The Go Find

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Features • Wednesday March 10th, 2010 • 12:00 am

Dieter Sermeus is much too nice. For a man who’s made one of my favorite records so far in 2010, he’s every bit as accommodating and thoughtful as his music.

Originally conceived as a solo electronic project, Dieter and his band, The Go Find, have crafted a warm, low-key record, Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight. If the title doesn’t draw you in, the music will. The album’s a combination of nostalgically familiar tunes that are shot through with melody and light. And Dieter was kind enough recently to spend part of his evening talking with me about his new record, his relationship with electronic music, and what exactly it is that everybody knows is gonna happen.

SSv: Where do you live currently, Dieter?

Dieter Sermeus: I live in Antwerp; it’s a harbor town in Belgium. And it’s a suburb of a big harbor city. Yeah, it’s good living there.

SSv: So, as an international artist do you sometimes feel like you live in two worlds — say with the European market and the American market?

Dieter: Actually, yeah. Not that it bothers me, but it’s definitely two different worlds. Not just because of the markets but because of the physical aspect, as well — with the big ocean in between. We get lots of nice reviews and people mailing us and asking, ‘Please come play our town in the United States.’ But it’s more difficult for us to especially when a German organizer says, ‘Hey, I’d like to do a gig with The Go Find.’ It’s much easier to organize. Sometimes it’s frustrating because when people want us to come play [in Europe] it’s very easy to go there. We would love to come back [to the U.S.] but it’s not that easy and it’s a very expensive trip.

But in general, regarding reactions to the music, I don’t have the impression that people react differently. So in that way, I don’t feel like it’s a different world, no.

SSv: The record doesn’t feel bound by nationality and it’s very cohesive. Actually it’s really great to listen to in the morning. Did you have a time or mood in mind when making the record?

Dieter: No, but I guess I do also like mornings and the twilight, too. That’s certainly a good time, depending on the mood I’m in — it’s a nice zone to be in. If you tell me you like the city in the morning and I like the city in the evening, that’s all fine to me, of course. But I guess that maybe why you might say that is because it’s not a loud record. We try not to push the music into your ears.

A lot of productions these days — and sometimes they are really good, so I’m not criticizing that type of production — they are very compressed and you can’t escape when a song is on the radio. You’re bound to listen to the drums or something else. That’s not the kind of production on this record. It’s very balanced and maybe mellow and maybe that suits the morning very well. You want to get up and start your day and you don’t want to be confronted by a lot of noise and hard production. So maybe you’re right, I think; it is a morning record. [Laughs]

SSv: Well, it puts me in a good mood.

Dieter: That’s the nicest thing you can tell someone who is making music. You don’t want to make music that puts someone in a bad mood. So if it puts you in a good mood, then I guess we succeeded. It makes me feel like we’ve gotten one guy to enjoy. Now it’s the rest of the world. [Laughs]

SSv: In the past, you’ve worked mostly solo, correct?

Dieter: Yes, the first record, Miami, I recorded solo with help from Arne Van Petegem from Styrofoam on the Morr Music label. We recorded the record together. Then you have to play the songs live, so you find some friends. And things worked out fine with those guys and we recorded our second album, Stars On the Wall. So it started out as a solo project but now it’s a band project. I mean I still write songs but there’s a different starting point with a band than alone.

SSv: Do you prefer working with the band or alone?

Dieter: Well, I don’t know. Before I started The Go Find I had another band and I kind of got tired of compromising so I started the solo project. But then working on the record alone, sometimes I missed people around me. And we started playing the songs from Miami live and I really liked the direction between all the musicians. And so then I understood that making music is also something for me. It’s a social activity and it’s good and fun to have your friends around.

SSv: I always like to hear what an artist does alone and then hear it fleshed out with a band.

Dieter: Sure, sure, I totally agree. And I’m not saying I’m never gonna make a solo record again but I definitely also know that making music together — when you’re rehearsing and you’ve got this really good tune and everybody is on the same level about it and it sounds good — that’s a feeling that’s hard to get alone. When you’re making music on your own then you can have a really good melody and listen to it on your tape but you can’t share it. And you may think, “Ah, this sounds a little cheesy,” and it’s the sharing that sometimes makes it extra interesting.

SSv: You find you need that feedback from others.

Dieter: Yeah, and if it seems like it is good [to others] then when you get home and play it, well then it can be really good.

SSv: Tell me about your relationship with electronic music. It’s mentioned in a lot of your press releases but it took me about three or four listens before I noticed just how subtle the electronic elements were.

Dieter: Yeah, and that’s absolutely the evolution I went through. I like electronic music very much but at a certain point I just felt a little bit… With Miami, it was really all electronics, and Stars on the Wall was very band-like. When I started recording this record, I told the guys I really want to add some more electronics in the music that you can hear pretty well and some that you can hear just a little bit. And I don’t know why things go that way.

Some of the songs on this record started out with a little beat and some electronic stuff but the guys come in and start doing stuff around it and it just feels better when it’s arranged with instruments or live played with synthesizers. Because the synthesizers on the three records are very obvious and very clearly in the mix. But the electronics are kind of… going away slowly? [Laughs] I don’t know, I still feel like I need to make a new electronics record sometime soon.

SSv: I want to ask you about a lyric you have in the opening song, “Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight.” You sing, “Let me take you back to the ’90s, when we were teens.” Is the ’90s a period that holds something nostalgic for you?

Dieter: When I talk about the 90s, for me, I’m talking about ‘91, ‘92, and ‘93. Another interviewer the other day asked the same question and the thing is I got a lot of musical influences from the ’80s. Then I think I started buying music in 1989 and there were really great bands and then the beginning of the ’90s with records like Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted and Sonic Youth. I remember those days also as times that I started making music myself; buying a guitar and starting up a band.

So for me it’s a really magic time. You’re 16-years-old, you don’t have a lot of obligations, and you’re very free. So, looking from where I stand now that was a really good time. But I don’t want to go back; I’m just sort of making a photograph, I’m writing a song about it and making a CD. And I can put it in the closet and when I want to relive that emotion I’ll play the record and listen to that song.

Whereas a writer may write a book about it, I write a song about it. And some of the songs on the record are about that period. “Neighbourhood” on the record is the same thing. It’s more about the feeling you got when you were young, especially the freedom. You didn’t have any — or maybe not a lot—of responsibilities, not in the environment I grew up anyway. I know it’s different for a lot of people. But I was lucky to be growing up in this little town in Belgium.

SSv: I think that for anybody who discovers music at that time, it opens a whole new world to them. You mentioned Sonic Youth and Pavement and, oddly enough, I hear those elements but it’s so subtle you really have to concentrate and listen hard to get that aspect.

Dieter: I think you’re right. Those are the technical things like the way we produced the record, the way we put everything in balance. Some might say it is quiet music but not “volume” quiet, just quiet because, as I said before, it’s not in-your-face and you’re being forced to listen. When you listen to it with headphones, I guess you hear more stuff than when you listen to it in the car or at home.

SSv: So what are your plans for 2010?

Dieter: We’re going to play a lot of shows. We’re going to do a tour as the support act for the European part of The Album Leaf tour. And then we’ll do a lot of European dates: German, Italy, Sweden, France, some shows in Scandinavia. That’s going to be March, April, May, and June. And then maybe, hopefully, we’ll be crossing the ocean. That’s something we all want to do and work hard for but everything has to fall into the right place. It has nothing to do with the United States; it’s just harder to organize. So it’s all about money actually [Laughs].

SSv: Isn’t it sad that it’s about money in the end?

Dieter: It is sad, it’s really sad. I wish it wasn’t. But we should have like in the old days like the Medici [Family] in Italy, rich people who say [affecting a deeper, rich person voice] ‘Well, I’ll support you and I’ll give you all my money. I believe in your music.’ We need someone like that. Maybe we just have to put it in the interview: ‘Somebody in the United States who wants to support us for bringing good music…’ [Laughs] And we can put in my bank account number. No, no, no that sounds really lame [Laughs] But it is a thing that you don’t talk about most times in interviews. Of course when somebody asks you have to be honest.

SSv: Well, I think it’s a great idea.

Dieter: Maybe we should ask Bill Gates.

SSv: Yeah, maybe so. [Laughs]

Dieter: He’s got enough, I guess. [Laughs]

SSv: Let me ask you one last question: what is it that everybody knows is gonna happen…

Dieter: But only not tonight? Well, actually it’s pretty serious. I always explain it on different levels. For me, it’s like, for instance, some environmental issues. Everybody knows things are going bad, some people don’t think that way, but some say, ‘oh, you know, I should stop driving that car, I should ride my bike more’ or something like that. But then there’s a Pavement reunion show 100 kilometers or 200 miles away and maybe you should share your car…but not tonight. Tonight you really have to go see that Pavement reunion show. And you have good intentions and you say, ‘yeah, I know, I know… but just not tonight.’

And it can also be about kissing someone. Like everybody knows it is gonna happen, everybody at the party knows, ‘those two are going to kiss…but just not tonight.’ And then maybe never. And that the tragic thing about it. I just like the sentence and the different meanings you can give it. Somebody said it’s a very heavy sentence with lots of meaning. Yeah, maybe, but it can also be very light. I think it’s a real part of the way things go in life.