Nits

sxrmsessions#13/second season

When the Nits came to the sexroom, we didn’t really know what to expect. This cult band from the Netherlands really blew us away. They definitely understood what the sexroom was all about! They played a very intimate set, touching everyone who was there with their beautiful melodic pop songs. They definitely showed any wannabe song-writers a thing or two about writing great pop songs. Who says pop-music is a young man’s game?

There is no greater glory in rock and pop circles than being hailed as a “survivor”. Typically, the term is bestowed only on artists who have battled through changes in fashion, overcome personal demons, and yet can still minister to the faithful even as hairlines recede, joints creak and wrinkles become ravines. Most, though, are all too aware that the creative fire that set them on their way has largely burnt out. They may release the occasional album of new material, but the wise ones know it’s the hits that get the fans whooping.
After 35 years together, the Nits have certainly survived. Yet not only are they in better shape than most ageing rock stars, somehow they have also managed to avoid all of the compromises that can turn even the most idealistic and innovative performers into their own tribute band. Sure, the loyal fans still want to hear them play Tutti Ragazzi and In the Dutch Mountains. But more importantly, they’re just as keen to know what Henk Hofstede, Rob Kloet and Robert Jan Stips are going to come up with next. That’s bec
ause during those 35 years, the Nits have made a virtue out of doing everything that the music business is most afraid of: confounding expectations, ignoring trends, absorbing influences from far beyond rock’s narrow confines, and satisfying their own creative urges.
The conventional wisdom decrees that any of the above will bring about a state of self-indulgence, leading to severe contraction of the fanbase and lead to a point where the economics of making new records no longer add up. Such reasoning conveniently overlooks the fact that this was exactly the modus operandi adopted by the most successful and revered rock band there has ever been – the Beatles. Clearly, the Nits’ level of commercial success has never remotely approached that of the Fab Four. But it is this same hunger for experiment – anchored by a commitment to melody and a finely honed sense of humour – that has enabled the Nits to keep their creative fires burning brightly over a truly astonishing number of records.
It helps, of course, that all three members of the band are superb musicians and composers in their own right. Henk Hofstede is, without question, one of the world’s finest rock singers, with a unique voice that channels both the grit and the intimacy of Lennon and Costello, and whose wide-ranging lyrics have provided the heart and soul of the Nits since the very beginning, just as his paintings have graced many of their album covers. Since he joined the band full-time in 1983, classically-trained keyboard player Robert Jan Stips has added a range of orchestral colour and depth of expressiveness that brings every compositional flight of fancy within reach. Though his technique was honed as a founder of the prog-rock band Supersister at a time when virtuosity was actively encouraged, as a member of the Nits he has never allowed his formidable powers to detract from the all-importance of the song. And Rob Kloet is far more than just a drummer: he is a remarkably sensitive and inventive percussionist who adds as much tonal colour as he does rhythm. There have been only a handful of rock drummers who have evolved their own instantly recognisable style – Keith Moon, Michael Giles and Ringo Starr spring to mind – and Rob is one of them.

This makes the Nits very unusual indeed at a time when most pop and rock music consists of shameless permutations of the tried and tested –whether in the name of commerce, irony or post-modernism. For the most loyal of their fans, they represent a direct line to a time before innovation and popularity became mutually exclusive concepts: that all-too-brief period when teenagers and milkmen alike could whistle Strawberry Fields Forever without even realising that its creators had just turned the pop rulebook into confetti.
In short, 35 years on, the Nits are not just surviving. They can still be relied upon to surprise and delight us with their newest work. How many other bands of a similar vintage can say the same?

• europavox
• Home before dark
• Nits

• wwwSee Nits's Website