VOLT

Eighties pop band that made their music in the nineties.

The band came about in 1992, with two members of Running Cow and Citizen Kane, and Mark De Wijngaert. These were Herman Gillis (ex-Poesie Noire, ex-member of the NewBeat-producers Morton-Sherman-Belluci) and Daan Stuyven (ex-Citizen Cane, ex-Running Cow). In fact, one could ask if Volt was really a different band than Running Cow (best known single "Gasoline on Fire") or Citizen Kane (Rock-Rally final at the end of the eighties).

Volt has released one album, with "major" Mercury Records in 1993 : "Modern Times". The album was produced by Wouter Van Belle (Axelle Red, Novastar, Noordkaap, Milk The Bishop ...) and featured guest musicians such as Marc Bonne (Toy ...), Wigbert Van Lierde or Yannick Fonderie (Zap Mama ...).

Preceded by the single "They're gonna sample me", the album failed strangely enough to make a big impression on the belgian music scene of the time. Only "Sample me" and "Niki Lauda's Girl" managed to get some airplay. Later, Daan Stuyven would explain the lack of success of the catchy music of Volt with "My previous bands did not have any succes at all. At that time, the eighties were not far enough behind. But I was already making nostalgic eighties-music. It wasn't hip or retro enough yet. Nowadays, you see eighties' music popping up everywhere. Pulp, Air ..."

Daan Stuyven would gain his fame later on in the nineties, because after a retreat from music of 4 or 5 years, he teamed up with Rudy Trouvé (see dEUS, see Kiss My Jazz etc...) for the band Dead Man Ray. The (relative) success of this project also enabled Stuyven to release a solo-album as Daan in 1999.
Herman Gillis would also retreat from active music making after the failure of Volt, but he came back in style with an invention of his own called the "Sherman Filterbank" (an electronic switchboard/toolbox that got used by really big international names such as Chemical Brother, Madonna, U2 ...)
The two of them still occasionaly play together (such as with their performance at "De nachten" in January 2000, demonstrating a video-version of the filterbank).

Band members :
- Herman Gillis (programming, sampling, guitars)
- Daan Stuyven (vocals, guitars, keyboards)
- Mark De Wijngaert (keyboards, organ, piano)
on stage :
- Marc Dirickx (drums)
- Jan Dirickx (bass)

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- They're gonna sample me (Single & Maxi, 1993, Polygram)
- Modern Times (CD, 1993, Polygram)
- Niki Lauda's Girl (Single, 1993, Polygram)
- Train To Interzone (Single, 1993, Polygram)

Websites :
- none found