Dazzled Kid

Tjeerd Bomhof, sits at the table, and despite the heating, wraps his arms around himself. His trademark glasses, hat, and scarf – present. As the frontman of Voicst, one of Holland’s most successful indie bands, he spent 7 years touring domestically and throughout the globe. After two albums, several radio hits, unforgettable gigs, not to mention phenomenal shows at the prestigious Lowlands and Pinkpop festivals, December 2009 heralded the rumor that Voicst would be taking a break. It was time for something else – something new, or so they said. Now, a year later, as Dazzled Kid, Tjeerd delivers his solo album: Fire Needs Air. Co-produced with Simon Akkermans, and mixed by Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Jónsi) and Patrick Dillet (David Byrne, Brian Eno), the album is collection of 13 songs that marry indie ethos and 60’s West Coast pop.

Why the name?

‘ ‘Dazzled Kids’ was a song on the first Voicst album and that’s the name I sometimes used whenever I was spinning records. I guess it’s a pretty good description of me as an artist as well. The past year has been pretty jam-packed with impulsiveness and spontaneity.’

His slightly raspy voice is enticingly familiar, and he continues to push it to its outermost limits. This is not only evidenced by the irresistible hooks in his melodies – just have a listen to Embrace, his infectious first single – but also by his fanaticism in gracefully leading the listener down the wrong path. This broader musical spectrum is quite refreshing as it draws from the Beach Boys to Dr. John, from marimba to bandoneon.

‘Sometimes I’d be writing songs and thought ‘Tjeerd, this?? For real? Come on. You can NOT be serious.’ It seemed so diverse, I couldn’t see the full picture. But after writing songs for half a year, I played some of them for Simon (Akkermans, founder of the dynamic Utrecht-based electro act C-mon & Kypski). He was actually the one who heard the whole story and immediately had all kinds of plans and ideas. That’s when I started to seriously consider making an album.’

The first few months of 2010 brought Tjeerd to corners near and far. New York, then Italy, Belgium, England, Friesland, and Norway, to name a few. He often worked with other songwriters, driven by his intense curiosity to learn how to do things differently, and to try to distance himself from his own familiar way of working. He collaborated on massive hits like ‘Woman’ with Holland’s number-one rock singer Anouk and ‘Overrated’ with Jacqueline Govaert, the former Krezip frontwoman and songwriter. Both tracks were met with critical and public acclaim, and received major airplay in the Netherlands.

‘Nearly all of the songs on this record were written in one or two days. Each. No thinking. No complaining. Just do it. We can only try. That’s something I learned from Alex Callier (the songwriter of Belgium’s Hooverphonic). Before that, I was just walking around with hundreds of ideas on my cell phone, just bits and pieces. I had to learn to finish things; I had to learn how to work in the moment. You know, I’ve always had a hard time being satisfied with something from the start.’

He laughs when asked about the lyrics and how they often stand in contrast to the music. For example, the chorus of The Weight of My Days – one can easily picture the hundreds of hands in the air; the euphoria that such a song can ignite in a jam-packed concert hall.

‘This song is about death, you know…nice, eh? There’s a fair chance that people will be rocking out to a song about dying. The best moment of the Voicst show at Pinkpop was, for me, during Aha-erlebnis, a song with a pretty dark message – and seeing thousands of people going crazy to it. It’s a pretty incomprehensible contrast. Difficult, challenging things can have so much power. That’s the real feeling of being alive.’

Thinking is fun, but it doesn’t pay
Will there be time to make mistakes?
(From: Yes No Maybe)

Two insights come to mind. The first- a combination of determination and reflection. The second – a bit of a scary question – is there enough time? Bomhof used to rush all over the place. He wasn’t productive. And it wasn’t making him happy. Nowadays, you might find him laying in bed for half a Saturday, just relaxing, reading the paper, going out for a meal in the evening with his girlfriend. However, this is a skill he’s had to learn. He’s heard of people that do something like this, two days in a row, every week. Just the thought of it…. But he’s not quite ready for that just yet.

Yes No Maybe I don’t know
Shake the dice and let ‘m roll
We can only try…
(From: Yes, No, Maybe)

‘We can only try.’ That’s a sentence that comes back again and again as Tjeerd speaks. Just like Yes No Maybe. During a try-out concert he called this ‘a song about being scared and still doing it.’

‘Two weeks after I had spoken to Simon, I went up north to the Oerol festival, on the island of Terschelling. That’s where Colin (Colin Benders, a.k.a. Kyteman, who was part of the live line-up of Voicst in 2008) launched his Kytopia project. We were jamming and improvising for 4 hours every afternoon and every evening. Sometimes it was really bad, but sometimes it was absolutely amazing. There were all kinds of musicians there from Kyteman’s Hiphop Orchestra, but also Mark Constandse, the bandoneon player who also plays on my album. I also got to know Satindra Kalpoe there; he became the drummer on my album. That week at Oerol, coupled with Simon’s encouragement, gave me the catalyst I needed to do the album. I just thought ‘fuck it, I’ll just do it.’ I was able to form the band really quickly. Through the years, I had, without even realizing it, already created quite a network. Yup, and then it was really just a matter of rehearsing and recording. Done.’

All that doubt for nothing?

‘Yeah, well listen, it wasn’t like I didn’t hear any potential in the songs at first. But it was a very fine line; sometimes I thought I knew it, and then a day later I didn’t. It was strange.’

Most of the album was recorded in Simon’s studio, which is part of Kytopia -Kyteman’s parallel universe. In that compound in Utrecht, like-minded musicians – mostly from Kyteman’s own Hiphop Orchestra, run rampant, as their own studios or rehearsal spaces are housed there.

‘It’s such an amazing place, just chock full of so many talented people. Once, at 1:30 in the morning, we needed some backing vocals, and we run into Pax (one of the rappers from Kyteman’s Orchestra) in the hallway. We grab him and put him in front of the microphone. And Bink, Kyteman’s percussionist, came over and played marimba – it’s incredible what that guy can do with 4 sticks. Unbelievable.’

And with child-like enthusiasm he imitates how it should be done – playing the marimba – with just two sticks; ‘one of them stays in the air and the other one goes ‘rrrrr’ and then it goes like this, and then it goes like that.’ Tjeerd seems surprised by his own enthusiasm.

‘It was so cool, a real luxury. And Simon was amazing. He tried all kinds of different stuff. Not fancy stuff with the computer, but a much more experimental approach with microphones and different spaces and setups. He wanted the album to sound as much as possible like the moment itself, recorded in the moment.’

Just like writing the songs, then.

‘Yes, and the crazy thing was – we kept going back to the original demos when something wasn’t working. It was like I had done something slightly different on the demo. That worked. It was another example of getting it right the first time.’

He can laugh about it now, rattling off a drum roll on the table’s edge.

And now? Thrown into the promo circus? Hits? Concerts? Gold and platinum discs? How important is all of that to you?

A long silence.

‘Oh…I just hope that it’s gonna be fun, you know. That’s really all.’