We are NE1! A Dutch rockband with a lot of new modern influences.We don’t like to make music in a way every band does. We try to incorporate many styles and influences in our music, which you can hear on our album. Anything from trouser-flapping bass lines to soothing piano-tunes, from ‘old-school’ rock to modern day break beats, you can expect anything!

The idea is basically creating music which we, the band members, all like. We are all creative people with totally different musical backgrounds, and when you put them all together and let them do what they want you get an album like this! Marco and Koen created the basic ideas for each song, and after that every NE1 member filled their ‘part’ in their own way and style. This way we were able to write and record this whole album within a year, and we won’t stop there.. The second album is half finished!

At first the concept of the band was mixing rock with dance and electronic music, but the result turned out to be so much more.. Everyone put in their effort, and everybody did a great job!

The name NE1 also comes from there.. We try to create music in which anyone can find something they like. From NE1, for anyone!

The name for the album is something that everyone interpreters in their own way. Everyone has their own ‘Light of Life’, a thing you are really passionate about. For us, it’s music, but to each his own.. 

I have to correct you, we don’t just have 2 backgrounds, we have 5! Everyone has a different musical taste.. For instance, Frank also plays in a blues-band, and Koen creates hardcore-dance in his home-studio! Natasja regularly plays with Action in DC, an AC/DC tribute-band, and Marco used to tour the world with Soylent Green.. Influences come from all over the planet! We all listen to all different kinds of music, but if you must have some names that were of particular influence to us:

The Prodigy, Pink Floyd, Junkie XL, The Doors, Muse, David Bowie, Radiohead and many more! Keep in mind that we are NOT trying to sound like any of these bands, we try to create our very own style and sound!

 

We have to get this out of your system, we are NOT a duo! Marco and Koen started this whole thing and do most of the writing for the music and lyrics, but the rest is definitely NE1! Everyone gets to put in their parts and ideas.. We consider ourselves as a full band with 5 different, equal opinions.

 

You just answered that question yourself, haha.. It just looks great! Our graphic designer, Dorjan Duitshof, created an amazing drawing, which just looked better in 1 piece, so we chose the digi-pack! Furthermore, it just looks better than a regular jewel-case, doesn’t it?

 

Marco and Koen started writing in the first place. We didn’t make any concrete plans on how to combine styles or whatsoever, we just started and the more we wrote, the more we started to develop our own style. Sometimes we are in the mood for fat dance-beats (like 'Stabbed'), the other day we write something more relaxed (like 'My Angel'). There are no limits or boundaries!

When we start writing a track, Marco and Koen lay down the basic foundation of the track. Chord schemes, rhythms, ideas, sounds, samples, etcetera, everything on the computer. These concepts basically, well.. sound like crap, with computer-generated guitars, bass and drums. We hand those ideas and concepts to the rest of the band, and they all come up with their own ideas, following the basic concept of the track. When we go into the studio everyone does their own ‘thing’, and sometimes tracks sound totally different after recording! Which is a good thing, as we think this band is a group effort, not just a duo or project!

 

All of those, please! Haha.. We never created music with the sole purpose of making money. If we wanted to do that, we could just copy another successful band, slap that on a cd and try to sell as much as we can, without putting our hearts and souls into the music. The main goal is playing live a lot! Festivals, clubs, call us and we will be there! Of course it would be nice to get some recognition within Europe and eventually the rest of the world, and Suburban (our distributor) is currently distributing our album throughout the whole of Europe. We are getting amazing reviews, some even say that our album is the best thing that has come out of Holland for a really long time.. Which is really good to hear! But our main aim is playing.. Everywhere!

 

This is such a hard question, since we all like a lot of music.. Within the band, preferred music styles range from black metal to blues and everything in between, so it’s incredibly hard to pick just one song.. But if we HAVE to choose.. Anything by Pink Floyd.

 

We had a really hard time picking the single, but we recently decided on what songs to be on it! We can’t really tell you more, but it IS coming your way! We just don’t know how long it will take, but we hope it will be there as soon as possible! Some radio stations have picked us up already and played one or more of our tracks on the air! We had some interviews with radio stations from Holland, Belgium and Australia, and the response is really good! Once we have the single ready we will try and get some more airplay.

 

It all went so fast, it’s unbelievable.. Since the album was finished we had a distribution offer from Suburban, and as said before, we had a lot of reviews in magazines and webzines, which all are amazingly good.. We are currently practicing our butts off because we have some gigs planned, and the album release-party is coming up! We are still looking for a way to distribute the album in the rest of the world, and we have good hopes for that. We are hoping on performing everywhere, so who knows.. You might see us soon in a club or on a festival near you!

 

Same here, thank you for this interview, and be sure to check out our website on http://www.ne1.nl !