Augustijn Vermandere. His name sounds like a clock in Flanders.

With his father being one of our most treasured troubadours, Willems youngest son is making his own way quite successfully as a musician and singersongwriter.

ArtistCongratz is keen to find out more about his latest album Vier, which is West Flemish dialect for “Fire” as well as Dutch for “Celebrate” and “Four”.

So Vier is like Celebrating Four times with Fire!

AC: Congratz on your new album Augustijn! Nice opportunity to compare West Flemish and English with you, being a native singer songwriter.

Augustijn: Thanks! Actually I think there are similarities between the two. Being close to England might have something to do with it. Probably also our history of always tending to adapt ourselves. Belgians in general, West Flemings even more.

So it seems rather logic that foreign words pop up in our dialects. Mostly in spoken language.

I actually read that the whole coastal area of Europe has more English sounding words in their vocabulary than the inland area does.  So I guess we must be connected somehow.

How do you come across this “phenomenon” while writing lyrics ?

On my new album, there’s this song called Bucketlist. An English word but often used here as well. Searching for a West Flemish “translation”, there seemed to be no good alternative.

I realised that “bucket list” actually sounds really Flemish. So I used it.

AC: How about Bulldozer 🎶 

Augustijn: (laughs) indeed, another English word incorporated in Belgium. And Vier…

AC: Any plans to cross our borders?

Augustijn: It’s not really my ambition but you never know… Icelanders also have a very strange sounding language practically no one else understands. But no one seems to mind that in the rest of Europe. People like it eventhough no one understands. Why should West Flemish be any different (laughs).

AC: The song Steenkerke on Vier bathes in pure nostalgia…

Augustijn: A little village, there’s nothing there but still it’s my whole world. At least it used to be as a kid. This is a nostalgic song sung by my five year old self about the place I grew up in. Near historic monuments that go back to World War I. Like a military cemetery, where both English en Belgian soldiers are buried. This was one of our favourite places where we used to play a lot. There’s this beautiful lawn. Always very quiet…

AC: You also sing about catching sticklebacks in the canal with a “seule”. And in your album’s artwork we can actually see pictures of you as a toddler. Were you already into music back then?

Augustijn: They bought me a violin when I was four years old but I don’t recall playing it (laughs). But music was always present in the house in many forms with instruments all around. I started by some piano and guitar…

By the way a “seule” is actually a bucket where we would collect the fish in.

AC: Great, one more West-Flemish word learnt, to check off on our… bucket-list.