DAS POP

Ghent-based band - earlier under the name Things to Come - who shot to the top of the Belgian scene through their victory in the 1998-edition of the Rock Rally (a "battle of the bands" contest, which they won before Fence and Chrome Yellow). The trademark Das Pop are (what else to expect with such a name) pop-melodies and a sound that's close to Blur and Britpop.

As Bent van Looy, the singing and painting drummer, describes it "There's a need for pure pop in Belgium. Our music is without pretence, but has to be clever. This has to be clear both in the lyrics and the music. A sniff of irony should else be present. And there has to be a dirty side to the music : it has to sound a little perverted and decadent".

The organizing magazine Humo was more than convinced : "That's the way to do it. Make it clear with your bandname what your aim is : Beatles- and Britpop-kind'of songs that are finished up to the finest details, melodies that pave a way to the ultra-sensitive part of the brain called "Never forget this", the very place where also "the first cigarette", "the first lay" and "the first cigarette after a lay" are positioned. On top of this, they also have a live-sound which leaves a jury no choice."

Jacky Huys was less enthusiastic : (in a review of the Rock Rally CD): "This is epigonism back to front with as a winner Das Pop, an anachronism of which we will probably never hear again. It would be a good idea to have preselections for the jury in two years time. Hopefully they can find a jury that will realize that 1960 will be 40 years ago in two years time."
On this reproach of being anachronistic, Bent said "It's just very essential music. It's all about having good song. That's what starts it all. If you listen to us, you'll hear that our sound is contemporary, through the use of guitars and even some rhythm-patterns of Dance-music."

Immediately after the preselections, the group got stampeded by record companies wanting to sign them, but Das Pop decided to raise the prize a little with a CD-single in an independent release. Their debut "A Different Beat", recorded with the money of the Rock-Rally contest, was a "showcase" for the press and was not on sale.
Rif-Raf didn't like it (for the wordplay, note that Das Pop is Dutch for That is Pop) : "Heavens, this sounds like there's hair growing on it. "A different Beat" and "No smoking" are nothing more than a mixture of Blur and The Jam and That's A Pity. "Slow Down" has us falling in a coma and That's Painful". Still, the song crept up the ranking of de Afrekening effortlessly.

In 1999 Das Pop signed - after months of negotiations - a record deal with Play It Again Sam. The first product of this cooperation that hit the airwaves was a second single "The Little Boy" in February. The production was done by David Dewaele (Soulwax). Later in the year, they released another intermediate single, again a production of David Dewaele, called "Electronica for lovers". For the first time, there was also a video accompanying the song. The B-side featured the song "My Suitor" by Bernthöler, which they had covered for a contest on studio Brussels.

Early 2000 they made themselves heard by doing a cover of the Rubettes-song "Tonight" for the glamrock tribute Glittering 2000 and by a concert when their successors in the Rock Rally - Mintzkov Luna - were chosen. In the summer, Das Pop stood on the main stage of the Pukkelpop festival, and finally headed into the studio for a CD. For this, they crossed the Channel to meet up with producer Phil Vinall, a man known for his work for bands such as The Auteurs and Placebo. The recordings were done in the Chapel Studio's, near Nottingham, where Vinall had the Das Pop members sitting in different rooms of a house recording little bits of songs, with him putting all these jingles, riffs, melodies and other violence into closely resembling coherent songs.

The debut CD with which they returned from England was released in October 2000, and was both stirring and controversial: overproduced and crammed with, in just one song "60ties horns combined with 70ties rhythms, plastic 80ties synths with distorted 90ties guitars. The Beatles, Bowie, Pink Floyd, Pulp, Blur, The Smihts, Suede, or a Gameboy: Das Pop owes them something, but at the end of the day, nobody sounds like Das Pop", as the bio said.
Together with "I Love" (or I ) they also released the single "The One", but this didn't get as high in de Afrekening. The ambitions of the band were skyhigh though, and with some bewilderment they observed "how the world just kept on turning" after they had put their CD on it. But the rave reviews were coming in by the dozen. Humo for example wrote "at their corniest (as in the frail song 'Rosie') they do sound a little bit like Das Bob, but never they sink like a Das Boot, nor is there ever talk of a Das Flop. On the contrary: I is a debut album that calls for a 'roger me silly but what a truly fantastic debut album!'. Unless you would want to put it more eloquently, in which case I'd say it's a chef d'oeuvre-ette of outstanding quality, in which young chaps from Ghent invent popmusic all over again, and truly fresh too. Chock-a-block with highlights."

In December the band went on a clubtour through the country (and our Northern neighbours). In the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, they recorded a tribute to John Lennon (on the eve of the 20th anniversary of his violent death). Das Pop and a cast of all kinds of Belgian rockers recorded a "we are the world"-ish version of "Happy Xmas (War is over)", featuring the guest vocals of Jasper Steverlinck (Arid), Stef Kamil Carlens & Tom Pintens (Zita Swoon), Geike Arnaert (Hooverphonic), Bart en Dous De Wolf (Thou), Luc De Vos (Gorki), Tom Barman (dEUS), Stephen & David Dewaele (Soulwax), Kim'Kay, An Pierlé, Allan Muller & Pascal Deweze & Stoffel Verlackt (Metal Molly). Because there were too many record companies involved with all these guests, the song sadly couldn't be released as a single, so they had to leave the honour of Christmas single of the year to the Big Brother cast.

In 2001 they continuted touring, with as the main highlights their performance at Pinkpop (Holland fell for the boys immediately) and Rock Werchter (in shorts) during the summer. There also was an extra single "The Love Program" released from the debut CD: the radiomix to it was done by The Wizards of Ooze, but the B-side was put together by fans selected in an internet contest. In het fall of 2001, Das Pop wrote a soundtrack, or rather a musical background (15 new pieces of music) for a documentary-style movie called "Les enfants de l'amour" (directed by Geoffrey Enthoven). In return, the company producing this movie - Fobic films - is also setting up a film about Das Pop, of which the synopsis goes "What would happen if an author/director and a 5 piece pop band (authors/musicians) would bring their creativity and talent together and would jointly work on a new CD/album on the one hand, and on a longplay movie on the other hand, joined together by the same subject, theme…?". Also in October, the band started a 15 days clubtour in Germany and Austria, briefly touching down in Luxemburg and France also.

Band members :
- Bent Van Looy : drums, vocals
- Tom Kestens : keyboards, vocals
- Niek Meul : bass, vocals
- Lieven Moors : guitar, vocals
- Reinard Vanbergen : guitar, violin, vocals

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- track "Darling" on "Humo's Rock Rally CD '98"
- I Love (Pias, 2000)
Singles :
- A different Beat (Eigen beheer, 1998)
- The Little Boy (PIAS, 1999)
- Electronica for Lovers / My Suitor (PIAS, 1999)
- Tonight (PIAS, 2000 - promo voor compilatie "Glittering 2000")
- The One (Pias, 2000)
- Forever (PIAS, 2001)
- The Love Program (PIAS, 2001)

Websites :
- Das Pop Official site = daspop.com
- Review of Das Pop's debut CD "I "
- Fansite "I Love Das Pop"
- Interview in het Frans bij PopNews

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