About 'Bongo' album - MusicRemedy

7 questions for About 1. Bongo is the result of years of development, why did it take so long? I've entered the world of melody through the minimal techno side door, so it took some time to get comfortable with using more than one chord, lyrics and acoustic sounds like real drums. At the same time I was working with a few bands, doing side projects, all taking up time. Add a few collapsed lungs to the mix, and after several years Bongo sees the light.

2. The album has so many different textures for a rock album, how did you manage to balance them all out and what, if any is your goal for doing so?

Most genres become dull after diving into them to understand what they are all about. Even though I can get excited about a lot of new music, that excitement wears off rather quickly in most cases. So I make writing my songs more interesting by throwing several styles together in a blender. The trick is not to stack them, but to take the time to get to know the genre's key ingredients and try to make them melt into one song.

3. You are Dutch, and there's some trace elements of Dutch hardcore techno buried in there, how and why did you include it? How important is electronic music to you?

Electronic music is not more important to me than any other form; it's just that I know it better. That also makes it less interesting to keep producing, so I eventually started to incorporate other music. When Gabber raged over this country I was trying to make "intelligent" techno and therefore didn't care for the bluntness and cheap thrills of its hardcore version. 10 years later the rest of the world wakes up to it, and now it's sort of funny to use the basic elements in a song.

4. Your lyrics are a blend of literate self-reflection and sort of biting commentary, how did you develop them and whom are you listening to when it comes to lyrics?

I've only really started listening to lyrics in general when I was writing for the album. At first I used a lot of one-liners from US sitcoms, and (same as with the music) tried to blend them together. It's grown a bit more towards instinctive language since, but I'm not a good enough writer yet to analyze the how and why of it all.

5. But the end result is a real rocker, what's more important to you, Rocking out or the delicate nuances?

A good song will have to represent both sides. There is too much bad and boring music already to which you can either flip out or fall asleep. I believe intelligent music should be more fun and pop music could do with a bit of depth in its arrangements. On stage I'd have to go with single-sided rocking out though, haha!

6. Tell the people a little about what you are doing Live these days?

The on-stage ABOUT is a duo, with me on laptop, keys and lead vocal, and Marg on guitar and vocal. We try to rock hard and use up all the energy we have by jumping up and down, running in circles, and using the entire stage to do all that, as well as playing with the boy-girl thing. We try to make it both a rock show and a dance party, but mostly fun. Fun is good.

7. What's coming up and where do you think you're going form here?

I try to play live as often as I humanly can right now, and I'm already writing songs for the next album. Additionally a video was made for "Think Niles Drink", the first track off the album, by Mirka Duijn (who also did videos for Solex, and Tunng) and there are 2 more videos being worked on. It all depends on reception of the album really. Hopefully ABOUT will get to perform all over the place and people like it. If not, hey... I've had fun so far!

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Tracklisting

About - Bongo