KLOOT PER W

Busy devil-does-all who has swum through many a musical water.

	Songs

In "Wit-lof from Belgium", Kloot (which means "bollocks") Per W was introduced as : "He toured with the Misters, The Employees, Polyphonic Size, The Sam Cooke Singers. He produced. He had a group. He went solo. He did it acoustic. He did it electric. He did it with tapes and beatbox. He left us cassettes, singles, a solo-album and a thousand drawings. He is Kloot - the man who can do everything - Perwez. A guy with balls."

The first group he played in that released material on vinyl were The Misters. Then came The Employees, a well-known Belgian alternative band. Forms Polyphonic Size in the middle of the eighties and enjoys quite a bit of success in the neighboring countries.

At the same time, he also tried a solo career with with casette-only releases (Music for girls (independent release) '80, Sex Wars (Parsley) '80, Murder Music (Indie) '81, Songs in Disguise (Indie) '81, Alcohol (Indie) '81. He was actually one of the first artists in the world to play solo concerts backed by selfmade tapes and as such entered the '86 Humo's Rock Rally final where he won the price for the best song. An item that the organizers never repeated. "He could not win the RR because he was not really a young artist at 31. But they could not dismiss him either because in fact he had the most original act" (dixit himself).

To make a living, he also has played guitar for a number of well-established bands such as de Kreuners and The Sam Cooke Singers. He produced records by The Romans, The Wild Bunch (later the Beautiful Babies), Killer T Bag (later Betty Goes Green), Golden Green, Man X, The Bungalows, Lipstick Traces, Fats Garden, The Shining (with Mies Meulders), The Candy Men, The Employees (drum'n'bass,dub, remix of Pick It Up).

In 1988 he had a small hit with "Candy", a duet with Mich Van Hautem, in a prodution of dirk Blanchart. In 1995, he repeated the same song with Isabelle A as a guest vocalist for his "Best of" album "The XXXX of Kloot Per W". As Humo wrote about this album "only a few tracks far in the album, you already hear why K. usually has been described as a musical centipede : not only does he play more instruments than the complete Chicago Symphonic Orchestra, he also seems to dispose of more than once voice ... Like a moonsick foal he gallops from one style to another, leaving behind more than half of his potential fans, and occasionally he makes a serious misstep. But in short : XXXX is highly recommended to anyone who has nothing of Per W in the house. But honestly, do you know someone who hasn't ??".

Another project of Kloot per W in the nineties was the highly controversial group de Lama's (the llamas). Although the album "Edele delen" (which translates as "private parts") enjoyed quite a bit of success, it gets about the worst critics a Belgian record has ever got. After singer Peter Slabbynck rejoins his former group Red Zebra this project also gets terminated.

In 1997, he recorded and released a new solo album with Serge Feys (ex TC Matic) called 'Kill Prety Weirdo'. As the late Jacky Huys wrote : "As always Per W runs about frantically, pulls out all the stops, executes ideas that are only half-ripe, tries every toy he gets his hands on, throwing it away after 3 minutes like children do. What's lacking : an overview, a coherent vision and a sense of direction."

In 1998 , he formed a new band called Zen-On with ex-Lama's and ex-Mama's Jasje's drummer Steven Decort, Betty goes Green bass-player Tony Gezels and singer Jan van Laet, brother of teen idol and Mama's Jasje frontman Peter van Laet. They are recording an album with Luc Crabbe (Betty Goes Green) and Serge Feys as producers.
He also tours the country with media "enfant terrible" Luckas Vandertaelen (ex Lavvi Ebbel), under the name "Uit de hemel gevallen (een one man show met Twee)". They recorded a single wich contains Dub oriented coverversions of two dutch classics 'Horen zien en zwijgen' (Will Tura), and Doris Day (Doe maar), both songs referring to Vandertaelens sanctioned expulsion from national TV channel VRT. Needless to say it was banned from national radio again.

As if all these musical exploits weren't enough, Kloot Per W (or Claude Perwez, as goes his real name) is also known because of his mother, a woman over 60 who regularly phoned one of the more popular youth radio shows on Studio Brussels called "Hallo Hautekiet" (she even wrote a book about this "Het wel en wee van Mevrouw Perwez"). He also was the producer of a show on this radio station called "Metalopolis", dedicated to "metals of all kind". He even is a well known graphic artist who already did over 15 big exhibitions in (AB Brussels, Gentse feesten, ...) and already sold over a 130 paintings. He designed album covers for The Employees, and different Studio Brussel compilations.

In an interview with Humo of 1997, Kloot summed up his career in a pretty good way himself : "I'm the only one who knows my history. I know that I've had a lot of misfortunes in my musical career. I'm too fast. I invent a lot of things, but always at the wrong moment. I'm not born for luck. But I'm certainly not a loser : I've accomplished quite a few things that many could envy me".

Buy CD's of this artist at

Albums :
- Kloot Per W (Colour/EMI - 1987)
- The XXXX of Kloot Per W (Colour/EMI - 1995)
- Kill Pretty Weirdo (Donor, 1997)
K7 :
- Music for girls (Indie - 1980)
- Sex Wars (Parsley - 1980)
- Murder Music (Indie - 1981),
- Songs in Disguise (Indie - 1981)
- Alcohol (Indie - 1981)

Websites :
- More info on KPW (in all his aspects) can be found at the excellent official website.
- An interview with Kloot Per W (in dutch) can be found here.