INTERVIEW: K's Choice
- Al Muzer
" I'm not really sure why bands from our part of the world are finally beginning to get noticed," comments guitarist/songwriter Gert Bettens of Belgium-based K's Choice when I mention that Bettie Serveert's drummer asked me to say "hello" to him. "Then again," he offers after a bit of thought, "that whole area of central-Europe ['Serveert is from Holland] has been absorbing the different styles of music and culture surrounding it for years now."
"At the same time," adds the K's Choice co-founder (with sister/songwriter/guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Sarah Bettens), "we also grew up completely influenced by American and English music, fashion and culture."
"Maybe we've finally figured out how to take only the best of what all those different influences offer," Bettens reasons, "and how to leave out the bad parts?"
A reasonable assumption to make if you've heard Serveert's latest effort or Paradise In Me, the 14-song, 550 Music/Epic Records debut from K's Choice.
Stunning in its graceful simplicity and deeply moving thanks to a moody understatement and lyrics as raw as the pages torn from an ex-lover's diary; the confessions, fears, hopes and observations that burst from the second album by K's Choice (which also features drummer Bart van der Zeeuw and bassist Jan van Sichem, Jr.) are much more personal and heart-on-sleeve than even the exposed nerve of the group's hit, "Not An Addict," would indicate.
"Most of the album is very personal," Bettens says as he relaxes in a Houston hotel room and readies himself for yet another show on the group's seemingly never-ending American tour. "We both write about things we feel very deeply about. She tends to write, Sarah's lyrics are more open than mine. We're both, however, very sincere and our songs stem from things that either really bothered one of us - or else made whoever wrote that song very happy."
"While they both always seem to come from an extreme emotion," he explains, "Sarah's songs are more 'in your face' while mine are a little more guarded."
"It was a bit surprising for us that this album took off the way it has," he adds when the 1995 copyright date on the disc is mentioned. "We were already working on our next record when, all of a sudden, "Not An Addict" started getting airplay in the states and we wound up touring to support an album that we thought, well, let's just say that we were ready to move on to the next stage."
Not just touring, but serious touring.
Having supported the likes of Bryan Adams, Morphine, the Proclaimers and the Indigo Girls after the release of their first effort, 1994s The Great Subconscious Club, a then unknown K's Choice was hand-picked by Alanis Morissette to open a large portion of her 1996 Jagged Little Pill tour - the rest, as they say, is history.
"It is a bit weird," Bettens comments on the relatively old age of Paradise In Me and the tour. "At one point, I think we all got a little bit tired of the songs. But, then we got an opportunity to play them for new audiences who were hearing them for the very first time - which made the songs seem really fresh to us as well. We play them now with as much enthusiasm as we did three years ago."
"It's very important," he adds, "to have something that motivates you when it's time to play "Not An Addict" for the thousandth time - and it's the audience here, in America, being so wonderful to us and so open to our music that motivates us." On the road meeting new fans for most of 1995, '96 and, so far, for a great deal of 1997, K's Choice has filled the months since the Alanis tour finally ended: filming the video for "Not An Addict" with Peter Kristofferson (Rage Against The Machine's "Bulls On Parade"); headlining at clubs and small venues across the country; opening for the likes of Bob Dylan, Better Than Ezra, Evan Dando, Beck, No Doubt and The Wallflowers at a slew of high-profile radio festivals in major arenas around the nation; and getting acquainted with the fans who spend their hard-earned money for the group's CDs, pay the cost of concert admission, or call those same festival-sponsorin' radio stations at 3 a.m. and beg to hear "Not An Addict" for the 39th time that day.
"We really enjoy socializing with the audience after our sets," Bettens says of the group's current opening stint [which runs from July to September] for Tonic and The Verve Pipe. "People are always coming up to our bus after a show. Some ask for autographs and some just like to hang out and talk or be with us for a little while."
"I understand, however, that it must be harder - that it does get harder - for some artists to remain that accessible to their fans," he offers. "Take Alanis Morissette, for example. There were just way too many people who wanted to talk to her, shake her hand or give her a hug after one of her performances for her to accommodate all of them."
"I mean, she would never have made it to the next show if she met everybody that wanted to meet her," Bettens laughs. "You know, it used to bother me a little, but, I stopped blaming artists for not doing that [meeting and greeting after a show] when they get too big after seeing how out of control things sometimes got during the Alanis tour."
On their way (hopefully) to a similar superstar status in America, "Not An Addict" has been added to numerous radio playlists across the country while K's Choice are currently one of the most requested groups in the nation.
"When we started the band," reminisces Bettens as he recalls the group's five-year journey to overnight success, "we, of course, dreamed about reaching the highest possible thing you can achieve as a band. But, we were both still going to school [Sarah for photography, Gert for animation art] and weren't even thinking about a musical career."
"We didn't even have a demo tape," he chuckles. "Someone accidentally recorded one of our acoustic sets one night and the tape wound up at a small independent label [Double T Music] in Brussels."
"We were extremely lucky," Bettens says with a trace of wonder at the set of coincidences that landed two members of the Bettens' family a record contract and a chance to visit America. "We didn't have to go through that phase a lot of my friends [in bands] are going through now where you keep recording and mailing out demo tape after demo tape with the hope that, someday, someone will 'discover' you."
"We were, really, incredibly lucky," he adds quietly.
