Antillectual

Reaching the end of the year it’s time to reflect on what happened in 2024, announce our end of the year party and hint at next year’s plans!

Twenty twenty four

It’s been a crazy ride! Starting with getting presented as number 5 Export Product by the Dutch Performance Rights organization BUMA, followed by a media circus that we never thought we’d experience. After that blew over we had a busy live schedule touring through France, Spain and Portugal in March for 2 weeks, followed by a fabulous time at Manchester Punk Fest. In April we had the joy and honor of touring with Pussy Riot and playing Italy. In May we played NOFX’ final Dutch show and we probably did our nicest headline shows ever in Germany! Summer was relatively quiet but playing Pikpop in Groesbeek and a handful of Dutch shows was a nice way to stay in shape live. Meanwhile we were working on new music behind the scenes! To be continued…

Friends First Fest

Traditionally our final show will be Friends First Fest! Happening on December 14 at De Onderbroek in Nijmegen NL. Our friends in The Possible Suspect, Loud Love and Krime will join us! Proceeds going to Minor Operation Donations, pay as you like tickets can be found here! Don’t snooze because traditionally FFF sells out…

Merch

Winter is here, and it is actually getting cold! We have beautiful zipped hoodies available in all sizes, and 2 shirt designs for that extra layer to keep you warm. Bundles with our album for 30 euro, all via our web shop, orders always come with free stickers and more!

2025

Looking ahead we can’t tell you too much yet, but in 2025 we plan to release 3 new singles, with the first one coming this spring. We also have a lot of touring and festivals planned! We’ve got big touring plans for March and April but for now we can give you a sneak peek with 3 awesome February dates (beautiful tour poster by Daggers Design!). Show info and tickets at our website.

That’s it for now, thanks for reading our newsletter! Don’t be shy, hit reply; we love hearing from you… In the next episode you will find out where we’re going in March and April and when to expect new music!

Take care, Ben, Riekus & Willem

Missed our previous newsletter? Find it here!

It’s a struggle for us, because we both benefit and suffer from it; it’s a blessing and a curse in one. We love the idea of connecting with people worldwide via social media, and that people from all over this globe can reach out. But as the power of big tech rises and algorithms take control, the reach of and control over our own output diminishes. Even before it became X, Twitter already deteriorated and it’s a complete shithole now. Facebook is a terrible platform with half of its functionality not even working properly?! Insta and TikTok are obsessed with virality, which makes it hard for regular updates to surface. Unless you flawlessly play the game by their rules…

The same goes for digital media platforms like Spotify and YouTube. Follow the rules or the algorithm will not pick you up! Even though digitization promised us all equal opportunities to connect with others, big/commercial companies or people who are able and willing to comply have a better shot at getting their message out.

This is not a rant to whine and complain about how hard our life as an independent band is. We realize our privileged position and the fact that these are mere first world problems. And of course we’re not leaving social media. If anything this is a call! A call to directly follow bands and organizations you wanna support! Via personal media like email newsletters, WhatsApp updates or simply by checking their websites. Those channels are more reliable to hear news first than any “For You” algorithm.

Find our email newsletter and WhatsApp updates via our website: antillectual.com/newsletter, we’ve got a lot of news coming soon! Just like our newsletters we’ll end this message with “don’t be shy, hit reply”, we love hearing from you <3

After movie for the final Dutch NOFX show in Eindhoven, May 19, 2024: We expected it to be a crazy show and it ended up being exactly that!

The weather threw us a curveball: we had to put on sunblock during soundcheck because the sun was burning a hole through my skin. Second memory is plugging in our guitars to start the set, looking up and seeing a curtain of rain pouring down over the people in front of the stage. What a way to start…

We had some true “strijders” in front of us risking their health and pulling everyone through the rain. When the sun finally came out a huge wave of people that had been sheltering from the rain and watching us from afar rushed to the stage, truly heartwarming <3

Video by TijsVL and Moonboy Films

Our recent German dates were amazing, with the Berlin show at Badehaus as the cherry on the cake! Can we do this again soon, pretty please?!
Beautiful pictures by Teo Apostolecu.

We’re not even halfway 2024 and we’ve been all over the place already! And we’ve still got many visits left! France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and the United Kingdom were great, Germany and The Netherlands are looking extremely promising!

Done

Our 2 week tour to France, Spain and Portugal was really something! It had been a while since we last visited, but it was incredible seeing our friends there, playing our new tunes for them and making new friends at that! We finally made it back to the UK for Manchester Punk Fest, and we were pleasantly surprised following up our recent little Italy trip! We took some photos of our adventures and posted them on the news feed of our website.

From shots of the tour with Pussy Riot we created a nice lyric video for “Support Bands” together with Bram Bergs. It felt fitting: a song about bands supporting people and movements under pressure. Let them know that they’re not alone, people across the world are rooting for them!

To do

Coming up next is the very last NOFX show that will happen in the Netherlands, in Eindhoven on May 19. Also featuring Circle Jerks, Heideroosjes, Negative Approach, Itchy and the Last Gang. We can’t even comprehend what this event is going to be like, but we’re more than ready to give our all singing them farewell!

After recovering from the NOFX hangover, we’ve got 4 shows in Germany, including guaranteed fun times in some of our favorite cities Berlin and Hannover:

22.05 Krefeld, Kulturrampe w/ Molly Punch
23.05 Hannover, Stumpf w/ Chester Park, Couchdivers
24.05 Berlin, Badehaus w/ Good Views, Bad News
25.05 Bielefeld, Fairticken w/ Sleepless Nights

And in June we will be hitting our Dutch home turf:

07.06 Den Haag, PAARD w/ Cooper
14.06 Gouda, So What w/ STiCKFiGS
21.06 Uden, De Pul

Info and tickets for all of the shows above can be found on the tour list on our website.

That’s it for now, thanks for reading our newsletter! Don’t be shy, hit reply; we love hearing from you… In the next episode you will find out about our fall plans!

Take care, Ben, Riekus & Willem

Missed our previous newsletter? Find it here!