Arnold de Boer | Zea | The Ex | Makkum Records

Arnold de Boer is a very prolific artist that is currently active behind the moniker of Zea and also operates his own label, Makkum Records.

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Since 2008 Zea has been the solo project of Arnold de Boer. He’s also a singer and guitarist in legendary Dutch band The Ex. Before 2008 Zea was a duo and earlier a five piece band, but the songs were always written, arranged, recorded and produced by De Boer. His label, Makkum Records was formed in 2009 with intention to release his own projects, but since 2012 the label has offered many other eccentric releases.

“Translating my feelings and impressions into music”

You recently released ‘Minimal Guitar’, a solo project that probably wouldn’t happen without the pandemic. How are you coping with the pandemic as a very active musician and what led you to create this instrumental / improv album?

Arnold de Boer: Right now we’re back into lockdown again here in The Netherlands [October 2021], it’s quite depressing, as musicians we haven’t really been able to do what we do for about 20 months now. I had a small tour last summer and it felt like heaven; being able to travel, see new buildings, meet new people and friends, breathe new air, hear new sounds and music, share new things, ideas. I felt it in my body, in my system, it lifted me up, almost like a drug.

 

Last year after summer holidays I felt like I had to do this and since I couldn’t go on tour, I decided to walk around Amsterdam, following the ring road, knowing I would see lots of new places and meet other people or at least meet some people on the way. And I did. And it was very inspiring. I didn’t plan it but every day something new happened. It took me eleven days. After returning home I felt the need to sit down and play guitar. It was improvised, like I was translating my feelings and impressions into music. I started recording it and that’s what became the ‘Minimal Guitar’ album.

How important is improvisation for you?

It’s essential in music and in life. To deal with undefined, uncontrolled, unmastered events, to have a dialogue without a protocol, to try and experiment and figure things out by free play, trial and error, listening and reacting, is creation, the rest is imitation.

The record was released on your own label, Makkum. You started the label more than 10 years ago with the main aim to release your own projects. Would you like to share some background about it and what’s the current status of the label?

I release around 3 or 4 records a year. The music I put out is, apart from my own music, music made by really good friends, people that I have a close relationship with, musicians who I admire and who’s music I like to help share with the whole world. It turned out that I release music from Friesland, my birth region in the north of The Netherlands, from Ghana, from Armenia and beyond.

How about other artists you are releasing? King Ayisoba, Ayuune Sulley … Would you mind talking about how you decide what to release and what’s the typical process for it?

I got to know Ayuune Sule as a band member of King Ayisoba. The first time we met was in 2013 when he was on tour with King Ayisoba and we were in a van touring around Europe for 35 days in a row. We got to know each other really well. King Ayisoba let Ayuune Sule play solo to warm up the audience before his own show. That’s how I got to know his music and so started the idea to release a solo album of his music on my label.

“No concept but free form”

Zea is a highly interesting project you’ve been doing for several years now. What was the main concept behind it?

The band has been a four piece, a five piece band, a duo, a one-man-band, a trio, it can take many shapes or forms. It starts with the songs I write and perform. I sing and I play guitar and add other instruments when needed.

There might be an MPC workstation at work too, live on stage blasting beats and grimey basslines. I play with improvisers like Oscar Jan Hoogland, Xavier Charles and Mats Gustafsson.

On my new ‘Frisian Zea’ album you hear cellist Harald Austbo and viola player Mary Oliver. I would say “no concept but free form” is the story of Zea.

Last year you collaborated on a Zea album with Oscar Jan Hoogland. There’s so much happening on that album. What was the creative process behind it?

Oscar Jan Hoogland is an improviser on piano and electric clavichord. When we play together there is no set structure. There are some lines, tunes and melodies I can play, there are some words, lyrics I can sing, but there is no order.

So all that happens can exist only once in that shape or form. We listen and react and find our music together.

How did you get involved with legendary punks, The Ex?

We met at a benefit concert for anarchist bookstore Fort van Sjakoo in January 2004, I believe. We both performed there. Grrrt, volunteer at the bookstore and sound engineer for The Ex, was also doing sound for Zea already for some years and he set up the show. I spoke with Terrie and Andy about many things that evening and we had a lot of fun. It was a great night and when they had the chance they invited us, Zea (a duo back then) to join them on tour. That was super.

In 2008 The Ex started a special exchange project inviting different musicians to play in Ethiopia. We were invited and joined them and had an amazing time and experience of not only performing in Ethiopia but also learning and exchanging everything you can imagine. About 8 months later Ex-singer Jos, GW Sok, decided to leave The Ex and then Kat, Terrie and Andy asked me if I’d like to join them.

Would you mind if we talked about the early days? How did you get first interested in music? What kind of music did you listen to as a young teenager?

I don’t think people get interested in music, I think music is there to begin with, it’s the first thing that enters a human body and the last thing that leaves the mind. Next to that it was my father who told me and my brother when we were 7 and 8 years old, we should join the village marching drum-band that he was leading. And we did, first playing cymbals, later playing snare drum. We got drum lessons and I later learned to play the trumpet. When my brother was 16 he bought a guitar from someone and we taught ourselves to play with help from guitar lesson books we got from the library.

As a young kid I was into Michael Jackson and Madonna. Later I was a fan of Sinead O’Connor and then a friend gave me three records he got from the library and asked me to copy them to a tape, since I had a good record-player and tape recorder. Those records were ‘Evol’, by Sonic Youth, ‘Bossanova’ by The Pixies and ‘Stay Sick’ by The Cramps. I had a listen myself, then taped the records also for my own use and then my life was changed.

Where and when did you grow up? Did the local scene have any impact on your music taste?

In a small village called Makkum in Friesland, in the north of The Netherlands. I was born there in 1974 and left in 1992 to go and live in Amsterdam. I played in the local drumband, the youth orchestra, the harmony orchestra, the local gospel band, the school Big Band and in an indie rock band I started with my friends and they all had a serious impact on my taste and developments. I learned a lot.

Is there an album that has profoundly affected you more than others?

‘Revolution Dub’ by Lee “Scratch” Perry, ‘Girl/Boy’ EP by Aphex Twin, ‘Mellow Gold’ by Beck, ‘Tanzanian Instruments’ by Various Artists, ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’ by Neutral Milk Hotel, ‘1928 Sessions’ by Mississippi John Hurt and more.

What do you recall from the early sessions you had with The Ex? This was around 2009, right? Were you nervous?

Great fun as good friends who decided to make new music together. No reason to be nervous, it wasn’t dangerous at all, we took all the risks together.

Tell us about the latest album, ’27 Passports’ and what’s currently happening with the band?

We haven’t played for two years now. It’s sort of impossible. I did a concert in Brussels with Terrie and Andy last month which was fantastic. ’27 Passports’ is our latest album, from 2018, which feels like twenty years ago now.

Are you currently working on anything else?

I just spoke with Andy and we plan to meet soon and try to make plans, but it’s bloody difficult in these pandemic days.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

Yes, I just bought this great cassette tape with Kurdish music from Iran: Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian – ‘Songs of Horaman’.

Thank you. Last word is yours.

If someone comes
If someone comes
from far away
with a language that
maybe stifles sounds
with a mare’s whinnying
or
the cheeping
of blackbird nestlings
or
even a screeching saw
cutting proximity to pieces –
If someone comes
from far away
cringing like a dog
or
maybe like a rat
in the wintertime –
wrap him up warm
he might well have
fire under the soles of his feet
(he may have been riding
on a meteor)
don’t scold him
if your carpet screams through its holes –
A stranger always carries
his home in his arms
like an orphan
and maybe
all he is looking for
is a grave
to bury it.

Kommt einer, by Nelly Sachs, translation by Catherine Sommer

Klemen Breznikar

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Headline photo: Zea in Prague | Photo by Barbora Fabianova

Zea Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / YouTube / SoundCloud / Bandcamp
Makkum Records Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube / SoundCloud / Bandcamp
The Ex Official Website / Facebook / Bandcamp