Words by Art Jefferson
Photography by Sophie Mylou and courtesy of The Indien
For those who appreciate music with true heart and soul, The Indien deliver both to the fullest. Based in The Hague, the band’s lucious marriage of styles including 60s pop, 70s soul and more are nothing short of phenomenal. Comprised of singer / musician Rianne Walther and guitarist Casper Talsma along with bassist Janneke Nijhuijs and drummer Yori Olijslagers, sonically their pristine music jumps through the speakers with their live shows being just a incredible.
Making their debut in 2015 with the single ‘Cologne’, The Indien went on to release their towering EP Hiatus that same year which included the tracks ‘Summer Night’ and ‘The One’. Currently signed to Tinie Tempah and Dumi Oburota’s Disturbing London label, the band unleashed their stellar cut ‘Blame You’ earlier this year. Their latest record ‘Longtime Lover’ is an organically soulful handing bursting with character and utterly grooving. A glimpse of what’s of what the near future holds, you can be rest assured that The Indien’s imprint will be a widened and far reaching one for the coming year.
Can you talk about the inception of the band as well as the origin of the name?
Rianne Walther – We started out making music for fun after studying at a music school in The Netherlands. After years of practicing our skills and getting graded on that we only wanted to play what came out naturally. This is where we started The Indien. It stems from Independent and at that time Indie music. Doing everything ourselves. ‘The Independent one’ became The Indien.
Musically you encompass everything from classic soul to indie to 60s pop. However, you have managed to keep your sound modern without it necessarily being ‘throwback’. How long did it take for you to find that perfect balance?
Rianne Walther – I think that ‘perfect balance’ lies in everything that is not balanced. So the music you listen to, the way you feel and everything that comes out while playing. Listening to old and new music is where our balance is. For example we love The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac but we also listen to Rihanna and Frank Ocean.
Rianne, can you give a little insight on your personal background with music? You’re a powerhouse singer, as well as a musician. Is it safe to assume that you’ve been singing and playing since a child?
Rianne Walther – Thank you and yes I’ve been singing and writing music since I can remember. My mom and dad are music lovers and my grandpa was a big band guitarist. So there was always a wide range of music playing and I was always trying to force people to look at my performances. I wish I was still like that.
Listening to your songs and even watching live performances, there is a high level of detail that spans not only from the production aspect with intricate change-ups but even down to the engineering. How meticulous are you all in the studio?
Rianne Walther – You have a really good ear. We recorded ‘Hiatus’ and the two singles ‘Blame You’ and ‘Longtime Lover’ together with Maarten Hemmen, a drummer. He produced and engineered the songs together with us. So every sound choice was made by us, which is a great thing but also time consuming and not always good for your mental health. We are trying to speed up this process cause we don’t have the time D’Angelo has.
Staying on the topic of detail. It should also be noted that your official videos are also always creative and stunning. This is one area that I feel many bands fall short on. Can you talk about the importance of your visual presentations?
Rianne Walther – These songs are little stories and they deserve strong visuals, ones that match the inside of our heads. We live in The Hague, a city near the ocean in the Netherlands. Some call it ‘the rock city of Holland.’ I don’t know if that’s true but there are a lot of amazing creatives living and working here. We made ‘Longtime Lover’ with a group of friends that have their own companies in film. We matched Jamel Armand (Starsquid) and Yannick de Jager (Off the Richter) and asked them to work together. They really understand what we are trying to tell through our music. They love the details and also all the weird sounds we never mute. More coming. 🙂
Considering that sonically you have always had an immaculate sound harking back to tracks like ‘Done’, has there been any changes in the way you record now opposed to then, and also has there been any differences in the way the creative process flows?
Rianne Walther – Well we are trying to find out which way of recording works best for us. We are so used to doing everything ourselves, but that takes a lot of time. There are so many cool mixing engineers that can even do a better job because they hear all these new things. For example ‘Blame You’ and ‘Longtime Lover’ are not mixed by Casper and Bas van Wageningen (like on ‘Hiatus’).
You’re now signed to Tinie Tempah and Dumi Oburota’s Disturbing London. How did that relationship come about?
Rianne Walther – That’s a really funny story. At the time we released ‘The One’ on Spotify and we made ‘New Music Friday.’ On that day a junior called Stephen was listening to that list and he was sold. (Not trying to talk myself up but these were his words) So he was stalking Dumi about us and after a few weeks they came to visit us. But in the days leading up to that we didn’t really take it too serious. We had a lot of people promising us the world and at the end of the day they always asked us to pay 3000,- for their services haha. So we didn’t really do any research and just went to the meeting blank. Boy were we wrong. They are the nicest, coolest humans and we hit it off right away.
You kicked off 2020 with ‘Blame You’, followed by your latest single ‘Longtime Lover’. Both are phenomenal records. There is this bold punch, especially with a heavy emphasis on the drums. Musically what can fans expect with your upcoming records and is there a new album in the works?
Rianne Walther – I think people can expect more like this, a lot of percussion and maybe something to dance to. We are planning on releasing one song at a time but we want to win a grammy in two years so somewhere down the line we need to record that album. All jokes aside, we would love to make an album.
Finally, how have things been for you all during the pandemic and how have you all coped during the past number of months?
Rianne Walther – It goes in waves. We try to make it as creative and positive as we can. It’s hard, but I don’t want to dwell on it for too long cause it gives me a headache and everyone has their story. We should take care of each other and when we can, we want to give everyone that’s interested some music, a hug of music, blegh that sounds corny.
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The Indien on Spotify