Falling Mirror’s Nielen Marais took rock through the looking glass

Nielen Marais seemed to operate in a parallel universe - a musical genius with a skill for lyricism that took rock through the looking glass, but his brilliance also came with its own torments, say those who knew him.

Marais, the lead vocalist of the 80s alternative-rock band Falling Mirror, died after being hit by a car in Gabriel Road, Plumstead, on his way to the hospital on Monday September 9. He was 73.

Marais and his cousin, Allan Faull, founded Falling Mirror in 1978, and it would achieve fame with its hit single Johnny Calls the Chemist, and the 1986 album of the same name.

Following success after the hit song, the band had a long hiatus, and Benjy Mudie, the band’s first artists-and-repertoire (A&R) representative at WEA Records says Nielen and Allan became disillusioned and they split as musicians and family but reformed in the early 2000s.

In 2013, the cousins were working on a documentary, a new album and reunion shows with a promoter, Sam Hendrickse. Nearing the end of recording a new album, Faull died of a heart attack in September of that year.

Fans who found Marais homeless in Wynberg started fund-raising to get him back on his feet, and he was able to complete Falling Mirror’s seventh album, Yesterday Can Change, with the track I Sleep Under a Tree.

Those who knew Marais say he was virtuous with a skill for lyricism that was darkened by his personal struggles. Both he and his cousin struggled with mental health problems and drug abuse.

Mr Mudie, the former director of A&R/marketing at Tusk Music, worked with Falling Mirror from the late 70s through to the mid 80s and then again when the band reformed. He describes himself as an instant and lifelong fan of Falling Mirror’s music. He says the band’s producer, Tully McCullagh, approached him with a demo tape of two songs while he was at WEA Records.

“I was in my early 20s when I first heard them, and I was immediately struck by how different it was to everything else that I'd heard both here and internationally. Just the sheer lyricism of Nielen's performance and the incredible world-class guitar playing from Allan and the subject matter of the songs. ”

Mr Mudie says he would’ve done 10 or 20 more albums with them; even if they didn’t sell - they were that brilliant.

“They didn't play the game. You see that if you want to be a pop or a rock star, you're working within a machine and they were not equipped to work like that,” he says.

“It's not unusual in the world of rock music to have artists a little reticent to play live, and if you're listening to the records, they are very complex albums, which would have required a number of musicians on the stage to to duplicate what they were doing, particularly the multiple guitar parts that Allan put down.

“They had this kind of thing, and people speak about it. I think I only saw them three times in 30 years. it was very rare for them to do a show, but when they did a show, it was kind of like, wow, this is really an event.”

Falling Mirror’s music, he says, was as fresh as the topics about psychotic grannies, actors, comic book characters and alienation.

“These were not subjects that the normal pop or rock bands would tackle. They were very deep subjects, and that was the hallmark throughout the next four albums leading up to 1986's Johnny Calls the Chemist, which was the one and only commercial breakthrough hit. It’s a wonderful song, but it’s a very, very dark song, about his obsession with a chemist girl from Wynberg Chemist, who used to fill in these medications.”

McCullagh, who as an original member of the band played bass while recording and producing, describes Marais as a musical genius.

“He was very lyrically oriented. With Allan on the keys and melodies and Nielen on lyrics and ideas, they worked together and wrote very strange music, but it was amazing as far as I was concerned. Nielen’s strength was his complete originality, the two of them. There was nobody else quite like them, still to this day. It certainly was not for everybody. They became more of a cult.

“Nielen had a very distinctive voice, and he was a really good singer. His pitching was excellent. We never needed to do any artificial tuning. He had great timing and all around he was a pleasure to work with in the time that I worked with him. He was very positive and enthusiastic even when he faced personal struggles and was on the streets. He was still always very positive So that's what I always remember him for.”

Having fallen on hard times, Marais was found sleeping under a tree at a home on the corner of Mortimer Road and Wellington Avenue in 2012 before it was demolished for a block of flats.

Andrew Hendrickse, the homeowner who found him, remembered Falling Mirror’s music from his high school years and was determined to get Marais off the street. Together with other members of various vinyl aficionado groups, he raised funds through various drives including sale the of albums.

“We tried to help him and managed to get the band going again. We did some concerts to raise funds to help him as well. We were able to have him placed at an old-age home in Plumstead, but it was very expensive and did not work out. Eventually, he ended up back on the street again. I found him sometime later.

“My story is a small part of his whole story of his life, but I made a commitment to him, to make sure he is never on the street again. So I managed to eventually find somewhere affordable, a room in a flat in Gabriel Estate.

“I just paid his rent every month and every now and then the landlord would phone. She is the hero in the story. Amanda Andreas basically looked after him in the flat she shares with her dad who also had mental health issues. She ended up looking after Nielen and her dad.

“Nielen was an absolutely unique character. I think he was absolutely somebody that was a genius, in my mind. His incredible intelligence, humour. The best way to put it would be, he was completely running in a parallel universe. It was incredibly interesting to spend time with him, just from the perspective of the way his mind works and his creative way of seeing the world. He was a very fascinating person. This obviously pales in comparison to his music talents and song writing.”