FLOWERS FOR BREAKFAST

Flowers for Breakfast is a group from Antwerp who create an original kind of pop music. They made their CD debut in 1995.

The band consists of six young people who started out as a sort of cover-band, playing covers of Prince and others. After experimenting for a while, they released the single "Nervous" in 1995. The single immediately gains them a lot of airplay. A year later, they said "Last year we had a single, but little was done with it. We had a manager and a record firm who didn't understand what we wanted and had the ridiculous idea of making us the new K's Choice. Only this year we all have left school and really have time to devote to playing gigs, writing songs and recording them. It was a good thing waiting for a long time : the songs we wrote a few years back, are so bad. Even the single of last year is not too good, imagine we would have recorded a full CD four years ago !".

Two members of Flowers For Breakfast (Tom Pintens & Benjamin Boutreur) are also part of Zita Swoon, the band of ex-dEUS bass-player Stef Kamil Carlens. Other members perform in the theater. "Sooner or later we will have to choose. It's not realistic to think you can be part of three reasonably successful bands : it's okay to make records this way, but the touring is just too much".
On being part of "The Antwerp Scene" they said in 1996 : "Everybody plays in bands with everybody there. Of course you take your style and personality with you to the other groups. It's logical people starts making comparison. They say "Quicksand Valley" sounds like a song of dEUS. Maybe. We recently found a five year old billboard, announcing us both at a free-podium in Essen. I mean : we all have started at more or less the same period, but they shot through the roof at some stage. But they are not the cause of our existence. We don't expect to grow this big ourselves, our ambition is a career and lifespan like Los Lobos." (source : Weekend-Knack, 1996).

In 1996, they record the intriguing album "Baron Samedi conducts the Onion Philharmonique" for a major (Mercury). 'Baron Samedi' is a fictional character, a loner who has an orchestra play 'Onions'. A review before a gig said : "The album contains 15 titles, sometimes with a biographical background, sometimes dreams translated into music or just absurdist little tales. The atmosphere is dreamy, dark, lighthearted and mesmerizing. Stylistically it zigzags between tight Sonic-Youth-like pop, trip-hop and nice folky pop of European breed (with a star role for singer Tine Reymer)." The album was followed by a small European Tour.

In 1998 the group started the recording of their second album "Homebound" without Benjamin Boutreur (who had also left Zita Swoon and told he was going to found the salsa-bigband El Tatto Del Tigre).
The single "A Shiny Future" climbed up high in the Afrekening, but the album itself got a somewhat lukewarm reaction. Especially a review in Humo had some negative effects : "the album in our mailbox is one from - let's count - five people from Antwerp that sound so goody-goody and artistic that you only manage to get to the end of this record in half-comatuous state of mind"
According to Tine and Tom this cd was however "a big step forwards. We did much more planning before going into the studio. We had even written these songs in advance. The first album was more hobbyist collection of songs. That's a big difference"

Tine is also pursuing her career as an actress (for instance in the television series "Recht op recht" and in "Shades", a Belgo-American co-production with o.m. Mickey Rourke, "Sedes & Belli", "Team Spirit"). Tom Pintens is again busy doing his stuff with Zita Swoon, and has another side-project called "2000 Monkeys". Roel Poriau has been active in Think of One and went to record with this group in the Marocan city Marrakech. Stoffel Verlackt has been seen playing with the reunited band Metal Molly lately, and is also playing in the mambo orchestra El Tatto Del Tigre and the americana-country band Chitlin' Fooks.

In 2001 there was a half-hearted attempt in getting Flowers for Breakfast together again - Tine had gotten the feel for playing in a band again through her short appearances on Stage singing "Denk je nog aan mij" with De Mens - but when this didn't work out so well, Tine declared the band is no longer. Her future plans in music include a "all female band".

Band members :
- Tine Reymer: vocals
- Tom Pintens: vocals, guitar, keyboards
- Benjamin Boutreur: sax
- Stoffel Verlackt: guitars
- Chris Cleiren: bass
- Roel Poriau: drums

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- Nervous (Maxi-CD, Klepto, 1995)
- Baron Samedi Conducts the Onion Philharmonique (Mercury/Polygram, 1996)
- Homebound (Mercury, 1998)

Singles :
- Onions / Cactus Tree / Oh Yeah (Mercury, 1996)
- Quicksand Valley / The Knight (Mercury, 1996)
- One Man Show (single & album edit) (Mercury, 1996)
- Shiny Future (Mercury, 1998)
- Ego (Mercury, 1998)

Links :
- Flowers For Breakfast, the "Ultimate Website"
- FFb site of Jesse Klaasse