Interview with De Kift
Nattsol: Greetings. For a start, I’d love to ask you to introduce yourself, please.
Ferry: I’m Ferry, singer, composer and, together with Wim, one of the founders of the band.
Wim: My name is Wim. I play drums in De Kift.
Nattsol: Tell me the story of the band’s creation.
Ferry: Well, about the band’s creation we are speaking 1988. At this memorable day, it was a sunny morning in march and I was sitting in the squat’s garden where I was living at that time, Wim came through the garden-gate and asked if it would be a nice idea to form a band together. He had already been playing in two other Dutch bands (Rondos and The Ex) and I started my punkmusical career in a band called Svätsox. In march 1988 we were both already a few years without music and I think Wim thought the time was ripe to start another band again. He was right.
Wim: Together with Ferry I founded the band in 1988. The idea was to create a punkband (with lots of horns) and Dutch lyrics. We asked two friends: Jacco on bassguitar and Maarten who wrote the lyrics and became our singer.
Nattsol: When you started, was there any punk (wave) atmosphere in your country? What was that? And what actual backgrounds have you had, and how have you faced them?
Ferry: When we started it was the most flourishing period of both the squatting movement and punk-scene in Holland. Like I said I lived in squat in Wormer together with people from The Ex. We traveled around with two or three bands in a van and every week we did two or three concerts all over Holland. In even the tiniest village you had at least one punk with a mohican and all over Holland there were squats which organized concerts. It was a very inspiring period.
Wim: Since 1977 there was a punkscene in Holland inspired by the British punk wave. Dutch punk went two ways: One was the nihilistic/alcoholic route, the other the political way. I was involved in the second and with friends from art school in Rotterdam we founded The Rondo’s in 1987. This band lasted for 2,5 years. Than I joined The Ex (Amsterdam) for one year and after a period of rest we founded De Kift.
Nattsol: De Kift can be considered as a wiz band in conceptual works. How have you caught the interest in conceptions? How was it developed?
Ferry: We want to tell a story. For us the challenge is to be a music group that makes songs, but instead of making songs which tell their own little story we try to tell a bigger story through different songs that belong together. For each new project we start with a subject. At this time for instance it’s the book The Master and Margarita by Michail Boelgakov that guides us to a new CD.
Nattsol: In continuation to the previous question, could you tell me about your first conceptual album, “Krankenhaus”?
Ferry: As you know De Kift started in 1988. At that time we were a 4-piece band. Not long after the release of our first lp “Yverzucht” the singer left the band. As he was responsible for the texts he left us with a writers-block. The rest of the band were musicians. Who was going tell our story in words? It took about two years before a friend of us suggested us to do something with the works of the German writer Wolfgang Borchert who wrote down his experiences in the Second World War. This was a crucial suggestion for De Kift as a band. Since that time we are based in literature. On ‘Krankenhaus’ appear two other writers: Erich Maria Remarque (another German writer who wrote down his experiences in the First World War) and Jan Arends; a famous Dutch poet/writer who spent a great deal of his life (before he jumped out of his window in 1974) in mental institutions. ‘Krankenhaus’ is a German word, but in fact we took it from a story of Jan Arends.
Wim: After we finished YVERZUCHT (our first album) the singer left the band and we looked for lyrics in world literature we found stories about war and madness and realized that they were all written from some state of physical or mental sickness. We took this as concept and it explains the title KRANKENHAUS.
Nattsol: To not to ask you about each conception, could you pick a one, in your opinion, the best/most successful or so, and tell about it?
Ferry: For me personal that’s ‘Vlaskoorts’. I think it’s the most ‘complete’ cd of De Kift. All the songs really belong toghether. Not only because of the theme: a family history of a mother, father and son in which the son tries to find out why everything went so badly wrong with his mom and dad. The whole atmosphere of the music is very strong and I’m very proud of the packaging: it’s an old-fashioned family-portrait which you can hang on the wall. In fact the old man on the photo is my grand-father. The child on the photograph is my father who is now 77 years old and still plays the trumpet in De Kift. ‘Vlaskoorts’ is also used as a ‘script’ for the film ‘De IJzeren Hond’ (‘The Iron Dog’).
Wim: CD 7 is based on the concept that it’s old and new Russian poetry. I consider 7 as one of our best albums. While everyone is looking west, 7 opens a box of treasures from the east.
Nattsol: I usually ignore “native” questions, but in your case I think, I should ask. You did the album and DVD, based on work of Daniil Kharms, “Elisabeth Bam”, it is clearly seen that you drink Russian “Baltika” on the DVD, and you played in Russia as well. So could you tell me about your relations with this country?
Ferry: I feel we have a strong relationship with Russia. Not on a practical level in the way that we play a lot in Russia. We don’t know a lot of the daily life in your country. The relationship is more on the level of the soul. It sounds probably a bit vague, but I don’t know a more down to earth way to put it. I mean, we have played in St. Petersburg and Mosow and that was very memorable (the first thing my father said when we arrived in St. Petersburg was that he was convinced he used to live in this city in a former life and he is not the spiritual type at all!), but as a musician I’m more influenced by Russia through their writers. For ‘Vlaskoorst’ Venedikt Jerofejev, with his book ‘Moscow-Petoesjki’ was very important. Daniil Kharms for our opera ‘Vier voor Vier’ and our cd ’7′ is filled with 300 years of Russian poetry: from Pjotr Vjazemski to Boris Ryzji.
Nattsol: In the above mentioned DVD it is seen that everyone in the band play a role with every breath from start to finish. So have you some experience of acting in theater, or movies?
Ferry: So far we have made two films with De Kift: ‘De IJzeren Hond’ (see above) and ‘De arm van Jezus’ (‘The arm of Jezus’). In these films all the members of De Kift have a role. So, yes, we have a bit of experience in this direction. The last acting we did was during the filming of our clip Beguine. For next year there are plans for a collaboration of the Frisian theatergroup Tryater and De Kift on the famous Oerol Festival. The play will be based on the book The Master and Margarita by Michail Boelgakov. There are also plans for a new movie. If everything works out according to plan it will be shot in 2011.
Nattsol: Tell me also, please, about your works for visual art, I mean, DVDs, films, videoclips etc.
Wim: EDDIE BRAINS – movie (1992) – absurd detictivethriller.
IWNGKOMZ – documentary (2001) – De Kift on tour during VLASKOORTS
ARM OF JEZUS – movie on dvd (2003) – Go to America to escape poverty. Ending up in Rotterdam.
THE IRON DOG – movie on dvd (2005) – Damaged son seeks his parents.
THE SILENCE – movie on dvd (2006) – A man from town tries to solve a past murder in a country village. He dies.
DE KIFT IN RUSSIA – documentary (2005) – on tour in Petersburg and Moscow.
FOUR TO FOUR – life concert on dvd (2005) – opera ELISABETH BAM (Daniil Kharms).
THE UNKNOWN – videoclip (2007) – www.dekift.com
BEGUINE – videoclip (2009) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQwOz6DPmSA
Nattsol: A friend of mine said after listening to several De Kift albums: “Each the band’s song is a small tragedy”. Can you agree with it?
Ferry: Like I said above, we try to tell a story and all the songs are little chapters. The stories we tell are not always very happy and trouble-free and the people who roam around in our songs are always a bit crumpled up, trying to keep upright in a restless, hectic society. Tragic sometimes, I agree, but if possible always with a bit of humor and hope.
Wim: Many songs have a tragic subject but the music has a lot of humor and people always leave the concert with a smile.
Nattsol: What do you usually answer on questions like “what music do you play”?
Ferry: A Dutch-speaking, energetic and fanfaresque music-group with literary an theatrical influences.
Wim: We mix music, theater, literature and visual art in a blender at full speed.
Nattsol: In your opinion, what pluses and minuses of being avant-garde performer in the contemporary society are?
Ferry: Well, I’m afraid that because we make this self-willed, somewhat confronting type of music we will never reach millions of people but maybe that’s bigger a plus than a minus. Like Daniil Charms said: “Everything that’s extreme, is difficult to make. The parts in the middle are easier to make. The centre is no trouble at all. The centre means balance. There’s no struggle there.”
Nattsol: If a one (a magician? :)) offered you to live a life of another musician, who would you have chosen?
Ferry: I’m very happy with my life as a musician. I’m happy this musician makes music all the time and can be a father for his two children and a loving companion for his woman at the same time. In the whole world I can’t imagine a musician who is happier than me.
Nattsol: And apart from the music, what can you say about yourself?
Wim: I’m happy to be a musician.
Nattsol: Well, let’s go closer to the band’s latest full-length, “Hoofdkaas”. Could you represent the release to a listener? Why such a strange name?
Ferry: It’s the record on which we celebrate our twentieth anniversary. It contains musical influences of 20 years De Kift. ‘Hoofdkaas’ is a song that we have made just after the release of ‘Krankenhaus’. Because it’s such a beautiful song with such a strong text (written by the Austrian playwright Werner Schwab from his play ‘Mein Hundemund’ (Fäcaliëndramen) we waited for the proper context: Hoofdkaas.
Hoofdkaas (Headcheese) is the name of a dish which is made from the head of a pig [...]
Wim: That’s right: De Kift have been on the way for 20 years now. They composed a steaming CD in honour of this jubilee. What can be expected? A fizzy Kift cocktail with salt rim, composed from the abundance of ingredients gathered in the Kift kitchen. Not just music of pots and pans mixed with brass band tooters and biting guitars. There’s more! A colourful hodgepodge of eating and drinking songs, wine pie and beer soup, hornpipe and pogo. There will be eating and drinking, laughing and weeping, singing and dancing. Love songs on a swirling Kift merry-go-round.
Nattsol: Your releases are usually designed in very original way. Who does the works? How do they fit conceptions? Could you give some examples?
Wim: I’m the one who is responsible for all the artwork. Much of it I make myself but there’s a lot of people who help me. To celebrate our 20th anniversary we planned concerts where people came to eat and drink with us. In lyrics on HOOFDKAAS food plays an important role so we decided to wrap this cd in recycled secondhand cookbooks. Every cd looks different.
Nattsol: De Kift has very rich instrumental line-up. In your opinion, what are the instruments without which De Kift could stop to be De Kift? And on the contrary, do you have some instruments which haven’t been used for the band, but you’d love to try?
Ferry: Since the beginning of De Kift brass-instruments have always been an important ‘colour’ of De Kift’s music. Another important instrument is the human voice that speaks/sings Dutch lyrics in a rather rugged manner. There are really a lot of instruments that make me very enthusiastic but one of the most beautiful instruments I’ve ever heard is a ‘glass-organ’. Apart from this instrument I would love to hear Kiftmusic being played by a real barrel organ.
Nattsol: Do you have some plans for a new work? Could you drop some information?
Wim: This moment we’re making new songs for our cd number 9. The release is planned in November 2010. We’re also composing the music for a big theaterproduction based on the novel MASTER AND MARGARITA by Michael Boelgakov. We will do much of the acting as well. Oerol festival, june 2010.
Half way 2010 we start working on the movie ETERNAL FLAME. The story of a man who killes his wife two times. In 2011 we’re asked to make theater for children based on a classic Dutch book, together with a well known dutch actor.
Nattsol: And the traditional “free” final question. What you’d love to say, but I didn’t ask :)
Wim: You’ve asked it all.
Questions:
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
