WIGBERT

Wigbert is short for Wigbert Van Lierde, a talented Flemish singer and songwriter.

Grew up in Ghent, and first rose to the attention in 1988 when he was in the backing group for Jan De Wilde on his album "De Bende van Jan De Wilde". Used to living in the shadow of other artists, it came as a shock to him when his debut album "Ticket in de nachtkastla" (Ticket in the bedside drawer) and especially the song "Ebbenhout Blues" (Ebony blues) gained him a lot of fame and fortune.

As he would later say (in an interview with het Nieuwsblad) : "The success of my first album was the beginning of a very confusing period for me. If you make a record under your own name for the first time, thousands of impressions and influences overwhelm you. You are absorbed into a commercial system. Your music becomes a job. At the beginning I had some difficulties with that. The success of the record was very pleasant, but all the side-effects, like getting your head on television 23 times and the reactions that that brings were very strange. Although I have got to admit I find success very important. Success means musical freedom. The level of success will decide how many projects I can realize. Success has a function, but is not a goal in itself."

The successor to "Ticket in de Nachtkastla" was the album "Nieuwe tatoeages" (New tattoos), a much more unpolished and "raw" album produced by Roland. As he would say later "I see that record as a snapshot in time. It was a rather dark record, because I was going through a rather dark period in my life."

In 1997, he release "Aan alle Belgen" (To all Belgians), a record with a lot of American roots influences in the music. "I just grew up with American Influences. I was raised with American tv-programs, with Mannis, with cartoons. And also with the music that I learned to know from a very young age through my three elder brothers". The album is another cooperation with Wouter Van Belle (Belgian producer, also for Axelle Red, Gorki, Noordkaap ...)

Another characteristic of Wigbert's music are the very fine Dutch lyrics. Of this he had to say "I once met a Scotsman who learned me a lot of things about American and English music. It was also he who told me to sing and write in Dutch. He made me realise that I wasn't getting past the clichés in English. I thought Dutch was an awful language to write songs in at that time. It doesn't sound well, it doesn't swing. But I began to experiment with it anyhow."

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- Ticket in de nachtkastla (Virgin, 1991)
- Nieuwe Tatoeages (Virgin, 1994)
- Aan Alle Belgen (Virgin, 1997)
Compilations :
- Het Beste van Wigbert (Virgin, 1999)

Websites :
- None found.