Antillectual

On July 25 we announced our search for a new bass player. During the last 1,5 month over 30 people responded to our call; from North America to Italy, from the UK to Belgium and of course a lot of response from the Netherlands. We are incredibly thankful for all the applications, kind words and other support. We had to find someone with outstanding bass skills, singing experience, endless dedication and creative input; on and off stage. This process is something we never want to deal with ever again (headhunting, what a business), but we are really confident about the result.

Drum roll please: Glen is the great new addition to our band! He has been playing bass and singing in bands for over 10 years (we actually played one of our first shows ever with his former band), with a background in punk, hardcore and hiphop and experience as full time promoter. In stead of the usual high-fiving on the deal, we forced him to sign a contract for life.

You can read more about Glen in his interview for De Bassist (in Dutch) about joining our band. Even though Koen will play bass on our upcoming tour with Static Radio, Glen will join us as well. From halfway November we will be hitting stages with Glen. Hitting hard!

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“Overwhelming” and “heart warming” are the best words to describe all the support, the kind words and of course the applications we got so far! It is very cool to get messages from people all over the world wishing us the best searching for a new band member. On top of that there are quite some people that actually want to join our band! From young to old, boy to girl, Dutchy to North American, we got all sorts of people responding. There is no doubt we will succeed finding a great addition to our band.

And for those of you still in doubt; if you feel like joining us or know others that should, get in touch with us!

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We are very sorry to spread the news that Tim has decided to quit playing bass for us. Our band and his solo work are impossible to combine without one of them being neglected. We regret Tim’s leaving, but understand his decision. Since being in this band is simply too much fun, we are on the lookout for a new bass player. If you feel like joining our band, or know someone that might be interested, get in touch with us!

To make clear what kind of input we expect from our future bass player and what he or she can expect in return, we have some points of interest:

Input:

• be a 100% dedicated member of a full time band, on and off stage
• play bass, do (backing) vocals
• weekly practice in Nijmegen
• preferably have a driver’s license
• preferably own bass gear, though we can sort this out in the beginning

Return:

• a steady touring schedule of around 100 shows per year, 90% outside of Holland
• the chance to travel the world, meet friendly people and play/tour with a lot of bands
• 2 dedicated fellow band members, and a reliable network of helping hands
• the opportunity to work on songs for upcoming albums
• an old but very steady-going Mercedes sprinter band van

To be clear: all upcoming confirmed shows and tours will be played, either by Tim or by stand-in Koen (formerly Of No Avail, Facing Down, Close Second).

“Our band could be your life!” Anyone interested in taking part, please get in touch!

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Nope, Tom is not going to play acoustic or solo. Tom has decided to quit playing bass with us. As much as we regret his decision, we support him making it. After more than a year of fruitful cooperation, including recording a new album, Tom has decided to focus on other things. In Tom’s words:

Quitting something you love is never easy, so neither is this. For the last 15 or 16 months I have been a part of this touring machine and I will be a part of this until early February. In these months we recorded an album, did awesome tours to lots of countries that I haven’t played or even been before, played a quickie at Groezrock, went on tour with the great guys in High Five Drive and played with some of my favorite bands of all time. Besides that, I was able to play with some of the best musicians and best guys I know. I had a great time in this band, but the time has come for me to pull the plug. Putting my heart and head into this band is something I really loved, but I can’t find the time anymore to do it the upcoming year. Other things in my life ask more time than I have and that means I have to choose between different things. Unfortunately, a lot of things couldn’t continue without me, but the band can! And will! I’m happy that Riekus and Willem will continue this band and have already found another great guy to take over my duties. The last thing I wanted, was to give Antillectual a hard time, but it seems that touring a lot to promote the new album will be easier than ever!

And for me? I will focus on the things that need to be done and probably pick up a guitar when I have time again.
For now I would like to thank Riekus and Willem for giving me the opportunity to play in this band. Also thanks to Etjen and Thomas for helping out in so many ways. Although it was a short time, it has been a blast!

Ajuus!
Tom

Since we seem to be able to change our line up more often than Lady Gaga changes outfits, we haven’t given up hope and we will continue without Tom. For those of you that already knew of Tom’s departure, we also have news: a guy named Tim will take Tom’s place. Some of you may know Tim better as Tim van Tol. We have played together with Tim in the past and come across his name throughout Europe and even the USA. When we coincidentally got in touch with him we talked about Tom’s departure and he seemed willing to take his spot. Riekus and I are very happy to welcome Tim to our bass player-guzzling machine called Antillectual and we are looking forward to play shows with this gifted musician. Tim will of course continue his solo work next to playing bass for us.

Tom’s last show with us will be at the ACU, Utrecht on February 4. Other bands playing: Tim van Tol (the coincidence!) and more to be confirmed …

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I could imagine that our stories bore you as much as my stories bore the rest of the travel crew, but we’re still with Willem, Riekus, Maltix, P. Titty and me. This last part contains our four last shows, all in France, featuring more police, Burlesque strippers… The complete tour report with videos and pictures is right here

Thursday February 11th 2010 – Bayonne, Basque country (the French part)

Pasaia to Baiona, should be 60 kilometers, so not that long. Luckily we left in time, cause it was snowing, slippery roads and a car crash on the peage highway, meaning: a traffic jam. It took us a couple of hours to get there. When we arrived, we could hang out at Manux’ place. Got some coffee and had some good conversations about punkrock. The show this night was part of a music festival in the city at different locations. We played at bar Embuscade. Sounds like a place for Dutch punkrock! Marnix and Manux got the van to drive it to the street, but they didn’t seem to find the right way. I have been waving for half an hour at the corner of the street and they passed me 3 or 4 times. Aaaaargh! I thought I was blind!

We were supposed to be the only band playing at the bar, but after two and a half song, the police thought that it was one band too much. Again the police showed themselves your best friend! Result, we had to quit. So we decided to get the acoustic guitar from the van and play some acoustic songs. After all, there were people that came for the show and we didn’t want to let the filmcrew of the local Basque TV channel down. Willem and Riekus were used to playing acoustic songs with Yvo. For me it was new, so I focussed on drinking whisky and eating peanuts and do an ocassional vocal harmony. Kinda weird, but fun. We drank some local Basque alcoholic drinks, got our picture taken with the bartenders and went back to Manux’ house, got some food and had a good night sleep.

Friday February 12th 2010 – La Rochelle, France

Today we were heading north again. The van took us to the beautiful city of La Rochelle. On our way we passed Cognac and since we got used to drink local schnapps, we got some this night! We arrived at Barbarella and saw two showposters for this night. One was the Antillectual tourposter, second was a Burlesque strippers poster. Huh? We went inside, got a beer from the bartender and he confirmed that there was going to be a Burlesque show that night. We got picked up by Antoine from Mel Team Plugs to eat at his place. After the food we were back in time for the first Burlesque show. Imagine you’re in the 50’s with pin-ups. Was weird to see that at the punkrockshow, but I guess there was a double booking. There were two local punkrockbands on the bill and after them, there was another pin-up show. We played as last on the small stage. Willem stood in front, I wanted to do the same, but people were standing in front. I decided to play on stage and during the first song, I fell off. Fail! I got up and continued the rest of the show as if nothing had happened. We got great responses during and after the show, which is always nice. We said goodbye to the rock ‘n roll bar and got back to Antoines house to spend the night. Drank the Cognac, busted the water reservoir in the toilet and went to sleep.

Saturday February 13th 2010 – Brest, France

We got up and took off to Brest, the most western part of France. I did not realise this city is more to the west than the largest part of Wales. We found the venue and met promoter Plume, the singer of Speedball. Unloaded the van, got some cheap gas for the van and had great food. The dessert was a vegan banana kiwi pie. Yummie! Petit sstarted to drink most of the wine and got a little drunk I guess. Firsts band played streetpunk with a couple of more influences. Not really my cup of tea. Speedball played melodic hardcore that reminded me of bands like Bane and O’Hara. Actually, Plume and his outfit reminded us all of Pitter O’Hara. When Riekus sent Pitter a textmessage, he turned out to be in Brest. We hooked him up with a guestlist spot and Pitter was right in time for our show. We played after Last Exit To Brooklyn, who played more modern hardcore. I was really impressed by the amount of people at the show. It’s always nice to play when there are lots of people. I saw some people dancing and we had to play two encores. Didn’t know my old body was able to do that. After the show we said goodbye to Pittter, met another Dutch guy who was a t the show and tried to get away from drunk girls. We slept at a friend of Plume and had to wake up really eraly. Tomorrow was going to be the last day of tour, meaning a 750 kilometer drive to Lille and after Lille the drive home, with stops in Lembeek, Breda and Nijmegen.

Sunday February 14th 2010 – Lille, France

Today was the last day of tour and the trip was tough. First we had to go from Brest to Lille. We drove through Bretagne and Normandy to get to Lille. On our way we past Dinan and Caen, reminding me of bad music. We arrived a little late in Lille, but we were in time for the soundcheck. Shared some backline with Fast Motion and Foolish and the show started almost in time. First band played music that sometimes reminded me of Swedish Smalltown. Like! Foolish was the second band and although the guys played pretty well, I will bever be a fan of ska music. Third was Fast Motion, a band that I really like. It had been a year since I saw them, so it was good to see them again. The guys told me they were going to tour Japan, awesome! We played as last and I guess we were a bit tired from the tour and longing to go home. There were not that much people, but we gave it our best shot. After the show, we quickly loaded the van, got some food and left for Lembeek, Belgium, where Petit lives. We heard horrible stories about the weather forecast and it started to snow when we left. Belgian roads are always bad, but this night they were even worse. We made it to Lembeek, dropped off Petit and continued our way to Breda. I got out there and waved goodbye to Willem, Riekus and Marnix who had to finish the last part to Nijmegen. After 16 days on the road, we were home again. Don’t think this will slow us down, this week has 3 more shows and next week we will be recording our new album. Oh, were also planning new tours. One with High Five Drive from Canada to France, Belgium and the UK and another one through a large part of Europe in spring. See you on the road!

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