maandag 26 november 2012

What happened in my microcosmos?

I usually have no problems falling asleep at night, but sometimes the loose ends of the day crawl into my head and keep me awake. Damn, last night I fellt so restless, after spending hours and hours working endlessly on different new songs during daytime. Not satisfied, because the day ends at 24 hours and I just wanna go on. Patience is a virtue I've got to give into. The restlessness is not by all means negative. I'm trying to get a grip on the flowing word and soundmachinery, that's in my subconcious mind. So during the time I couldn't sleep, all those clourful ideas came together. I couldn't wait to see the light of the day. There and then, after a nice 3-cup of coffee (!), I enthousiastically put my fingers on the keys or between the frets of my guitar, but, there was nothing really flowing here. "Don't push it", I heard a gentle voice saying in the hairs of my neck. Then suddenly my heart dropped a mile into the ground. I froze, as I watched my monitor: I couldn't get that damn mouse working. What I saw was a  miror image of the state I was in: total standstill. Just recorded a bunch of intense vocals and then it all froze before my very eyes. Ok, the world won't stop, so I gently pushed the reset knob on that big, senseless machine, but then I realised I forgot to save all the recorded parts ... Jeeezuss, I know it happened before, but it's just very fustrating. So I took a deep breath, pauze for a moment. Trying to keep up with the rest of the high spirits I've got and do it all over again, as it often worked before. Finally put something sensitive into the musicbox. Still got that nagging feeling of the lost and vanished melodies I sang the first time, so the day ended in a kind of anti-climatic way..., or not?



That narcistic, creative life is a big bubble, I know: it has to burst into little pieces to get a chance to make it whole again. All the little things matter. A nice comment on my daughter's new clothes or the joking around with my son. That's the drive that keeps my boat float for a while. And then there is the outer world. What do I care? Well if someone plays your song on the radio and if that someone is Tom Robinson (who wrote some very moving songs like "War Baby" that got me through during some rough times), than that little outside world moment means something to me. Just as I wanted to shut down the machinery I happened to notice that "Bomb Won't Go Off" was played again, now on Tom's saturday show, the Tom Robinson Show. Starts at 1.03 and at 1.11 he did try to narrate my bio in dutch (?!) after the song was over. Hilarious! When you ever need the outside world, that moment surely arrived in time. Generous man...
Check that playlist btw! Just after Paul Simon

Buttuh, nothing special, every person is a microcosmos....

vrijdag 23 november 2012

INTRODUCING MIXTAPE DOWNLOAD 191112

22 minutes in....

Joost The Vanished Dutchman is, as you might have guessed, from The Netherlands. Inspired by the likes of Gino Vannelli, Todd Rundgren, Miles Davis, Boz Scaggs, John Martyn, Sting, Terry Callier, he started out as a drummer before turning his hand to writing. His latest album, Art Decoy The Bluebeard Boy, was released in September, and he describes himself as a "zelfbevlekkende, narcistische, selfkickende, obsessieve, uitknijpende liedjesmaker" which loosely translates (I think) as a "self-denigrating, narcissistic, self-flagellating squeezer-out of songs"...Tom Robinson in his announcement on BBC radio 6.


woensdag 21 november 2012

Occupied, but not at Wallstreet


zaterdag 17 november 2012

BBC?

Yes, since the "Listening post batch 37", where my song has been chosen, it has a chance to be played somewhere in the U.K. The program located in Wales,  called BBC Hereford & Worcester 
got me hooked on my seat at 8.40 I heard a familiar sound...listen for youself
BBC Introducing playes the "Bomb" 

 

vrijdag 2 november 2012

The Bomb.....

An older song of mine- The Bomb Won't Go Off [2009]-  has been chosen from 118 songs on Freshnet,  a chance to be played on BBC6 radio!

Freshnet hosted by Tom Robinson (who wrote a few famous songs btw)
http://freshonthenet.co.uk/faves37/

 "Joos ‘The Vanished Dutchman’ tells us that, as a one man band, he has composed over 1000 songs. This particular song is definitely ‘out there’ but also incredibly groovy. That combination makes me feel that the song would sit well in a Mighty Boosh episode (as a huge fan of the Boosh, I mean this in an entirely complementary manner). A breath of fresh air for your listening ears – why not give it a spin?!"


You can find and grab (!) the song on the "You Know Your Dad album, listen:
The Bomb Won't Go Off