An Interview with Lewsberg
Words by Sarah Morrison
First Photo: Tommy Ventevogel
Second Photo: Els Kuijt
Lewsberg, a lo-fi rock four-piece from Rotterdam, NL, released their self-titled debut album last year. The group have quickly become one of the most talked about groups to have come from Dutch underground music scene.
Today, Lewsberg release ‘At Lunch’, a new single off of their new album ‘In This House’ out March 27. With current world situations, the title could be mistaken as a lockdown anthem. We caught up with the band while in lockdown mode to touch base on how they work as a dynamic, what it means to be an observer, and computer coding.
Explain to me how Robert Loesberg relates to the band name? What does he mean to the band?
Arie: I was never really interested in literature. I thought it was a nice pastime, but I never thought of it as a way to change how you think about certain things in life. This changed when I read Loesberg’s first novel Enige Defecten. He didn’t write that book to please people, and to discover that possibility, changed the way I looked at language and how it can be used completely.
The Lewsberg sound is essentially a collective process and illuminates qualities brought in through each member. Can you explain who does what and how you creatively come together to write your music?
Michiel: I wrote the majority of the music for In This House, but our sound is very much a collective process like you said. Everyone has their own way of playing, a feel for tone, rhythm, and dynamics. Arie and I started the band together and created some kind of framework for the Lewsberg sound: dry, bare-boned and not hiding the mistakes. Or to even take these mistakes and work with them to create something new. Because “wrong” can be as beautiful as “right” and vice versa.
Shalita has a very lively, emotive and rough way of playing which is pretty interesting considering Lewsberg is often described as a stoic band. And Dico is essentially a maximalist amateur metal drummer. Also very interesting since Lewsberg music is often described as being minimalist and economic. Although Shalita and Dico slightly fit their way of playing to the framework created by Arie and me, it is the combination of these seemingly contradictory characteristics that make the Lewsberg sound. Taking things that shouldn’t work together to find out that they work just fine in their own way.
And no, Dico is not displaying his time-defying heavy metal drum rolls during Lewsberg songs, but the way he plays a minimalist beat... There is something about it that you could never achieve with the best drummer in the world. It would lack a sense of danger, boredom, frustration, commitment, and relief. And I could say that about all of us in the band, including myself. We are all self-taught musicians, for the most part anyway, so even if we would like to, we could never fully adapt to a certain style of playing. We’re just not good enough as musicians. That means we’re stuck with our own way of playing and we wouldn’t want it any other way.
How does Rotterdam factor into your work?
Arie: I’m an observer. I try to absorb as much as possible of what I see, what I hear, what I smell. (Though my sense of smell isn’t so well-developed.) Since most of my life takes place in Rotterdam, that’s where I gather most of my experiences. I use these experiences in my writing. I like to sit down and look at people passing by, doing ordinary things, living their everyday life. I don’t feel the urge for a change of scenery, Rotterdam gives me more than enough.
Why be the observer rather than participate? Why analyze rather than be involved?
Arie: I’ve actually never seen a difference between observing and participating. For me, observing ís participating. But if I try to see these things as two different things, I probably don’t want to be involved because I try to deliberately don’t know too much about things. Once I get to know things well, I’m bored by them. So I decide to keep my distance, especially when I find things interesting. Try to draw my own conclusions, fill in the gaps and experiences myself.
What about emotions turns you off from writing about them? Why is music used as a personal outlet uninteresting to you?
Arie: Everyone is constantly talking, writing or singing about emotions. As if they are more important than ratio, or than everyday life. I don’t hate emotions, I don’t condemn anyone who sings about emotions, I actually even believe that certain people should be more open for emotions. But in my opinion, in music, we’ve been talking more than enough about emotions, and I find it at least as interesting to write about furniture or mathematics.
When you do tackle writing about emotions, how do you approach it?
Arie: The same way I tackle writing a shopping list when I go for groceries. I don’t make it personal.
How does computer coding come into play with maintaining simplicity within your musical work?
Arie: In coding, it’s impossible to be inconsistent. If you’re not consistent, your code simply won’t work. That’s what makes coding easy because it’s easier to be consistent than to be inconsistent. Natural language gives me the opportunity to be less logical, but however much I would like to grab this opportunity, I think I fail most of the time.
When you think of a one-liner, how do you peel it back to make it less clever?
Arie: That’s a secret I’d like to keep for myself.
Where did the choice to sing in English rather than Dutch come in?
Arie: This, again, has to do with distance. I feel like I am too acquainted to Dutch, which makes it less interesting for me to use it to create something. I like to play with the boundaries that my limited knowledge of the English language gives me.
When you went into the studio to record your self-titled album, did you have a clear objective? Did you learn anything from the experience that you’d consider or would do when it comes to recording the next album?
Michiel: Like most things we do with the band, we had a clear objective but we didn’t have a set idea on the results. We do our thing, we listen back to it and decide what we like or not. Besides, there are many external factors that have an effect on the process and the results. We like to engage and play with those factors and don’t have too many expectations on forehand.