How does a girl from the Netherlands end up a country singer?
When I was younger, I always listened to the radio, and there was one particular programme I really enjoyed, called Country Time. They played all kids of country, folk and bluegrass, and it just caught my attention. Every month they would put on a live show, and I would go see it with my parents. When I started taking guitar lessons, my teacher was really into Bonnie Raitt, Jerry Reed and lots of stuff I had never heard of before, and that really broadened my musical horizon. I started playing in bands, and to make a long story short, I ended up recording my first album in Nashville. It was a logical move, and it had a huge impact on my career. I made a lot of friends over there.
What was it like being a Dutch girl in the capitol of country music?
It was overwhelming to say the least. I had always read the credits in the albums I bought, and all of a sudden these people where in a studio working on my record! It was overwhelming, and I just kind of went with the flow and did what I needed to do.
The country music industry can be very ruthless to new artists. Did you experience any of that during that time?
Well, the funny thing was, I recorded my first records for Warner Nashville, but they've never been released over there. So far they're only out in Holland, well, and the UK which is fantastic, but over the last years I have been so fortunate to have enjoyed a lot of succes in my home country. You see, the thing is, there's no format radio in Holland. It doesn't matter how much you stay within the lines or draw outside the lines, if people like it, they're gonna like it, and they don't care about what it's called. Country is a known word in Holland, but there's not a big market for it. When I released my first record, expectations where really really low, but luckily we proved everybody wrong. It was a big succes. Since that record, I've taken some left and right turns in music. I've made pop records and rock records, but this new record brought me back to Nashville.
Did you at any point leave country music behind?
No, cause there was always a country music influence in my music, even if it was called pop or rock. I guess my voice is tied to that genre, to Americana or country or whatever you want to call it.
It's funny you should say that the country music market in Holland is small. It's my understanding that the Dutch have always had a great appreciation for American roots music.
I guess people just enjoy music in Holland, and if music reaches out to them, they connect with it just on a basis of "do I like it or don't I like it?". Most people here don't have pre-conceived opinions on music, they haven't already made up their minds whether they like country, jazz or pop. They just turn on the radio and everything comes to them. I guess it's like BBC 2. Everything gets played back to back, all kinds of genres and formats, and I think people just connect to that.
How did people in Holland react to the fact that you were one of the first local artists to go out and sell a lot of country records?
It was a huge deal in the media when a Dutch girl got signed in Nashville and made a record in the mekka of country music as they called it. But I also think it helped that people got to see me on tv and heard me on the radio. Honestly, I think if you had just asked someone here if they would like to hear a Dutch girl sing country music before they had listened to my music, I'm not sure I would have had the amount of succes that I have. But since people got to see me, and because of the connection between Holland and Nashville, I think a lot of the prejudice against country music went away. People were comfortable with it. It wasn't just about cowboys and other stereotypes any more.
Is there a certain Dutch influence to be heard in your songs?
I don't know if it's specifically Dutch, but there's certainly a European influence in my music. I grew up with so many different genres of music on the radio, and I write with a lot of European writers. Everybody takes their own musical background to the table and it becomes this mixture of everything, whatever you want to call it. But because I'm the main character, it will always have a country flavour to it, just combines with other genres. And I love that contract.
Incredible is your first record to be released in the UK. To those who haven't yet heard it, how would you describe it?
The record came out in Holland a couple of years ago, so since then I've been writing new songs and working in the studio on my next album. But on Incredible, I wanted to experiment with the contrast between programmed beats and authentic instruments, to see if it would be a train wreck or if it would turn out cool – which I think it did. Later on in the process we would record it with a full band and make the songs a bit more organic than the original demos, but that was what I had set out to make. It's a fresh, happy and joyful record that I'm really proud of.
How on earth did all the country purists in Holland react to you wanting to use programmed beats on a country record?
I don't really know, cause I haven't had that confrontation yet. In Holland, the country music purists aren't very visible in the media, so I haven't heard their opinion, and honestly, I don't care much about it either. To me, authenticity is about making something you like yourself and staying close to yourself. I like my records, and when I put them out there, people can say whatever they want about them. I'm a mixture of a lot of different things. I can't be just one thing, and I like to portray that in my music.
Incredible walks a fine line between being a country record and an Americana record. Do you considder yourself a country or an Americana artist?
Basically, it's just about staying true to myself. Singers from Nashville have different subject matters they can sing about. You know, I can't sing about growing up on a farm in Tennessee, cause I'm a European girl, so I have to sing about things that matter to me. And of course, love is a universal thing, so I sing a lot about that. I'm probably a little bit less explanatory and more abstract in my lyrics than some of the typical Nashville songs, and that gives people a chance to put their story into a song. It's not only about me.
What do you think is going to be the hardest part about breaking into the UK?
I think the hardest part may be to find my own little spot, an opening that might give me the chance to be on Jools Holland or major radio and major press. It's about finding the ways to reach the public. I think my music can meet the standards of all the music that's out there, so it's about finding the people who are enthusiastic about it. I'm willing to go there as much as needed and put in all the hard work.
Ilse DeLange's Incredible is out now on Universal. To find out more about this great "new" artist, go to Ilsedelange.com (don't worry, there's an English version of the site as well!)
