Eva
De Roovers is since a few years Kadril's front singer - she has a beautiful
and powerful voice and she is the new great focal point of Kadril. Eva tries
to describe Kadril's music: "Me - hahaha, the music - ehm. It is called folk
rock. It is ancient music, mostly Belgium music, Flemish - but it is also rock,
because there are electric guitars, drums, bass and ancient instruments as a
mix, like hurdy gurdy - that is an old french instrument, then the flemish bagpipes,
violin, dulcimer - actually one from the Apalachian mointains in America - but
it existed in Belgium, too - it is a bit different style. And the text are mostly
old flemish texts - but we also play the odd bit of Irish - an Irish song or..."
Erwin Libbrecht, founder member of Kadril, who plays guitars in the band concludes
"Whatever we like... But still, if we take a song of someone else or from somewhere
else, we try to do it Kadril-wise. I think we have a quite unique sound in what
we are doing, certainly with the mixture of the instruments - I think it is
quite impressive... - And almost all of the traditional instruments we play
in Kadril were payed in Belgium at a certain time. But in most cases it was
not a lasting tradition, it stopped..."
Kadril started 25 years ago as a hobby band playing at the beginnig mainly
Irish and French music. Erwin Libbrecht, guitarist and founder member of Kadril
explains: "We started as a folk band playing Irish music and French music. When
we started we where 16, 17 years old, we couldn't play our instruments very
well, we started with the repertoire of the Dubliners, things everyone knows.
We played that only for a couple of years, as we changed very quickly towards
playing our own traditions - but to do this you have to learn, you need time
to learn. We were convinced by Herman de Witt (of the long and strong going
Flemish folk band t'Kliekske), who said 'why don't you guys start playing flemish
music - there is a lot of material to be found' - and there is a lot of material!"
In
the begining they played in a traditional way with only folk instruments, but
they changed it later: "In the eighties there was not a lot of interest in doing
folk music in Belgium - so we started a bit rock, folk rock. Which gave us the
opportunity to play on rock stages and rock festivals and things like that.
And I think this is one of the reasons why Kadril still exists."
In the beginning the group started with three Libbrecht brothers (Erwin - guitar, bouzouki, Peter - fiddle & Harlind - mandolin, cimbal) and Bart de Cock on bagpipe, shortly after that Hans Quaghebeur (hurdy gurdy, accordion) joined Kadril - these five are still the center of the group. A real new focal point they got when the young singer Eva De Roovere joined them some years ago.
When they started to play Flemish traditional music, this was not very popular
- Erwin says "When we made our first album in '86, it was a hard time for Flemish
folk music. It was not very popular. We could play concerts, but not very often.
And then, when the second album was made in '90, we had some first influences
in folk rock, and then people started listening to it, and started playing some
of the songs on the radio. And that has given us a real hard push."
Today the Flemish folk music scene is very strong, Kadril has had quite a big
influence on the current developement: "I did not realise it, at that time,
but if you are speaking today to some young musicians of the Flemish scene,
many of them mention Kadril as one of there influences. This is great. If you
speak for example to Wim Claeys of Ambrozijn, or Kim of BUB, they always start
to say the same things - they where very impressed of the first album we made.
- We had a lot of influence on other bands, but so did t'Kliekske and other
Flemish bands, but I think we where a bridge between the old generation and
the new generation. Another thing is, that we where the ones who dicovered Lais,
we put them on the main stage in Dranouter for the first time..."
Today
about half of Kadril's repertoire is traditional, the other half are their own
compositions, but they do it in the traditional style. Erwin says "The largest
part of the texts are traditional, just Peter, my brother, who plays the violin,
writes some text, but the main part is traditional." Kadril always likes to
find 'new' old traditional songs - they are searching for them. Erwin: "Yes,
we like to do that..." - Eva: "in big books..." - Erwin: "I think, that is one
of the strongest points in Kadril, that we are always looking for new things
that come out of the tradition. While other bands play either their own compositions,
or play songs, that someone else did before, we prefer to look for new thing
in the traditions."
The Wildboar label
Apart from being founder member and guitar player in the oldest and
very well established Flemish folk rock band Kadril, Erwin Libbrecht is the
head of the very fine new Belgian label Wildboar Music.
Erwin started the label in 1997. Says Erwin, "That was three years
ago (this interview was made in august 2001). And the first bands where Fluxus,
Ambrozijn, Shantalla and Lais. So it was quite a strong start."
What is normally the reason to start a folk music label - right: because something
like that is missing... "I actually started the label because there was nothing
like that. There was no label speacialised in folk music in Flanders, we had
the small ones, but they did not do very much. So I had the impression there
where a lot of groups, new bands with a potential. And that's why I started.
Before I started the label I have been working for some time a record stall
- so I knew how to do things. I think it was a neccesary to have such an insight
into the world of record companies."
Erwin was right - such a label was missing at that time in Belgium. The success
of the Wildboar label was quite astonishing. "It worked very well! Certainly
with Lais - that album of Lais, the first album of Lais sold, I think 70 000
copies of. This it is quite impressive..." The label started so fast that it
was quite frightening for Erwin at some times "At a certain moment it was not
easy. Because it went a little bit too fast. Normally I should have taken more
time, but it went very fast - and today I am happy with the way it went."
Some of the bands that have started with the Wildboar label are nowadays -
only three years after the Wildboar label started - stars in Belgium and beyond.
Especially the three girls of Lais are very well known all over the place. A
bit of a pity for the great Wildboar label is that a lot of these bands have
decided to move on to a mayor label. EMI started some time ago the devision
Zoku, and also Virgin Belgium discovered their love for folk music, so many
of the bands discovered by Wildboar decided to move on. But the good thing is
that Erwin now has the chance to search for new bands... "There are still quite
a lot of other bands, young bands that are growing..."
The folk scene in Belgium is quite healthy at the moment. Erwin says, "We will
see how long it lasts - but for the moment the things are going fine. There
are a lot of concerts and festivals in Belgium - and most of them are doing
fine. So I have the impression it is quite healthy on both sides the concerts
as well as the young musicians - certainly the individual musicians are very
good at the moment. There are a lot of good musicians - young ones, 18, 19,
20 years old."
To celebrate their first 25 years Kadril released a double
CD sampler of their work (of course on the Wildboar label). You can win two
copies of ‚All the best', and additionally two copies of Shantalla's new CD
"Seven Evenings, Seven Mornings", released late last year on Wildboar - you
simply have to tell us the following: Tell us the name of that European band,
that was your personal new finding of the last time. Because we want to to discover
new music, please tell us their webpage and e-mail address, if possible. This
competition ends on 05.05.2002.
Which European band/artist was your personal special discovery of the last time (if possible please include webpage and e-mail address)?
Latest published CD: All the best - on Wildboar
Music
Photo Credit: All fotos by The Mollis taken at FolkWoods Festival Eindhoven, summer 20001
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