digital project manager for a web design agency. That’s what I do during the daytime. And I came to the UK in 2023, in January I arrived, and then I joined Grand Mirage in August, I think it was, and they had actually released an album prior to me joining, which was called The Vision of Blue. Very kind of like progressive album, but it had a big theme associated to it. It’s about when AI takes over the world, really, and each song has a narrative associated to that broader theme. Yeah, I joined the band because I loved listening to that album, it was very interesting, very dynamic. We don’t play many of those songs anymore. I think we only play two of the tracks now in our current set that’s on that album because the band has changed quite a bit since then.
And then we recorded our first single, which was called Cow-Eyed Glances, and we also did a music video for that. The videographer is Toc Visuals, so Robbie Toccafondi, he’s really a talented videographer. And Alex Davison, my vocalist, actually directed that initial video of Cow-Eyed Glances and single. And that was released. And to date, it’s got 35,000 views on YouTube, which I think is a really great achievement for a very kind of like grassroots independent band. And then at the same time, we actually recorded the Ill-Gotten Gains, but we delayed the release of that because we wanted to kind of stagger it and we wanted to release it with a music video as well. So it took about a year to kind of get that done. And Ill-Gotten Gains was released on the 28th of February. So it’s just been over a week now. And the last I looked, I think we’re only 11,000 views right now, or maybe 12,000 perhaps. And we’re getting a lot of very positive feedback about it. And yeah, I mean, Tim, I don’t know if you want me to talk a little bit about the concept of the video?
Tim [07:04]: Yeah, I’d love to hear more about the video. I’ve done some research here and I believe it was shot in a Welsh love spoon workshop. So I’m super keen to hear about what that actually is.
Ramone [07:17]: Yeah, so not many people outside of Wales know what Welsh love spoons are. So it’s got a very long traditional history. And basically, Welsh love spoons have a very key symbolism within the Welsh culture. And the idea is that each love spoon is crafted specifically for a very close loved one. And it has to be true love in the sense it would be, for your family or your partner, whatever really, even a friend. You could get a love spoon crafted specifically for them. So the patterns and everything that’s on it would be designed specifically with them in mind. And it’s quite an art form in the sense of it’s very kind of fine carvings. It’s all wooden based and it’s an ornament in nature. You wouldn’t really use it. But yeah, the whole thing is, is if could give a love spoon to somebody, it means that you truly have a deep love for them. And it has that kind of meaning.
My guitarist Noah Curtis, his father, Paul Curtis, he owns, I think it’s Angel Woodcraft. I might be wrong about the name. I’m sorry, I don’t have any notes in front of me, so I’m just trying to remember off of memory. But Paul Curtis owns this Welsh love spoon factory. And they obviously produce a lot of handcrafted love spoons. And we thought it would be a very interesting place for the music video, which also kind of tied into the narrative a little bit of the song. We decided to film it there, and it was interesting to say the least. Obviously it was raining because I don’t know if you know this, but in Wales, I think it rains like 186 days of the year or something like that. So it’s most of the year it’s raining and it’s wet completely. So it was a rainy day as usual. And obviously the workshop was left in a way that it would just be used on a weekly basis. We were there on the weekend. And it was just full of sawdust. I just remember like thinking, “Okay, I might die just trying to breathe in and play drums in this kind of environment.” Not to mention the kind of like toxic, what do you call it… the varnish that they put onto the spoon. There’s like a room when you walk in there, you’re just immediately high. It’s hilarious. But yeah, it was a very fun experience, a very interesting kind of area to record a music video. And for those who obviously want to watch it, it is on YouTube. So give it a watch and you can see how the narrative plays out that’s associated to the Welsh love spoon factory.
Tim [10:05]: Yeah, you have many years’ experience as a drummer, and you can see on the new video for Ill-Gotten Gains that the drums are a really big part of this band. I mean, they really cut through in the mix beautifully. And yeah, you’re a really hard hitter. Look, I’m not a drummer myself, but I love the sound of some good drums. So I just wanted to ask you what it’s like in terms of coming into the band as a new drummer and kind of slotting into the line up that was already there before you joined and how they found you as a drummer, if that makes sense.
Ramone [10:37]: Yeah. So I posted on Facebook just saying that I was looking for a band. And I got a message from my vocalist, Alex Davison, and he messaged me and he said that we’re looking for a drummer and would you be keen to audition? And I said, “Sure.” And I said, “I noticed that you guys are quite young.” So they’re in their 20s, right? So I’m now 43 and they’re in their 20s. And I was like, the age gap does make a difference sometimes in bands. Like a lot of more younger guys, I always worry that they just want someone super energetic. But my philosophy is very similar to Dave Grohl, is that I’m never going to be that like super technical kind of drummer type. Like don’t expect like a Mike Portnoy or anything like that for me. But what I can do is I can hit really damn hard. So that’s my kind of philosophy.
So anyway, going back to the band. So I auditioned with them. It was in August, I think, in 2023. And I’m a very different drummer to their previous drummer. Their previous drummer is very like… he plays a lot. Personally, I think he overplays, you know, no disrespect to him. But it’s just his style of playing. He likes a lot of fills and really busy and kind of like little intricate little things where I’m not like that. I’m more about driving the groove forward and hitting everything balls to the wall really. So I auditioned and immediately after that, they said I was in. So I think I did well enough, I’m still in the band. And we do get on quite well and they’re really a bunch of nice lads, hyper-intelligent, very driven musicians of the same sort of mindset. Yeah, I’m very proud and honored to be part of a band that has that drive and potential. So yeah, that’s really the story.
Tim [12:30]: Awesome. And yeah, I enjoyed your story initially about how you moved from South Africa to Wales and all the projects that you’ve been involved in over the years. But I’m keen to hear a little bit more about your book.
Ramone [12:42]: Sure. The book, it’s been an idea I’ve had for a couple of years. And I just never really got down and just decided to type it out. It’s a very short book. It’s only 74 pages. It’s actually a very, very short book. But the idea was I wanted to be able to write a book for non-drummers really to understand how a drummer’s mind thinks and how we’ve – I want to say, almost been rewired to kind of operate within life and also in a band, you know, how you would operate within a band. And each chapter is kind of broken down into various sections. Like, say, as an example, everybody’s got their own tempo and rhythm in life. And it’s about how you can marry that tempo and rhythm in life to what you want to achieve, really. And it’s the same when you’re in a band, you know.
So a drummer is the backbone of the band in the sense from keeping time and tempo. And if you translate that into life, it’s a similar thing. You can’t function if you go to bed every night at different times, like one, two in the morning or something like that, and you need to get up for work the next day, you know, something simple like that. It’s just about how you can kind of translate and talk about the two things cohesively. So yeah, so I mean, basically, it’s a short little biography about me and then how you can apply those sort of methodologies into everyday life. And I wrote it over two weeks because I had that kind of structure and idea in my head. And I just broke it down into the key things about what it is to be a drummer and then translating those kind of like key points into life lessons as such.
So what I did was I self-published it. I published it via Amazon KDP. I also used ACX, so it’s on Audible. So there’s an audiobook version. I got a South African narrator to actually do the audiobook. And the reason I did an audiobook is because one of my very close musician friends, Donovan Tose, he’s part of the band called Mind Assault in Cape Town, he’s visually challenged. So he asked for an audio version, so I decided to do one. It cost a little bit more, but I think it was worth it in the end because it gives people a chance to listen to it who prefer an audiobook than something to read. So yeah, that’s really the story of my book.
Tim [15:30]: Yeah, I’m a big Audible fan. So I’ve been listening to books now for a good couple of months. And the one thing that stands out to me is the fact that I can actually move through books a bit quicker than if I was reading it, because I find when I read books, it just takes a lot longer to complete them. And of course, there are many books that are very good to actually physically read and some books which don’t have audio versions. But I find that with the audio versions, it almost makes the book come alive in a sense. And I just really enjoy listening to books, it’s amazing. It’s changed my life, to be honest. So I’m definitely going to give this book a spin on Audible.
Ramone [16:10]: Yeah. The guy who narrated it, I specifically looked for a South African because it just ties back to where I’m from really. It’s Stephen Gouws. He’s done a lot of documentaries and that kind of stuff, so he’s got that sort of vocal range. And I really enjoyed listening to him and doing the book. So yeah, give it a listen and give it a review really. Let me know.
Tim [16:35]: Yeah. It says here, narrated by Steve Gouws. So that’s Life in 8 Beats: A Drummer’s Guide to Personal Rhythm, Growth and Reaching Your Goals in 30 Days, available on Audible and amazon.com if you want to read it on your Kindle. Ramone, the biography on Amazon is actually really interesting because I’ve known you for a couple of years, but when I read your biography, I actually didn’t realize just how much you’ve done in your life. And of course, you alluded to a lot of the activities in your introduction when you were talking about your life and so forth. But your dad must have been a very big influence on you, right? Because I believe he was a drummer and you were also into video games and you went to the US. I mean, there’s just so many interesting things that you’ve done in your life. So I see here in your bio that the fire for drumming really took hold at the age of 13 and it seems to me that you’ve really been able to have a lot of ambition in life and a lot of drive. So this is a very long question, but where I’m going with this is like, your experience of life – what has it been that has really contributed to this drive and this ambition to really just keep going and to go for gold, as they say, in life?
Ramone [17:45]: Yeah. I suppose it’s quite a long story. So long question, long answer. So my father, interestingly, when I was eight years old, he tried to teach me a little bit. And I wasn’t really that interested in drumming. I thought, “Nah, I’ll just play some video games.” And that’s more what I’m interested in at the time. And then when I actually moved away from him, so my mother and father were separated and my mother lived in Cape Town and he lived in Klerksdorp at the time. And so when I moved to Cape Town, I decided to actually pick up drumming and it was actually by accident. So another very close friend of mine, who I’m sure you know, Jason Guile, and then another friend of mine, Wayne Shelver, I went to Plumstead High in Cape Town and they approached me and, well, Wayne specifically approached me and asked me if I could play. And I said, “Well, my dad plays, but I’m not sure I can, I’ll give it a go.” And then I decided to buy a drum kit from there. And that’s basically where that kind of journey started properly, but when I was away from my father. So whilst he did inspire me quite a bit, I think the separation gave me a reason to pick up the sticks and then take it from there.
And then to kind of answer your second part of your question, which is drive to achieve things, and as you said, I’ve done quite a lot. And when I think back on it, I’m only 43 and I feel like I’ve lived 20 lives right now. But I suppose that is the nature of life, really. You go through all sorts of change and things happen. But I suppose it comes from… I didn’t have much. So when I was younger, I was looked after by my grandparents. There’s a personal reason I won’t go into the details of that for, but basically, when my grandparents passed away, I was like 12 at the time. And I kind of had to fend for myself. I lived with my father a little bit, but he didn’t have a very kind of high income. My aunt looked after me for a little bit with regards to finances. But I’d lived with friends in high school. You know, I lived in a little flat behind their property, and I was fending for myself quite a bit. So I learned to grow up very quickly basically through all of that. And ultimately every single kind of goal that I’ve set for myself, I feel like I’ve achieved just because of adversity that I’ve experienced throughout my life.
So it’s about: You need to have a challenge in front of you to be able to overcome it, and that’s really where all of that comes from. So I can’t think of a time when I’ve been unhappy with the decisions I’ve made. Okay, well, maybe there is one thing. But I’m not going to go into that right now, but I won’t divulge any details of that. But I would say that I’m pretty happy with every decision I’ve made and challenges I’ve faced. I’ve managed to overcome them, no matter what really, because of that. Yeah, I hope that answers your question really. As I said, I can’t give you all the details, but yeah, I hope that answers your question.
Tim [21:02]: Yeah. So looking forward to the future, what are the plans for Grand Mirage and you personally? What kind of goals have you got in terms of things you want to achieve?
Ramone [21:13]: Right. So the future of Grand Mirage – so what we’ve done, so I had mentioned we recorded those two singles, Cow-Eyed Glances and Ill-Gotten Gains. And then what we did was we actually went back into the studio late last year. We recorded with Woodcroft Audio, Tim Vincent, who’s like an actual genius, like literally, like I’ve never worked with an engineer so good in my life, he’s just incredible. And we recorded at Longwave Studios in Cardiff Bay. We recorded, I think it was five songs? Might be six songs. There’s a sixth song that I don’t play on. I think it’s… or maybe five, I don’t know. Anyway, I can’t count them right now, but basically, we’re in the process of getting the final mixes done on those songs, and we’re going to have staggered releases on each of those songs. Some of them are quite different to what we’ve recorded before, so it feels like a good sort of evolution and progression of the band.
And we’re dedicating a lot of our time to improving our social channels, and then making sure that the gigs that we play are, whilst we’ll obviously still play a lot of the kind of grassroot gigs, etc., we want to try and get on to bigger bills and do gigs maybe further out from South Wales. We haven’t even played in Bristol, which is just across the channel from where we are, so we haven’t really branched out further afield into England. We’ve only really played in Wales, and Hereford was the only place in England that we’ve ever played. So that’s basically our plan and our future at the moment, and that’s immediate future. So yeah, and then eventually, actually we have been talking about it, we might tour to South Africa. We need to obviously still put all the kind of foundationary work in place, but the idea would be that we’d do a few shows in SA. The guys are really keen to do it. I just need to find the right promoters to talk to, and then obviously the right acts to play with, and I’ll get it organized. But probably in the next maybe year or two, that’s a kind of more future plan of ours.
Tim [23:22]: Okay, great. So yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing Grand Mirage live, either here in South Africa or who knows, maybe..
Ramone [23:29]: You can come and guest play, Tim. How about that? You can come play some guest guitar on it.
Tim [23:33]: Sounds good. Sounds good.
Ramone [23:34]: Sure.
Tim [23:36]: Well, Ramone, it’s been absolutely awesome catching up with you today. I still can’t believe that you’ve published this amazing book. I can’t wait to go and listen to it on Audible. I’m super stoked and I’m going to share it with all of my drummer friends here. As well as my non-drummer friends, because as you mentioned, it’s also for non-drummers.
Ramone [23:54]: Yeah, the book is actually for non-drummers. So yeah, I mean, go ahead. Thank you, I appreciate it.
Tim [24:01]: But also just super stoked to follow your work with Grand Mirage and see what comes out next. So I encourage all the listeners to go and check out the music online of Grand Mirage. And where can they get hold of you if they’d like to get in contact?
Ramone [24:16]: So if they want to get hold of Grand Mirage, we’ve obviously got a website: grandmirage.co.uk – and then there’s email address: contact@grandmirage.co.uk or obviously on our social media channels, on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc. Just search for Grand Mirage band and you’ll come across us. So yeah, that’s the best way to contact us. And if you want to contact me, you can contact me through my social media. So just look for Ramone Pickover. I’m the only one on the planet with that name, so you won’t find anybody else. So yeah, so you can just contact me directly through my social media.
Tim [24:57]: Awesome. Yeah, it’s a truly epic name, I must say. You mentioned that you were named after The Ramones, is that correct?
Ramone [25:04]: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, my dad named me after The Ramones. A lot of people think it’s Ramon, but because of the E, it’s Ramone, just like the band. So yeah, I was named after the band.
Tim [25:15]: Awesome. Well, I’m sure there’s a lot of awesome stuff to come in the future for Ramone, so I’ll keep an eye on all of your activities. But yeah, fantastic speaking with you today, thanks for your time. And yeah, looking forward to catching up sometime in the future, either in Africa or in Europe somewhere.
Ramone [25:32]: Yeah, that’ll be lekker Tim, very good to chat to you today. And I really appreciate you bringing me on the show. And you’ve always got a place to come stay in Cardiff if you ever want to come out this way. So yeah, I’m sure we’ll catch up soon.
Tim [25:45]: Thanks Ramone. Have a great day and speak soon.
Ramone [25:47]: Cool. Okay. Cheers Tim.