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For More on Destine visit:
www.destinemusic.com
myspace.com/destinedestine
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Dutch Courage
An Interview with Holland’s latest sensations -
Destine
by Mike Newdeck
Who are Destine?
A Dutch power pop quintet formed in Tilburg in the Netherlands in
2006 and originally signed on a development deal by Sony music.
Who do they sound like? A tasty and highly melodic combination of Simple
Plan, Paramour and half a dozen other young American pop punk
outfits….oh and did I mention they write better songs.
Why should we care?
Because Sony finally signed them on a full deal, their star is
rising, they’ve already played an industry showcase gig in London and
they’re beating the Americans at their own game.
Mike Newdeck caught up with lead singer and songwriter Robin Van Loenen
to find out whether he still has to pinch himself when he thinks about
the band’s continued success.
Why did you name the album ‘Lightspeed’?
There are a few reasons for it: we love how the word looks and sounds,
and it sums up how we felt about everything that has happened in our
lives in the last few years. And it’s a little bit of wishful thinking
too ;)
Tell me about recording the rest of the album
with James Paul Wisner.
It was great to go back to Orlando again to record the second half of
the album. We instantly felt home again: same apartment, same habits,
same places to hang out, and it was such a warm feeling to get back in
James’ studio. Everybody felt that the cooperation with him went even
better than the first time. When you meet your producer it’s important
to get used to each other, but this time we could skip that part and get
to the creative part even easier.
Were you tempted to use anyone else for the
album other than James?
There are a lot of good producers in this world, but we can honestly say
that James is one of our absolute worldwide favorites when it comes to
his sound. Now that we also got to know that he’s such a great guy we
couldn’t be more sure. Besides, we preferred the idea of getting the
album produced by one person, to make it sound coherent.
What are your favorite tracks on it?
Ha that’s obviously a hard question! With almost every song on the
record that I wrote for the record I have a huge connection. Some of my
favorites are Sinking Sand, Burn and Stars.
Why did you chose to keep previously released
on it rather than recording all new material?
In Holland we released two singles in 2009 (In Your Arms in May and
Stars in August), we saw that as the prelude to the release of our
album: In January 2010 we wrapped everything together: new and ‘old’
songs. We could also have waited till January 2010 to release any
singles, but we preferred releasing some music in 2009 already, in order
to get the ball rolling.
Your songs aren’t simply formulaic pop punk but
has more of a rock edge, how did you achieve this? And how difficult was
it?
I think that’s the single most important thing that we owe to our
producer James: in my opinion he is a genius when it comes to aiming for
the perfect balance between catchiness/pop and aggressiveness/rock. The
other thing is that we wrote some ‘darker’ songs than what you expect
from your average pop punk band. I love trying to write moody melodies
and still be catchy.
You’ve stop short of putting in guitar solos
into the songs do you not feel that they’d fit?
I feel it’s tricky to pull off good guitar solos in our music: most of
the time it’s just not the vibe that we’re looking for. So we only put
it in our songs when we feel it fits really really well. The first two
songs that spring to my mind right now are In The End and Forget About
Me.
How difficult is it for an artist such as
Destine to become heard away from your native country?
Let’s try to find out in the next few years. There are not a lot of rock
bands from Holland that made it in other countries, so it’s definitely a
challenge for us to try to be one of the first. All I know is that we
work hard everyday to reach our goals and we’re definitely getting
closer everyday.
The album has been released in Holland, what
plans are there for a US or UK release?
Currently we’re working on that: we’re talking with several really
interesting people to make it happen. Unfortunately I cannot say too
much about it, but things are looking really hopeful.
How has your life changed since the release of
the album?
My life hasn’t changed that much: three years ago we were already
working on the band fulltime and that is still the same. Only the after
parties got much better. But honestly, one year ago we still played for
30 people sometimes. It’s absolutely amazing to see 500 excited people
in front of us now.
Who have you been touring with recently and
what have you got planned for the remainder of 2010?
In December we toured Europe with The Blackout, it was an unbelievable
experience, we had a great time with them and met a lot of great people.
From January till April we did 16 headlining shows in Holland: almost
every show was sold out and we couldn’t be happier with it. After that
we’re planning on doing a lot of festivals. One highlight will be
Pinkpop, where we’ll play with Green Day, John Mayer and more. We’re
also planning on touring the UK in May, more news about that soon.
You recently traveled to the UK. What was the
trip for and did you play live?
Ah that’s a shame! We did a music industry showcase in Academy 2 in
London; there were some people from record labels, magazines and more.
We also invited some good friends in UK bands (The Blackout, Out Of
Sight, Paige, etc) to catch up with them. The reactions from the
audience and the music industry people were really good and it promises
a lot for the future.
What has been the band’s most embarrassing
episode yet?
The most embarrassing parts are hidden in a top-secret spot in our
house, and will hopefully never see the light of day ;)
What has been the funniest thing that has
happened to the band?
At our first ever show in Paris we played to a handful of people when
suddenly a homeless woman of about 50-years old comes on the stage to
take over the keyboard. I laughed so hard I couldn’t sing anymore.
Have Sony supported the band well since album
release?
When we were going to have our first talk with Sony I actually didn’t
really expect much of it: Everybody knows the horror-stories about
albums that get shelved and key people that get sacked on bad moments.
But I like the people at Sony, they find ways to think modern and have
roughly the same ideas as we have. Of course there are some arguments
now and then, but it’s all part of the game.
Do all the band members share the publicity or
is it mainly down to you?
We split it up a little; I do most interviews, but the other guys
definitely get their share too.
Can we expect some live dates outside your
native country this year?
We are currently working on shows in the UK, Belgium, France and
Scandinavia for this year. A couple of Belgium festivals are already
announced, more announcements will follow soon.
How and where do you write your songs?
Lately I love to write outside of my own home: just staying in a
vacation house for a week or two on my own and work 24/7 on ideas for
new songs. On spots like these most of the time I find the concentration
and inspiration to pull it off.
Could you be the biggest thing out of Holland
since Golden Earring?
Ha ha I leave that to others to decide, never thought of it like that!
Destine’s album ‘Lightspeed’ is available though import retailers now.
More information:
www.destinemusic.com
www.myspace.com/destinedestine
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