Le Guess Who? Treasure Guide 2014

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During Le Guess Who? there are plenty of activities that will keep you busy by day. In this Treasure Guide, we’ve listed lots of lovely spots to visit in the city of Utrecht, (provided by Great Little Place,) including clothing stores, record shops, cafés, sandwich bars, and so much more;

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we fill you in on the festival’s exhibitions, like Le Bazarre and Le Mini Who?; and last but certainly not least, we’ve included a few interviews with some of the artists performing at LGW? 2014, courtesy of The Daily Indie and Gonzo (circus). Happy reading!

Le Guess Who? Info A Painting That Made Le Guess Who? 2014 Exhibitions Le Gig Poster?

Viet Cong & Amen Dunes Interview (TDI) Plein 6 Le Guess Who? Treasures Part 1 (GLP) Sleaford Mods Interview (Gc) Mac DeMarco Interview (TDI) 42nd Mega Record & CD Fair When Bjork Met Attenborough Le Mini Who? & Le Bazarre Stephen O’Malley Interview (Gc) Le Guess Who? Treasures Part 2 (GLP) Parquet Courts Interview (TDI) Why You Should Know Selda Broeder Dieleman Interview (TDI) Nouveau Vélo (TDI) Ought Interview (TDI)

Free Lunch Concert for LGW? Visitors featuring: Friday Nov 21st, 12:30 ­ 13:30 Hertz TivoliVredenburg The Score Collective is an ensemble consisting of 20 master students from the Conservatory of Amsterdam (CvA). Led by Arnold Marinissen, the students perform works from the past fifty years, and a brand new composition by Luke Deane, a student at the CvA. On Friday, November 21, The Score Collective will perform Gavin Bryars’ ‘Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet’ and Luke Deane’s ‘Change The World.’

All Le Guess Who? Festival venues are within walking distance of one other. The two locations furthest from the city center are De Helling and dBs. For walking routes, please check our Treasure Map.

Rent a bike!

The easiest way to get around Utrecht is by bike. There are many options for bike rental in the city; both Laag Catharijne (next to Utrecht Central), and TivoliVredenburg have made a special deal for all Le Guess Who? visitors. If you rent a bike there during the festival, hand in the voucher below and show your wristband when you return your bike, you will get a discount of 20% on your rental!

dBs.

If you don’t want to walk or bike to dBs, take a Sprinter train from Utrecht Central Station to Breukelen or Uitgeest and get of at stop Utrecht Zuilen Station. From there, it’s just a five minute walk to the venue.

To stay up-to-date on all the latest Le Guess Who? news, access Free WiFi Utrecht, available on four squares in the city centre: Neude Square, Dom Square (Domplein), Vredenburg Square (next to TivoliVredenburg), and Korte Minrebroederstraat (behind City Hall).

Cover Design

Andrew Savage (Parkay Quarts, Parquet Courts)

Design

Loudmouth

Editors

Barry Spooren, Jorinde Hiddema, Veerle Luijten, Johan Gijsen & Jessica Clark

Interviews

Gonzo (circus); The Daily Indie Treasures: I Know This Great Little Place In Utrecht

More info

www.leguesswho.com

Rudolf Magnus and de Helling.

If you don’t want to walk or bike to Rudolf Magnus or De Helling, you can take Citybus 8 or Citybus 47 from Utrecht Central Station, Centrumzijde (Center Side) to the second stop, Vondellaan. From there it’s a one-minute walk to both venues. You can take also Citybus 12 from Utrecht Central Station Centrumzijde to the first stop, Bleekstraat, and walk to De Helling in just three minutes.

Please be aware that when you take any public transport in The Netherlands, you will need to buy an OV-Chipcard, which are availablefor purchase in the yellow and blue machines located throughout Utrecht Central Station. With this card, travel on any of public transport options.

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When we started Le Guess Who? Festival eight years ago, we decided that the festival should have an ever- changing format. With each edition, we’ve forced ourselves to start from scratch and build towards our own perfect ‘painting,’ turning our focus away from what we had done the year before.

For this year’s festival, things went slightly differently. I visited the Hilma Af Klint exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. Klint’s Altar Painting No. 1, completed in 1915, was rapidly an obsession of mine, and eventually became my guideline during the booking process of this year’s festival.

The colors, the shapes, the composition and the movement, everything felt connected to Le Guess Who? For a couple of months, I kept drawing a festival set-up which was strongly influenced by this painting. The lines leading up to the middle were the general festival program, the multi-colored ‘cubes’ represented special projects, and the ‘Sun’ was the city of Utrecht. Dark blue was used for Swans, and dark orange for Selda. Step by step, the program was reviewed against the colors and shapes of this painting, resulting in the deepest and most conceptualized festival line-up thus far.

Bob van Heur

In TivoliVredenburg, you can enjoy three beautiful exhibitions: ‘From Where I Am: A Decade of Touring Bands In Istanbul,’ and ‘Le Gig Poster’ will be on display throughout the festival in our Ticket & Infor­ mation area. The Subbacultcha! Photo Exhibition will be featured at Plein 6.

Born in 1980 in İskenderun/Turkey, Aylin Güngör is an İstanbul-based publisher, designer and photographer. She has held exhibitions in Berlin (Neurotitan), Stockholm (Fargfabriken), Portland (Northern), Rotterdam (Bridges To Fashion), and in Istanbul (Play, Kasa Galeri, Bilsar).

Her photos have been used as album artwork for bands like Esmerine, Rangda, Portecho, tUnE-yArDs, and Brazzaville, and she has shot press photos for bands such as A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Moon Duo, Alcalica, Black Dice, Radio Dept. and many othes.

Aylin Güngör’s first book, ‘From Where I Am’ (2014) is a photo collection of touring bands during their time in Istanbul, taken between 2004 and 2014. The photographs capture intimate and casual moments of these artists and musicians hanging out all over this incredible city. The book features Dan Deacon, Kurt Vile, Cari­bou, Mick Harvey, Josephine Foster, Omar Souleyman, Hype Williams, tUnE-yArDs, Grouper, John Maus, TV On The Radio, Gang Gang Dance, and many more.

Le Guess Who? 2014 is happy to host a selection of Aylin’s photographs from her ‘From Where I Am’ series. The book will also be on sale at the exhibition. www.aylingungor.com www.bantmag.com

Subbacultcha! commissions independent photo shoots, shot mostly overseas, of artists that will soon come to The Netherlands to play a Subbacultcha!-presented show. The encounters, which are published in the monthly Subbacultcha! Magazine, evoke a certain tenderness, an understanding gaze that allows for something very personal to be revealed about the artists photographed, without sacrificing their persona. The photographs featured in Subbacultcha’s LGW? 2014 exhibition are the images that have stuck with them the most over the last 12 months.

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Take a visit to our Le Gig Poster exhibition in TivoliVredenburg! You can find the best and most beautiful silkscreened, custom-made Le Guess Who? concert posters, designed by 45 national and international gig poster artists from the US, England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Canada, China, Austria and The Netherlands.

All exhibited posters are pieces of official artwork, established in cooperation with the depicted artist and hosting venues. Most posters are for sale, so don’t miss your chance to purchase the limited edition silkscreens of your favorite band or artist while supplies lasts.

Highlights in the exhibition include Boss Construction (USA), Clint Prints (USA), The Bicycle Press (ES), Crosshair (USA), Douze (DE), Go Sterk (NL), Fritte (DE), Zum Heimathafen (DE), Methane Studio (USA), Rainbow Posters (DE), Willem Kolvoort (NL), GUYBURWELL (USA) and Handprinted Stuff (NL), among many outstanding others.

Le Gig Poster? is initiated by silk screen artist Joris Diks (Handprinted Stuff). The exhibition will be open daily throughout the festival. www.legigposter.com

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Oh man, we’ve been looking forward to Viet Cong’s show for a very long time! Having reissued their excellent, tour-only Cassette EP via Mexican Summer earlier this year, the band has now announced the release of their de­ but full-length this January via Jagjaguwar (Foxygen, Bon Iver, Black Mountain a.o.). The post-punk outfit, whose members include Matt Flegel and Mike Wallace, formerly of Calgary’s Women, has produced one of the most intriguing songs that we’ve heard all year. So we decided that it was about time for an interview to get to know these guys a little better. As you’ve noticed, there are a lot of interviews in this magazine, so we decided to do it a little differently. For this article, we asked Viet Cong frontman Matt Flegel some questions from a different point of view, presenting him with the Proust Questionnaire via email. It’s a personality questionnaire, and its name is owed to the responses given by the famous French writer Marcel Proust. Consider it a Victorian version of today’s personality tests, designed to reveal the answerer’s tastes, aspirations, and sensibility in a series of relatively easy questions.

Interview by Ricardo Jupijn (The Daily Indie), photo by Colin Way 1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Coffee, a cigarette, and a crossword puzzle on a morning­­­ with no obligations.

2. What is your greatest fear?

Losing my mind.

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Cynicism.

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Arrogance.

5. Which living person do you most admire?

Michael J. Fox. 6. What is your greatest extravagance?

Good food.

7. What is your current state of mind?

General bewilderment.

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Self respect.

9. On what occasion do you lie?

In email interviews.

10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?

Excessive shoulder hair.

11. Which living person do you most despise?

The guy who broke into my car, stole my jacket, and left a half eaten taquito in there.

12. What is the quality you most like in a man?

Sense of humour.

13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Sense of humour.

14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

Who gives a shit?

15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?

Music and my girlfriend.

16. When and where were you happiest?

Don’t remember much, but probably the womb.

17. Which talent would you most like to have?

James Brown dancing skills.

18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Healthier habits.

19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Helping friends and family out of severe depression.

At just 33 years old, Amen Dunes’ Damon McMahon has a busy past, one that makes him who he is today.

When Damon was around 17, he started performing live at Open Mic nights near his school. A few years later, he and his brother along with a few friends, formed the band Inouk. “It was a very different thing, we were very young. It was Roxy Music, Stone Roses kinda stuff. It was a completely different era for the music industry, with lots of money and record labels.

There was this hype around the band…that doesn’t really exist anymore; well, not like that. It was weird, because we had fancy dinners with lawyers. Very artificial. It still happens today, if a company decides to make a band popular, they can. And it tricks people into thinking it’s good. That’s fucked up.”

Interview by Cathelijne de Groen (The Daily Indie), drawing by Damon McMahon When McMahon was 26 years old, he left for China.

He wanted to get out of New York and away from music. “I was sick of New York. I’ve been doing music for years in New York, and I was just burned out.

And I don’t think I had arrived at the place that I am now, which is that I can get satisfaction from just making my music and not being the most successful person in the world. Back then I couldn’t handle that. I was young and I had all these failures; I was sick of it, my ego couldn’t take it. So I was like, ‘Fuck it, I’m going to China.’ A few months before Damon left for China, he recorded his first album as Amen Dunes. After two years, he returned to New York, to some people with serious interest in his music. “I

20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

A puppy.

21. Where would you most like to live?

The Norma Desmond mansion from Sunset Blvd.

22. What is your most treasured possession?

My records.

23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Being cold, hungry and alone.

24. What is your favorite occupation?

Playing music.

25. What is your most marked characteristic?

My scintillating wit.

26. What do you most value in your friends?

Humour and laughter.

27. Who are your favorite writers?

H.G Wells, Kafka, William Gibson, Burroughs, Philip K. Dick.

28. Who is your hero of fiction?

Oscar Wao. 29. Which historical figures do you most identify with?

Lenny Bruce, Pete Best, Vasili Arkhipov.

30. Who are your heroes in real life?

Terry Fox. 31. What are your favorite names?

Saoirse for a girl; If I ever have a son his name will be Bilbo.

32. What is it that you most dislike?

These things: inflatable wavy arm flailing car dealership things.

33. What is your greatest regret?

Getting rid of all my cassettes when CD’s became the thing.

34. How would you like to die?

Falling down 56 flights of stairs while listening to blooper music.

35. What is your motto?

‘We are what we pretend to be.’ I’m pretty sure that’s a Vonnegut quote, but it’s a good motto.

didn’t want to come back to New York, I was scared to go back. I didn’t want to play music again, but he convinced me and I slowly got back into it.”

Honest and personal McMahon had a bit of a dark childhood, something he has been open about before. In an interview with Wondering Sound, he mentioned that he grew up in an old, dark, farmhouse, a very gothic environment with candlelight and severe drunkenness. His mother’s family is Polish-Jewish, and very traditional. “I think it’s helpful to the listeners. When I was a kid listening to music I loved it when musicians were honest in interviews. It’s so powerful, I love that so much. I once was reading this really long interview in Rolling Stone Magazine with Mick Jagger, and it was the best interview ever. He was really honest about stuff. That’s important. I like to be honest...[but] I’m reluctant to be completely honest. I never said all of the personal stuff. I always wish I would though, I wish I had the balls to say the whole truth about my past. I think it’s inappropriate, but I think when I’m older I would. But this record is so personal, if people read the lyrics they can probably understand some stuff too. The first song on the record is about my mother. My parents loved me and took good care of me, but yeah, my family was pretty fucked up. For a while I didn’t have contact with my parents, but I’m trying to maintain that now. It’s still your family. Until recently they didn’t even know my band name. With this record they finally listened to the music. My mother came to see me play for the first time, like, a month ago.”

Love is the new album from Amen Dunes. ‘Love’ as an album title may sound kinda corny, and although it is pretty much about love, McMahon also chose this title because it ‘sounds punk;’ because it’s risky to call an album Love. “The album is about the kind of love that certain singers I really admire talk about, like Marvin Gaye, Elvis, Van Morrison. The love they’re talking about is like devotion, selfless love. And on a second level it is also about lovers, because I recorded this record right after my relationship ended. So a lot of songs are about the relationship with this person.

Literature Lyrics are of the utmost importance to McMahon.

“Good lyrics are a sign that someone is careful. And I love literature and I love reading. I prefer literature to music, I think. I really admire good writers. My musical heroes are Bob Dylan, Alex Chilton, people who take lyrics very seriously. It adds meaning to a song.”

On the new album, McMahon worked with Colin Stetson and Elias Bender Rønnenfelt of Iceage.

“Colin I didn’t know, to be honest. We were working with Godspeed You! Black Emperor and they suggested Colin. He came to the studio and he was very nice and very good and I just asked if he could do

his thing on the song. Elias was a friend of mine and someone who I really admire, so it was very special to have him there. He’s a fucking magical dude. His presence, his energy; very graceful, very smart, he’s pretty amazing!”

What’s next?

“We’re touring until November. And then I want to record a new record in December/January. That’s the goal.”

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The Village Coffee and Music’s two founders, Angelo and Lenneart always dreamed of having their own coffee spot, and made these dreams reality in 2011. Besides serving the best coffee in town, they are quite passionate about music, and their handsome, tattoo-heavy boys will gladly tip you off to their latest musical discovery or favourite band. Often organizing in-stores and parties with EKKO, Plato and Tivoli, we always team up with The Village during Le Guess Who? They’ll serve coffee at PLEIN 6 at Tivoli­ Vredenburg, but you should also visit them at their store at Voorstraat 46.

When this DIY tour support company isn’t hauling amps or burning rubber, they’re serving up vegetarian and vegan meals for artists, crew and music fans alike. If you’re looking for tasty, affordable, healthy food, ‘just like your mom’ used to make, look for these committed folks at PLEIN 6! Expect some great home made burgers, soups, and meals! They’ll take good care of you…

Opening Times: Thursday Mom’s Burger Bar: 7.30 PM till 01.00 AM Friday

Mom’s Burger Bar: 8.30 PM till 01.00 AM

Saturday Mom’s Burger Bar: 7.30 PM till 02.00 AM Mom’s Full Menu Diner: 7 PM till 09.00 PM Sunday Mom’s Drone Brunch: 10 AM till 01.00 PM Mom’s Burger Bar: 01.00 PM till 10.00 PM

Longer open if needed.

Official festival merchandise will be available at the Ticket & Info Area located within PLEIN 6 at TivoliVredenburg, as well as most participating festival venues.

Aside from traditional festival items, Swans’ Michael Gira has designed a limited t-shirt (edition of 100) for the Mouth to Mouth programme.

We’ll also have some awesome Fuzzland merchandise available, including t-shirts, sweatshirts, and custom-made Le Guess Who? Fuzzland guitar pedals!

The PLEIN 6 Le Guess Who? Merchandise Hours of Operation: Thursday 08.00 PM – 01.00 AM Friday 08.00 PM – 01.00 AM Saturday 06.00 PM – 01.30 AM Sunday 04.00 PM – 11.00 PM

Down in the centre of Utrecht on the Voorstraat, you’ll find the biggest record shop of this city: Plato. You can find cd’s, dvd’s, magazines, tickets and since 6 years also quite a lot of vinyl, new and second hand. Although it’s quite a modern shop it still has that ‘old-school browsing feeling’. During Le Guess Who? Plato will also host a shop in the heart of the festival. You will find them along with our friends from The Village Coffee & Music and

Just Like Your Mom Catering at PLEIN 6. There you can find all the music available from the bands playing the festival, on cd and vinyl, some personal tips and the best records of the year so far. On the third festival day Plato is a stage as part of the free Le Mini Who? and will host 3 bands, so make sure you visit the festival shop as well as the Plato shop.

Show your LGW? wristband and get a 10% discount!

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Voorstraat

Right in the middle of Utrecht’s city center is the Voorstraat. In a short amount of time, this street has become the place to be. Drink a prize-winning cup of joe and enjoy an oatmeal cookie at The Vil­ lage (Voorstraat 46), after buying pretty underthings (or upperthings) at Klijs&Boon (44) or a few Dutch-designed accessories at Puha (48). Cross the street to shop for records at Plato (35), have lunch at Gys, serving organic soups and sandwiches, or at De Ontdekking (110) where the menu is adventurous­­­and inspired by all the continents of the world. Around the corner is Kapitaal (Plompetorengracht 4), where you can do a bit of (creative) work, stroll around the shop, and have a look at the silk screen printing workshop upstairs. Head to Revenge (6) on the other end of the Voorstraat and you’ll find unique shoes, quality clothing, and a selection of backpacks. Closeby are Spring Stores (16) where creative entrepreneurs rent a shelf to offer their items. Want to grab a bite before heading back to one of the venues? Try the Vietnamese spring rolls at Saigon (68) or some Turkish kisir at Ana’s Kuzin (62). (GLP / Lisa Geijtenbeek)

Eindhoven: Oudegracht 10

www.eindhoven-utrecht.com / Open 10/11AM – 6PM Eindhoven believes that 3D printing is the future, so they offer the use of their 3D printer for everyone. The store also functions as a platform to display and sell the works of young and promising Dutch designers. It’s a place to connect, be inspired, work, and drink coffee, and the interior is so lovely, it’s worth your time to pop by. (GLP / Lisa Geijtenbeek / photo: Suzan Kisters)

De Koekfabriek: Slachtstraat 2

www.dekoekfabriek.com / Open Tu-Fr 8u30-17u, Sa 10u -17u, Su 12u - 17u Cookies need coffee, and the Koekfabriek (Cookiefactory) agrees. The concept is simple: order a cookie and get a coffee for free! They also sell sandwiches, and bags of their delicious cookies to take home.

LGW? Discount!! Second cookie = free!

Ten Beste Cafetaria: Predikherenstraat 2

In desperate need of some fast food after Fuzzland at Moira? Craving a nice snack in the afternoon?

At Ten Beste (The Best) you’ll find one of the best Turkish pizzas in Utrecht.

LGW? Discount!! Spend over 5 euros & get a free soda!

Plato: Voorstraat 35

Plato has both new and used cds and vinyl records that cross all genres, as well as a wide range of DVDs, magazines and headphones, and they also host regular in-store performances.

LGW? Treaure Discount!!

10% off on all items.

Gys: Voorstraat 77 www.gysutrecht.nl / Open 10AM - 22PM

At this spot you can eat and drink an organic lunch or dinner made with local products. Not only are the food and drinks good for you and the environment, all of the furniture is also sustainable. There are plenty of vegan and vegetarian options, but meat and fish lovers can get their kicks here as well.

You can get your sandwich, soup or salad to go, but the atmosphere at Gys is so nice, we bet you will enjoy your meal at a table, and probably stay for dessert too! (GLP)

Studio Ayqido: Jansveld 39 www.studioayqido.com / Open Wed - Sat 11AM – 5PM

Don’t forget to look around the corners of the popular Voorstraat, for here you’ll find Studio Ayquido. The more-than-friendly Thijs and Manuela have selected their favourite pieces of designer clothing for purchase, and always host variable photo/art expositions at their store/gallery. Their concept is based in Japanese aikido, which can be seen in their collections; minimal, unique style, with the energy of a metropolitan lifestyle, all in harmony, and they love telling you all about it over a cup of tea. (GLP / Lisa Geijtenbeek)

Broodnodig: Willemstraat 55 Open 8/9AM – 3/5PM You may have already heard of the Broodnodig locations at Mariaplaats and Burgemeester Reigerstraat, but did you know you can enjoy their Swedish pastries at the bakery in the Willemstraat as well? The scent of fresh- baked cookies makes you enjoy their coffee that much more, and if you feel like having more than just a drink or something sweet, try one of their delicious sandwiches. Most are vegetarian, unless you choose Swedish meatballs or fish. In the background, you’ll hear the oven doing its job, and rattling machines kneading fresh bread and pie dough. (GLP / Lisa Geijtenbeek) De Frietwinkel: Vinkenburgstraat 10

If you’re on the lookout for the freshest fries in Utrecht, Frietwinkel is the place for you! Our city’s first organic fries shop opened its doors a month ago, and crowds have flocked to the place ever since, and with good reason: Frietwinkel serves fries the way we want them: fresh, crunchy and made from whole potatoes. What’s more, visit on Fridays to get a taste of the owner’s mum’s homemade stew. (GLP / Thomas Kouveld / photo: Thomas Kouveld)

Ekko Café: Bemuurde Weerd Westzijde 3

www.ekko.nl / Open Thr-Sun 6PM – until late Besides the fact that Ekko is one of the city’s great music venues, they also serve very nice, set-menu vegetarian dinners Thursday through Sunday. During Le Guess Who? you can make a choice between three ‘Dishes of the Day’ for only 8 euros. apiece.

Revenge: Voorstraat 6 www.therevenge.nl

A one-stop-shop with exclusive but affordable clothing, shoes, gifts, accessories and bags. As if that’s not enough, they sell graffiti and art supplies too. LGW? Discount!! 10% off on all items.

Puha: Voorstraat 48

www.puhashop.nl / Open 10AM – 5PM If you’d like an introdution to Utrecht’s local designer, make sure you visit Puha, where they offer products from 50+ young and talented designers. Puha’s limited edition samples and accessories are awesome, and since the price range varies, there’s something for everyone. This shop is a must-see for top quality mens and womens clothing, artsy postcards, books and perfect leather purses. (GLP / Marvin de Vos) If you are interested in more nice spots to visit during your stay in Utrecht, take a look at www.puhashoproute.nl or take a printed Puha Shoproute with you from our Info desk in TivoliVredenburg! LGW? Discount!! 10% off on all items.

Ana’s Kuzin: Voorstraat 62 www.anaskuzin.nl / Open 12PM – 8/9PM At Ana’s Kuzin (Mother’s Kitchen) you can eat traditional Turkish food, made by sweet, Turkish ladies. Everything is fresh and homemade, and they serve both lunch and dinner. Choose different bits and pieces, and taste everything that these mamas have to offer, from köfte to bulgur, spinach quiches to stuffed peppers, all while enjoying a cup of fresh mint tea. Make sure you leave room for some baklava. (GLP / Lisa Geijtenbeek) LGW? Treasure Discount!! Free dessert with your lunch or diner.

Swordfish & Friend: Oudkerkhof 43 www.swordfishandfriend.com / Open 11AM – till early evening First and foremost, Swordfish and Friend is the place to buy a Crosley record player, and also a nice place to begin your vinyl collection, with music selected by dj St. Paul. If you’re looking for some furniture to store those records, you’ll also find some nice pieces from Vaen! While you’re at it, you might as well have a look at the art and clothing, all in collaboration with great brands and artists. The store looks like a well-designed living room, so it’s very pleasant to spend some time here. (GLP / Lisa Geijtenbeek)

Olivier: Achter Clarenburg 6a www.cafe-olivier.be / Open 10/11 AM – till late

Springhaver: Springweg 46

When you’re standing in front of Olivier, you wouldn’t guess that the space inside is a former church. But take a few steps in and you’ll understand why this is one of the best cafes in The Netherlands. With a wide range of beers (and by ‘wide range’ we mean loads and loads), this is a nice place to catch up with friends. After you’ve ordered a drink, take some time to look around at the details on the walls and up to the ceiling, or perhaps pick a game from the selection of board games on offer to play with your friends. (GLP / Mandy Leeuwis)

www.springhaver.nl After a long night of dancing and drinking, it’s time to relax. Why not watch a movie at Springhaver Theater in the afternoon? This cinema mainly screens quirky/art house movies, has a cafe serving organic food, and is tucked away on a small street, away from the hustle and bustle of the city center. The small theatres offer 50s-inspired red velvet chairs, and after the movie, you could debate the film with a coffee or… maybe another beer?!

(GLP / Mandy Leeuwis / photo: Brie Hurley)

De Ontdekking: Voorstraat 110 www.deontdekkingutrecht.nl Open 8AM - 5PM, Sa & Su 9AM - 6 PM De Ontdekking (The Discovery) is a breakfast, lunch, coffee-and-otherdrinks corner located in a former travel agency that keeps the holiday spirit alive in both the menu and the atmosphere.

De Ontdekking offers homemade sandwiches, cakes, smoothies, soup, salads and more. Their friendly staff makes you feel welcome all day, with a relaxed ‘anything goes’ attitude.

LGW? Discount!! Come in before 12PM and get the scrambled eggs for free with their famous high breakfast!

30ML: Mariastraat 35

www.30ml.nl / 9/11AM – 18PM 30 milliliters is the exact amount of one espresso, and if your specialty is coffee, it’s a great name for a bar as well! Since May, 30ML have been roasting their own beans, which you can watch while enjoying a nice (Italian porcelain) cuppa, or some good wine, lunch, a piece of cake. And if you’re interested in learning more about coffee, they offer barista workshops, too! You’ll learn to pour a heart in your cappuccino in no time. (GLP / Lisa Geijtenbeek) LGW? Discount!! Second coffee free!

Le guess who? Treasure guide page 8

We first discovered Sleaford Mods earlier this year through a live concert video posted on Facebook and at first glance, it seemed like it might be a joke.

There were two men on stage: one of them snorting outrageous slang, the other doing nothing other than drinking beer, nodding approvingly, and start­ ing each song with a laptop mouse click. But a few seconds of following the lyrics exposed a masterful thread of catchy phrasing and spot-on one-liners, proving that Sleaford Mods are not kidding around.

Author: Dimitri Vossen, image: Simon Parfrement Translation: Veerle Luijten & Jessica Clark; Originally published in Gonzo (circus) #122, 2014 And it got even better. As each new song seemed to shoot down a different target, all of civil society (and part of the music industry) had been put through the wringer by show’s end. The music, an obvious extension of hip-hop, possesses that genre’s spontaneous energy, but is also connected to the fury of punk and the middle finger, à la Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Fall. At the end of the ride, we were unconditional fans.

ANGER

A few months passed, and it seemed we weren’t the only ones who had caught on to the Mods.

Even respected institutes such as MOJO Magazine and The Guardian can say nothing but good things about the duo. The reason? No other band seems to get the desperate cultural and socio-economical climate in England in 2014 as well as Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson and his producer Andrew Fearn. As Steve Cammack puts it on his blog MuhMur, “This is reality speaking, the zeitgeist, the now, the Nottingham sink estate, the voice from Ladbrooke’s.”

We talked to the band in a backroom at Les Ateliers Claus, where they performed later that evening, fresh from an interview at Studio Brussel on the occasion of their new record, Divide and Exit. At the very beginning of our conversation, Williamson confirms that every element that makes the Sleaford Mods exciting can be traced

to his roots, which, surprisingly enough, is not the city Sleaford.

Jason Williamson: I am from Grantham (Lincolnshire). When I came up with the band name I first went for ‘Grantham Mods’, but that didn’t sound right. Sleaford is a half our drive away from Grantham. Andrew is from the same area; you can hear it in our accents. But you also see it in our attitude.

on his own personal interpretation of the genre.

Funky Northern Soul-samples supported the first records of Sleaford Mods, but Williamson soon tired of those too.

struments would take the attention off of Jason’s­­­ act. At the same time my presence on stage makes most people realize that there is someone responsible for the music.

JW: It occurred to me that that type of music sounded dated. I wanted to go in a different direction, and I was searching for someone who could provide a more organic sound.

How would you describe that?

JW: Kind of bitter. Provincial, sometimes almost even a bit middle-class. But mostly angry, very angry.

AF: For me it was the other way around. I played in bands, but I always made electronic music as well. For me, that creates an interesting duality: I understand both guitar music as things produced by a computer or with samples.

I think you can hear that in my productions, they sound like they’re played live, but exist of samples and loops that give them an electronic edge. I was curious about working with a rapper.

But what we make with Sleaford Mods is much better!

Sleaford Mods work hard on their music, but they also work fast. Two albums appear with hardly one year between them, and this year also brought us Chubbed Up, a compilation of self-published singles that, according to the gentlemen, was picked up by Ipecac Recordings for release.

JW: We have another four songs ready, and while we have many concerts lined up, we want to record new material fast. We have a quite economical way of recording so we don’t need that much preparation.

AF: The songs just pop up.

It seems like an isolated area.

Andrew Fearn: It’s pristine. The further you go to the east, the more ‘nothing’ you will find. Only now do I see the positive sides of that. I sometimes visit my parents and I find it appealing to leave everything behind for a little while.

‘The smell of piss is so strong it smells like decent bacon.’

-Sleaford Mods, 2014 You escaped that nicely then.

AF: I wouldn’t put it that way. That area sticks to you. I lived in London for a while and that felt like a relief. But after some time I got tired of that as well, and now we both live in Nottingham. But wherever you go, you take your roots with you.

You become older, lose your innocence, your naivety. But you can also take more from life, you learn to cope with who you are.

PET SHOP BOYS

Both Mods have huge musical pasts: Williamson played in some indie and folk rock bands (crisp conclusion: “Fuckin hated it”), and Fearn produced electronic beats. After he was bitten by the hip-hop microbe, Williamson started working

Interesting you mention that. Jason, would you call yourself a rapper?

JW: No. It’s just a little bit of rap, just a little.

AF: The other day someone described is as “shouted word”. I like that one.

JW: It is spoken word, but more powerful, a bit more incited.

Just before Fearn takes the stage at Les Ateliers, I make a bad joke about his Spartan podium act.

He is friendly enough to laugh, and we talk a little more about his precise role during the live show.

AF: At least what we do is unique. Nottingham is overcrowded with traditional guitar groups, and I’m fed up with it. Nowadays we are described as the ‘Aggro Pet Shop Boys’ (grins). I think live in-

WANKER

During the show in Brussels, it becomes clear why Williamson’s tirades also work well outside of his hometown. From the first sneering line he spits to the crowd, everyone throws themselves into a cheerful but furious round dance, while choruses like “The man is a wanker, it doesn’t get better’” are enthusiastically chanted along. Williamson is the incarnation of outrage on stage, a roaring voice that inimitably and sardonically speaks the frustrations of a society that needs more space to express their unfiltered emotions. Although his own targets may be specific (on his list are, among others, indie rockers, office managers, and Brian Eno), the charge and release one feels as he wipes the floor with them is universal.

This is why Sleaford Mods are on their way to becoming an internationally popular band. But given the misanthropic slant of their music, will they just become a paradox?

JW: At the moment we are doing really well, and we hope it lasts. We are a bit suspicious because a lot of people who give us attention didn’t even notice us years ago. Luckily we are both old enough to not lose our down-to-earth mindset. But still, I find it strange that all of a sudden we receive so much attention, while a year ago we were just as good.

Le guess who? Treasure guide page 9

We find ourselves in the vaults of Amsterdam’s Melkweg venue, in search of Mac DeMarco, a young Canadian who singlehandedly managed to get the entire indie music scene to fall in love with him.

But this time, we’re not looking for answers about the philosophical plots in his lyrics. We’re looking for something more simple, more close to the music itself: the instruments Mac creates his music with.

Interview by Domenico Mangione (The Daily Indie), photo by Vince King The first thing that struck us about you was the beaten up guitar. What can you tell us about it?

I think my guitar is visually the most memorable piece of gear I have. It cost me something like thirty bucks and it gradually became more and more fucked up and modified. I changed the original neck for a Mos­rite, and the pickguard is actually the siding of a Hasidic Jew’s house.

I ripped it off his house because I didn’t have the money for a regular pickguard (chuckles.) I’m still not sure what kind of guitar this mongrel is, it could be something like a ‘60s learner guitar or a build-your-own-guitar kit or something. The action is so high I need to play with a capo most of the time, it plays really sketchy. But it sounds incredible; a little weird, but fucking great. Especially with old Fender Twin Amps, I can’t image anything better.

I hate to ask you this, but what if it got stolen or lost?

I don’t know man, I’d probably be bummed out! I don’t have any other electrical guitars, not even a spare one for touring. When I first travelled to the US I borrowed guitars, so that’s why there’s pictures of me playing other guitars. But this one is all I have. I hope it doesn’t get stolen, that would suck ass! Although I feel like then I would finally be free to buy a new guitar, probably something way too fancy and expensive.

You already said that you love the Fender Twin Reverbs. Is that your weapon of choice?

I have this Twin Reverb that I got when I was a teenager, you can see it on the Heatwave videoclip with Makeout Videotape. At that time it was the only thing that made my guitar sound like that, that made

it sound so raunchy. I would just turn every knob all the way up and make it sound really wavy and fucked up. But yeah, I love the Twin Reverbs, they’re chill and a little bit crazy. I don’t really record on them, because they’re way too fucking loud for my little room! But I have one of those Fender Vibro Champs, a Silverface one, which I got from my grandma. She used that little amp with a mic to teach her students to sing, through that amp. I was like fourteen when I got it and thought it was a shitty amp, because I was really into huge ass Marshall stacks like every fourteen year old shithead. Only much later I realized how good that old amp sounded.

Guitar players are almost tap dancers nowadays, with their absurd amount of effect pedals. You don’t really seem like an effects guy, do you use any?

Everyone thinks I don’t, because there’s almost nothing at my feet when I play. But I do use an Alesis MicroVerb IV, a shitty rack effect. I bought it for my first album and jammed my guitar through this thing in every song I recorded. This thing is so sick bro, number 37: that’s my Cooking Up Something Good chorus sound; number 84, a Yamaha E1010. I used it on a lot of the vocal tracks of ‘Salad Days’.

It’s some sort of weird digital delay, which sounds a bit like a tape delay. I was looking to buy a Roland Space Echo, but I found those pretty expensive so I bought that fella instead. I finally ended up buying two RE201’s, but I still love that Yamaha, man. It gives a sort of chorus-like modulation on echoes that make my guitar sound clean at first, and do a ‘bweeeuheweewew’ after. Any delay you hear on my guitar, it’s this guy. I love it, really good sounding shit right there!

On Salad Days you have been introducing synthesizers in your songs for the first time. Why was that and which synths do you use?

I got really into Yellow Music Orchestra and after Tame Impala’s ‘Lonerism’ I was like, ‘Why the hell not?’ So I started hittin’ up Craigslist and eBay for synths. When I moved to New York I had nothing to do and had some money that I didn’t know what to spend on, so I just started buying way too much shit off Craigs­list. I recorded “Chamber of Reflection” with a Roland JX-3P and “Passing Out Pieces” with a Yamaha DX9. That last one was totally fried after our US tour, so I bought a DX7. It’s basically like the little brother of the DX9.

I’m probably getting a DX9 when I get back though.

Are those your most impor­tant synths?

Yeah, you could say that. Although I have been buying a whole bunch more, like a Roland Juno-60 and a Sequential Circuits Prophet 05 that seriously cost me four thousand bucks. That Juno-60 is my new baby, it sounds so good.

Every person who has seen the Pitchfork documentary ‘Pepperoni Playboy’ knows you can’t live without old tape recorders. What do you use for recording?

All Makeout Videotape songs, and my first record, ‘Rock ’n Roll Nightclub,’ were recorded on a Tascam 244. That’s a small four-track tape recorder that has coloured buttons and looks like a toy, but I like it a lot. It’s a little plastic shitty four-track, but sounds really fucking good. For ‘2’ I stepped up the professional notch and bought an old Fostex A8. It’s still a piece of plastic, but it sounds really rich and uses real tapes. First, I run everything through a mixer and then record track for track, which allows me to fuck around with the pitch control. That’s why I don’t use a computer, it’s so much easier to modify speed with a fucking knob! The mixer I got with the Fostex broke, so I bought an Allen & Heath Zed 24. It was fine for ‘Salad Days,’ but the EQ’s are kinda shitty. I also use an Alesis Micro Limiter on pretty much everything. Like the MicroVerb, it’s just a smaller version of their normal limiter. Not too much of course, I just crank that thing up so the whole thing sounds just a bit tighter.

Why do you choose to record at home?

I’ve recorded in real studios before, but I’ve never been happy with the result. On top of that, I’ve never finished songs before recording. Recording is really a part of the songwriting process for me. It may sound odd, but in the end, I find that recordings from a real studio sound a little bit boring. But maybe I just love shitty music and shitty instruments (laughs). If you would google all of my gear you most likely will find reviews that say things like, ‘Ah, this is a piece of shit, don’t buy it!’

Le guess who? Treasure guide page 10

Nov 22 (9:00 ­ 17:00) Nov 23 (10:00 ­ 17:00) Jaarbeursplein 6. Door ticket: € 13,­ (children up to 12 free), online pre­sale: € 11,50 (plus 3.5% service charge).

On Saturday (22 Nov) and Sunday (23 Nov), visit the Mega Record & CD Fair in The Jaarbeurs, Utrecht. This is an event that, in the past 22 years, has enjoyed international acclaim and made its name as the place to be for music fans, crate diggers, deejays, and vinyl lovers. Packed with exhibitions, meet & greets, live performances, book signings and 500+ dealers from all over the world, the fair offers the greatest choice of vinyl, cds and pop memorabilia. Don’t be surprised if you bump into artists searching for their own original productions. Some highlights of this year’s edition include an exhibition of funky vinyl covers and the reunion of the Dutch band Secret Sounds, as well as performances by De Staat and Seven Eleven.

Biggest choice and most impressive music assortment in the world Over 35.000 visitors travel to Utrecht from all over the world to take part in this massive cult event. The resurgence of vinyl is unprecedented and quite popular worldwide. The Mega Record & CD Fair takes place at the same time as the International Collectors Fair; together they form a huge cult event that takes place in a space equivalent to 10 football pitches.

Funky Vinyl: Sly & the Family Stone and George This is an exhibition curated by twin collectors Edwin and Arno Konings, showing rare and never before seen vinyl pieces from the legendary masters of funk, accompanied by a performance from Holland’s longest running funk band, Seven Eleven.

Reunion & Premiere of Secret Sounds To celebrate the release of their 11 CD boxset, Secret Sounds - Complete Remasters, the early eighties Dutch band Secret Sounds will perform, followed by an autographing signing session with all original band members.

Book premieres, vinyl presentations, guest performances, autograph sessions, and more • Record label Centertainment will launch new productions by Dutch bands such as Trace and Normaal, and will host a meet & greet with the TeeSet to celebrate their new box set Mythology.

• Author Jos van Zoelen book signing for his latest, ‘André Hazes en ik.’

• On Saturday, Omega Auctions (UK) will present a live auction with 100+ music related items; rare concert posters, music memorabilia and vinyl will be on view in a special area.

• BR Music and Universal Nederland will launch new productions with musicians like Rudy Bennet (Motions), ZZ & the Maskers, and others.

• Johan Derksen will sign ‘Derksen On the Road’

• Meet & greet with Dutch band De Staat, who will perform on Sunday to promote their new EP on vinyl & CD. • Metallica Vinyl Art exhibit, feat. Artwork by visual artist Henk Zielman.

• Ex-VPRO DJ Jaap Boots will present his book ‘Donderweg, Mijn Leven in de Fast Lane van de Popmuziek,’ & Marc Stakenburg (ex-Radio 3) will present his book ‘De Big Bang van de Popmuziek.’

• On Sunday, the Three Imaginary Boys pop quiz will take place. This is a free quiz with lots of prizes (like free concert tickets!)

• Disco Patrick & Patrick Vogt will present their new book ‘Disco, an Encyclopaedic Guide to the Cover Art of Disco Records,’ on both days of the record fair. Robert Haagsma, author of the book ‘Passion for Vinyl’ will also sign at the fair.

For dealers’ lists, images and more information, visit www.recordplanet.nl.

Studio Ayqido: Screenings of Björk: Biophilia Live & When Bjork Met Attenborough. Nov 21 19:00 - 00:00, €5.

Very limited capacity of 50.

On the 21st of November, STUDIO AYQIDO showcases the amazing Björk: Biophilia Live, accompanied by the documentary When Björk met Attenborough.

Welcome to Utrecht, the music capital of the Netherlands. Utrecht is a city of music, music can be heard throughout the city. Small venues like EKKO, De Helling and Rasa offer exciting and new music all year long. They can all be visited during Le Guess Who?. The medieval city of Utrecht also has many beautiful churches, unusual courtyards and old wharf cellars where concerts are often held.

New in the city since June of this year is the unique music centre TivoliVredenburg that can host thousands of visitors in its five music halls: for pop, classical, jazz and dance music.

Utrecht is also home to three musical training programmes and numerous international festivals. Music is in our blood. And that’s why we say that Utrecht is truly a city of music! www.utrechtmuziek.nl twitter.com/utrechtmuziek

Björk: Biophilia Live is a concert film that captures the human element of Björk’s multi-disciplinary multimedia project Biophilia, and was recorded live at London’s Alexandra Palace in 2013. The film, directed and edited by Nick Fenton and Peter Strickland, features Björk and her band performing every song from Biophilia, using a wide variety of instruments - some digital, some traditional and some completely unclassifiable.

The film is a vital piece of the grand mosaic that is the Biophilia experience, and has already been hailed as: ‘A captivating record of an artist in full command of her idiosyncratic powers.’ (Variety), and ‘An imaginative stand­alone artwork.’

(Hollywood Reporter).

As this is quite a unique venue, capacity is limited to just 50 guests; please drop by STUDIO AYQIDO for one of these limited tickets, or email info@ayqido.com.

Le guess who? Treasure guide page 15

To offer a quick outline of Stephen O’Malley’s work would be impossible. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of the drone genre, due in part to his work with the revolutionary Sun O))), but also from his numerous side projects and collaborations that explore and define the boundaries of the genre and together fill up an impressive Wikipedia page (hint: look it up) We spoke to him just before a performance for the theatre production Kindertotenlieter (KTL).

Author Dimitri Vossen, translation Barry Spooren & Jessica Clark. Originally published in Gonzo (circus) #83, 2007.

On Family and Friends Stephen O’Malley: A lot of people I work with now have families, which of course is a beautiful thing.

But for me, ‘family’ are the people I work with, with whom I am very close. But it’s of course completely different than having kids and being married. For me – it is almost a cliché for musicians, but also very true for me – it came down to the fact that one of the two was always traveling and the other wasn’t. But I also came to realize how privileged I am, and that this is just the path I have to take. This path also consists of having to make sacrifices.

It differs from person to person. Someone like Steve Noble is married and has children, and he is making some of his best work ever; his last album is incredible, the live shows are extremely focused.

But for me, it ended in a bad experience.

How has your biological family been of influence on who you are right now?

SO: Well, my father has been a major influence, although I barely noticed when I started making music. He was very opposed to the idea of having a settled life and a regular job. And he was really into art and music; he introduced me to a lot – Led Zeppelin, Prince, The Who, all those things – when I was little. He was also an architect, so there was quite some creativity in the air around him. Not that he explicitly encouraged me, but because of him I got inspired and from an early age, got an appreciation from all the things he introduced me to.

A couple of years ago I asked myself, ‘What have I really got to lose? I can always get back to advertising, art direction, whatever. I’ll be fine, let’s just go for it!’ Even for my father, it’s probably uncommon to see what I do for a living, as I’m also so involved in a niche. That’s weird for anyone who grew up in a time where you literally had to follow art education to be an artist. In the sixties, the world was a much smaller place. The same goes for our society and economy. And it was a completely different time in terms of communication. Calling long distance, you only did that once a month to wish your grandmother happy birthday or something. For our generation, so much has become possible. In a single day, you can get in touch with fifty different people from fifty different cities. Nowadays, you can discover a band from Ukraine, or wherever you’d like, very easily and without too many costs – our previous generation can hardly get a grasp of that.

On Music

SO: I read in a book of a friend of mine, Julian Cope, about Japanese rock music. It’s called ‘Japrocksampler,’ a real killer book. In the intro, he describes how Japanese culture after the Second World War became focused on Western culture. First, that happened with jazz music. Until the 70’s they evolved rapidly from a xenophobic country to an, eh…

They do succeed in making creepily perfect replicas of Western pop culture…

SO: Yeah, they suck it up like a sponge.

Until it becomes unreal…

SO: Some moments, it is indeed bizarre. So, there were Japanese people working in France in the 1950’s & 60’s, where at that time ‘musique concrete’ was being developed. For one of those people to discover this, and then to take it back to Japan – it’s almost a miracle! Up to that point, Japanese culture had nothing to do with the Western. The funny thing is, nowadays, experimental music is completely integrated there. It’s not mainstream of course, but in a strange way, it is accepted very broadly, culturally speaking.

About that…you’re considered to be a musician who has freed himself from the rules and laws of the metal scene. How do you experience this yourself, or do you have the feeling that the rest of the world followed in hindsight?

SO: I’ve never really…those rules and laws are mainly a thing of perception, I think. Being a teenager, you’re of course looking for your own identity, and you start feeling committed to music, for example, because of the ideas that are the fundamentals of that music. But I grew up in Seattle, and there the definition of metal is definitely different than here in

Europe, especially in the north, where it’s a welldefined concept that involves lifestyle, interests and fashion as well. In Seattle, there were about fifteen people interested in underground music. For them, black and death metal were almost experimental music, simply because it didn’t exist there. This has improved over the years, I think. But I never had such a narrow definition of the genre.

You missed the whole context of the genre.

SO: I just didn’t want to be blinkered, I’ve never done that. I’ve always loved heavy music, but also listened to Melvins, for example. And the same goes for Miles Davis, and different sorts of electronic music. That interested me far more than just to be busy with one of those things.

But what I make myself now probably also has to do with technical skills; it just came forth from my meeting with Greg Anderson, who I’m working with at the moment. We just decided, ‘Let’s start playing something super fucking heavy.’ We both loved Hellhammer, and are fond of Celtic Frost and Disembowelment, all those heavy and extremely low-tuned bands. It was almost a type of business, you know? ‘Let’s just go for it, why the hell not?’

That seemed like a fresh and new idea. That was also the basic fundament for Sunn O))).

Of course we’ve been very lucky, and we’ve had a lot of opportunities to make crossovers, like being invited by Autechre to play All Tomorrow’s Parties. That was an important moment. You saw people thinking, ‘What are they doing here? Maybe they’re worth considering after all.’

On Visual arts

You also work as a graphic designer. Does that in­ fluence your musical work, and vice versa?

SO: A couple of years ago, they were much more intertwined, especially with the project ‘Khanate’, where I really tried to link visual design and music.

Nowadays, they are much more supplementary to each other. I mean, they’re not completely different concepts. Only the designing part has to move a bit to the background for me. It’s a shame, really.

Because when I really get into a project, I thoroughly enjoy that.

Did you follow a specific study as graphic designer, or is it also something you just rolled into?

SO: I did follow some lessons, yeah. But eventually I ended up in New York in commercial advertising with a pretty well-paid salary. I worked 70 hours a week, with some idiotic creative director breathing down my neck, who had absolutely no sense of taste or style. It’s really bizarre to see who’s running the show there. I’m really glad I got out of there, even though I really learned a lot from that. Eventually I saved up some money and decided to quit for a month, just to do some other things and see what would happen.

Do you ever feel uncomfortable by limitations that are put upon you when a concept is briefed to you?

SO: Not at all. Look, all in all I feel really privileged.

All those bands I’m working with, all those record labels that I really love, they’re all asking me to design for them. Are you crazy?! I love that music; it really is a pleasure. Most of the time, those things all work out. Only deadlines sometimes can be a pain in the ass (laughs). Time is the problem. Or should I say, time management.

Today, in the train coming from Paris, I was able to work on an assignment for an Earth/Sir Richard Bishop split. I was really happy about being able to spend two hours on that. The song from Earth is basically just [Dylan] Carlson solo, and Sir Richard Bishop is an amazing guitarist in his own right, so I am truly honored as a matter of fact.

On Religion and Philospophy

Are [religion and philosophy] topics that you’re involved with? Death and black metal appear to have a fascination with the dark side of the soul and spirit.

SO: I’d have to say, when I first started becoming interested in that music, when I was around sixteen, I still lived with my parents. At that time, I really had no realization of the concept of philosophy.

Did you have a religious upbringing?

SO: Not really.

mother who visits church twice a week, to get out of her daily life for a moment.

Or, really not?

SO: It just wasn’t that important. I’m not opposed to religion, but I do feel some religious communities can have very narrow-minded and hypocritical characteristics, which can be harmful for the rest of society. But there are also a lot of good sides, and people mostly have religion as a very positive concept in their lives. So, I’ve decided not to judge any longer.

Even without the personal religious association, a worship service can be an emotionally charged experience.

SO: That’s also what you get when a group of people experience a meditative or strongly emotional moment – it feels religious. You could sense that after 9/11 in New York. That was the only time when I was in such a big city with literally everyone occupied with the same thing. That whole feeling was…crystallized, like an undercurrent of energy reaching the surface. Of course, that only took a couple of days, and then you could feel the atmosphere retracting.

People are just searching for a form of spirituality, it’s human urge. Has that been a factor that has influenced your work?

SO: Definitely, that’s what it’s all about for me.

Along the way, I started to think about it more and more, but in fact, it’s a search for a different type of experience, one that transcends normal perception and pierces right through to you – that’s what people mean with spirituality: something that goes beyond any timeframe or mental state.

With Sunn O))) you’re also playing with images which refer to that. You’re wearing baggy robes, and the times I saw you live, there was also a lot of smoke involved.

SO: Yeah, that’s what Sunn O))) is for, to expand and twist reality, to offer a different experience for the music. You get the same feeling with the best musical performances, or great movies…or in a church. For a lot of people, it’s the same as a meeting with God, I think. Take a little Italian grand-

That experience was planned out by people who knew exactly what they were doing. They were counting on the fact that feelings would freeze in a religious fever. And that happened. It completely paralyzed the American perception, and turned all priorities upside down.

Is that why you moved? You’re now living in Paris.

SO: Not just because of that. That would be kind of idiotic, wouldn’t it? ‘I’m leaving the US because I hate George Bush.’ What does that have to do with your life, or even the place where you’re living?

No, I just got to a point where I did a lot of projects in Europe, toured a lot there. And I really like being here, I love discovering all kinds of different places.

Of course I could also do that in the United States, but I choose to do that here.

Le guess who? Treasure guide page 16

In between De Helling and Utrecht’s city center you’ll find Ledig Erf and Twijnstraat, a street and square with several bars, shops, and a great art house cinema, the Louis Hartlooper Complex. The atmosphere here is very cozy, and it’s pleasant to wander about for a bit of (window) shopping. Don’t miss Meneer Smakers (Twijnstraat 62) for a homemade burger, Da Portare Via (65) for traditional wood-oven pizzas, and Yum Saap (40) for delicious Thai street food. For lunch and/or coffee, we recommend KEEK (23) for a cup of fair trade and homemade cakes; Sector 3 (9) with a wide variety of sandwiches and breads; and Josephine (7) offering sour dough bread and luxurious sweets and smoothies. In the mood for something typically Dutch? Sample different cheeses at Kazerij Stalenhoef (67), or try the herring and kibbeling at Fishes (24).

And if you had a good beer last night in one of the special beer cafés in town, now is a great chance to stop

by Bert’s Bierhuis (41), so you can have some at home, too! If you feel like exploring more bars, visit Café Ledig Erf, which boasts a spot in the top 100 Best Dutch bars. (GLP / Lisa Geijtenbeek)

Kafe Belgie: Oudegracht 196 www.kafebelgie.nl / Open 11AM – 3/4AM Beers, beers, and MORE BEERS! As soon as you enter Kafe België, you’re overwhelmed by the gigantic list of beers on the wall. Which one to choose? We leave that up to you, but we’re pretty sure no one ever finished drinking the whole list…except maybe the shark head on the wall. It’s not just beer o’ clock at Kafe België; they also have a great variety of Belgian meals, and great advice on food/ beer pairings. Prices are reasonable and the location is great. (GLP / Rik Brinks) Blackbird Coffee & vintage: Oudegracht 222

Episode: Oudegracht 206 www.episode.eu/stores/utrecht/ / Open 10AM – 6PM Looking for some new-to-you vintage pieces? Be sure to visit Episode. This store has a great variety of bags, shoes, coats, shirts and accessories: everything that you need for a great vintage wardrobe!

They also sell a selection of second-hand vinyl records on the store’s first floor.

(GLP / Marvin de Vos / photo: Suzanne Merlijn)

www.blackbirdcoffee.nl Open Tu - Sa 10AM - 6PM Blackbird is a little espresso bar that combines great coffee and pastries with vintage bikes and furniture in a cosy atmosphere.

Don’t forget to try their extremely healthy slow juices!

White Whale: Oudegracht a/d werf 268 www.facebook.com/wwutrecht Open 11AM – 5PM Okay. White Whale is a little gem at the wharf of the Oudegracht. The shop sells all kinds of taxi dermal animals: a mummified cat, a deer that looks you straight in the eyes, and wet specimens in jars just like your old biology teacher used to have. For those who don’t like the thought of having a dead animal in their house, they also sell a nice selection of prints and t-shirts. The White Whale is a real treasure for those that are collecting things for their own cabinet of oddities. (GLP / Mandy Leeuwis / photo: Suzan Kisters)

Plaatboef: Oudegracht 306

www.plaatboef.nl / Open 11:00 – 6 PM / Thursday 9 PM / Saturday 5 PM Translated in English, Plaatboef is ‘record thief,’ but don’t worry, the owner won’t steal anything from you. In fact, you might feel even richer leaving the store after finding all those great records you’ve been looking for since…forever. Don’t be disillusioned by the size when you enter the store; there’s another floor upstairs with even more records. Plaatboef covers most of the well-known genres, and if you look very closely, you might even find that Dutch folk record you’ve been searching for. (GLP / Rik Brinks)

Sonneborgh: Zonnenburg 2 www.sonnenborgh.nl / Open 11AM/1PM – 5PM

In 1642, Sonnenborgh was an observatory, but these days, the bastion is a museum, and the oldest cupola observatory in the Netherlands. There are four large telescopes which are used to study the universe, and you too can look through them! Every Friday, from now through April, the observatory organizes special star viewing evenings, which start with an introductory lecture and end with an amazing view of the galaxies. (GLP / Mandy Leeuwis / photo: Suzan Kisters)

Goede Vrijdag: Oosterkade 1 www.goedevrijdagutrecht.nl / Open 9AM – 6PM

Ah weekend! We sure have Friday on our minds – Goede Vrijdag, that is! This little place can be found literally on the bridge at Oosterkade. At 30m2, you can drink coffee or choose from a wide range of sodas to enjoy underneath their giant mirror ball and shop for trinkets in the basement, right next to the stage where they organise intimate concerts every two months. So much to love in only one tiny building! (GLP / Lisa Geijtenbeek)

Broei: Oosterkade 24 www.broei-utrecht.com / Open 10 AM – till late Looking for a lovely place to have coffee on the Oosterkade, open to everyone? A place to have meetings and explore creativity? A yard to enjoy a picnic of local products? Visit BROEI, a spot with a temporary concept, where you can do all this and anything else you have in mind. (GLP / Rik Brinks) LGW? Discount! 10% off on everything on the lunchmenu!

Klein Berlijn: Briljantlaan 5a www.kleinberlijn.de / Open 12PM – 12 AM / 1 AM

A place in Utrecht that has the industrial feeling of Berlin: that’s Klein Berlijn. In the summer, Klein Berlijn is a perfect place to enjoy the sun on the terrace, but it’s also a place you don’t want to miss when the leaves are starting to change. As a cultural café, Klein Berlijn offers a variety of musical evenings, as well as literature events and delicious, ‘Berlin-priced’ (cheap!) food. Another tip from us: grab some beers with your friends at the beautiful large table in the middle of the cafe before heading to a concert at the neighbours, De Helling. (GLP/Mandy Leeuwis / photo: Michael Mandersloot)

LE:EN: Heuveloord 140 www.leen-restaurant.nl / Open 11AM – till late

Ever had Asian tapas in a former garage? Probably not, so it’s about time! At restaurant/bar LE:EN you can get your Asian cuisine kick in an amazing building. Surrounded by relics from the garage-past, they serve a wide variety of small Asian dishes, from Sri Lankan to Korean; Indonesian to Japanese. Since all the dishes are small, it’s a great way to taste some new treats and share with your friends, while slowly getting sake-tipsy. (GLP/Rik Brinks)

Le guess who? Treasure guide page 17

In music, as in real life, we are occasionally reminded that some things, no matter how obvious they may seem, still shouldn’t be taken for granted—even if that thing is a band. Just when we started to get used to Parquet Courts’ status of newborn indie rock-‘n-roll role models, the band changed names to Parkay Quarts, which may be nearly phonetically identical, but is nonetheless confusing.

Interview by Robin van Essel (The Daily Indie) However, when asked about this, frontman Andrew Savage merely wonders what the fuss is about. “One of the reasons we initially chose the name is all of the spelling variants it has. Variety is, as they say, the spice of life.” And that’s that.

But the liking for the different, erm, ‘spice’ may very well be temporary, as their most recent LP, Content Nausea (released digitally 2 November), was recorded with force majeure configurations within the band’s line-up. With private matters in the way of bassist Sean Yeaton’s and drummer Max Savage’s availability, this record is merely the work of Savage and guitarist Austin Brown, with the help of a few friends.

In any event, Parquet Courts/Parkay Quarts are pretty productive lads. Besides releasing three full-length records in less than two years, the guys have also teamed up with New York noise band PC Worship to bestow their musical contribution to so-called ‘super group’ PCPC. Savage is quick to indicate his next project “is a confederacy,“explicitly not another, less phonetically identical, moniker to the same brand. “PCPC is a different

band with different members and different songs.

It is a different project that has its own rules, aesthetic and process,” he explains. “PCPC is more of a loose thing, and we’ll be writing and performing a lot of songs on tour. Parquet Courts don’t really do that. I’ll let the fans make the more nuanced distinction though.”

It may not be coincidental that PCPC also, like any music that comes from the Parquet Courts

assembly line, draws unmistakable inspiration from the rich musical past of the city they so strongly identify with musically and visually; that is, with a sense of cockiness that may be rare amidst the New York punk scene. “Nobody calls the Velvet Underground ‘New-York-by-way-of-Long-Island,’” Savage agitatedly replies when I bring up the subject. “New York City is a great town to live in if you are interested in American, European, or the world’s history. But I don’t like to get too caught up in trying to conform to history. Regionalism is so much less prominent in music these days, information moves too fast and with too much ease for it to have as big as an influence as it once did.” But we’ve lately seen a huge wave of US bands identifying as Californian and drawing from that heritage, I counter. “You Europeans put too much emphasis on the coasts, everybody knows its the doughy centre of our continent that’s been cranking out the best stuff for decades now.”

It ironically illustrates the guitarist’s sceptical distrust towards anything that makes modern day music pretentious, or what may distract from

what should matter: the music itself. Where other bands would print a URL, the back of Light Up Gold read: ‘mammalian consciousness is the original world wide web, so find us there, you warm-blooded freak.’

Savage also had a go on the use of social media by bands in a recent interview with The Guardian, stating “We’ve come this far without social media, it’s not a necessity.” By analogy, one would assume

Savage has trouble with the fact that his band becomes part of that whether he likes it or not, but the opposite is true. “Don’t get it twisted, I am not critically against other bands using social media. It’s not that revolutionary of a statement. It’s not civil disobedience. We are just peacefully opting out. I think that the modern world encourages certain ugly traits of human behaviour in me, and others. But I’m focusing on why it’s bad for me, not the world. This can all be summed up in one of the English language’s best platitudes: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’”

It indeed wouldn’t be fair to state that the DIY mentality that Parquet Courts employ has merely been carefully and unwillingly cultivated in the decline of the modern world, amidst people who consider music mostly business to be marketed over the internet. Content Nausea is clearly a more accessible record, with the occasional filmy and even dramatic scene. The cover art shows a vision of New York ‘becoming increasingly unrecognizable to its romantic history, not unlike Parkay Quarts,’ the press release states.

For Parquet Courts, DIY is evidently not something that is consciously maintained. “DIY is such a loose term with loose implications,” Savage says.

“Mostly, it’s a marketing slogan, let’s be honest, whether you are in Parquet Courts or Dropdead.

We can’t truly be called a DIY band, because a lot of things that we used to do are now done by people who are professionals. The band is better for it, even if it means tarnishing the mystique of DIY, which frankly, I give less of a damn about as I get

older. We are a ‘do-it-yourself-unless-someonecan-do-it-better’ band. Parquet Courts is probably just slightly more DIY than this magazine.”

The punch below the belt aside, it’s a fair statement, an understandable resignation from someone who has seen his music finally gaining recognition after years in the making. “Before Parquet Courts, I was in quite a few bands that critics never bothered with. It’s nice to have accolades for your art, but it’s never a goal. Hearing a kind word from a friend whose taste you really trust is better than getting a rave review from any seasoned music critic. A lot of critics champion the band but greatly misunderstand it, which is much worse than the most scornful of criticism.”

This may or may not be, but Parquet Courts, a former buzz band, are now evolving into what they consider the mainstream’s ‘merely meaningless chatter,’ in the periphery of what should matter: the music, which speaks for itself. “Sunbathing Animal is a record with a song that is one note for four minutes straight. It might be a better fidelity of recording, but by no means is it more conventional. And Content Nausea is not that different than a record like, say, our first one, American Specialties. But nobody wants to give that record credit for existing because people think Parquet Courts started in 2013 when Pitchfork reviewed Light Up Gold. Bands should evolve, and have eras that reflect how they evolve as people,” Savage concludes. “I think it’s best for all parties involved if there are no expectations.”

Le guess who? Treasure guide page 18

It has always been a dream to have Selda Bağcan perform at our festival. Via friends in Berlin, Lon­ don and Istanbul we managed to have Selda play together with her new band Boom Pam, headlining our Sunday line-up. It seems that a lot of other artists playing Le Guess Who? this year feel the say about Selda. We’ve asked them to tell you: Why You Should Know Selda (And Dare Not Miss Her at Le Guess Who? 2014)

Merrill Garbus a.k.a. tUnE-yArDs (19:15-20:10 Sunday, 23 November, Ronda Stage)

You probably don’t know Selda, unless you are obsessed with Anatolian psychedelic rock, or are a record collector travelling to the side alleys of Istanbul buying 7”s to spin at your next tastemaking DJ gig, or if you have a specific interest in politically-oriented Turkish music from the embattled era of the 70’s.

Or if you’re Mos Def. http://m.youtube.com/ watch?v=EsbYTNOKUm4 You really, REALLY, should know Selda.

The first time I heard Selda I thought ‘WHY HAVEN’T I EVER HEARD THIS BEFORE,’ because Selda’s crystalline, cutting voice is unreal, and she’s basically calling you to action, to at least cry out, “oh YEAH!”, if not stop everything you’re doing and start bopping your head up and down to the sick drum beats and bang-on guitar riffs.

Seriously, just listen: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vL3raxfj1oo Why haven’t you heard of Selda? Probably because she sings in Turkish, and you don’t know Turkish. And probably because her government made it extremely hard to share her music with the rest of the world (including imprisoning her repeatedly for the people-power, truth-telling messages in her songs.) And mostly because we’re generally very ignorant about the better music made in this world while we’re busy digesting what mass media is telling us to listen to.

I can’t express how weird it is, and probably inappropriate, for my Pitchfork-lauded, neon-pink-spandex-wearing band to be opening for Selda. Think of her like the Joan Baez of revolutionary Turkey and you might get me. It’s an unbelievable honor and privilege, and I’m trembling in my spandex in anticipation. If you don’t trust me, listen to Antony Hegarty: “The artist I’ve been listening to more than anybody else is Selda, the Turkish singer. I think she’s considered a revolutionary singer-- she was in a lot of political trouble for a number of years, she’s kind of like the voice of the people. It’s almost like she’s crying.”

To all the revolutionary voices seldom heard, and to you, the curious listener, for keeping your ears open wider.

And to Selda: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2aoRw_h_8es

John Fitzgerald a.k.a DJ Fitz (23:10-02:00 Sunday, 23 November, Ronda Stage)

The first time I ever heard Selda was in the early 00’s in Brooklyn, NY. I was sitting in Brad “BLT” Truax’s living room drinking Black Tea, when Legendary Producer and local friend Barry ‘White Pants’ London walked into the room and exclaimed, “Dude, have you ever heard of this crazy Turkish Singer called Selda?” whilst holding one of her records in his hands.

I told him no, so we put the record on the turn­ table, and proceeded to have our minds completely blown.

The record, it turned out, was the Selda LP from 1976, where she perfectly blended the folk protest songs she had become known for with the psychedelic Anatolian funk from the streets of Istanbul.

I had no idea what the hell this woman was singing about, but I knew it was important. It had tight drums, heavy bass, plenty of psychedelic flourishes; but there was something more, a spiritual vibe, that felt like a dark, melancholic, beautiful sound.

As the years passed, I discovered Selda to be one of Turkey’s foremost singers and songwriters, who built a career around her engaging protest songs and amazing voice.

I saw her perform once in 2010. I was in a room with 900 Turks, and when she launched into some of the legendary jams, there were women wailing and crowds singing. Raw emotion, deep and heartfelt songs, the truth: SELDA!!!!

Suuns & Jerusalem In My Heart Sunday, 23 November, TivoliVredenburg Grote Zaal)

Selda represents an aspect of music that is a rarity in our current times. My first encounter with a Selda song immediately made my jaw drop. I don’t speak Turkish, but I sure as hell speak Selda, and Selda spoke to me. The familiarity of both her music and voice, for my Arab ears, struck just the right chord with me.

But beyond that, I could feel her emotion come right through her words, despite not understanding their actual meaning. So rare are the singers who are able to do such a thing. Of course, this made me obsessively dig up every song of hers that I could find, and it really opened my eyes to an artist that has such a rich and firmly anchored repertoire in real folk music, music for the people, and music that speaks to the people.

Few are the artists who are able to communicate their message of social struggle with such musical taste and elegance, setting the bar so damn high for us all. More than ever, her music and words are so relevant in these current times. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. One of the true greats. Missing this is a crime.

Le guess who? Treasure guide page 19

If we are to believe the weather forecasters, which we rarely do, today will be the last warm, beautiful day of the year. We’re driving all the way to Zeeland, the far southwest part of the Netherlands, to knock on the door of Tonnie Dieleman, the man behind the broeder Dieleman moniker, to talk with him about his Zeeland roots, forgiveness, and his new record, Gloria.

Interview by Rinze Voorberg (The Daily Indie), illustration by Jenna Arts Tonnie says goodbye to his wife and two daughters (the subjects of Gloria track ‘Voor Janna en Lieve’) and takes us to a beautiful square in Middelburg, his hometown. “This is where I recorded the birds.

I placed my dictaphone on that statue over there and went for a coffee. I used them on the instrumental songs. The birds you hear are ‘kauwtjes ‘(jackdaws), and they sing beautifully.” Gloria, just like its critically acclaimed predecessor, Alles Is IJdelheid, seems like a reflection upon Zeeland. The fact that he sings in his local dialect contributes to this. “That is probably the only thing that is really ‘folk’ about me. I sing, in my own dialect, songs about my own environment.”

“I think it’s going to rain,” Tonnie says, looking up to the sky. Indeed, three minutes later it starts drizzling and we walk towards the Zeeuws Museum, a museum that focuses around the history and presence of Zeeland. Where his debut dealt more with the loss of his mother, depression and religion, Gloria can be seen as its somewhat brighter older brother. “I will never escape religion; that is, there are concepts inside of me which will never go away. Words like ‘forgiveness’ and ‘God’ are imprinted in me and I will never get rid of that. But what I do with those concepts is for myself to decide. The way I perceive those ideas now is a lot different than years ago.”

And indeed, Tonnie seems relaxed talking about his religious background. “Some time ago, during the Alles is IJdelheid period, I got fed up with a lot of religious people, from all sorts of backgrounds, constantly asking me about my religious ideas. It’s fine for some time, but there are other aspects to my music, like Zeeland or the passing away of my mother. Now, I’m more capable of finding balance.

I write and sing in words that recall religious aspects, and my themes, like redemption and predestination,

are distinctly religious. But I’m able to use them in my own way. It’s my interpretation, my language, and my feelings towards it. There’s no point in losing that or distancing myself from it, it’s inside of me.” On Gloria, Tonnie uses his mother tongue, both in dialect and in lingo, to express beauty, nature and crude emotion. “This album is a non-dogmatic, personal gospel. It is my perception of how the world works.”

The true centrepiece of the record seems to be the song ‘Adriana,’ which deals with the fear of not being chosen by God to be saved. A saved person needs to see a sign from God to know he has been saved, according to a dogma in some churches. The song, according to Tonnie, is loosely based on two older relatives who passed away. “I have never seen the light,’ (translated) Tonnie laments over sombre guitar chords and atmospheric background noises.

The song, clocking almost six minutes, builds up into stampeding drums and sneering violin, with improvisational chants. “The record is sonically a bit more diverse. There’s more piano, there is some improvisation’ (in collaboration with Adam Casey of The Boy Who Spoke Clouds). I’ve also started doing other things, like making music for the documentary Land van Verandering­­­ (‘Land of Change’), which is about life in a part of Zeeland. Jos de Putter, an artist from Zeeland, has one of his works exposed here, in the Zeeuws Museum. It’s about the only thing that shall remain truly ‘Zealandic,’ and that is, the clay and earth that’s here. Jos de Putter placed a surveillance camera on soil in Zeeland for a year and edited it to a four-hour long movie.”

Time passes, as it does, and the weather is clearing up. As we are rounding up the conversation, a woman from the museum comes over to us. “I couldn’t help overhearing you talking about the work of Jos de Putter; if you wish, you can take a look inside the museum.” We happily oblige. Tonnie clearly knows his way through the space, and takes us to some Zealandic, folkloristic clothing, some draperies representing the wars at sea from

The end of September sees the release of one of the best, if not the best, Dutch records of the year. After playing live for a number of years and releasing a few EPs, Nouveau Vélo was ready for their debut album. They took all of their experiences into the studio and recorded a sparkling and jangly gem that has not gone unnoticed. The Daily Indie would like to know more, so we talked about the band and this record with guitarist Niek Leenders.

Interview by Ricardo Jupijn (The Daily Indie) But first, I confront Leenders with a quote from an interview that I did with the band back in 2012 when they were playing next to the toilets in some small bar in Utrecht: “Making a full time living out of music isn’t really our goal. Sure, it can be tough when you have a gig at half past twelve in the night in Groningen, lie in bed at a quarter to five and then have to work again the next day. But well, we still need to make both ends meet.” Did anything change in the last two years? “Haha, no no, it did not. We are all still working during the day. We try to do things at our own pace and that doesn’t really go too fast, but we like it that way,” Leenders explains.

After four years of making music in the evening, and playing in every pub and venue from North to South, the time had come for a proper debut. “We

had always wanted to put out a debut album, we really did,” the guitarist says. “The Daze EP sort of came in between last year, and our drummer became seriously ill, so it was an accumulation of events why it didn’t happen.” The band kept on going, with singer Rolf taking to the drums in the meantime.

With enough songs in their back pockets, they hit the Casa Cassette Studio. “It’s basically a studio next to some low-life shopping mall in Eindhoven where Bob Dieleman, a.k.a. Hermann Blaupunkt has a small square studio plus control room. We recorded everything in there in just a weekend, on an eight-track Tascam cassette recorder. Those sessions were very spontaneous and quite naïve as well, to be honest.

Bob only knew us from our last EP, never saw us play live and had never heard any demos or anything before the recording went down. So he didn’t know

the 16th century, and eventually to the work of De Putter. We sit there and look at it for a while.

“This is a cathartic view of Zeeland. It’s very hypnotic, just looking at the soil, changing through the seasons. The language will change, customs will

change, old habits go and new things will come. The thing that won’t change is what we are looking at right now.” We take a picture of Tonnie standing in front of the art piece. He smiles, with the Zealandic sand projected on his face.

what to expect, but I think that’s the reason why the album sounds so very casual and so straightforward.

It’s not polished or anything, it just really sounds like us, how we play our songs. So it did work out pretty well in the end.”

means that we can play on a festival like Le Guess Who?, for instance. By the way, I hope that our show doesn’t really interfere with the rest of the program, because I already bought a festival pass, (laughs).

What a line-up!”

The self-titled debut was recorded in March, and the band seemed a bit quiet over the following months.

Until early this September, when the band suddenly announced that they would be releasing their record at the end of the month. They threw a single online, announced some shows, and that’s it. Quite a short preparation! “Yeah, that’s true. It wasn’t that we did it on purpose or anything, we just wanted to go on a nice holiday first and we decided that we would talk about the whole plan afterwards,” Leenders says, as he smiles. In the end, the record got picked up by local and national media along the way, and found its way to acquaintances and strangers. Most of the time a full album gets more attention in the media and the music industry than an EP or some singles.

That was certainly the case for Nouveau Vélo. As a result of their splendid debut, they were invited to perform a live session on national radio, and their album got reviewed by a few well-known newspapers.

“You’ll absolutely notice that you’re being taken more seriously in some way,” Leenders explains.

“Not that I want to be taken so seriously, but it

The infamous Dutch label Subroutine Records released the album on exclusive vinyl in a circulation of 300 pieces. When you listen to the record and hear the band play on national radio, the somewhat bigger Dutch label Excelsior Recordings (Jacco Gardner a.o.) pops into mind. Says Leenders, “I know, that’s a tricky one. I think it would fit, but on the other hand it doesn’t really suit us. We like working with the underdog, it gives us a good feeling. Who knows, maybe it’s something worth looking into for the future. But we also have a strong connection with label owners Koen and Niek from Subroutine, that’s something we really value.”

In the end everything worked out great for the band, as always. They’re taking it easy; their drummer Twan is back playing live with them again, and they enjoy the little moments that they share as a band. So what are their plans for the coming months? “Playing the last shows of this tour, we’re going to France for two dates, then play at Le Guess Who? and slowly start rehearsing again and work on some new material.

We’ll see what comes our way.”

! h a e Y stuff!

we got some great

As the legend goes, Ought came together at McGill University in 2012 after meeting at a protest against the government’s plan to increase university tui­ tion fees. It’s a delectable PR morsel, but it does reflect the mood of the group’s latest record, More Than Any Other Day, in a catching way. It’s an anxious, distressed record, brimming with feelings of dissatisfaction, on which the band seems to strive to recapture and inspire that same sense of anarchic abandon they witnessed at the protest. With this origination story in mind, we decided to catch up with the band about matters of songwriting, democracy, apathy, and the role of musicians in this.

An email interview by Annelotte de Graaf (The Daily Indie)

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So before we begin, I’ve heard you insist on doing interviews together, in a democratic fashion. Are you all typing this together? Who am I talking with here?

Tim B: Hey! We try to do interviews together when we can, but Matt and Tim K are actually working on another interview as we speak, so you are stuck with Tim B and Ben this time.

very d limite ! n editio

You guys are currently on tour. Fun times?

Tim B: It’s hard to put a blanket statement on anything. We like playing and we have a pretty good time together, but we also miss being at home with our friends and being able to work on new material, other projects, cook our own dinners. On the whole, it is good and we love seeing old friends/great bands.

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And of course, touring must be the dream for a band who considers themselves a live-band most of all…

Ben: Yeah, we definitely consider ourselves a live band, as our songs were initially written to be played live and believe the live performance to be a hugely satisfying experience.

How do you guys write songs? Is it as democratic as your interview methods?

Ben: Our songs are written through jamming and always have been. We all face each other in our jam space and someone will begin playing as others join in. After a while the jam comes to a close and we look to each other for consensus on whether or not there is something in that jam worth working on. Often times the jams are quite terrible, we will laugh, and start over, but sometimes we laugh because there was something special in the jam and we want to continue working on it. Our most productive times vary and we don’t all have to be on the same page emotionally for things to quick necessarily.

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How would you describe the style of the songs that come out of this process?

Tim B: We often have trouble with this. The ‘Post-Punk’ moniker that people throw around is all well and good, but something we got exactly none of before we started being in the press. People have thrown a pretty wide range of genre tags at us. I guess the good thing about ‘Post-Punk’ is that it seems to carry the least expectation of what we will sound like.

Whatever genre it is, the songs are definitely characterized by this restless feeling…

Ben: I think it’s pretty easy to hear a restlessness in the album both sonically and lyrically, sure. Whether or not this derives from societal, cultural, or more personal causes is difficult to determine and is almost certainly all three and more. Ultimately, restlessness is probably not a positive experience however, there is artistic value to be cultivated for sure.

Restlessness could also maybe lead to people being less comfortable with the current state of things and more willing to protest. I’ve read interviews in which you say that ‘white dudes’ shouldn’t be more apathetic than they already are. Do you think society, as a whole, is too apathetic these days?

Ben: This is a really important question. Currently, political apathy has much to do with the destruction of class-consciousness and solidarity, and the precarity of labour in our late capitalist society, not least the intersecting oppression dynamics of race and gender. Pointing to ‘white dudes’ as apathetic is also a way of acknowledging that these individuals often have the most ability to engage in resistance based on socio-economic and body privilege, but often do not. Protest and resistance is vital for mitigating these effects yet the current political climate and media narratives demonize and criminalize protest.

Do you think you as musicians personally, or all musicians in general have a responsibility to activate people, make them more aware?

Tim B: I don’t feel good about the idea of people needing someone/ something to make them less apathetic. I think we make music that engages us in this way to keep us from becoming apathetic.

Is there anything you hope your listeners will take away from your music?

Tim B: It’s hard to think about what we want people to take away from the music, we don’t go in with a thesis statement. For us, it is about making music that is true to us, that helps us get something off our chest, and we can’t take it much further than that. It is great to feel that others share in a feeling, I think that’s why we listen to so much music as well.

Right, I can definitely see that the songs are also characterized by this

sense of sincerity. I’ve heard you say that irony can be dampening. Is that sincerity something you also aim for in you daily lives?

Tim B: Hmm, this is a tricky line to walk. Sure, the album is sincere, but not always in the way the lyrics would appear just printed on the page. “Today, More Than Any Other Day”, for example, is also a bit tongue-in-cheek. It is definitely a bit over the top, but that is part of the feeling that it is trying to sum up. The song isn’t about walking out into the street and suddenly feeling like everything will be alright, it is about the near-absurdity of going up to someone on the bus and telling them everything will be okay.

It is about revelling in a feeling of hopelessness, and yet feeling quite hopeful, and then trying to have a laugh at the disjunction created by that. When I said that irony could be dampening, or whatever the exact quote was, I feel it was a bit different than that, I was talking about hiding behind artifice instead of making the art that you actually want to make. There are definitely moments of irony on the album, but they are also sincere. Sometimes that’s the only way to get a feeling across… To me, the meaning behind “Hear me now that I am dead inside” is that it is both True and totally Untrue, it sums up a feeling but the mere fact that you are saying it means it cannot be. It feels good to shout and I feel the distance between what I’m saying and how I’m feeling. Much is wrong but I am not dead inside.

You released a wonderful new EP, ‘Once More With Feeling’, at the end of October. Are they all entirely new songs, or are they songs that were already written at the time you were recording the album but you felt deserved their own place on an EP? Ben: The first two songs on the EP, Pill and New Calm Pt. 2, were some of the first songs we’d written as a band. The song Waiting was recorded during the ‘More Than Any Other Day’ sessions and was a later song but was cut from the record in favor of Pleasant Heart. Finally, New Calm Pt. 3 was actually an hour long jam that happened while we were recording for ‘Once More With Feeling’, where we picked out a part to be used and messed around with it a bit. The idea for the EP was that there was material that we had that wouldn’t be used for the second record but that deserved to see the light of day and we are very happy with it. Glad you’re excited about it!

Thanks you for your time and I look forward to seeing your show at Le Guess Who? See you guys there!

Tim B: Yes, we can’t wait. It is the last show for us after a very long year of touring together, so I think the shows there will be really special for us. Plus, what an amazing line-up!