difficult is it to set music to someone else's poems? JP : As Nel just said, the first six to seven tracks we worked on almost all ended up in the trash bin... Actually, it's a bit of creating a musical seat or framework within which Nel works with her vocals and lyrics. I still remember quite well the moment of ‘Yes, I know what I want to write for her!’. The Eureka moment… Since then it has been extremely easy to determine which ideas will work. Nel, we know you as a busy bee. You’re a school director, mother, music journalist, poet and now also a singer. Is it possible to combine everything? Nel : Yes! Fortunately, I am someone who needs very little sleep.All these things ensure that I can use the difficult things often happen, and relationships do not turn out as we expected. But what is ‘difficult’ for one person is not for another. Sometimes it is necessary to put personal misery into perspective...The most discussed text is that of ‘Zelfbeeld van denaldie’ (Selfesteem of the Aldi). Because it is perhaps very simple and very recognizable, about the urge to overconsume as compensation for personal emptiness. ‘Hamartia’ is also about negative hunger, about rulers with gigantic egos and an even greater drive for power, and the influence they have on societies. And the hope that we will continue to defend ourselves against it and keep choosing for our lives. Nel, you address a whole range of important themes in your texts: emotional vulnerability, love, eroticism, but also broader social views. It sometimes seems as if you write your lyrics on a kind of high. Is that right? How do you get to work, and where do you get inspiration from? Nel : Well, actually that doesn't happen on a high at all! (laughs) I have little books with a pen everywhere. In every room in the house, in my handbag,book bag, in the toilet, in my desk at work... Beautiful words and thoughts often ‘pass’ through my head, inspired by daily situations that I experience, which I write down somewhere. During a ‘free’ moment, usually somewhere at night, I collect all those writings in a notebook and cluster them a bit. By theme or coherence.They then turn that into a text. I really schedule writing time at night. When the world sleeps, there is enough peace in my world to write lyrics. These are therefore mainly created through free association. Fragments that belong together, words that sound beautiful together, passages in which the rhythm naturally fits... I mold them into a text.As long as it doesn't rhyme. I don't like rhyming. JP, I assume that Nel's poems are the starting point for the compositions. Or do you sometimes use music that was composed separately from the text? How easy or how - 29 - time I have when the rest of the world is sleeping meaningfully and creatively.That wasn't always the case and I seemed to fall into more negative thoughts and behaviour. Naturally, all this requires tight planning and a dose of energy because they are also intense activities.But they also give me so much energy! And standing on a stage turns out to be – in addition to my daily dance session with my son – one of the onlyways for me to suddenly completely let go of the‘energy drains’and the‘frills of the day’.They are the ideal counterpart to the hustle and stress that sometimes comes with my job. The concerts follow each other in quick succession. We were veryhappyto be able to get you for the first newstyle Dark Entries Night on 23rd December but we see that you are announcing new performances at a steady pace. I was able to admire you live once and I thought it was a very nice performance. How do you view your live concerts? What do you pay attention to during a performance? Nel : I think the atmosphere in the room is very important. And good sound.My goal is to get rid of my book as quickly as possible. In principle, those lyrics are in my head but in my black book on stage, in addition to the lyrics, there is also a rhythmic score. I'm still so unsure`. I’m afraid that I might go wrong somewhere. Most of all, I want that thing off the stage because I feel a much nicer dynamic and interaction with the audience when I can look at them. You promise a full album in 2024. That's going fast, especially when we consider that ‘Honger’ (Hunger) was only released at the end of 2023. How is work progressing on the full album? JP : We're currently finishing the three final songs –maybe a fourth – and then it's basically ready to send to the pressing plant. Xavier KRUTH https://neljp.bandcamp.com/ www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be
30 Publizr Home