Dial Nits

Extrait d’un article de Kent dans Télérama, du 29 avril 1998 : « Pourquoi un des groupes les plus intéressants au monde reste-t-il à ce point confidentiel ? Henk Hofstede est un excellent chanteur et les concerts sont un régal pour les yeux et les oreilles. Peut-être les Nits ont trop bon goût ». Un musicien en pleine promo fait l’éloge d’un groupe néerlandais dont il est fan. Ses propos datant d’il y a 25 ans sont à la base des entretiens menés dans cet épisode du podcast - épisode entièrement en français. Donc, les Nits, vus par le musicien et dessinateur Kent, le journaliste Christophe Conte, le producteur belge Marc Thonon, la musicienne et philosophe Agnès Gayraud, connue aussi sous le nom La Féline, et Richard Robert, directeur de l'Opéra Underground à Lyon.

Production et audio design: Darren Hayne.

By this time in their career, one had to notice that The Nits we’re never going to stand still for longer than was necessary, whilst collecting new experiences along the way. Whereas the previous album was largely based on synthesizers and drums, this time, the musicians chose different tools: two pianos, stand up-bass and classical percussion. With this surprising array of instruments, they produced «Ting», an album which bears the influence of classical and minimal music, but is also a pure pop album. Then they took it one step further with the related «Hjuvi – a rhapsody in time», a piece of classical music written by Robert Jan Stips and recorded with the Radio Symfonie Orkest with conductor Jan Stulen. 1992 – an adventurous year for the Nits!

« We still sing the Sixties », says singer/guitarist/lyricist Henk Hofstede in another episode of the podcast. The album «Giant Normal Dwarf» is an example - an album like a fairytale, like they used to make them in 1968. You disappear down a rabbit hole, walk through a mirror and end up in a parallel world full of wonders. Dance about in your «Radio shoes», go for a swim in Telephone lake, meet the

When the Nits played Swiss festivals in 1987, they presented a new songs. To some discerning members of the audience, one of these songs stood out as a possible hit, the egnimaticyally titled « In the Dutch Mountains ». That title begs a question: now where exactly would those mountains be ? What do they present. A mystery for sure. The surprise was even bigger when the audience found out that the songs and the album were recorded live to two track without any mixing or post production. A live album without an audience - why would one choose this way of recording an album?

Their last «best of»-collection had a strange title : ?. The question mark stood for the many ways one could perceive this band from the Netherlands. Are they brainy avantgarde, a classy pop band, a one hit-wonder that has a very long career. Some people think of the Nits as a musician’s band. So we went to ask a couple of musicians in their home country. Tom America was once the leader of « M.A.M.», a band that started out at the same time as the Nits ; today he is an artist who works with the melody of speech and music. Erik de Jong a.k.a. Spinvis is an indie-pop star in Belgium and the Netherlands who has produced slightly eccentric and heartfelt music. Harke Jan van der Meulen is a classical musician turned composer who writes short songs with unusual instrumentation for pop music ; Henk Hofstede and Spinvis have both sung on some of his songs. Ex-journalist Fer Abrahams adds his description of the Nits.

The title-track of «Adieu sweet Bahnhof» stands as a programme for the career of the Nits. A song about Europe, about travelling across the old continent by train, from Amsterdam to Paris via Brussels. A statement for a deeply European band. And there’s another song on the album that has the same setting: «Infant King», one of Michiel Peters’ masterpieces and one of his most intimate and personal song, which also sees a person travelling through the night, by train.

Production and Design Darren Hayne.

1983 is a busy year for the Nits. They score a hit with a song that quotes the Dutch writer Jan Hendrik Frederik Grönloh (a.k.a. «Nescio»). March sees the release oft he album «Omsk» which is a big step away from the first albums and which earns them their their first Edison prize (the Dutch equivalent of a Grammy). The same year, the band release a successor in a smaller format, the six song-mini album that contains another of their classic songs: «Sketches of Spain». The arrival of Robert Jan Stips, who has played with renowned Dutch bands such as «Supersister» and «Golden Earring» proves a musical turning point for the four piece-band: strings, grand piano, female voices – the Nits widen their vocabulary.

Set the dial back to 1978. There are big changes on the musical horizon: after years of prog rock excesses and ever more elaborate musical adventures, some young people in New York City and in England decide to return tot he roots of rock’n’roll. Bands like the Ramones or the Sex Pistols play fast, short, agressive songs. The new style that went by the name "punk" quickly spawns another one : « new wave » is a mixed bag of very different musical expressions. Bands such as XTC, Squeeze or Talking Heads, singers such as Elvis Costello or Tom Petty – as different as they are, they are all lumped together. This young generation is also heard in the Netherlands, where many bands pick up on this new flavor. One of the Dutch bands: the Nits. They release a trio of albums that qualify as new wave. We revisit these first albums with founding members Henk Hofstede, Rob Kloet and Michiel Peters.

Once upon a time…. so start many fairytales. The following is one of the stories that have often happened around the globe. Young people see the Beatles on TV and pick up guitars themselves, other go see the Velvet Underground in concert and go form their own band. A dream that many young people have of making a career in show business, in an artistic surrounding – very few really making it onto the spotlight, very few make the fairytale happen.