Last year Ruben Block released his first singles as a solo artist. The electrifying ‘Lights’ and the moody slowburner ‘Awake’ showcased a much different side of the Triggerfinger frontman, although the guitar remained front & center, just not always sounding like, well… a guitar. Discover the covers he did from Sylver, Madou, Triggerfinger and Robert Wyatt.
While he and mix engineer Tchad Blake (Pearl Jam, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello) are putting the final touches on Ruben’s debut album, Ruben decided to release a handful of cover songs. Listen to 'Turn The Tide' EP here: https://rubenblock.lnk.to/tideEP
“Last year we had the opportunity to play a short series of concerts to testdrive some new music and play around with other familiar and less familiar material”, Ruben explains,
Turn The Tide (Sylver)
“I recorded ‘Turn The Tide’ a while ago for a project where artists from my hometown Lier recorded each other songs. DJ Wout (of Sylver) and I grew up in Lier. While he was wreaking havoc on his beefed up Camino, I was cruising on my skateboard."
Niets is voor altijd (Madou)
In June 2021 we played a series of benefit shows in support of de Roma in Antwerp. I wanted to put together a special setlist for that occasion and took the opportunity to play a song I’ve liked for a long time, performed in my native tongue: ‘Niets is voor altijd’ by Madou. We’ve been playing it ever since. Teun Verbruggen on drums, Lies Lorquet on bass, Geoffrey Burton on guitar, Gilles Vandecaveye-Pinoy on keys and yours truly on vocals and guitar.
Recorded in September 2021 at Gebouw T in Bergen-op-Zoom by our sound tech Ken Kuipers, mixed by Greg Gordon
There isn’t time (Triggerfinger)
A Triggerfinger song from the 2014 album ‘By Absence of the Sun’, perfectly suitable to be reinterpreted, stripped down to an amplified acoustic guitar, sung an octave lower than the original, adding some backing vocals and a very delicate and delightful contribution by Geoffrey Burton on guitar and Gilles Vandecaveye-Pinoy on keyboards. The song might talk about our ability to postpone things for the silliest of reasons, while in most cases there is absolutely no reason to do so.
Recorded at de Roma in Antwerp, June 2021, by our sound tech Ken Kuipers, mixed by Greg Gordon.
Sea Song (Robert Wyatt)
Some songs are 3 min, compact compositions with one straight arrow of consciousness while others take a more adventurous route to develop. I do like both kinds. Sea Song by Robert Wyatt is an astonishing piece of music. I was a little hesitant to try and perform it live because I like the original so much. With the help of Teun Verbruggen, Geoffrey Burton and Gilles Vandecaveye we recorded kind of an adventurous adaptation which might benefit by sitting back, relaxed, unfastened, maybe your favorite beverage in hand, let the one and a half minute soundscape-intro lead you gently into the song.
Recorded by our sound tech Ken Kuipers at de Roma in Antwerp, June 2021, mixed by Greg Gordon
