DE BOSSEN

Trio from Antwerp that plays dirty rocksongs with pop-appeal.

The group was formed back in 1991, with Wim dB (alias Wim De Beuckelaer), his sister Katrien and his partner Inneke 23 (alias Ingrid Veerman). After a first demo in 1993 ("23 fishes"), the group welcomes the 15-year old Lara Wolfsmelk (alias Lara Dhondt) in 1994.

De Bossen (dutch for The Woods) produces another demo ("Guitar Coffin") and starts touring, yet it isn't until 1997 that they are offered a record contract by the indie label Kinky Star. Their first release, an EP called "Big Bang Machine" sprouts the radio-hit "Speed Queen".

Trademarks of the band are an eclectic taste in music (ranging from the Cramps, The Shangri-Las, Sonic Youth, Motown, Violent Femmes and The Jayhawks to The Ramones), dirty lyrics, harmonizing vocals and a raw, somewhat amateurish sound.

In June '98, they released their first full CD "The Girl Collection", full of "pop-songs about cars, sex, flowergirls, sex, Phil Spector, sex, soap bubbles and other inevitable subjects", as Dirk Steenhaut wrote in a review for De Morgen. There's also a lot of Twin Peaks around (a song called "Diane" - the invisible dictaphone partner - a song about "Lover Bob" - the counterpart of Killer Bob in the series - and thank you's to David Lynch and Kyle MacLachlan). The title of the album and the track "Spector" is a tribute to legendary girl-group producer Phil Spector (but then only because : "I wanna be Phil Spector, the girl detector, the girl protector, the girl collector").

In an interview with De Mix in August '98, Wim dB explained : "This sexy image is not something we do on purpose, although rock-n-roll has always been a sex-thing for me. The mixed cast of the group also plays a part.
Actually, we don't plan anything, everything about de Bossen is the way it is because we couldn't do anything else.
Technically, we're certainly not as strong as other groups. But that casualness is part of it. It mustn't be too smooth. We won't work with producers on our next album 'cause we want to keep that raw aspect to our music. People often describe our music as "rock that rattles". I like that description".

Wim dB also plans on doing "something" with his 18-year old brother ("he's in a digital hard-core group and slightly nuts") and on an "acoustic side-project à la Palace Of Smog" with Hans Van Rompaey of nANcy*. I wonder where he'll find the time, because the concert agenda for the group is loaded with gigs in Belgium and the neighboring countries.

In May 2000, they released a second album on The Twilight Bark (a label of their own, distributed by PIAS): Feel the Beating again held their characteristic "rammelrock", but there was another dimension that had crept in their music as well : slower songs filled with dramatic tension. A first single became the poppy "diver", and the most striking track "Bones, Bones, Bones", in which Wim dB laughs about his own thinness.

Band members :
- Inneke 23 aka Ingrid Veerman (bass, backing vocals)
- Lara Wolfsmelk aka Lara Dhondt (drums, backing vocals)
- Wim dB aka Wim De Beuckelaer (vocals, guitar)

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- Big Bang Machine (EP - Kinky Star, 1997)
- The Girl Collection (Kinky Star, 1998)
- Feel the Beating (Twilight Bark, 2000)

Websites :
- De Bossen dot com, the official site
- De Bossen at Kinky Star, their record firm
- De Bossen at Tout Partout, their booking agency
- My review of "Feel the Beating ..."
- de Bossen photographed during the Nandrin Rock festival
- de Bossen when they only had demo's at Ultra (dutch only).
- de Bossen at Marktrock 1998

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