April… Utrecht’s foremost neo-Bowists (Img: Mirjam Tonnaer)
Interview: April
Published on September 4th, 2012 | Jonny Abrams
Utrecht rockers April have a busy couple of months’ worth of live shows ahead – not to mention a new set to show off for them – so Rocksucker fired some questions over to Jorn Mathijssen from the group to find out a bit more about how they operate…
What’s the line-up of the band? How did you all meet, and how long has the band been going for?
The creative founders and minds of the band are Julia Hendriks and Jorn Mathijssen, but since five months we´ve added a drummer named Tarek Zarroug, so we perform as a three-piece. We found him on the streets playing drums on the fenders of an old German car.
Julia and I go back four years or so. We met eachother while playing in another band which didn’t last long. After that, we decided to continue as a duo to make the music we miss in the Dutch Indie scene. That is two years ago now, we play live one year November 4th.
How would you describe your music, if pushed?
When started, we called ourselves Indie-gazer, because we used influences of the nineties shoegaze. We used it with Indie ideas (though we were called “Post-XX Minimalists” by a blog). With our current and new set and singles coming up late October, I would say we left the ’90s shoegaze and took the ideas we used, mashed it with some ’80s Bowie and ’60s beat and serve it as a ’00s indie platter. To give it a name, ehm… ‘Neo Bowism’?
Where are you based, and what do you use to record with?
We are based in the beautiful city of Utrecht. In the rehearsel space we record with a ZoomH2 pocket recorder, but the new singles will be recorded on the old-fashioned tape machine through a big ass 48 track table, late September. It’s going to be a 7″ with two new songs released by Subroutine Records.
Is there a full album in the works? If so, what can you tell us about it? (Feel free to be as abstract as you like…)
There is. But first we have to beat the good ol’ bread problem. Hopefully next year we can record an exciting and brilliant album and in the meantime we play as good and as much as we can.
Where can we hear your music online?
Which have been your most exciting gigs and/or overall moments so far?
The Ultra2012 gigs with Minny Pops were pretty exciting, Julia became a Female Minny Pop. These were also the first two gigs with a live drummer. We were on the road for three days in a row for the first time.
Second one was being the support of Brooklyn-based The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart in Tivoli Utrecht; a hometown gig in a major venue, all our friends gazing up on us, a full house..
Got any more coming up? (Gigs, that is…)
Today we have eleven shows confirmed. 13th September we play in SPRMRKT in Amsterdam where we will release our new set plus the results of the cooperation with two talented fashion designers who are making some really nice clothes for us as we speak. We play some Popronde shows, a travelling festival for upcoming Dutch bands. And we can’t wait to support Rats on Rafts December 7th in Tivoli Utrecht.
7 September: Café de Plak, Nijmegen: Popronde
8 September: Soirée Poirée ‘Best of last season’, Pakhuis Wilhelmina, Amsterdam
13 September: SPRMRKT, Amsterdam, Popronde
27 September: De Koornbeurs, Delft: Popronde
29 September: Persee, Deventer: Popronde
11 October: Kult, Groningen Popronde
13 October: Tempelier, Haarlem: Popronde
27 October: Curtis, Amersfoort: Popronde
2 Novemer: Stiels, Haarlem with Kids With Guns
15 November: Ko D’ooor, Middelburg: Popronde
7 December: Tivoli De Helling: support Rats on Rafts
Are there any obscure and/or up-and-coming acts that you’d like to recommend or give a shout-out to?
Sure, there always are! First New YX, an Amsterdam-based band we toured with last spring. Nouveau Vélo is a great band and WOLVON are a bunch of wild cats.
Finally, if you were forced to spend the rest of your days in solitary confinement, but were allowed to bring the entire works of five different musical artists along to tide you over, whose would you choose?
David Bowie, The Smiths, Happy Mondays, Franz Ferdinand, The Small Faces (this took us 10 minutes to decide, will probably change in 10 minutes).
Jorn Mathijssen, thank you.
For more information please visit iwentapril.blogspot.com
About the Author
Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.
