Bacht’n de Vulle Moane is a relatively new musical project, and it’s being well received, including a performance at Roadburn. How does it feel to see everything suddenly moving so fast?
It’s surprising, really. Even though I have some mileage on the clock when it comes to releasing albums and touring, I really thought no one would give a shit about our new project. It wasn’t because I didn’t think our music wasn’t worth it, absolutely not. But let’s be honest, in this day and age, there are so many new releases every day, and the way you get the word out there so much depends on fucking internet algorithms that it seemed like an uphill battle to me.
But what did I know? It had been more than 10 years since I had touched a guitar before we started Bacht’n de Vulle Moane (BDVM). In recent years, I had almost solely been working on my electronic music projects, and that was the only experience I had with music in the current climate, and it wasn’t great.
To be honest, I had been out of touch, and the reason Klaagrituelen has been picked up so well is because of our friends in the scene who talk about it and support us. The sense of community is immense, and we’re extremely grateful.
Musically, you don’t seem to stick to a specific style, which makes the whole project even more intriguing. Was it difficult to find the right combination, or did it come naturally?
It was quite clear from the onset what Scum and I would do. It wasn’t clear from a style definition point of view, but from the way we would approach songwriting, the instruments and the production process.
We both love black metal, electronic music and krautrock, and we knew right away that experimenting with the elements of these genres would be at the forefront of this band. Everything came naturally; we both already had a good backlog of ideas, and we started with that. It took a few weeks to get the first songs going, and Klaagrituelen was recorded in just a few sessions.
I personally feel like we’re on a journey to see how far we can take it. We’re working on new material, and whilst the essence remains, I believe we’re exploring new sonic avenues. Writing for BDVM is nothing like writing a tune with some mates in a garage and glueing some riffs together. It’s more conceptual, and it works perfectly for us.
The album is filled with beautiful moments that are enhanced by electronics. Can you tell us which synthesizers you use?
Oh, sure. We mainly use analogue synths from Korg and Behringer. They’re cheap, and they sound raw and dirty, which is perfect. One of my favourite synths is a Korg Volca Keys, which is the size of a cigar box and cost me less than €100 second-hand. But making electronic music is all about exploring new sounds all the time, so our setup changes regularly. I’ve sold and bought a bunch of new stuff in the past few months, and our rig keeps evolving. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with new drum machines, effects, sampling and homemade instruments.
Was the preparation for your first live performance intense? And how did it go?
It was a lot of work, but it was well worth it. The preparation took about three months because we had to start rearranging the songs from scratch. BDVM were always going to play live, that was a decision Scum and I took from the very beginning. However, playing live never played a part when writing and producing Klaagrituelen; it would have been too restrictive. It allowed us to go all out whilst recording.
However, reality hits when you suddenly realise that you have to perform those songs live and that you can’t reproduce four guitar lines, ten layers of electronics and whatnot.
So, we stripped down the songs to their bare essence and rearranged them with new synth lines and guitar lines so we could bring them live. We also rearranged the songs in a way we believed they should sound live. BDVM live does not sound the same as BDVM on record. Live, it’s more pounding and a different experience altogether. We also had to actually learn how to play the songs live in a rehearsal room, and asked our friend LQW to join us as a session guitarist.
Saturday’s gig went really well. We played with Serpent Mass en Shewolff, who are both great bands and great people. It was a full house, and the reactions totally blew us away.
The band name comes from West Flemish, a dialect that, like many others, is increasingly under pressure. What made you decide to use this dialect for the band’s name?
I always wanted to have a band with a Westflemish name. It’s my way of giving the middle finger to people who look down on our dialect because it’s a “farmer’s language.” It’s the way I talk, and I speak Westflemish unapologetically. When I was a kid, they tried to beat Westflemish out of us at school and teach us all “proper Dutch” instead. Socially, speaking dialect was frowned upon. As a result, it has slowly been evolving into a new hybrid language between Dutch and dialect.
In recent years, however, other bands and even Belgian television series started using Westflemish. I guess there’s some kind of resurgence and “regional acceptance”.
Then again, people and languages always evolve. I don’t speak the same language as my grandparents, and neither will my grandkids speak the same way I do. I enjoy it for what it is now, but I am under no illusion it will last forever.
How important is language to you as a band? Does it influence your lyrics?
That’s a tough one… I have lived in the UK for many years and have an English partner, so English is also a big part of my everyday life. Scum and I both contribute to the lyrics, and his contribution is clearly bigger than mine. Whilst I usually come up with a bunch of sentences or keywords, he has no problems coming up with whole-finished lyrics in no time.
We use our native language for ease of expression, in the first place. This creates some kind of identity, but the identity is not the reason we’re doing it for. I guess it’s all about “cause and effect”.
You were both involved in the debut of Matavitatau, both on bass and behind the mixing desk. Their unique approach to language is remarkable. How did this collaboration come about?
Oh, I was just asked to do the mastering at the very end. That took me about two hours and a few cups of coffee on a Sunday morning, so my contribution was tiny.
Scum played bass in the band, and recorded and mixed the release. When he finished mixing it, he simply asked if I wanted to master it, so that was that.
Scum joined Matavitatau shortly after we started BDVM; they were friends of his. A few weeks ago, however, after the demo was finished, he decided to leave the band. It was a personal decision.
I like the demo; it’s raw and old-school. They sing in Latin, so I have no idea what they sing about, haha. From what I understand, the singer is a Latin teacher, so he should know what he’s doing.
The tape will soon be released on vinyl as well. Was it difficult to find a label for the album?
Yes and no. Initially, we contacted just a handful of people to see if they were interested in releasing Klaagrituelen. Haunted By Ill Angels got back to us quite quickly, offering to release it on tape.
At the same time, another label offered us a deal to release Klaagrituelen on vinyl. With all that sorted, we didn’t want to go shopping around for other deals; why would we? The label that was going to release the vinyl sounded very excited and even did some prep work for the release.
But suddenly, they went completely silent. They stopped responding to our emails and completely ghosted us. We have no idea why; it’s not because they suddenly stopped doing business or so. They kept releasing other stuff and still do today; the line just went cold. We have no idea what happened there, but it certainly delayed the vinyl release by four to five months.
We discussed this vinyl label situation with some friends, and Peter from De Pankraker Records promptly offered to release the vinyl version. To be honest, he should’ve been our first choice all along. He’s a great guy, he’s local and has great taste in music.
Are there any future plans you can share with us? And are there more live performances scheduled?
Apart from the performance at Roadburn in April, there’s not much we can share at this point. If everything goes according to plan, the vinyl version should be ready by then as well. There are some offers on the table for gigs in the summer, and some festivals have offered to let us play their 2026 edition, but that’s still far off. By then, we definitely hope to have some new material out.
Bacht’n de Vulle Moane:
Bandcamp
Instagram
De Pankraker:
Instagram
Website