After his latest artifact "Ik ben aanwezig" of 1998 and the accompanying theater-tour of last year, Luc De Vos (and band) are finally here again with "Eindelijk Vakantie", an album on which De Vos seems to have closed the bitter chapter of the last album. De Vos about this: "Yes, I know, I have said some foul thing. Against Noordkaap and such, I realize that. I think Noordkaap are a swell band, but they also used to make songs now and again that I didn't think swell and then I made a joke about it. He didn't think it was very funny, but I never meant it to sound like that. I'm just a healthy bloke that says his opinion ... and Stijn will always be Stijn. I have never been really bitter, and when it happened it was at times when I had one drink too many"

"Eindelijk vakantie" differs on more than one point from the previous albums, not only is the tone much more "refrained" than before, but you also get the impression of listening to a Gorki-album that is just the way Luk De Vos wanted to make it "The previous albums were mainly producer-albums. I thought that I couldn't do it that well myself. In hindsight that is a pity, because it was me that had written the album, but it were the producers who shaped the album. For this record we did a lot ourselves, which made it sound more direct, but this can also be attributed to Frank Duchêne, a wonderful chap." The cooperation with ex-Hooverphonic keyboard play Duchêne didn't go that smooth initially "We had some lenghty discussions and some chairs were thrown around : he wanted more electronics on it, and I wanted less. But we reached a very good compromise in the end, I think, by making a very direct album with simple songs."

Jo Bogaert and Frank Duchêne as the production crew, it isn't exactly the most obvioius choice for the Gorki frontman, but that didn't worry him. "As far as producers in Belgium go, you don't have a lot of choice. You can ask Tom Barman, but he doesn't have the time, or Raymond Van Het Groenewoud or Jean Blaute, but they make it sound really crap. I really mean this. All those records of the old Flemish guard are so full of cliché and cabaret. I really prefer dEUS or Daan Stuyven… The old guard keeps on making the same album again and again, that must be so boooooring. I think you must keep it interesting enough for yourself and cooperate with new people, as I did with DAAU."

Whereas his previous album "Ik ben aanwezig" suffered a bit from having too many soundscapes on it, he struck the balance right this time "When we were recording "Ik ben aanwezig" I thought it went really wel, but in hindsight it was "over the top". This time I wanted to make a simple CD with funny lyrics, 'cause that's what I know best" With lyrics such as those of the song "Wij zijn zo jong" (about winning the lottery) he succeeded well in this aim : "Most people thing they will be happy when they would win the lottery. The lottery is a sort of metaphore for the happiness that people want to have, but never will attain. This is my cynic comment on the naïeve beliefs that the future will be better, while that is impossible. Winning the lottery, free gasoline, all the horny women in your bad ... those things don't work out as planned and you gotta cope with that. I don't dream about that anymore as I've come to an age where that doesn't matter as much anymore. As long as I can play guitar on my attic, I'm happy"

Jezus & Co are prominent as ever "I always like it to pop Jezus in the lyrics of a pop-song", De Vos admits, "because it make people want mensen schrikken er precies altijd van. "Watch out Jesus is coming!" Maybe he's a complete dickhead though. I don't know him personally, only from books and movies (laughs)."

Some ideas weren't developed completely, which makes the cd slightly shorter then expected "Those songs had too much guitars or too little, starting as Tom Waits and ending as Bryan Adams, and those are the kind you don't want. It's really hard to have an album that has some unity in but also sounds varied enough. I somehow fear the reactions to this album a bit. I would be very satisfied if there was a little bit more respons in Holland, as they somehow failed to see the point so far. "What ís he talking about" is the reaction that is most often heard there. The Marco Borsato-factor ain't high enough probably, but there are bound to be sóme people with good taste over there, or not?"

Talking about unity, "Ode an die Freude" is as good as raped on the album, a conscious choice?? "I thougth it would be funny if you would contrast that with all the lyrics about drugs and all that. It's a counterbalance to the dark side of the CD . BTW I played that song with a broken guitar on a broken amp." Those who thought that Gorki would say goodbye to rock were wrong : "I really enjoy the rock lifestyle and all the cliché's surrounding it : hopping in the van to next show, drinking everything in the fridge, making some noise, trowing some beer and dancing on techno and Willy Sommers and the chachacha until 6 o'clock in the morning. I'm a real cliché party animal in that sense"

This interview was done by and appears with kind permission of

entertainment shop

date interview:
February 2000

Gorki
"Ik ben aanwezig"
EMI, 1998

Gorki
"Het Beste van Gorki"
1999

Read my review
of "Eindelijk Vakantie"

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