Highlights of the Lowlands 2: Alamo Race Track Part 1
Alamo Race Track (part 1) July 10, 2009, 10:41 PM Views: 529
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 The holiday season is coming up and lots of people go out for a short visit to Holland. Especially Amsterdam is, due to the possibility to broaden one’s education in the medical sector, quite popular. But you don't really need drugs to get high in Holland. Despite the lack of global exposure in the media, the lowlands contain a couple of extremely talented bands; bands who signed with international labels, did small clubs tours throughout Europe, the UK and the US or were once support act of bands who later turned larger than life.
When you visit Holland, there are certainly a couple of bands you have to see perform. To prepare you for your trip, the next four weeks Altsounds will highlight the most popular rock bands of the current Dutch music scene. So turn on, tune in and drop out with 'Highlights of the Lowlands'.
In Part 2 of ‘Highlights of the Lowlands’ guitarist Len Lucieer tells the story of his band Alamo Race Track. With music that’s both hard to divine and changing all the time, numerous visits to South by South West and performances at film premières and in dressing rooms, the band is one of the most original ones of Holland.
Artist Profile
Name: Alamo Race Track
Reason name: The music should be like a race tracks atmosphere
Members: Ralph Mulder (vocals, guitar, keys, percussion), Len Lucieer (guitar), David Corel (bass, vocals, keys) and Guy Bours (drums)
Music: not really definable, but if anything, alternative rock
Influences: anything, from Tom Waits and folk music to Beatles and classical music
Recommended Dutch band: Roald van Oosten (ex-Caesar)'s Ghost Trucker – In Poe Park
________
The history of Alamo Race Track started in quite an unusual way. Before they were even the band they are now, success was already knocking on their door.
‘We just started out as friends, in a band called Redivider. The keys player, Diederik (Nomden), enrolled himself in a band competition, but he didn’t have a band. So he asked a bunch of friends to join him. Then – you needed ten songs to join the competition – we produced ten songs and suddenly it turned into something bigger than we would have had expected; we won the band competition. Then we enrolled in another competition, I think the Amsterdame Pop Prijs, and winning that means you could go for the Grote Prijs van Nederland (the best known Dutch band competition), and we won that one as well. Suddenly there was this band we hadn’t really thought about before. We did make a record and it was fun because we are all friends. But all the songs were written separately from each other, so the band didn’t really have a face. So pretty soon we knew – ‘let’s finish this’, we were tied to a record deal, so we had to make this record – but we already knew ‘it’s a nice thing to do and to get some experience and all, but we want to do something different in the end’. That feeling originated from back then and wanting something different… basically they way we were working, Diederik just didn’t fit. And he didn’t really want it either. So he quit and we continued the band, using a new name. But basically, that’s when it really started.'
The name chosen for the new band was Alamo Race Track, the music… still a bit indefinable and vague.
'(Alamo) is a place in the United States. Ralph (Mulder; vocals, guitar, keys) owned a map of the South of the United States and he always wanted to visit the place. The name is actually a kind of collage of different places. It turned out the place did really exist, in the south of Texas. And there is in fact a horse racecourse. But the reason we chose this name is, we wanted our music to be like that kind of atmosphere.’
‘It’s an alternative guitar band, I think. It’s hard (to divine). It’s supposed to change over the years. But what makes it fun for every band is, as a group you bring in your own influences and together it blends into something new. And that (sound) changes over the years as well. For example, I might have listened to Tom Waits, but Ralph might have listened to Neil Young, or to a new band. There are lots of different bands and you learn something from any of them and that’s what makes your own sound. It’s not really one specific kind of sound.
I think it’s always been the case that, once you’re making music, you bring your musical memories with you. You can probably tell. I think, looking back on the last record, a song like ‘Black Cat John Brown’ is clearly inspired by American folk music, that kind of simplicity. But take a song like ‘Chocolate Years’ from the same album, that one might sound more like Tom Waits, or Eels. Maybe you can tell, but it’s not something we do on purpose.’
The band impressed the Dutch audience with their indefinable sound and even before an album could be recorded, they could be heard everywhere; at festivals, on albums of other bands and they even appeared at the film première of ’24 Hours Party People’. Not as celebrities though.
‘When the film – it’s about the music scene in Manchester - was released, they came up with the idea of creating the same atmosphere during the première of the film; it had to be like the Factory, with a band who could play. It seemed to be a fun idea. I don’t think we would ever make that kind of music, especially these days, but it was a brilliant thing to do.’
Struggling to find a record deal wasn’t something Alamo had to experience. In fact, thanks to Redivider the bands’ recording future was already written. Excelsior Recordings, Holland’s best-known independent record label, was on its way to Alamo.
‘Excelsior was – during the time of our first band 'Redivider' we won de Grote Prijs van Nederland – and it was there and then we first met. But we wanted to do something different (than the Redivider album) and Excelsior thought it might be a good idea as well. So we were like ‘let’s think about it, we’re going to release this album the way it is now, but in the end we want to do something else. And we would love to do that with you’. So the first contacts were made a long time ago, but we only started there with our new band.’
Finding places to perform wasn’t a problem either. Before their debut album was released they were happily hooked up with Excelsior buddies Daryll-Ann.
‘We were both from Amsterdam, we shared the same record label, so it was just kind of obvious you would help each other out. We never – ‘Daryll-Ann’ was in the beginning only, when we didn’t have a booking agency and had to promote the record – but we’ve never been a support act for another band.’
The band never had to. Because shortly after the release of debut album ‘Birds at Home’ they were asked to perform at showcases all around the world, culminating in several invitations for one of the most famous showcases, Austin’s ‘South by South West’.
‘It’s something you get invited to. And for a large part it goes through Nationaal Popinstituut (an organization promoting Dutch pop music). They always lobby from Holland to international festivals to ensure Dutch bands are playing there. And those organizations, whether it is the Nationaal Popinstituut or Music Export, try to find bands of which they think ‘that might become a success abroad’. And once you’re in, you get yourself some more exposure, so one festival leads to another, and it grows.
And it’s very useful, not only the ones in Manchester (In the City) or Glasgow (Music Works), but also something comparable like, for example, South by South West in the United States. I’ve been there quite a lot of times now, but I think it’s one of the better festivals there is. You can compare it to Eurosonic here; it’s happening everywhere in town as well. The same goes for Manchester and Glasgow by the way. But South by South West is bigger and there’s a wonderful atmosphere, partly because it takes quite a long time. You’re staying there for at least a week, maybe even longer. So, for a week, you’re in a town with hundreds of other musicians. So you run into all kinds of people you met the year before. That’s what makes it fun. But truth to be told, all the networking you would think you need to do, that’s really something for booking agencies and record labels. I think most of the bands just enjoy playing there and meeting other bands.’
‘The first time we performed there, the manager of the French record company that releases our records now (Fargo) saw us. Things like that don’t happen that easily when you’re playing in Holland only. So you’re heading for the United States, thinking ‘maybe some American record label likes to release our record’. That happened as well, but we also got in touch with a French record company. Festivals like that are very useful in the end. I don’t think we would ever have thought about going to France, because I would think that – well, I don’t know – it would be a very chauvinistic country, with people mostly listening to French music. That’s a bit exaggerated, but still, it’s not the first country you’re thinking of. You would think of England or the United States. But gradually, for the last couple of years, we’ve been playing approximately fifty times a year in France. It has become a very important country to us. You couldn’t possibly dream of it.
It’s just… I think it happens all the time in the world of pop music. You’ve got to be lucky to be in the right place at the right time. That’s what happened (at South by South West). Also, sometimes it’s just that you release a record and people are looking for that kind of record at that time. Or there aren’t that many other releases at all, it’s as simple as that. Suddenly they write about you in the newspapers, you get invited to play at festivals and in a couple of months you’re pretty big. I think it has got everything to do with luck and being in the right place at the right time.’
Not only Fargo Records thought the band might be worth signing; the American label Minty Fresh was thinking the same.
‘Shortly before the album’s (Black Cat John Brown) release (in the US) the title song was used in a television show, Greys Anatomy. It’s a hugely popular show. When your music appears on a show like that, that’s quite influential. The music used in the series also appears on a special soundtrack. So it just makes sense to release the album there as well. For American newspapers there’s reason enough to write about you the moment you’re in the show. That might have helped releasing the album over there.’
Despite spending a lot of time abroad, Alamo Race Track never turned their back to the lowlands. Read all about it in part 2 of 'Highlights of the Lowlands' - Alamo Race Track.
CONTINUED IN PART 2
Last edited by altsounds : July 11, 2009 at 09:18 PM.
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