Supports: Melle de Boer and Oliver Pesch
Melle de Boer (The Hague) grew up with music by American singer-songwriters. He graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam in 1995. In addition to his work as a visual artist, he formed the band Smutfish in the late summer of 2002. The debut album from 2003; “Lawnmower Mind” full of zeitgeist and melancholic existentialism is considered the founder of the Dutch ‘Country Noir’. De Volkskrant writes about ‘gems, resting on a bed of beautifully expressed male suffering.’ In January 2015 the album “Trouble” will be released by Excelsior Recordings.
In 2019 Melle tours with Johnny Dowd through the Netherlands, Belgium and England in 2018. More albums to follow. Including the album Smetvis, with Dutch translations of Melle’s songs by Freek de Jonge, Levi Weemoedt, Lieke Marsman and Maartje Wortel, among others. With Henk Koorn of Hallo Venray, Melle records several albums with which he tours the Netherlands with Henk as Henk and Melle.
With his debut Kid With The Dice, Oliver Pesch showcases his talent as a storyteller and versatility as an artist: every song has a fresh perspective and stylistic inspiration. The Rotterdam musician guides the listener through the twists and turns of fate within his own family history (“The Larger Side Of Life”) and human history in general (“Mesopotamia”).