Just To Please You III

Kirsten: If there is anybody who knows how to write a good song, it's you. How for heaven's sake do you accomplish writing a timeless song?

Bert: It's impossible to say, and especially a timeless song, I should not know. But eventually I simply enjoy writing songs and when it comes down to it, to me it's just a matter of loving to play the guitar. I eventually do care for a good tune. I'm busy doing it, of course I'm busy doing it as much as possible, but you'll never know if it's gonna be successful. You should not think about it as long as you are busy. It's rather helpful, if you purposely do not consider this at all, because then thoughts like 'We're not good' won't cross your mind either. If you are busy anyway, just keep doing it an enjoy it. I think that's the bst attitude.

Kirsten: What comes first in your case the lyrics or the tune?

Bert: With me it's always the lyrics, because certain words are very important for the rhythm of the lyrics. A good tune is also very important. You're playing the guitar or sitting at your piano. Everything goes, but to me the lyrics are important. It is the way I give structure to my songs, qua phrasing, rhythm. It's just like in HipHop, it's also very important in pop music. How you place your words, where you place them. It's all about impact. If you want to tell something, then you want to have as much impact as possible. And in this case it is about the rhythm of the lyrics.

Kirsten: Absynthe Minded's lyrics are in English. Is it easy for you to write in English?

Bert: I've never had doubts about it. In the past I did it though I was not actually able to. From an early age I've been listening to English music. That's after all the language of Rock'n'Roll. Telling a lot with just a few words. Maybe in my case it was helpful that I began reading English books at an early age. I believe that it is a very beautiful language. I love English culture. It's something I enjoy just like writing songs.

Kirsten: You enjoy a lot of things.

Bert: Because I like doing it, that's it.

Kirsten: What I've noticed (concerning Studio Brussel's contest for new bands 'de nieuwe lichting') that sometimes there are sometimes applications that feel alright to me, but when the lyrics, the English is so terrible, that I cannot listen to it. What#s your advice concerning this?

Bert: In that case my advice would be: If you want to be taken seriously in another language, you have to learn to command it. Mind you, I had troubles myself, you can listen to some Absynthe Minded albums, and if you look closely, if you listen carefully, there are some difficulties, like the English 'th', I've sinned against this. I Do not believe that you have to do a British or an American accent. I rather see it as a universal language. I realise that I have an accent, but at least I'm getting the grammar right. Remove all uncertainties. If you want to tell people something, you cannot leave them asking themselves 'Why has he said this?'

Kirsten: If you are uncertain, let somebody who commands the English language have a look at it. Then you are certain.

Bert: Indeed. And let him listen to it as well, it's also a matter of pronunciation.

Kirsten: Certainly it's not necessary to apply for you anymore, but imagine you would apply for our contest. Which song would you chose?

Bert: I believe 'Mercury'. I could have chosen something else, but I believe it's a song that, if you listen to it, would make you want to attend a live performance. That's what I would do. Should I have to apply, I would choose something that makes people say 'They are playing well. I would love to see them perform'. That's when you have to prove your ability. Maybe the recording or production of your demo was not good, but on stage everybody is the same, and that is the moment when you have to go for it. So if you convince any member of the jury that he or she wants to see you live, that's a step ahead.

Kirsten: Absolutely. They have to perform live, so that would be quite logical. Bert, merci for your help. See you soon!

Bert: Thank you very much. Salut!

Just To Please You - My Best Attempt

at trying to translate the interspersed utterings



Number One, everybody on Jan:

Renaud: Jan, everybody regards him like Chris Martin from Coldplay.
Bert: A multi-instrumentalist, very talented genre player. If obstacles have to be cleared/ the knot has  to be cut, if Jan says  'Yes', then it will be 'Yes'.
Renaud: Enormously powerful!




Number Two, everybody on Jakob:

Bert: Jakob was the last to join us, he is the youngest member of the band. Nevertheless he has been with us for a long time now, so this does not really matter. It was not easy for him because in the beginning we were just a group of four, we performed without drums, for years we had been doing this and at a certain moment he has joined us. Yet, we felt that this is what we would be doing from then on. He is a drummer who understands this, songs and their structure. How you have to deal with this.
 Jan: That's not bad.


Number Three, everybody on Sergej:

Bert: And Sergej is also a multi-talented instrumentalist bass, contrabass, keyboard, vocals, beats sometimes, though not really for Absynthe Minded yet, but 'You never know'. Autodidact!
Jan: The techie of the band. All the time busy looking for better material, looking for a solution, the link between the crew and the band (True, in Krefeld he also was, though he was a little bit sulky, telling the crew to leave it, Daniela). He is the bridge between these two.
Bert: The software and the hardware he knows everything about it, interface, also recording. After all our first demo was recorded at his house in Ghent at the Dampoort (not so sure about "Dampoort", but that's what I've understood ;) ).


Number Four, everybody on Renaud:

Bert: Golden boy - I've founded the band with him. Together in an apartement we too the decision to form a band and he said that he knew a fairly good bassist, Sergej, and then I said that I knew a fairly good pianist, Jan, and then we formed the band. He believed one of my demos to be very good and so we got to know each other.
Renaud: I had a  taste to do something old-style, "Club de France" (probably he is referring to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Club_de_France ), something jazzy, pop jazz, including strings, some swing.
Bert: In the meantime the violin has been heavily oversteered, you won't recognize it as a violin. He is somebody who is experimenting with sound. Just like all of us. And yes...
Renaud: Merci!


Number Five, everybody on Bert:

Renaud: Bert is our mate, he is our mate, the band's songwriter. He writes more and more beautiful songs, he has always done it. When I got his first demo about ten years ago, I thought it unbelievable what he was doing. This was very original pop music. That's what intrigues me about Bert, his struggle to make wonderful pop music.
Sergej: Businesswise, he does whatever a frontman has to do, he sometimes 'sells his own grandmother' (the original Dutch expression, the same as in German btw, would translate: 'walks over corpses'), that's alright, in some situations it is good. He simply does what a bandleader has to do, making decisions.
Jan: He is the great power driving us ahead, he does not like to stand still, he wants things to get ahead. This is good for us as a band. And a good singer.
Renaud: You cannot look past us any more, we are a fixed mark in Belgian pop music - Voilà, he has done it: Bert Ostyn.
Voice from the off: Bad driver though.

What I Learned About Belgium

Apparently Belgium, more particular Flanders, is one of the few countries,where the intellectual and artist is drawn to live on the countryside and not in the big cities.
One day Bert Ostyn, singer with Absynthe Minded, was asked what he was planning for the day and he responded that he would be digging some pond.

Pretty Horny Flow

Just to see those guys walking down the sidewalk, it definitly has a pretty horny flow. But then they are musicians and they do have to tour a lot, especially in these times when royalties from album sales are dropping.

The Genuine Smile

It's an interesting fact that it's not the mouth that is telling us, if a smile is genuine, but rather the eyes. If they are slightly closed the smile comes from within and is true. I revere those people who are able to keep this childlike and innocent attitude to truly smile from within. Like an African friend told me, I would never get old if I smile a lot.

"What am I? I am a clown who's forcing to smile!"

Well, St John's Eve has been recently, therefore "Jean Baptiste Is The Howling Wolf"

"What Am I?...

...I'm a clown who's forcing to smile" ;) (Jean-Baptiste is the Howling Wolf, Absynthe Minded)

Simply to save

these few lines from oblivion:

"It took me 20 minutes to make this on a fortunate evening: 

"I got a sickness inflicted upon me in a hazardous tempo
Space is truly infinite I feel, you can't say that of time
I got a weakness because I got addicted to slowing down
In the face of your future, you win" (Bert Ostyn)

 

 

 

 

Absynthe Minded - Space from verstaerker on Vimeo.

Somebody ;)...

  ...when singing about home.

C'mon xxx

Your faint smile is like a cloud of wonderful lightness hanging over me...

Space ...

My Heroics Part One

Just For the Fun of It

And to celebrate the oddness of some perfect afternoon, that came unexpectedly...

Well, and this one I have to catch somewhere this year, especially with a new album that reportedly rocks more than the previous ones ;)!

Substitute ;D

This one features two of my all time favourite Belgian bands/musicians. Ahh Arno Hintjens you are still wonderful and Belgian music owes a lot to TCmatic.

Maybe still the Master Builder lurking a little bit

Definitely an issue coming up now - and being discussed in Ibsen's Master Builder - is the question of the origin of art, what is art, why is there art at all, what use?! Here there are excerpts from an interview with Barnett Newman conducted by Thomas B. Hess

And adding to that the words of the immortal Hugo Claus, first as translated into English by Absynthe Minded

My verses stand gawping a bit
I never get used to this
They lived here long enough
Enough!
I send them out of the house
I don’t wanna wait
Until their toes are cold
Enough!
I wanna hear the humming of the sun
Or that of my heart,
Hardening
Enough!
They don’t screw classically
They babble commonly
And bluster nobly
Enough! Enough!
In winter their lips leap
In spring they lie flat at the first warmth
They ruin my summer
And in autumn it’s girls and a broken heart

For another twelve lines on this sheet
I’ll hold my hand over their head
And then I’ll kick them out
Enough!
Go and pester elsewhere, one-cent rhymes
Find somebody who cares
Enough!
Go now on your high feet
This is where the graves laugh
When they see their guests
Enough!
One corpse on top of the other
Go now and stagger to her
Whom I do not know
Enough! Enough!
In winter their lips leap
In spring they lie flat at the first warmth
They ruin my summer
And in autumn it’s girls and a broken heart

And here the original:

Envoi

Mijn verzen staan nog wat te gapen.
Ik word dit nooit gewoon. Zij hebben hier lang
genoeg gewoond.
Genoeg. Ik stuur ze 't huis uit, ik wil niet wachten
tot hun tenen koud zijn.
Ongehinderd door hun onhelder misbaar
wil ik het gegons van de zon horen
of dat van mijn hart, die verraderlijke spons die verhardt.

Mijn verzen neuken niet klassiek,
zij brabbelen ordinair of brallen al te nobel.
In de winter springen hun lippen,
in de lente liggen zij plat bij de eerste warmte,
zij verzieken mijn zomer
en in de herfst ruiken zij naar vrouwen.

Genoeg. Nog twaalf regels lang op dit blad
hou ik ze de hand boven het hoofd
en dan krijgen zij een schop in hun gat.
Ga elders drammen, rijmen van een cent,
elders beven voor twaalf lezers
en een snurkende recensent.

Ga nu, verzen, op jullie lichte voeten,
jullie hebben niet hard getrapt op de oude aarde
waar de graven lachen als zij hun gasten zien,
het ene lijk gestapeld op het andere.
Ga nu en wankel naar haar
die ik niet ken.

Angenehm enttäuscht - pleasently disappointed

Oh, Maxine, Maxine, a year ago I was so disappointed, enraged, out of my mind, whatever happened to the drawing above I will never know. Was it you or just the Royal Mail, who did not deliver, anyway, it was hard parting  from it from the start, as it was hanging, right here at the desk. For some strange urgent reason it had to go, I had to pass it on - and Mike in his own wonderful, spontaneous rage being my comforting stranger, my wonderful  gardener from Oxfordshire!!! - and now this scan is all I've got left. Yet I got in return more than I've ever expected, a most dear and pleasent glimpse at somebody's heart and it was - almost certainly- worth the loss ;-). Loved it, as it was priceless and definitely unguarded. I'm sorry!!!

The reprise below was and never could be as good, but it gave hope

 

and this accompanied me as the soundtrack

just like this one is doing now