Vanderbuyst - December 2011
DOUBLE DUTCH: With Vanderbuyst’s second album ‘In Dutch’ recently released on Ván Records, guitarist Willem Verbuyst was more than happy to talk about the two releases, the allure of classic metal and just who the mystery woman on the front of the band’s debut is…
What sets Vanderbuyst apart from so many other newer bands is that they proudly wear their traditional rock/metal influences on their sleeves. Stick this Dutch three-piece in Marty McFly’s DeLorean and zap them back to the UK around 1978/’79 or so and they’d blend in beautifully with both the cream of the classic bands of the time as well as the burgeoning NWOBHM scene. And that’s not meant insultingly: it’s always refreshing to hear bands who play from their hearts without worrying about trying to be the flavour of the month. And the reason, according to, is simple.
“The music from back then is timeless; it’s classic,” he says. “It contains all that we like in music. It rocks. It has great melodies. It’s great for guitar players too: awesome riff and stunning solos. It always makes me feel good. It sounds like victory and stinks of sex. What more do you want?” he laughs. “But it’s not like I feel we are a protagonist of this sound; it’s not that we are some kind of ‘defenders of the old school’. It’s just something that we like very much – and luckily a lot of others do too. It just comes naturally, I guess. I must admit that since I’ve started playing in this band my tolerance towards bad music has decreased a lot. Modern productions don’t do it for me, so in that sense, OK, yes I suppose I am guilty of wanting to keep the old school alive. At the end of the day though the cool thing about music is that there are a lot of different styles and everybody can shop around to his or her personal taste.”
Vanderbuyst came into being “in the spring of 2008 when I came back from travelling in South East Asia for some months. At that time I was fed up with playing in bands [his previous band Powervice had recently called it a day] but it didn’t stop me from writing a few songs on my travels. Once I got back home I called Barry [drummer Barry van Esbrek] and Jochem [bassist Jochem Jonkman], who were already good friends of mine, and right from the start it was magic. We knew there was a lot of work to be done but we shared the same passion for hard rock and were motivated to sacrifice almost everything for a band – we believed we had the makings of something special. We recorded a three-track demo in the September, and our first gig was on the 4th of January 2009. That was the day it really started.”
The band’s self-titled debut album appeared the following year. Songs which “revel in the earthy, organic freedom of young musicians writing and playing for themselves, first and foremost, rather than trying to please an audience or fit in with a fad” was how the review ran in issue 47, and Willem is still quite pleased with it.
“We recorded it at the Void Studio in Eindhoven. Pieter Kloos, who is in charge there and who’s also known for his work with Motorpsycho and The Devil’s Blood was the perfect person for us. I’ve known him for some time and we had worked with him before, so we knew what to expect. His ideas about recording are just what we were looking for. He – almost like no other – knows how to produce that late Seventies/early Eighties hard rock sound, and this, in combination with some good preparation from our side of things, made it a good session. Of course we were not as good as we are now as musicians so we did need more time to prepare than we did for the second album. But the strong point of this band is that we believe that the song comes first. That means vocals are more important than a 10,000 note-per-minute guitar solo; the chorus is the backbone of the song, not the arpeggios from hell. So if you have these things clear, and start with the foundations, we found it makes things a lot easier.”
Normally the second album is seen to be a bit ‘tricky’ as the band has to come up with new songs but for Vanderbuyst the follow-up was the proverbial stroll in.jpg "vanderbuyst6")
the park. “There was no real pressure,” says the guitarist. “We were pretty confident about the songs, and we’d played a lot of shows between the albums, including a tour as support for Saxon in Europe. So we’d matured as a band and became better musicians personally. Because of this we decided to record the instruments live in the studio, and due to the many live shows we’ve done it was easy to get that same state of mind as on stage.”
So the whole thing was done the good old-fashioned way… “Yes,” agrees Willem, “that’s right; apart from the vocals it was recorded live on an analogue tape recorder. As I said, we did a lot of live shows and we thought it would be cool to try to capture that energetic rush we have on stage. Apart from that it’s also a cool statement, I guess,” he adds, “to say it was recorded live. Too often these days you have these bands with over-produced records who can only reproduce a fraction of what they did on the record when they play live. As a young band we felt it was important to present ourselves the way we really are. And that’s a power trio. So,” he emphasises, “no six different overdubbed guitars for us!
“And we’re very happy with the way ‘In Dutch’ turned out,” he continues. “I mean, as always, just after the recording sessions it was hard to listen to the record because you only hear the details and pick up on things you would like to have done differently, which is very frustrating. But after a month I played it again and I was really happy with it. I think it’s a perfect addition to set of songs from the first album; in fact, at the gigs we’ve noticed they blend perfectly into the set. I also like the combination on this album of a raw sound and real songs with quite catchy choruses. Although ‘In Dutch’ is unpolished it’s still easy to listen to, which to me is what good hard rock is all about.”
So, is that the main difference between the two albums, in Willem’s opinion? This ‘lack of polish’. He considers the question for a moment or two. “Yes. And perhaps ‘In Dutch’ is even more raw than our debut. But in the end I think they are still quite akin to each other. Probably a song like ‘Where’s That Devil’s’ is something we would never had done on our first album whereas it felt natural for this one. Maybe that’s to do with the maturing of Jochem’s vocals, too, as he’s become a much better singer. On the debut he was more in the background but on this record he’s more in up-front and invites people to listen to the stories he’s singing.”
And the stories are quite important to Vanderbuyst, who gather inspiration from a variety of sources. “Books, for starters,” suggests Willem: “‘KGB’ was inspired by ‘Gorky Park’ by Martin Cruz Smith. And sometimes religion. I’m an atheist, but I think the stories in The Bible are fascinating: ‘Into The Fire’ is about Cain, about how he killed his brother and cannot find a place to rest. There is an interesting tension in religious affairs, which is very inspiring. But there’s also more personal stuff in some of the lyrics. ‘Where’s That Devil’ [a bluesy, Robert Johnson-at-the-crossroads kind of song] is about making choices and the will to sacrifice. I wrote it as a kind of explanation to my family and friends who don’t understand why we do what we do.”
And of course ‘Traci Lords’ off the first album is fairly self-explanatory… “Exactly,” he replies with a smile as wide as a gatefold LP sleeve.
The live-in-the-studio recordings show how tight the band are, so I wondered, what did he consider to be the three-piece’s strength as a band. “Being a three piece,” he replies simply. “As a power trio you have to work harder to produce a full sound, so it demands the best of us. There is no hiding, so you could say it is a, well, ‘honest’ sound. On top of that the dynamics in the band and the interaction between the instruments are much clearer. And you know how nowadays you often have this wall of sound with low-tuned guitars and a lot of distortion? We believe this way you miss most of what actually is being played. I think playing music is translation of emotion, and less distortion means more feeling, and, contrary to what most people seem to think, a more aggressive and dynamic sound.”
We go back to chatting about music and the NWOBHM – no surprises there! – and I ask Willem which of these he would prefer (hypothetically, of course!): an autographed copy of ‘Iron Maiden’, ‘Saxon’ or Diamond Head’s ‘Lightning To The Nations’. The question falls at the first hurdle though when he replies “personally, I never really cared about these collector items nor about autographed stuff. I guess that’s why it feels weird for me to sign our records – although if you can make a fan happy by signing a record or photograph, it’s no sweat for me. But to answer your question I would go for the Diamond Head album. I know Jochem is a big fan of their work, so it would make a great birthday present. Or maybe I would go for Maiden’s LP. A little while ago we played with Paul Di’Anno who is a real hero to us, but in the end you’re just drinking beers together backstage. He even bought a Vanderbuyst t-shirt from us. How cool is that!” he adds, with visible excitement. “He didn’t see us play, probably didn’t even hear us play, but he bought that shirt,” he laughs.
Time for some fun! So, as natives of The Netherlands, are you afraid of hills, I ask. Again, things don’t go quite as planned. “Actually I was born in Belgium,” Willem explains, “but I lived the bigger part of my life in Holland. So no, I’m not afraid of hills; in fact I partly grew up in them. What is more, I wrote the most part of ‘In Dutch’ while I was in the Himalaya during my holidays in Nepal.”
OK, what about the ‘rumour’, often-quoted by one of my closest friends (who happens to be Dutch) that Dutch people don’t like spending money; there is after all an English saying ‘to go Dutch’ which means that you each pay for what you owe (say, in a restaurant) rather than splitting the bill equally. “Are you implying that the Dutch are misers?” the guitarist leaps in, feet-first. “That they are a bunch of skinflints? That when they are having a birthday party they ask their visitors to bring their own food and drinks? That they never offer to pay the bill in a restaurant, because they want to use every Euro twice? Is that what you are saying?” he thunders, his voice rising. “Because in that case: you are right,” he laughs.
OK, we’re getting attuned to each other’s sense of humour now. So, I suggest, if the band was marooned on a desert island, and you had nothing left to eat, which band member would you eat first? “OK, well that’s a hard question for a vegetarian! But at a push I think I would barbeque Jochem. At least he’s trying to live healthy and eats decent food. I think eating Barry would mean death due to food poisoning! “In fact,” he continues, “Barry has this genetic failure. He has no hair on his legs. The legs you see on the cover of our first album are not a woman’s. I’m sorry for the guys who have been dreaming about those legs, but those are Barry’s. Really. The three of us are crazy about ZZ Top, you know: ‘she’s got legs, and she knows how to use them...’ Unlike Barry, my legs are hairy as hell; I reckon I’m half ape. And Jochem has weak knees; if he kicks a ball twice he falls over. Yet still he claims he would be a very good skier, which is a little odd.”
As things draw to a close I mumble something about really liking what the band do; there’s an almost indefinable quantity to Vanderbuyst which I find irresistible, and I could listen to their stuff for hours. “Thanks a lot!” Willem responds. “Although you often hear musicians say they don’t care about other’s opinions, when it’s positive they suddenly do seem to care! But without kidding, it’s great to get this appreciation for what we do.”
By the time you read this, Vanderbuyst will have played their first UK shows, and it will be interesting to see how well they go down in the homeland of classic metal. In the meantime, check out their two albums and see what all the fuss is about.
© John Tucker January 2012