I reviewed their album, loved it and decided to send out some questions. This all happened in the week of Belgium music (as - ahum - they are from Belgium). Not all questions made it, but it seems like the band had some fun answering them.
You are with 3 people, was that a deliberate choice?
Yes, we love threesomes!
Lukas Van Camp on a more personal note: are you family of the journalist and excellent (retired) teacher from Mechelen – Leest: Marc Van Camp? Did he inspire you too to go for your dream?
Never heard of him, but he definitely must be a legend.
How did you pick up the artwork for the album? And why doing it like this?
Martha Maieu made it. She is a creative musician and artist from Antwerp. We asked her to make some designs and she shared some ideas. We really like her work! She is great and lovely!
What got you into making this kind of music? All born in the 70’s or just having a good taste?
Sorry, we all missed the summer of 69.
To what refers the title: Memory Lanes? Playing gigs before lots of people or melancholia?
All the songs are reflecting about things that happened in the past. The album is an artistic memory of those moments.
In my review I dropped band names like Gang of Four, The Cure & Joy Division, does that fit the idea a bit? If it would be possible to tour with them (despite the death of some) who would you pick from these 3 bands and why?
We love them bands, but we are afraid of zombies.
I have given you feedback in my review, maybe we can play a little game and turn it the other way: can you give some feedback about my review and tell me how you feel about it and if I made a mistake or a wrong judgement … Don’t hesitate, just go for it.
A shot in the rose is not an English expression but a special organic gin matured on albino cocoa beans.
One of the best tracks on the album is for sure Zinfandel, but what does the title of this track mean?
The day we arrived to the studio we drank a lot of wine. There was one bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape in which we accidently dropped ashes from our cigarettes. This one tastes very good so we decided to open another bottle. Thomas (our studio engineer) came up with a bottle of Zinfandel, straight out of California. We had one song left on the album who needed a title so we want to honor this moment.
Which song came up right pretty fast in the studio?
I think we started with Words. We recorded the whole album in 3 days. We really want to represent our live sound on the album. We don’t like to overdub and produce too much.
You ended up signing a Pias deal, how did it happen? You must all be very pleased with it?
Yes, PIAS is great! We want to thank them for everything. The A&R manager of the label saw a show from us in Antwerp in 2020 in between the lockdowns and he was really into our music. We started talking and here we are… We are really grateful for the fact they believe in us and give us space to develop our own musical choices.
Once Omikron will be beaten what will be the first thing you all want to do, next to getting on stage?
Yes! We really want to play as many gigs as possible. We are happy to work together with Franky Rulezz who is really a nice guy and a good booker. We are excited to play in Trix on March 19 and Het Bos on April 14.
Anything to close this intro interview? A message towards the fans? Something I should have asked and that you absolutely still want to talk about?
We were celebrating our release when we did this interview! Just be yourself, be kind, love each other and make great art! And don’t hesitate to drink wine with ashes.
Read the album review by clicking here
