Altsounds - Highlights of the Lowlands: Racoon Part 2

Part 2 of 'Highlights of the Lowlands: Racoon'.

Sadly everything was not well at the label front and the same year Smart dropped a lot of their artists, Racoon included.
‘Yeah, during that period there was this big cleaning in music land, it was the start of the downfall. It only got worse the years after. So suddenly you’re, well, not empty-handed, but we all thought ‘crap, what do we do now?’. Before that for almost two years we managed to earn our living from music. You could only pay the rent and a peanut butter sandwich, but still, we earned our living from music. And than all of a sudden you lose your record deal. In hindsight, we all thought about it for about five seconds before we said ‘fuck it, let’s continue anyway’. And a week after we were dumped Michael Schoots called and he said: ‘With or without money, with or without a deal, I don’t care. If you want to, I would like to make a new record.’

He believed in us. And if we were doing the album well, everything would turn out fine in the end. So that’s what we did. We saved money, borrowed money from family, friends and acquaintances and eventually produced ‘Another Day’. Then we had one thousand Euro and we could enter the studio for a couple of days. Three months later we had a bit of money again and we could go to the studio for a couple of days again. That’s why it took us three years. Afterwards we paid an old-fashioned – I do say ‘old-fashioned’ a lot – visit to Hilversum (the media centre of Holland). We went to all the labels. PIAS was the one who was the most enthusiastic, so they released it. (And) it was a huge success. It’s almost double platinum now and in the slipstream of ‘Another Day’ our first record went gold as well.’

Life was getting better once again and in the slipstream of the success in Holland, there was also a nice surprise for the band in the United States: the release of ‘Another Day’, plus a tour with the Lemonheads.
‘We’re with a Belgium management and one of the people who worked for us, Inge, went to the United States, a year before we did the tour with the Lemonheads, to live there. She wanted to build up her own business and she lives and works in LA now. The first thing she took care of was a distribution deal for ‘Another Day’ in the United States. So that album is released over there. And to support the release we did this tour with the Lemonheads. Inge took care of all of that. And it was brilliant of course. You start all over again, but if you can travel through the country with the Lemonheads you don’t say no of course. It almost took three weeks, in a little van with the five of us, the band plus one member of the crew. We started in San Francisco and ended in New York. I saw the United States mainly from the window of the van (laughs). The distances are so enormous. You perform and the next day you have to get up early in order to be on time for the next gig. You just sit in a van for days. But we did have enough days off. I have walked around in Chicago for two days, we’ve been in San Francisco for two days and LA as well, and in New York we even stayed for three days. Just for the experience it was such a brilliant thing to do. I would love to go again. We did tour again with them; last year we did Germany, Scandinavia, Austria and Belgium in three weeks time. And who knows if we can tour together again in the future.’

PIAS turned out to be a little bit nicer to their artists, and in 2008 Racoon released their fourth album, ‘Before You Leave’.
(‘Before You Leave’) was also released by PIAS. ‘Another Day’ was a huge success and we both liked the collaboration, so we just continued the deal. We planned and financed ‘Another Day’ ourselves because we had to, but we liked it so much that we did the same with ‘Before You Leave’. So we could make up the planning ourselves, decide which songs to use, everything is in your own hands. There’s no pressure from the record company who tells you the record has got to be finished by yesterday and this one has got to be the single. ‘Another Day’ was released in 2005, when in the summer of that year everything exploded with ‘Love You More’ (number three in the Dutch charts, their biggest hit). Then, for a year and a half, we flew from this place to that place, quite hectically. After that we decided not to do any more shows in 2007. (But) we were invited to do a helicopter tour for the festivals of liberation (an annual series of festivals on the fifth of May, Liberation Day), so we couldn’t say no to that and we also did a couple of other festivals in September. But that was about it, so we could concentrate on recording the new album. That one was released in February 2008.’

Despite the Lemonheads tour and the release of ‘Another Day’ in the United States, ‘Before You Leave’ wasn’t released over there.
‘We didn’t really like the deal we had with ‘Another Day’ in the end. So we looked for other partners, but especially in the United States we could really feel the downfall of the music industry. There’s a lot of enthusiasm and interest from labels, but to actually do something is a different story. So far no one took that step. No one dares to put money into a band. That is something I regret. But in the meantime the album is released in Germany, Switserland and Belgium and if everything goes well also in Norway soon. We are going to tour there as well. At the moment we focus on Germany, we would love to succeed there. You only have so much time and you can do everything a little bit, a little bit US, a little bit some place else, but now we just think ‘let’s concentrate on Europe’ and try to build something there. But if anything is coming up from the United States, we wouldn't say no!’

You can’t accuse Racoon of being lazy. Neither can you say they don’t try out new things. Like performing in a train for example.
‘That was an idea from our record company, that we, on the day of release (of ‘Before You Leave), would do a kind of press gig at Amsterdam Central Station, that we would travel by train to Utrecht with the press, so we could do interviews and perform. And at Utrecht Central Station we performed in the hall as well, for fans and passers-by. There you could buy the album and get autographs and pictures, it was quite a success. Lots of press, the train was overcrowded (laughs). That was quite fun.’

From the train from Utrecht to the Great Escape in Brighton, England; 2009 was also the year Racoon did their first UK tour.
‘Three years ago we played the Great Escape in Brighton, a showcase festival. It was the first time it was organized and it wasn’t really that impressive. The organization was thinking the same and invited us back this year. This time we played for quite a lot of people. And the invitation was a good thing, because we were also asked to play the International Pop Overthrow festival, whether we would like to play in the Cavern in Liverpool! That took place the same week as the Great Escape. In between days we did a show on our own as well, in Portsmouth. You always hope to get in contact with other people through a showcase, and in Liverpool as well. Our record isn’t released in England. It’s like, ‘you never know what happens’. I thought it was a brilliant thing to do. How many Dutch bands can say they performed at the Cavern?’

From an American tour with the Lemonheads to big festivals in England and Holland, Racoon never seem to stop playing live. But the next stop is a little bit more intimate: the theatre.
‘We did do that last fall. We did it once before that. We really like doing that. Our music is tailor-made for things like that and the response is great. Both theatre tours were sold-out and we didn’t count on it any more. Our booking agency said we could easily do it again. Originally we would play more dates, but we deliberately chose to do just twenty-six dates. That’s something we learned from the past. It is very important for us that the spirit stays. As soon as we get close to the automatic pilot, it stops. It keeps on being nice this way. By the time we have had enough we finish. But before that we’re going to do Germany first for two and a half weeks.’

There’s also another album on its way, though it might take some time.
‘We’re busy writing now. I think we’re going to record again in 2010. Whether it’s going to be released in 2010 as well I don’t know, but again, we’re doing it ourselves. We really feel that an album is an important thing, it shows where you are as a band during a certain moment in time, so it has got to be the best you can do. It’s finished when it’s finished. Will it take half a year? If it takes us half a year or two years, that's how long it takes. I’m not hoping that it takes us two years, but in a manner of speaking. We’re writing now.’

So there you have it: the story of Racoon. A classic story of a hard working band, that saw their biggest misfortune turning into their biggest triumph. These days Racoon is one of the most popular bands in Holland, they keep on selling out venues and are still working their way through Europe.

Do you want to know more about their albums or are you planning to go to one of their concerts? You can find Dennis Huige's personal description of their albums below, plus a list with all of their concert data.

Racoon’s discography

Till Monkeys fly (2000)
‘That one is our debut album and I truly find it a debut album. You can hear that kind of first album energy. I remember we put loads of typical musical details in our first demo’s, even before ‘Till Monkeys Fly’. Michel took a lot of details out of it, but when listening back to ‘Till Monkeys Fly’ I still hear too many musical details. But there are some great songs on it and we still do play some of them live. A lot of fans say this is their favourite album. I like that idea; you’ve got several albums and this is the one they like best. So, great songs, full of energy and a true debut album. It’s something you can’t do again, you never have that frankness again.’

Here We Go, Stereo (2001)
‘The second album is, in hindsight, also a typical second album. Despite all the details of the first record that one was quite a pure album; we were just a band. We wanted the second record to be a bit more diverse, it rocks a little more plus we used more instruments, violins, keys and sounds like that.’

Another Day (2005)
‘That one was a response to the second album, where we used lots of sounds and layers and stuff. With ‘Another Day’ we went back to original ideals. Our creed was ‘less is more’. We focussed very much on songs: ‘what makes a song’, ‘what makes it a good song’, ‘what do we need to get rid of’ and everything that was standing in our way, we took away. The simpler the better.’

Before You Leave (2008)
‘Album number four is a continuation of the third one. We tried to implement (the ‘less is more’ creed) even more. Although, ‘Before You Leave’ is musically a step ahead of ‘Another Day’.’

Tour schedule

11th July - Breda Live, Chasséveld, Breda
22nd July - Vierdaagsefeesten, Nijmegen
31st July - Caprera, Bloemendaal, NL
5th August - Parkavonden, Edegem (B)
20th August - Gorinchemse Zomerfeesten, Gorinchem, NL
29th August - Bavaria Open Air, Lieshout, NL
23rd September - ZINiN Theater, Nijverdal NL
25th September - Theater a/h Vrijthof, Maastricht
26th September -vTheater het Kruispunt, Barendrecht
29th September - Goudse Schouwburg, Gouda
30th September - Schouwburg De Lawei, Drachten
2nd October - Chassé Theater, Breda
3rd October - Theater 't Speelhuis, Helmond
7th October - Schouwburg Amstelveen, Amstelveen (theater)
8th October - Stadstheater, Zoetermeer
9th October - Scheldetheater, Terneuzen
15th October - Philharmonie, Haarlem
16th October - Kennemer Theater, Beverwijk
17th October - Parkstad Limburg Theaters, Heerlen
23rd October - Muziekcentrum Enschede, Enschede
24th October - De Meervaart, Amsterdam
29th October - Schouwburg De Kampanje, Den Helder
31st October - Het Zaantheater, Zaandam
17th November - Schouwburg Agnietenhof, Tiel
18th November - Theaterhotel De Oranjerie, Roermond
20th November - Concertgebouw de Vereeniging, Nijmegen
10th December - Rabotheater Hengelo, Hengelo
11th December - Muziekcentrum Frits Philips ,Eindhoven
13th December - Theater a/d Parade, Den Bosch
16th December - De Oosterpoort, Groningen
18th December - Nieuwe Luxor Theater, Rotterdam