THE ESSENCE in the first place. The Essence was very popular in the south of Europe at that time: Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland... Is this pure luck, or was there a strategy behind it? There was absolutely no strategy behind it. All I wanted as a songwriter was to write a diversity of songs and not stick to one format. On our albums, you could hear everything from dreamy ballads to pop songs and even quite rock-like songs.That probably made us interesting for different cultures. Both ‘A Monument Of Trust’ and ‘Ecstacy’ are quite reminiscent of The Cure, who were of course very popular in the eighties. I don't want to minimise the authenticity of the songs, and I also know that you share a spirit of the times and a certain feeling with The Cure, but I also wonder if there was ever pressure, for example from the record label, to write songs that sounded like The Cure? There has never been pressure from our label. At that time, I listened to a lot of bands like The Cure and Joy Division. But perhaps I listened to U2 and David Bowie the most, and I also loved Kraftwerk. I also didn't hesitate to like some of the music from the charts. I have always had an open mind for music. Despite the great success of‘A Monument OfTrust’ and ‘Ecstacy’, your fourth album has become a dark and more difficult to access concept album: ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’. Can you tell us more about the concept of the record and how you wrote it? Actually, I wrote ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ as a form of exorcism after the relationship with my then girlfriend broke down. It worked well for me, especially because it is still one of my favorite albums. www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be - 10 - Until the early nineties, you, Hans, were the only songwriter in the group. That changed with the arrival of Mark Tan during the recording of ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’. The next album ‘Glow’ from 1995 – of which you released the early recordings after the bankruptcy of the record label as ‘Afterglow’ in 2015 – was an exercise in writing as a band, with creative input from all musicians. Were you satisfied with the result? When Mark joined the band as a keyboard player, I got more of an urge to write together. This usually happened during rehearsals, where we took a riff and some vocals from me as a guideline to transform it into a song. I was very happy with this fact. It also brings more solidarity to the band. Although the band has had many line-up changes, the brothers Mark and George Tan have been accompanying you on bass and drums respectively since the early 1990s. I can testify that you make a wonderful live band together. Howdo you explain that this line-up has lasted so long? Actually, I see The Essence as Hans, Mark and George. The initial members and some temporary musicians did not leave as much of a mark on the band as Mark and George did. To this day, I still feel this way. If I remember correctly, you haven't published anynew work since 1996. During the performance at the Liège NewWave Festival you presented‘Pearl Song’as a new song, but the song has actually been around for years now. Do you have plans to release any new albums, and if so, what can we know about them yet? Do you have any other plans for the future? In fact,we have almost finished the next EP, as far as you can still speak of such a thing in this streaming era. Due to Covid, we had to stand still for two years, but now we are slowly continuing with recording and especially mixing the EP. I expect this to see the light in 2024. As you have noticed, we have also expressed our intention to tour again, because we still think that is a great thing to do. Our performance in Liége was our first concert in Belgium, but certainly not the last. Xavier KRUTH http://www.theessence.be/ Photo © Luc Luyten / Who Cares
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