Is there a difference between the Flemish and the French speaking music scene?
 
Oh. Yes (laughs). There is I think. I don't talk in scenes. Scenes is something that is invented by journalists. Once you have a town an people make music you always have a scene. but whether it comes out as a scene is a different thing. Actually back in the 90s it was especially the Flemish bands that signed deals, went abroad and did a lot of tours. Now there's a couple of French speaking bands doing quite well like Hollywood Porn Stars and Ghinzu.
 
Kelly Jones said that Ghinzu sounds like soup.
 
Yeah. They're not really good at finding names. Anyway the difference is: Ours is better (laughs). I don't know I never analyze that. I really don't care about who comes from where. It's good for Belgium that there's bands coming out. It's a small country.
 
But if you hear the music could you tell whether it is a French or Flemish speaking band?
 
Yes (laughs). Yeah. Yeah.
 
Why?
 
Their English is awful and their lyrics are awful. (laughs)
 
Is this the reason why Flemish speaking bands are more successful?
 
No their English is awful too. Their lyrics are awful too.
We started out and we were young and arrogant enough to think that we could play outside of the little frontiers of our little Belgium. We were lucky, because our first show we did in London, there were record companies coming to see the main act which was at that time Girls Against Boys. And Girls Against Boys were seen, believe it or not, as the new (laughs) Nirvana. Everybody wanted to sign them. They were the hottest ticket in town. So we played support for Girls Against Boys' first show in London and every record company in the world was there (laughs). And they ended up signing us (laughs). So we were lucky. And then we brought out Worst Case Scenario and started touring.
I think the problem with small countries and bands is if they're too much slaves of the big Anglo-Saxon examples or the American examples. Then they don't have a chance. If they have something that can only be made there, be it sound, be it style of music, big ecclecticism or experimentation, whatever then they make a chance. And a lot of Belgium has good bands, but they sound a bit too much like the Belgian Neil Young or the Belgian Stones.
 
Playing in more than one band seem pretty common these days (Canada, Saddle Creek, Belgium). Do you think that's a good thing? People that left dEUS founded other bands..
 
Actually it's the other way round. They already had that band and then they joined dEUS. Then they left dEUS as dEUS was asking too much attention and too much time. Then they said I can't do it anymore, because I wanna do my own band. We've always been a collection of people that have their own stuff.  That's a big advantage and it can be a big disadvantage as it's been proven in the past once in a while.
 
Belgium is only 1.5 times bigger than Switzerland. Why do you have that many bands? Do you have governmental support?
 
Not at all. Well there's some bands that have a bit. I think Zita Swoon has kind of a Belgian or Flemish ambassador thing going on, but ironically enough the bands you really know don't have it. I think the bands that are smaller have it, because they need it for some reason. We had it one year about eight years ago and actually it left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't think rock music or pop music should be funded by the government. I think it's completely paradox. I want to have fun. I want to work and get something out of something I put in myself. And for movies it's different (Tom Barman directed a Belgian movie), because you need more money. You can practically not make a movie if you're not helped by the government. But with a band it's simple. You go and play songs and get paid for it. I've been doing that for a long time. I played songs on the street for three years and that's the same system (laughs). With one difference; the people on the street didn't ask me to play (laughs).
 
Why do you think Belgian bands are so progressive? Has it something to do with the mentality?
 
Progressive mentality? Pff. Because we are a young country, we have kind of fucked up, strange politics going on. Belgium is a piece of paper, it's actually a compromise. We don't have a lot of tradition what is concerned making music. There's kind of a freedom and kind of "m'en foutisme". Do you speak French? It's a I don't care feeling. English people have the heavy weight of the Beatles and all these big bands on their shoulders. Everything they do will always be compared to that. Mauro our guitar player said it nicely: The English grew up with the Beatles, the Americans with Elvis Presley and the Belgians with record stores. There's a freedom. Maybe it's that or maybe…I can only speak for myself. I've always had a very ecclectic taste and tried to put that in dEUS. In England you put a dissonant trumpet and they go: "Ooh, intellectual". Whereas in Belgium they go: "Mmh, cool".
 
It seems as if you're not afraid of the audience not recognising you anymore.
 
Well I don't know, maybe if we would have made the same record over and over again, maybe we would have sold a couple of million records. I don't look at it that way. It's kind of cool that people hook into the ecclecticism that dEUS brings. Because people still come to see us and that's cool (laughs).
 
Do you think your records build up on each other or are they more like a line, each an entity of it's own?
 
Good question (thinks and remains silent for 9 seconds). They are so different, I think they do both. I hope there's an evolution in it but at the same time they are very much momentary recordings of a certain time with certain people. Four records, four line-ups. So both ways I hope. But I hope there's an evolution in it that the songwriting is getting better and I'm more and more interested in songwriting, more and more interested in good melodies. That’s kind of getting older as well.
 
Because your older, you're more interested in melodies?
 
More interested in the actual writing of the songs and the craftsmanship of writing. That's got to do with getting older. More and more going backwards as well listening to older stuff and just completely kicking on a beautiful song. Whereas in the past we would blow up an amplifier or we would let a song go into 120 different directions. More and more now I like it that a song is a song.
 
Have you thought about using more electronics?

Become an Electro-Pop band? No. I like guitars too much. We've always used keyboards, samples and loops. This time we wanted to do something that's fun live. So more guitars.
 
You said that Pocket Revolution is simple. Have you ever thought about stripping it down completely?
 
Soft band?
 
No. The instrumentation on Pocket Revolution is still pretty big.
 
Yeah, yeah. That's because as much as I shout that I wanna be a minimalist, I will always be a maximalist (laughs). I like a lot of things and people really have to punch me in the face say: "Stop it". Otherwise I go on. On Real Sugar I wanted to put trumpets on and they go like: "No" and I was: "Yes". And then we didn't do it and I'm happy with it.
 
Why do you always want to add things?
 
I like it when it's full, when it's layered. When you listen to it with headphones and you go: "Oh I didn't hear that thing". I like that. But as I said I'm trying to keep it simple.
 
dEUS songs are very diverse. What do you think, how market compatible are you?
 
Good question again. Probably not as compatible with the market as Placebo who write the same song over and over again (laughs). True. I don't think they'll deny that. I know them they're friends, so I can say that. It is actually completely at odds with the market what we do. Because the danger is that people don't know what we are. They go like: "Wait a minute. I heard a dEUS song the other day and it was really soft, melodic and gentle". Then they hear something like Bad Timing or Stop-Start Nature. But I think that's also a bit why we are known. So it cuts both ways I think. I think Ideal Crash is the most homogenous album. And this time around, because of the recording process which was difficult with people leaving and this and that, it's ecclectic again. But we were covered, because our first record was ecclectic and our second was ecclectic too. So ecclectic is probably our style.
 
What does your record label think of that?
 
(Ironically) They love it (laughs). We changed labels by the way. We were on Island and are on V2 now. You should ask them. They sometimes go crazy about how unpredictable we can be sometimes. But on the other hand I think they like us. I mean I don't wanna sound pretentious, but I don't think there's many bands like us. So I think it's good for them. And a lot of musicians like dEUS. So they can sign a lot of new bands, because…That's what Island always did. New bands go like: "Oh I wanna be with you, because dEUS is there. P.J. Harvey is there or something". I think that helps.
 
Are they still trying to tell you what to do?
 
No never. Did I say that?
 
Yes. For example with the singles collection.
 
That was a bit fucked up. Because I understood them. We were talking 2001 and the DVD wasn't as popular as it is now. It cost a lot of money and it was a good idea to bring everything together. And they said: "OK fine. We'll pay for it. We don't think we're gonna sell much, but we'll do it. But you have to bring out this single collection." We said: "OK whatever". But then of course those cheeky bastards, they completely changed the gravity point. For us it was the DVD and they put all the attention on the singles. So I found myself talking to journalists about a fucking singles collection. And they hardly knew that we brought out a DVD. I was very angry then, I remember that. But that was the only really brush we had. A part from that they let us just do. They know their not gonna win anything in discussing with us about songs.
 
The new Dandy Warhols is as eccentric as your records. They said they would earn more money without a record company. They do have a stable fan base, as you do.
 
That's true. Apart from the record, which cost quite a lot of money to make, we don't actually ask a lot of money from the record company. So that means we don't have a lot of debt. So I think we're pretty cool with that. There's been times with Island Records when we were way in the red. Because we did tours in America and they paid for it. This tour is the first we do without help from the record company. Tour support it's called. That's cool. If you don't cost them a lot of money then… For promotion on the other hand you need them. You need somebody to give a hard time about it. But as you said we have a very stable fan base. In the UK they hardly did promotion. We hardly got any press and we played Shepard's Bush and there was almost 2000 people. So it's got to do with…Yeah it's stable. But of course, I mean I've been doing this for 12 years. I wouldn't mind being a bit bigger. So I wouldn't mind to sell more records or playing bigger places. In some countries it's already happening. Which is wired, because we haven't done anything in six years (laughs). The boss of V2 is a cool guy. He's a young guy. He doesn't look like an accountant and he doesn't speak like an accountant. So I have little complaints now. This (Aktionshalle, Rote Fabrik) is the biggest place we've played in Switzerland so far. I wouldn't mind selling it out next time and fucking hell I wanna sell it out next time.
 
Why?
 
First of all I hate being cult (laughs). I hate cults. Cult is completely ridiculous. And second, I've been doing this for twelve years. I wanna see some evolution. It's normal. You don't wanna go down.
 
But some bands do work better in small places.
 
Yeah, but I'm not talking stadiums. I don't envy that. But between stadiums and clubs like these there is a cool size. But then again I'm not complaining.
 
After the change of the band in 1996 you said that this will go on forever.
 
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yes clearly I was right (laughs). It is my dream to make once an album with the same people. It is my dream.
 
I thought that maybe you consider the changes a part of dEUS' nature.
 
It definitely helped us and it was definitely a pain in the ass every time it happened. So it cuts both ways. But It would be nice to do the next record with these guys.
 
What would be different?
 
I think it would be a masterpiece. Now I swear. These guys are fantastic. We connect completely and we have lots of fun. I think it would be fantastic. If you knew half the circumstances in which this record was made, which was pure hell, you could only dream of making a record with these guys after 300 shows. With that routine of playing and playing and playing. It's a dream. But I don't know. Mauro has his own stuff. Allan is… I don't know, but we will see. But we don't talk about it now, because if somebody said something like: "No I'm not gonna do it", I would be pissed for the rest of the tour. So just keep it. It's like this unspoken thing right now, but in a good way. We have a good time.

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