Quittersday today? Not where the Artists in our spotlight are concerned!
But first things first. ArtistCongratz wishes all of you fine readers a Happy healthy Creative 2024 with lots of fascinating and inspiring blogposts regarding talented people in different artforms.
Before we are headed North to spot & congratulate rising talent 🎵at ESNS in the Netherlands next week, what better place to kick off our year/Belgian presidency than in the very heart of Europe.
Did you know that the European Parliament regularly organises art-exhibitions in their office buildings?
Last Tuesday we rediscovered artworks of a unique artist we interviewed before in 2022. (Picture by Dorothy Declerck)
Place to be? The Spinelli building in Brussels, where MEP Beatrice Covassi hosted this remarkable exhibition with the characteristic narrative paintings of Antoine Waterkeyn⤵️ inspired by “antiheroes” throughout history.
Biblical inspiration with Samson Et DalilaA talk with MEP Beatrice Covassi & the artist Napoleon revisited by Antoine WaterkeynSpecial thanks to interior designer Dorothy for the spot 🔛picture(s)
Last Thursday we went anything but WRONG. Yet this is the title of a worldly Belgian popsong, now eternalized in the same Hall of Fame, we also blogged about last year, traditionally hosted by the seaboard 🌊🎵@Kursaal Ostend.
The concept: one of our popular radiostations unites young and established talent in a dazzling music celebration 🏆
Picture by Jook
Scroll to discover our amazing photo gallery of Belgian music legends🎤like this incredible productive composer and talented producer Steve Willaert🎹⤵️🎖
CongratZ are also in order for Novastar aka Joost Zweegers🎶, singer songwriter of “Wrong” among other evergreens, maybe yet to come in this very Hall of Fame⭐️
(Not) Novastarstruck 👩🎤 Striking poses with the enchanting 🎶Joost Zweegers🙌 Before Wrong, best served with few introduction according to the Singersongwriter, became an instant hit in 2000, the song remained hidden for many years. Luckily we can give it its well deserved evergreen status 23 years later.Besides for Steve and Joost, CongratZ retrostyle are also in order for Margriet Hermans, leading lady in more ways then one, as well as Wim Soutaer & his all time local classic “Allemaal” 📻📺🎙 Meet Steve Willaert, one of our most productive and versatile composers. 🎶🎖Want to witness his high soundwizard-level ? Go see the latest Studio 💯 musical RED STAR LINE 🚢 or watch this small appetizer of soundtracks ⤵️, played by himself 🎹Spotlights 🔛maestro Willaert Steve also delivers breathtaking songs in musicals like this one: Red Star Line And accompanies young talents like these two 👯♀️ the performance of CAPPAERT was a tribute to their maestroA moving tribute for Lifetime achievement awarded Margriet, by her lovely also very talented daughter Celien 🎤♥️Crowd picture perfect by Stef Keynen/VRT
It’s D-Day for Baloji and his first feature film Augure. In cinema’s across Belgium this November 15th.
Just last month, Augure was presented at Filmfest Ghent in the official selection, following Cannes in Spring.
Augure, being the French word for omen, tells the story of exactly that.
A small omen to the members of The Academy perhaps ? A good one.
Our filmmakers won’t budge. Once more presenting a fine opportunity to “Oscarize” a filmgem by a multitalented Belgian artist.
Omen To Be Continued
ArtistCongratz
Director Baloji and his main cast at the Belgian premiere of Augure/Omen at this years 50th edition of Filmfest Ghent
Four characters, considered witches or wizards by their families and communities, see their paths cross in a magical-realist Congo. Only through mutual aid and reconciliation can they escape the curse that rests on them. Cast: Lucie Debay, Marc Zinga, Eliane Umuhire
Time to focus on a worldsoundtrack-pioneer at this year’s golden Filmfest Ghent.
Already living multiple artistic lives simultaneously for quite some time, we look forward to many more decades where Dirk Brossé is conducting, composing, teaching and translating the magic of sound in film to audiences around the globe.
All of the above is combined by an extraordinary maestro and creator, communicating with the world through music🎶.
Our ultimate ambassador 🇧🇪of music in film 🎞 recently added another personal highlight to his hometown festival. On Saturday October 21st, the conductor of the World Soundtrack Awards was awarded himself for his filmscore of the acclaimed documentary “Our Nature”. 🎵
The award “Best original score for a Belgian production” was won by Dirk just one day after this interview.🙌
And the award went to…🎼 (foto Filmfest Ghent – (c) Jeroen Willems)
Care to know more about Dirk Brossé’s creation process, highlights & first encounters with Filmfest Ghent ? His vision on our rapidly changing world? Keep reading and re-check this post shortly for more updates and 🆕 footage📷.
Flashback to 1984
AC: Congratz on the nomination! You represent one of the creative minds with lots of history at Filmfest Ghent. Can you recall your first encounter with the festival ?
Dirk Brossé: We go back to 1984. As a young professional musician, already conducting and composing, I literally knocked on the door of Jacques Dubrulle, the director of the filmfestival at the time. I asked him if the festival already had an opening tune. Which wasn’t the case.
I said to him: Why don’t you ask a young composer to write one ? Good idea, he replied, inquiring “ Do you know someone? (smiles)”
To make a long story short, we recorded the ouverture, I already had written:). And it became the official tune of the festival for many years. Since the beginning of the World Soundtrack Awards, we have a new tune, written by Elmer Bernstein, who gave it as a present to the festival.
Thanks to the focus on filmmusic, our theme became the impact of music on film.
Since that particular day, Filmfest Ghent evolved to one of the most important filmfestivals in the world.
Dirk Brossé
This talk between creators in music (Female singer-songwriter and musician Eiko Ishibashi) and film (screenwriter and director Ryusuke Hamaguchi) took place at Kinepolis Ghent last October 20th. Hamaguchi received the Joseph Plateau Honorary award afterwards
Rewriting the rules of cinema 🎵🎞
AC: This year, the impact of music in film goes crescendo, celebrating half a century of Filmfest Ghent with the project 25 x 2, where filmdirectors are inspired by composers.
Dirk Brossé: Exactly. To celebrate this special anniversary we wanted to do something unconventional. So we decided to ignore mainstream approaches many companies adopt, often celebrating their anniversaries in the same way.
As a cultural organisation, we were seeing things from a different angle. And our artistic director Wim De Witte came up with this great idea💡
“To ask 25 composers to write a score, and 25 filmmakers to make a film starting from the music.”
AC: ArtistCongratz already discovered the work of Juanita Onzaga, who also realizes the first VR experience at Filmfest Ghent.
Dirk Brossé: Amazing isn’t it, along with 25×2 this can pave the way for future projects.
The shortfilms, or should we say scores, can be viewed and listened to on line. They will also be projected in SMAK (Citymuseum of Actual Art in Ghent)
More iconic moments 🫶
AC: So here we are, 5️⃣0️⃣ years of awesome cinema @ Filmfest Ghent. Could you share your absolute highlights from past decades?
There are so many magnificent moments to cherish. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to work alongside great artists, early on.
Dirk Brossé
Those very first years, I remember conducting part of a concert, with icons like Elmer Bernstein and Georges Delerue. Later also with Angelo Badalamenti, a charming man and a great composer. We all know him because of Twin Peaks, but he wrote so much more beautiful filmmusic. (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive…)
Another iconic moment was when we started the WSA in October 2000. Particularly the opening concert with the Brussels Philharmonic 🎵and the music by Hans Zimmer. The lifetime achievement had been given to him by Morgan Freeman. For Hans Zimmer it was the very first concert, conducting his own score, so you can imagin how memorabel this really was…We invited him back several times over the years. He is also a very gifted producer.
This was the starting point of the World Soundtrack Academy as well as The Awards. In those days we could not have imagined that 25 years later it would become a world wide organization with hundreds of members worldwide 🌎
Like the legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto, (The last Emperor, Little Buddha, The Revenant…) who was here just a few years ago. Unfortunately he passed away.
I also very much enjoyed having the Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi at the WSA. Working with amazing Chinese and Japanese directors, he wrote the music for 2046and House of flying daggers (2004). I consider his guest appearance as a personal highlight. He brought a complete new sound to the festival. The sound of Asia joined European, British and American films.
Dirk Brossé
Dirk Brossé: Another absolute highlight was when we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the WSA. In 2010 we invited 10 composers and played their music. All of them came to Ghent.
AC: Cinema with Asian influences keeps on booming. ArtistCongratz had the opportunity to discover Oscar contender “Past Lives” by the South Korean-Canadian director Celine Song. Does a busy conductor like you get the opportunity to see gems like these at the festival?
Dirk Brossé: Being part of the festivalfamily this is a bit of a frustration. With the preparation of the concert; meetings and rehearsals, unfortunately few time is left to go see the movies. Which is a shame, I know. Because I LOVE cinema and I WOULD like to see all those beautiful titles, but you can’t have it all…
AC: Another rather 🆕 element is the increased attention for music in games this edition…
Dirk Brossé: We also have an advisory board, with important representatives of the industry; managers, producers, people from ASCAP, BMI (author & composer-societies in the US) etc.
They encouraged us to do a game music concert.Which isn’t obvious. This is a whole new world for us. Videogames hold a completely different genre, with different music, different composers.While film music has to take into account the story and the dialogues among other things, games seem to leave more freedom to the composer. As far as I experienced, I feel like there is more flow.
“A.I. Is In The House”
AC: A hot topic concerning us all we would like to know your opinion about is how the rise of artificial intelligence will relate to our (creative) worldin the future. Should we fear or endear A.I. ?
Dirk Brossé: It’s another technical revolution. We have had many. When we look at the history of cinema, the first amazing innovation and maybe the most important one was that they brought sound to thefilm in the early thirties. It changed the industry completely.
AC: But manmade none the less…
Dirk Brossé: True, but I think in general, not only in film or art but in our daily life, Artificial Intelligence is there. We cannot ignore it anymore. The question is: will it take over at some point?
I really believe that in the long run, maybe hundreds of years from now, man will have to leave the planet. Flash forward to the implosion of Earth: of course it won’t happen overnight but remember the dinosaurs also disappeared over a period of time…
Now we still are human beings and we act and think like human beings. But A.I. is not just around the corner anymore. It’s in the house.
AC: But since “A.I.” is “inspired” by what’s manmade, how to safeguard creator’s rights beyond our lifetime?
Dirk Brossé: This is a big thing indeed. All of us, in all sectors and all disciplines of art we have to think about it.
But A.I. is part of the evolution of mankind. Of course I can’t say that I’m thrilled by the idea that tomorrow a director will ask his computer to write a score instead of a composer. That would make me unhappy but at the same time a lot of things have disappeared over the course of our history. Some of us are already bionic. Wanting to evolve is part of our nature…
AC: Which brings us right back where we want to be: your winning score 🫶🌳🍀🍁🎼
The sound of Our Nature
AC: Let’s hope music and our cultural legacy will remain🤞
Dirk Brossé: Of course:)
AC: On somewhat shorter notice;), tell us about your future projects and the natural manmade creation process of your winning score:)🎶🍃🍀
Dirk Brossé: It was created during COVID. What is so special about this project is that I wrote the music without having seen the film.I just saw some rushes of the birds and few footage. The episodes are a connection of small stories. When I was asked to compose the score, they were still filming.
Actually I started composing around some keyboards 🎹, like procreation, the beauty of nature. But also the danger…the survival of the fittest; animals literally having to kill in order to survive…
The great advantage of this collaboration was that once the music was recorded they cut the picture to the music.
Dirk Brossé about the making of “Our Nature”
At some point I had to develop a language, which I did. But due to different directors who came and went in the process, guidelines kept changing… eventually leading us to this first more abstract approach.
AC: That must have been quite stressful, but with great results.
Dirk Brossé: Indeed, in the end it’s always the result that counts. Technically, to me it was important to be able to cut or bring back in bits of the music rather easily…
AC: AC is particularly moved by how you make the birdsounds merge within the music…(The Great Trek🎶🦅)
Dirk Brossé: Yes, the sounds of the birds are actually part of the music. The music always has a flow. How to say this, I like to leave room for imagination and bring some kind of peace into people’s minds, to make them enjoy the view…
AC: and the sound 💭🎵
Thank you Maestro🎼 For the inspiring talk👩🏻💻& sound 🎼 CongratZ again ! 🙌💐
As curator of the starting point of the Belgian European presidency in 2024, Dirk is preparing this major music event which also will be broadcasted on January 6th. Looking forward to all this major international homegrown talent shining on stage in the heart of Europe. Mechelen-Malines (Belgium) for the occasion. 🫶🇪🇺
Half a century of iconic festivalmoments in international cinema on Belgian soil. This calls for a special celebration. ArtistCongratz’ cue to make Filmfest Ghent’s image- and soundwizards shine even more this year✨
2023 will enter history as the 50th edition opened by Holly, selected in Venice just last September, and the fifth feature film, directed by Fien Troch.
Once again this Belgian talent makes us watch more closely into the sometimes harsh world youngsters have to deal with.
From 22 November Holly will play in cinemas in Belgium
Be sure not to miss our next post, zooming in on the creative process of Fien and her crew/cast as well as the amazing course of the film so far.
But first we’d like to focus on two other impressive productions.
One is likely to become Oscarnominated in 2024, called “Past Lives”, by Celine Song. This story about childhood sweethearts frozen in time will touch many (broken) hearts.
The other is the first VR experience at Filmfest Ghent. “Floating with spirits” will submerge you into a universe in and out of this world. Created by the Colombian-Belgian director Juanita Onzaga, featuring…her audience.
By placing the viewer in the middle of her film, he becomes part of it.
While she whispers the story as if she doesn’t want to bother the spirits, she makes them dance around, one with nature.
“Floating with Spirits” is an absolute must-experience
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!
Augustijn presenting his latest album live at De Grote Post in Ostend
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…
Nice talk in Augustijn’s hometown Ostend
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).
Augustijn rocks 🎸🥁
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.
🎵🎶🔥4️⃣🥳 open call; find out which song refers to epic lyrics written by Augustijn’s father Willem 🛣
During but also in between interviews ArtistCongratz likes to share star quality in all forms, shapes and sizes. From stages with views to stadiums to queue.
Let’s focus on who your editor saw shining these past few weeks: From gloring young new talent to poetic mega-stars in mediastorms.
King Baudoin Stadium 🏟 August 4th, 2023; Rammstein lands along with piano duo Abélard 🎹 playing their own Sonne-version ☀️🌞see video 2 👇Abelard introducing Rammsteins Sonne by AbelardWhat are the odds? On my way to join my friends in the audience, coming across this member of an Estonian rockband, seeking promotion 🎶✍️Www.californiacondormusic.comtania_gh_ram 🎶mstein-Kick off The King Baudoin-stadium turns into a smokey music factory
But before this hard core poetry from Germany we witnessed somewhat softer kinds in Ostend at the annual coastfestival Theater Aan Zee 🌊 🎭🎵
Helena Casella in concert at “Theater Aan Zee 2023” in Cafékoer Ostend Funky soul by Helena Casella🎤⬇️⤵️
Theater Aan Zee is like a cross road where shores, music & theatre meet through all kinds of art. How about this universal tale that tells the moving story of… human sheep in between worlds.⤵️
The Sheep Song, a mustsee cross over play produced by Toneelhuis & FC-Bergman, a Belgian company which received a Silver Lion at Venice Biennale just last June https://www.toneelhuis.be/en/⤵️Or this production 4.48 by The Roovers outside at sunset
3’Ain! عينWhere west joins east in sea(s) of stories. Narrated by a jazztrio on point.
(Re)discover our interviewee Piet Maris (accordion), founder of Jaune Toujours and 3’Ain, surrounded by his fellow-bandmembers Otto Kint (double bass) and Yamen Martini (trumpet) -picture by Diana Takcsova-
“Reversed three”
AC: Very important first question! Inspired by the eighteenth letter of the arabic alphabet, how do you pronounce the name of your newest band ? عين Because reportedly for western people it seems almost impossible to pronounce…
Piet: (laughs) Actually that’s what Wikipedia says, it’s more of a story than a reality. I played in a trio before with a Syrian cello player. Really eager to do something similar, I wanted to continue in a trio formula.Searching for a name, I really wanted it to refer to us as a trio and to our cultural bagage. Including our middle eastern influences through Yamen.
So I came up with this character as a reversed three, which is actually some sort of sign: عين
In Arabic chat and sms conversation , the AIN is often represented by a 3, sometimes explicitly mentioned as 3ain. So here comes in this 3 AIN.
Piet Maris
That was a good starting point for me. You should pronounce it a bit in the back of the throat.Ch ain, Three like in English, ein like in German if you want…:)
AC: Makes you wonder how does that go when announced on stage?
Piet: They always ask the question, how do we pronounce it? Actually it’s not so hard but it creates a story indeed. Although I wasn’t aware of that in the very beginning.
“Instant click”
AC: You met Yamen while making music for a play?
Piet: We actually met amidst the asylum crisis of 2016. Yamen had arrived in Belgium earlier but at some sort of manifestation, making a solidarity demo for refugees, we were kind of put together as musicians. “You will blend well” they said. Luckily we actually did;).
We instantly clicked. From that moment on, I started to involve him in my on going projects. Like this very special one in Mortsel. Initiated by Caroline Rottier. She’s a theatre maker, known for her inclusive work. In which she also involves people with disabilities. She asked me to do the music for this piece called “Move”. About people on the move. A very nice play and open project, offering a lot of artistic freedom.
We rehearsed with the actors. At first just me as a musician, to get the inspiration. At a certain point I pulled in Yamen, and the other cello-player to collaborate. This was our first creation together.
“Scrambled Ensor”
AC: Sounds really cool indeed. But so does your working space where 3’Ain gets inspired by all kinds of boats passing by… 🛥🚢⛴🛳
Piet: We have this huge privilege to be able to rehearse in the port of Ostend, in the quarters of a social artistic work place called O666, at the site of Fort Napoleon. (Picture by Diana Takacsova)
Being one of the very few places over there with a very ancient character to it, quite the contrast with all those posh new built projects in the neighbourhood.
It has a recording studio, which we use as a rehearsing room. It happens to have a big window with a magnificent view to the boats passing by.
Like the BZ189🎶🛥, spotted while looking outside pretty randomly: which-boat-is-here? Songs, titles and tracks are born here. This is where our first EP was made. Clearly 🙂
Piet: Sea of Stories, our recent album, still contains references to the sea but less literally. For instance, there is a song called: Scrambled Ensor.
AC: Great title.
Piet: Actually we didn’t invent it ourselves. During a livestream in confinement, playing some sort of première of the song, we asked our virtual audience to come up with a title.
Everyone had a strong souvenir of the period you weren’t allowed to go the seaside etc. Possibly they were inspired by former works of us. Explaining why the Ostend-reference is still there.
Piet Maris
“Exchange between cultures”
AC: 3’Ain tends to reach a large audience ?
Piet: I also find it very charming to see a punkrock band in concert. They tend to reach a more specific audience. But a lot of music is broading up these days. I like to keep the music accessible in all my projects. Always seeking common ground. For 3‘Ain, in different fields of western music, going in dialogue with middle eastern traditions.
Nor me, nor the bass player Otto, are very familiar with all those traditions. In that way Yamen is facilitating our exchange between cultures.
Our song “Meeting Issues” represents his feeling of being “wired”, how hard it is missing his family all over the world…
ArtistCongratz’ cue to make y’all experience this narrative sound of 3’Ain in even more intriguing titles like Tango Soleil du Nord🎶 Listen below 🤳👇
Want to experience Sea of Stories by 3’Ain live? Go see this trio in concert coming 🔜 all over Belgium⬇️
September 9th: Sjruur, Maaseik
October 24th: Entr (De Centrale), Gent
January 14th: Jazzy Sunday (Leietheater), Deinze
January 19th: Cinéma Le Parc (Les Grignoux), Luik (Liège)
Have a field day at ArtistCongratz ! Inside a legendary studio.
Did you know that one of our most sollicited Belgian record studio’s is owned and directed by Patrick Hamilton in the lovely town of Bruges? Join us following heartbeats of music industry, blogging and vlogging on holy production-ground.
Patrick in his studio (picture by Jan Dharthet)
Over the years (nineties and nillies), Patricks studio became the center of attention for a lot of national artists. That is still very much the case to this day.
But the bigger picture lay ahead. Patricks ability and talent to also lift up music talent worldwide did not go unnoticed.
His international career as a producer took off about a decade ago.
Patrick: I had a manager in Nashville. It kind of bothered him that I was never available because of numerous national projects. But once I came across some major international A & R-folks on a yacht in the south of France, I quickly left my Flemish way of thinking. The time had come to leave my comfort zone.
The first international artist I came across was Mark Masri. When he was nominated the Juno Award for Best album in Canada, Universal England seemed interested. I thought they were signing the artist I produced, but actually it was me who ended up working with one of the biggest names in the UK.
Considered an almost unreachable star, Katherine Jenkins would become one of the first to perform the new anthem “God save the King”. So you can imagine I was honoured to be able to work with her.
Working with Katherine
I studied classical music at the conservatory in Ghent, so technically I was able to do arrangements for big orchestra. Although I had never done it before, I felt I could do it.
Honoured as “Officer of the British Empire” Katherine Jenkins is a neo classic cross-over singer, who’s style can be compared to Andrea Bocelli’s. She has her own television program on BBC, called “Songs of Praise”.
In December Patrick was invited to perform with her, his quatre mains-compagnon Nel Swerts & Sir Cliff Richard in the Royal Albert Hall in London.
With his « 4-mains-companion » Nel Swerts 🎹🎹
AC: How often are you in your studio? Patrick: During COVID, I was here all the time. Just a few days before the lockdown, I had finished an album with Katherine. I needed a vacation because of the hard work but it turned out to be a holiday of two years. Literally locked into my studio, I could have layed down and got depressed. But that’s not really my nature. So I took it as an opportunity.
There was nothing else to do. I started with some solo piano music.
AC: Some extra time as a gift for your inspiration and development as a songwriter?
Patrick: I think it was a twist of fate. Into a new world. Suddenly I found myself to be an artist you can find on Spotify. Before I was a producer. You could find a lot of my music but not my name. That has changed during Corona.
AC: Should a producer not be considered as an artist as well?Patrick: Combining producing and songwriting opens the door to all kinds of connections.
But you are right, the producer is definitely part of the artistic process of an artist. How the songs are born, how you’re colouring them as a producer, is like picturing a painting.
You have all the ingredients but then you have to combine them in all the right ways. There are so many different ones to approach a production. You might want it to sound big, like music played in a hall. Or very intimate in a small room. Both require very different approaches.
Overall mine is to follow your guts. Trying to make the best production possible. That’s how I say see it.
AC: Pushing all the right buttons you showed us on the tour trough your studio. (Soon to be published on our TikTok-account)
Patrick is quite happy working in the shades. Iworked with so many famous people that can’t walk on the streets. Recognition has two meanings. You can get bothered that people recognise your face. Them being aware of your work is so much more important.
But once connected with music-executives like Martin Dodd and Ricardo Fernandez, working with Britney Spears and The Back Street Boys among others, Patricks career as a songwriter and producer took an international turn. Holding over 27 million streams (on Spotify only) of his songs combined, this goes way beyond his expectations. Patrick: I was hoping to get one million streams one day (laughs).
Do you feel you have developed your own trade mart as a producer?
Patrick: I hope so, as I mentioned: You can’t put me in one basket. Hopping from genre to genre. But some people recognise kind of a trade mart in my productions. That’s a huge compliment.
Patrick celebrated his 60th birthday with a special concert in Bruges.
And a stunning biography (In Dutch), full of tales like these.
Belgium’s lucky number 7’s now have three countries to pick from for their next vacation(s). Or go conquer stages of the nations who granted us 12 points.
Doing a marvellous job on the iconic one in Liverpool. Sacred ground for ever found. Congratz Gustaph & Cie, you did great! The song Because of You will go full circle.
Seems we are headed to even holier Eurovision ground next year.
Thanks to Loreen and her lyrical Tattoo 🎵. Leaving Finland runner up. Cha cha cha cha cha cha…🎵catchy though Käärija!🇫🇮
The lady with the toughest nails and shortest aria’s manages to break through ceilings allright. The “staged” and a glass one, being the first woman to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice. In 2012, she felt « Euphoria » for the first time in Baku, Azerbedjan.
ₜₐₜₜₒₒ ₜᵣᵢᵤₘₚₕ, ᵥᵢₙₜₐgₑ ₘₑₑₜₛ fᵤₜᵤᵣₑ
2024 celebrates the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s winning “Waterloo”, which is in…Belgium 🇧🇪
Let’s try again and go full circle. Maybe with “a mighty masked singer”👸🏼who won ESC for us 37 years ago. Since her 1986-triumph, an adorable teenager with a pink bow and a life-loving Eurosong has transformed into a « Queen »
How about it Sandra, dear? Loreen, Johnny and…you ?🎀
ArtistCongratZ
Throwback to 1986🎤Sandra Kim in the Norwegian Town of Bergen.
ArtistCongratz 