How it started
Sometimes you hear a band playing and your first thought is ‘sounds great’. But you forget about them until the day you hear them again. And that’s what happened with Noctulux. A long time ago I heard them play in our village and surfing on YouTube we met again. And the first thing I did was sharing a song of them because I want more people the listen to them.
Going to Wilp
I’m always curious so I was determined to find out more about them. So what can you do? The only way to find out more is looking them up. But unfortunately there were no gig announced so the only way was to ask them if there was another way to see each other. And I was lucky. I got the opportunity to see them while they are rehearsing. So on a rainy Thursday evening I went to Wilp. The place to be when you want to see and hear Noctulux.
Light of the night
The translation of ‘Noctulux’ is ‘light of the night’. And a better name couldn’t be found I think. It was a hell of a job to find them in the dark evening. And again my car navigation was a very reliable friend.
The band
When I arrived there was a warm welcome and all the band members were already there. So I met Mirjam van der Wel (vocals), Maarten Langeree (guitar), Dennis Tappij Gielen (keyboards), Ben Bruschke (bass) and Michiel Nijs (drums).
After a delicious cup of coffee and a short introduction It was time to start with the interview. And how nice it is to do it “live” and not by mail or skype. And so we start taking about the band, music, gigs and audience.
How it started
The band established a few years ago after Mirjam, 25 years old, started with music. She wanted to do something and said ‘just lets try to do something in music”. She started to play the piano and within a week she also started writing. She liked singing and so it began. But It not always easy to start a band. You have to find the right band members and that’s a hell of a job. And some of them (keyboard players) are extremely difficult to find. But with the help of social media and even a short note on a toilet she found the right people. And so Noctulux was born and in 2017 the band was completed.
Female fronted
Noctulux is not a professional band. All the band members, except Michiel, have also other jobs. Michiel is not a fulltime band player but he is a working as a professional in music. The band is so called ‘Female Fronted’. They gave themselves this name because they didn’t want to be called ‘Gothic’. But they told me they don’t want to be called a certain kind of band. They play the music they like and that could be any kind of music. And the band plays only their own songs and no covers.
Writing songs while you sleep
Talking about writing music they have the most strange moments when ideas come up. For example when they sleep, or better when they wake up. Dennis can do that as no one else. He has a certain kind of feeling to do so. When he comes up with the ideas they all together make it a song.
From the Shadows
So far the band released 1one album, ‘From the Shadows’. The tracks on this album are written by Mirjam and Dennis (and one song by the whole band). But now they are already writing new songs for a second album. And they have already a few tracks finished.
From Opeth to Chopin
Is the band influenced by the personal choices of the individual band members. That’s difficult to say. Because they have all very different favorites. This is just a small part of there individual choices: Opeth, Vangelis, Dire Straits and even Chopin. Lot’s of different music and that’s maybe the reason why they make different tracks. Most of their songs are different from each other.
Performances in Holland
Talking about gigs it’s the same story we hear from most of the bands. Its very difficult to play in Holland. Venue owners are more interested in selling beer then in good music. And “Noctulux’ is a band that plays only there own music. And it’s to much ‘pop’ for a metal audience and to much ‘metal’ for a pop audience. So most of their gigs are so called ‘battles’.
And they also are talking about the ‘Dutch Disease’. That fact that the audience is not listening to the music but only busy talking to other people during the concert. Or not even facing the band when they are playing. It’s horrible but as band you can do nothing about it.
All for the band
But let’s get back to the band. And I can see that these people are very well motivated and that they do everything they can for the band and their music. I’m impressed by what they are doing and the way they do things. They rehearse every week and they do everything to get gigs so the people canhear and see what they are capable of. And they are really great. They even asked me if I want to hear some songs before I had to go home. Sure I will hear them and I can tell you it was nice to listen to them. We have very talented bands in our country and ‘Noctulux’ is one of them for sure,
Going home
And so after a very nice talk it’s time to go home. Again I have to go into the dark night. But now with the light of ‘Noctulux’.
Thank you very much for the nice interview and stay. It was an honor to meet you and to talk about music. I wish you all the luck in the world and I hope to see you again soon, on stage.
https://www.facebook.com/noctulux
https://www.instagram.com/noctuluxband/
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