New york, a City that attracts people from every where. A city where you don't feel foreign cause allmost everybody is. A city where people fight for their dreams and where many people fight extremely hard for what ever dream they have. The seductive power of this city is hard to deny and I'm very sensitive for it. New York is also a city which if your plans work out truly gives you the feeling that you are on top of the world.
In my case: At least not feeling lovesick anymore. Like feeling the triumph of just not feeling sad. That you are able to enjoy life again can be one of the best moments in life. You're all alone but on you're way! Imagine having this feeling out in the street of this city is very special and that is the energy of 'What a Feeling'.
I wrote the music for what a feeling in the room I rented in brooklyn. I came outof the R-train, ran into my room plugged a midi keyboard into my laptop and tried to capture the energy of the train ride. This is not an artistic thing that allways works but now it did.
When I had the beat and the chord changes sort of working I tried to give the vocals of the verse the same vibe as the way that the New York subway drivers make announcements in the train. There's this rythmic, angry not taking any no for answer kind of quality in the way they speak that I find very inspiring. and which gave a nice contrast with the much more romantic chorus.
The video clip (this is a real clip, not just a playbackvideo;-) is an interactive 360º movie where you as viewer can move the camera around in what ever corner of the set you want.
This is an idea I developed together with Adrien Jeanjean for the clip of the song 'Wonderful' for the "In A Cabin With", record 'Hum&Ears'. But that was basically a scketch of a very good Idea. Together with Lennart Bruger. I worked on better content for the concept. I think we really moved a step forward in making this technique even more exciting. Enjoy
I see a therapist
asking me to make a list.
Why my mum got sick
or even about my fathers chicks.
Looking in my head.
Things that made me really sad.
But in the end its just the trick of how
you deal with it.
What a feeling.
if I not longer need her anymore.
I'm all alone but on my way.
What a feeling whoo
I gotta let it go
Some times you win
but some times you find your dices low
What a feeling
When there's nothing left to loose
It doesn't work
Alltough you want it to
What a feeling I'm just an empty hole
I took a cat but still,
There's nothing but an empty home
What you say hey.
I guess I blew it all away.
To long I comforted
in easy breeze and sunny days.
It was so good.
Like expensive wine with healthy food.
While I was cherised by her beauty eyes
and happy mood.
What a feeling.
If I not longer need her anymore.
I'm all alone but on my way.
What a feeling.
I gotta let it go.
Some times you win.
But some times you find your dices low.
Keep on fighting kid.
Try to ease up in the pit.
Mistakes are fine.
If you try to get the learning bit.
It's one o'clock and you really need to go to bed. You have things to do tomorrow, but a post on your wall of some acquaintance you hardly know gets your attention. You read it just because you want to feel like you belong to something, like you are part of something bigger,
that you are not so alone….
But are you really?
'I Really Miss You' is about the lethargic feeling you can have sitting behind your computer trying to connect to mankind or whatever. The video tries to reflect that. I'm in Africa, trying to some nice footage with real people in it, but they don't want to be in it unless I pay them for it with my western money.
The song is also about trying to start a new life. I really like the sentence in the chorus that says: 'get yourself a new wife and a brand new dog…' which reflects a certain feeling that we can have as people in the western world. We are so individual driven that we can just start all over if we want, by ourselves, without a thought for those people we need for support. It's unlikely that it will make us any happier, but we can do wat we want.
It makes us question certain beliefs we have here, in the west. We apparently have everything, but aside from all the big TV's and i-products, I really miss the sense of community that people have in other places in this world, especially in Africa. But when I look in the mirror I see that no matter how I connect with this idea, I'm still just a western boy, so what do I do? Where do I find my community when our whole society sets us up as self motivated individualistic loners, with big TV's.
This is one of the songs that just fell out of me, I wrote it in an evening in the last week of mixing the album. I really stressed Misja who was mixing this song so it could make it onto the album, it really belonged to there. In a way it was the last child of the family.
State of the art.
I try to reach you with my digital fart.
Got my idolf and my idread.
And whoo I'm checking my profile till my eyes are red.
State of the women.
They do not need no men anymore.
State of the men.
They try to get themselfs a digital ho.
But what it all comes down to..
I really miss you.
I do.
State of the land
I seem to have five hundred friends
State of the love
Everybody back off.
State of the people
I wonder if they know what they're feeling
Is it true that going shopping
makes you think you are free?
Sick of it all
Push the button and delete love
Get yourself a new wife
and a brand new dog
But the life we lead
And the life we lost
The love
But what it all comes down to.
I really miss you
I do
If you have ever lost the one you really really love. Than you know that after a while pride doesn't count anymore. In your despiration you're willing to accept everything as long as your baby comes home. It's more or less like being a junky. and I guess that the same physical principals go in your brain as in the brain of a drug addict. This is the story of Baby come home.
I wrote this song in less than half an hour. working in the Nairobi studio. I was fed up of working on the song 'Lovedrum' which allready took a couple of days and started jamming on a fresh beat. xThe lyrics you hear were never written. They were just the first vocal take I did to try out the mic set up.
Back in holland I discovered that they were spot on telling the story of me laying in bed. Not being able to sleep but in a feverish nightmare like state of consciousness crying out for my baby to come home. Staring at the ceiling studying the patterns created by carlights passing my house. I decided to keep them allthough they are not grammatically correct. They are true captured emotion and that is, to my opinion, the magic of music.
The strumming acoustic guitars in the bridge are played by Paul Willemsen. One of the most gifted guitar players of the netherlands (I never have to edit anything when I record him…) check his music at www.myspace.com/variomatic
For this Album I asked Eelco Topper to be my co-producer. He is one of the masterminds of Knobsticker, has amazing ears and is way too wise for his age. He has been my rock to cling to in a phase of life where everything around me was changing and I still had to make a record. For this song he came up with the flute line in the bridge.
I really like the way this song is as if howlin' Wolff is juxtaposed with Abba. ;-)
Your making me crazy
cause the image is hazy
but I'm sure it's not you and me
And I pictuer a figure
It comes bigger and bigger
and I cry out for the you in me.
I dont care what you say
and I dont care what you do
but please baby wont you come home!
they say that love is all you need,
to get by.
they say that love is all you need.
It's a lie
I dont care what you say
and I dont care what you do
but please baby wont you come home!
Don't wanna look on the clock for time cause I wont gonna sleep all night
There's just this thing bearing on my mind that's making me feel not right.
Whoo baby you messed me up this time
if you knew just what you did.
Your just a crook committing lovers crimest.
Knowing that you get away with it.
I dont care what you say
and I dont care what you do
but please baby wont you come home!
They say that love is all you need
to get by
They say that love is all you need
It's a lie
What happens when your life changes dramatically and you dont really know how it's gonna turn out? It can be like you are in a big construction site, carried by an enormous elevator on the 99th floor, but you dont know if you are going up or down..
What do you do?
You cling to life. To the small stems of grass that lift up after a storm. To the smile of people that lead hard lives. This is the energy of Lovedrum. The first released single of Steye's new album called Lovedrum..
Steye went to Nairobi (Kenya) to flee a broken heart after loosing the one he loved. Dusting off an old friendship with the owners of a studio in the biggest city of east Africa. A city where extreme poverty goes hand in hand with rapid changes of luxurious modernity, where people cling to life and smile allthough they lead hard lives. In Kenya the internet is finally begining to open up knowledge, styles and vibes of richer worlds previously unreachable.
Today all over Africa milions of kids are watching you tube, sharing thier stories and also downloading software to create new music. Music that relates to them, but also to the western and eastern worlds. Watch them! because they are gonna change rock&roll again forever.Trying to get on your feet again in booming Nairobi is the energy of Lovedrum. The first released single of Steye's new album of the same name.
Meeting different inspiring musicians in the studio, Steye was really impressed by Muthoni, known as the drummer queen, and he asked her to sing the chorus of this song. You could see her as the african Missy Eliot.
Muthoni is a singer with amazing talent, not only in the tone of her voice but also in the tone of her wit. She combines a broad palate of musical taste with poignant lyrics, telling the story of big city africa in a way that every one can relate to. Please check out her site! muthonimusic.com
I am staring at the ceiling.
Finding no way out.
It is thewonderfull feeling.
I've gotta live without.
Feel the love.
Allthough it's pouring down with rain.
The skies are grey.
And nothing's left to gain.
Feel the love.
Though you hardly bear the pain.
When all that's left.
Is ruins and remains.
Somebody told me that the the time it took.
Getting to the page to finish the book
was more then half of all the time in takes
to write the book and edit all the mistakes.
And something tells me that my library
is only gonna have one copy for me.
I gotta sit and focus onto the prose
that makes me get on through my wuthering lows.
Say you want it.
Like the echo's of a tune.
But the song you sang has ended way to soon.
Say you want it.
But it's over now for days.
And all you see is fog that turns to haze.
Say you want it.
Like a plant that never dies.
But every time you water it it cries.
Say you want it.
Like it's vacuum in space.
The emptiness expanded it's embrace.
Up in my head.
I cannot put a finger on it.
For all the books that have I read.
They do not seem to bea helpin a bit.
Now all that I can do is let.
Let the feeling do it's damage and dread.
I gotta face that it is true.
And no-one is gonna help me chewing on that.
