Where can we find you right now and what are you up to?
We are in our rehearsal room (the Red Hot) of www.oefenruimte.nu in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. We're playing our setlist in order to be well prepared for our next gig on 1st October in our hometown Nijmegen (also the hometown of De Staat).
Tell us a bit about your influences.
Musically speaking we are all rooted in the 80s and 90s. This is reflected in our initial cover playlist as we started, 25 years ago (!) as a coverband. We played songs of favorite bands like Patti Smith, Arctic Monkeys, The Sound, White Stripes, Queens of the Stone Age, Bettie Serveert, PJ Harvey, Gun Club, Cure, The Only Ones etc etc.
How did you start?
It all started with 2 guys, Ronald and John who knew each other from primary school. Their musical experience as singers started as church choirboys. They started the band as singers and guitarists together with Nico as drummer and Ronald's brother in law who left the band within 2 years. Since than Jan is bassist in the band. Later on John left the band and Hans replaced him. We had several drummers, the least constant factor in the band. Our new drummer Marijn joined the band in Covid-time.
We started playing in the basement of a friend's house and at that time we were happy when the concept of the cover song could be recognised. That's where the name of the band came from.
At the time Hans joined the band the skills and level of the band increased and resulted in more than concepts. We were ready for real gigs for friends, family and neighbours. Some of these gigs can still be found on YouTube, like this one, real fun to see it back: https://youtu.be/hHSCCOSh5jo?si=lqLP81fD7LDxaUWz
In 2018 we first recorded an original song, Zuckerberg Sucks, see link to video: https://youtu.be/NlxnGM-GkA0?si=XzXtaJS7genRtICs
Since then we've been writing more songs and thus expanding our repertoire. All of them by Hans and Ronald but when drummer Marijn entered the band he showed to be a songwriter as well! So we were very happy that he joined the band.
Today we are releasing several of our singles, recorded in 2023. Our latest is Urgent Song, released on 16th September. Another song, Stand Up, to be released later this year via all streaming platforms like Spotify, iTunes, YouTube etc etc.
And working on new songs, so stay tuned!
What obstacles does an emerging artist have to face in our time?
It's hard to get airplay especially at the established radio stations. Several attempts to get airplay failed as we are a DIY-band without formal management and connections to these radio stations. And, as most of us have a daytime job, time is limited.
What worked for you marketing-wise? What advice or tips would you give to new artists?
What works fine is that it is quite easy to get new songs on streaming platforms when songs are recorded. Advice to new artists is to decide whether you want to go professional or keep your daytime job to earn a living. Everybody knows that it is hard to earn a living as a musician. So don't give up and stick to how it all started: enjoying (making) music!
And ofcourse, if you want to go professional you need good connections. Not only connections to radio stations but also to have nice artwork (we have a good art director!), someone to make nice videos (we miss that), show what you do on Instagram, Facebook and so on. And connect to playlist owners where possible.
What are your goals? Where do you see yourself in five years?
Our goals are to increase the number of gigs per year and keep on writing and recording new songs. We are now on a level of approximately 3 songs a year, that could be more.
And in five years we see ourselves as an established band playing for a slightly larger audience as we still will have our daytime jobs. And we will still enjoy performing and going to shows of other rock bands.
Tell us about your latest or upcoming release.
Our latest song, Urgent Song, is about climate change and that something has to change! Not listening to the lyrics you will hear a nice alternative rock song with nice guitar lines and a voice that might remind you of Gretha Thunberg and PJ Harvey (although in our previous song Water that reference is more clear). We released Urgent Song on World Cleanup Day (16 September!) as our artwork refers to dark clouds and a lot of pollution.