When an animator, a filmmaker, an architect and an "island tinkerer" come together, a unique DIY band is created. The Belgian band could easily be defined as indie-pop at first, but they hide much more. At the end of October, their latest album "Stad Van Licht II", which is the result of a two-year tour of Southeast Asia, will be released. This one brings warm breaths of sunny melodiousness that take you to the dream of island lounging under palm trees. Martijn Ravesloot, frontman and lyricist, took us into the colorful backstage of the creation of "island music".
What is the story behind your foursome?
We have been friends since childhood, as we grew up in the same neighborhood. We were mainly united by the local music scene and thus led us to create music together. At first it was just that - hanging out while exploring new sounds and texts. At that time, we had not yet dealt with what kind of band we were and what we were going to do in the future. When we were finally satisfied with what we had created, we recorded the first vinyl record, and from there our band's story actually began to unfold.
And where does the name “Stad Van Licht” come from?
When we were preparing our first album in 2009, we got a little carried away (to say the least). Suddenly we came up with the idea of creating music through the film and actually recording it. Since both Jonas and I are filmmakers by education, we have already started writing the script and producing it. We soon realized that none of us wanted to sacrifice the "sanctity" of creating music with the excruciatingly long process of creating a 50-minute film. That's why we "buried" the script and what's left is a title with a juicy Flemish touch "Stad Van Licht" ("City of lights", slo.), with which we now sign our music.
In addition to music, you also create your own music videos.
It's true. Although most of our music has been inspired by the scenes of Asia and the Pacific Islands, we neither want to recreate that nor can we afford it financially at the moment. We understand that we live in the age of YouTube and that videos are rarely watched all the way through, let alone multiple times. That's why we try to be as creative as possible (and have a lot of fun at the same time) and thus create cool videos, which people will remember and possibly share further.
What inspires you?
Travels. To be far, far away and get away from the daily routine, at least for a while. Similar to that lightness of floating and surrendering to the unknown that can be felt for a moment on the death train. There, bubbling ideas from the surface come to the fore.
Is that also an inspiration for your music?
Of course, I bring the whole experience of new places, images and senses back to the studio, where they fly like in a kind of trance. As for the lyrics, I draw from stories. My own or other people's stories that I randomly catch. So, for example, a song "Kirishima" from the new album, he tells about my story about climbing a Japanese volcano just before it erupted, despite the warnings and shouts of the locals: "be careful-don't-walk-up-the-volcano-will-make-KABUM!", which of course I didn't understand. All the best in the end, I like to remember the story and so I sang it through the eyes of the volcano in question.
What does music mean to you?
For myself, I can say that I still have a fairly positively naive view of music. As with travel, I like to let music take me to different places and provoke exciting adventures. This feeling is difficult to maintain over the years, as we become cynical, pessimistic and smartphone-bound as we get older.
I strive for the fact that many things are still undiscovered, so every day is a kind of research that takes you to new discoveries.
What are your dreams for the future?
It would be nice to go on a small tour, maybe in Eastern Europe, and thus combine our two passions - music and travel. But for now, it's enough for us to be able to create and take our music to people.
