photo: Simon Vanrie
Frankly, I don’t know much about music from Belgium. Which is a pity. Obviously there seems to be really interesting stuff going on: There is BRNS for instance, an exceptional indie band from Brussels that I interviewed two weeks ago. Today, I am going to introduce you to another fantastic Belgian indie band (just in case you don’t know them already): Girls in Hawaii. In their home country they are already really popular. Now their album Everest has recently been published.
In our interview we talked to Antoine and Daniel about music by Pixies, Pavement, Johnny Cash, Nancy Sinatra and Kylie Minogue & Nick Cave.
Pixies Wave of Mutilation
One of our favourite bands. It’s from the album Doolittle. Not the best song on this album., but their best Album by far. I know the lyrics by heart. Once we met their drummer backstage and he showed us a magic trick with cards.
Pavement Shady Lane
THE indie-band par excellence. They can’t really sing or play guitar. That’s what makes them so cool. That’s why once we tried to cover a Pavement song (Stereo). But it’s impossible.
Johnny Cash Folsom Prison Blues
The great Johnny Cash. The funny thing about folk music is that we started to discover it by listening to the post-folk singers like William Oldham and all the Palace Music Stuff and then went backwards over Cash to the old Blues. He really doesn’t seem to enjoy the playback. After all I think I prefer the movie to the reality.
Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood Summer Wine
I sung that one at the marriage of a friend. Great tune. All that classy string-arrangements. She is still doing interesting records.
Nancy Sinatra is for me one of the most xciting stars from this period. I think she has been underestimated because of that father/daughter thing.
Kylie Minogue & Nick Cave Where the Wild Roses Grow
I remember that my older sister listened to this one when she was in her room with her boyfriend. She locked the door and I heard the song through the walls. I was a kid. When I understood what the lyrics are about, I was scared for my sister.
It’s cool that Mister Cave is for some festivals this summer. And he just put out the sentence of the year: “I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the **** is this garbage?’ And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Girls in Hawaii Misses
The End of a story. That’s it… Olivier Cornil made it, as a last gift to us… We worked together since the very beginning. I really love that video, it was made in a hurry and without money… But he took advantage of that situation. He only used archivals free of charges. For days and days, he was searching like a gold miner, patiently collecting pieces of life, faces and all those images of exploding stuffs or natural disaster…
It talks about so many things and nothing precisely in the same time… Sadness, loss, disappearing, but also some kind of hopes or beauty. Very vague, but in a beautiful way, then it’s easy for everyone to create his own story, to find personal meanings in all those symbolic and metaphorical images… The bridge is it dancing or collapsing?
