PHOTO: Dominique Baxewanos
(Note: This article was first published in Wapad on 20 October 2017, p.7.)
An exotic location, similar to a festival on an island in Holland, and in the wild.
Some thoughts bassist for Intergalactic Lovers, Raphaël De Mey, has about OppiKoppi.
The Belgian indie-rock band began their international tour on the final evening (7 October) of OppiKoppi on the Bruilof Stage.
The tour comes after their third full-length album, Exhale, was released in September. During this they are performing in “many, many, many” more countries like Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, Spain and Italy.
“It’s the first time playing on a hill like this, with different stages of so much variation in the line-up.” – Raphaël De Mey (bassist)
They are part of the artist exchange program between the Belgian music festival, Pukkelpop, and OppiKoppi.
“It’s the first time playing on a hill like this, with different stages of so much variation in the line-up,” De Mey said.
It was the band’s debut in South Africa and they were “very excited to be here”. “Everybody, especially at the festival, is very kind and the hospitality is very nice,” Brendan Corbey (drummer) said.
After our interview at OppiKoppi23. From left: Dennis Van Poucke (manager), me, Lara Chedraoui (vocalist), Raphaël De Mey (bassist), Brendan Corbey (drummer) and Maarten Huygens (guitarist).
De Mey noted OppiKoppi noted the OppiKoppi-hype. “In South Africa it’s quite an exciting festival. I feel like everybody comes from far away to visit it.”
“But we come from a little bit farther,” De Mey said jokingly. It took them about two and a half days to arrive at OppiKoppi.
“It’s all about the stress people have, not only about the politics in the world but also in private life,” De Mey. Exhale is about “calming down” and “not stressing too much” about the latter.
Vocalist, Lara Chedraoui said they are pleased with the response they are receiving for Exhale.
“I think the sound changed in the way that we all got older and we got more confident in what we do. So we experiment a bit more than we did in the beginning.” – Lara Chedraoui (vocalist)
Chedraoui said the biggest thing that has changed since their first release, Greetings & Salutations, is their confidence levels. She said the sound didn’t change a lot.
“I think the sound changed in the way that we all got older and we got more confident in what we do. So we experiment a bit more than we did in the beginning.”
The writing process is a group-effort, said Maarten Huygens (guitarist).
“Someone throws in an idea and everybody starts working on it and add new ideas on top of that idea. Sometimes we end up with a piece of music we all like and you don’t recognize the first idea anymore,” Huygens said.
Chedraoui dreams of playing “everywhere until (we’re) very, very old – to be sixty, seventy years old and still be playing with these guys.”
Another future goal of Intergalactic Lovers is to headline OppiKoppi.
Check out my favourite Intergalactic Lovers song!
musicalrollercoaster 