How Dutch band De Staat found their new stijl

Having been around since 2006, the five piece have a unique way of looking at music. In constructing their own savagely bubbling form of indie rock they’ve captured imaginations and hearts, mostly thanks to their 2015 video for single “Witch Doctor”. Featuring vocalist Torre Florim conducting a swirling mass of shirtless men, its this same imposing grace — that of a tenured art lecturer or cult leader — he commands even over Zoom.

Releasing their fifth album Bubble Gum in 2019, when it came time to look at what the plan might be for their sixth, the most obvious solution, apparently, was to not do one. Instead, split over three distinct colours — red, blue, and yellow — their latest project is three concurrent ever-growing playlists, following the same abstract, directly-indirect motion as the art movement from which it finds its influence.

Playing directly into the hands of the modern world, the unnamed (red), (blue), and (yellow) project's brief offerings — as opposed to building into a one-off, full-length release — are instead a way for Florim and co to create a new way of, well, creating. “I really love albums,” he explains. “But I also love just individual tracks and different ways of approaching things. I think in hip-hop it's quite normal just to release tracks and not be focused on an album or anything, but for a band it's not that usual right now.”

It’s a fair point, given the way guitar-focused music holds the idea of an album up on a pedestal. It can often lead to projects featuring a few standout tracks with the rest feeling more comfortable on the cutting room floor. This trifecta does away with this potential problem by letting the tracks roam free, only restricted by their designated colour, as opposed to slotting neatly into a concrete box forever sealed together. Referring to it as “a different art form basically,” this whole experiment is about fun for Florim.

“It's kind of like you've been growing this piece of fruit for a long time,” his eyes sparkling at the unfurling metaphor. “And at a certain point is like 'Aha, look at this beautiful apple. It's time to pick it from the tree and show the apple to people.’ From that point on maybe it ripens a little bit but after that, it starts rotting. Doing it this way,” he continues. “It’s more like showing the tree. Look at us growing all these fruits and enjoy the tree…there's probably a better comparison!”

Backed by his four bandmates — Vedran Mircetic (guitar), Jop van Summeren (bass), Rocco Hueting (keys), Tim van Delft (drums) — the idea soon formulated from Florin’s wild-eyed idea into a substantial reality. “I think everybody was into it because we've already done five albums. So why not try to change it up a little bit and everybody is in for a little adventure,” he smirks.

When I mention I’ve heard most of the planned offerings, Florin seems surprised. After the playlist is shared with him he explains that while some will indeed be used, the rest probably won’t even make it out into the world. Even a tree needs trimming of any potential bad apples. As for when the fruit is ripe for the picking, Florin offers with a wry laugh, “I think the only answer is something is finished when it has to be... That's kind of a stupid answer, but at a certain point because these songs you've seen, like these 18, there are more even that are not on this on this list, but they're all kind of finished or almost finished or I still have to write lyrics or think about something…but a certain point, you kind of leave them and start making new stuff.”

Explaining that the first three releases of each colour — “Look At Me” (red), “Numbers Up” (yellow) and “What Goes, Let Go” (blue) — were “obvious choices” simply because they were almost finished, but that each also represents their respective colours as an introduction to De Staat's new world. “It's actually really nice because you don't have to finish this whole big collection of things at once," he continues. "It’s fun to do it this way, but sometimes difficult to keep that fire burning. The cool thing about releasing it once in a while is that there is a fire to be burned.”

The chosen primary colours not only represent the style of the ensuing music, but also allow for an emotional centre point where the shades dictate a rough feeling but there’s no barrier that says they’re exclusive. “You can make every colour you want, right?” Florin asks, revealing more of his mindset on the project. “I guess it's not completely true, but it doesn't matter because we’re using the classic primary colours as an idea of a concept but that's kind of basically what it is to me anyway — they represent the complete spectrum of colour that we are right now as De Staat.

“That was kind of the idea for me, it's like a triangle of what we do. The red is the more aggressive stuff, some of these songs that are going to be on the red playlist are going to be way more aggressive than we used to release because now we feel we can do that. With the blue, the same thing, it's got to be more of the calmer and the dreamier melodic introspective stuff. And with the yellow it's more upbeat and fun, quirky stuff. When you start thinking that way when you're writing you start to write more towards that direction. It's a really fun way to approach things.”

Since he’s operating under the instruction of a specific mood — being dictated what the song was to sound like — did Florin find there a specific colour that flowered easier? Pondering his response, the silence outside does little to translate the understandable explosion of colour rushing through his head as he remembers the process up until this moment. “They're all equally difficult or equally easy,” Florim finally says. “The cool thing about doing it this way is that you when you've written a couple of red ones, you automatically want to make a blue one. That's something [that’s] a bit more frustrating about making an album you're trying to make ten or twelve songs that fit together well and at a certain point that feels like a too big of a thing to be focused on. Now we can decide how many red tracks do we want? I don't know. We'll see where we end up. Maybe we'll have a red track and four yellow ones, it's all good. There are no rules here, this is the cool thing about it. You can probably guess, I'm very enthusiastic about all of this!”

The recent video for their first red instalment “Look At Me” finds Florin once again literally in the middle of his “Witch Doctor” routine — all the way down to a twisted sample of the track at the end. In true De Staat fashion it’s them finding a new facet of expectation to defy, even exploring their own canon on the expedition into the great unknown. “We tried to make them very much their own world,” he explains. "Like the red is quite an aggressive video and the blue one is very long form, slow, pretty (‘What Goes, Let Go’). Yeah. But I'm on this adventure with you. I don't have all the answers yet. Like I said, the tree is growing and I'm not sure how tall it's going to be. Or when it's gonna die or anything.”

Uncertainty springs to mind when looking upon the project. It’s a grand idea, but one that could quite as easily collapse in upon itself. Even these aspects of (red), (blue), and (yellow) have crossed Florins mind. “When you start to think about it, what it actually means and what it entails it automatically starts to get a little bit complex,” he explains. “Because you realise that the whole industry around you; all the people you work with, or journalists, everybody is focused on writing about an album.

“There are no awards — just a stupid example — but there's no award for ‘the best three colour three playlists released throughout two years’, there are no reporters writing reviews on something that takes two years to unfold. It doesn't match with the infrastructure, the music industry sometimes, but it does match extremely well with some [other] parts of the music industry. So it took some thought, but for me it was just the creative fun to have with it that was the main reason to do it.”

Relying upon a consistent internal creativity is the other potential fallible for De Staat and their endevaour. “Yeah, I'm afraid I am one of those,” Florin confirms when I ask if he’s the kind of person who is always on. “It's not a disadvantage I think but it can be tiring. It’s not difficult to have an idea, but it is definitely very difficult to execute an idea. I think that's the most difficult part because then if it's a good idea, and if it's a big idea, you have to work with a lot of people which takes a lot of time. It takes money, and it's hard to get get an idea well executed.”

As for the end of the project? Well, in order for a tree to produce fruit it has to reach full maturity, and then the production begins for what can be centuries. At the moment, that’s how gloriously endless this new horizon feels to Florin. “I don't know probably when you when we get tired of it,” he laughs. “When we just don't have any ideas around it anymore, or feel like it's time to for something new…it's actually very liberating to not have a plan on this, because everybody wants to make plans around you.

“This path we're on, we’re not sure where it's leading and when it's going to end but it's actually very fun to keep saying this to everybody because it still feels like no one's believing it for some reason.” He ends with a sentence that rounds off the De Staat motto, “Because it's just not the way people think.”