Nits in the House of Pop

In one of his typical introductions to a song by means of detailed and lively anecdotes, Henk Hofstede tells the story of Nick Drake visiting John and Yoko’s beautiful countryside home, built with the fortune of pop success. “This is how rich successful pop artists live”, Nick says to himself. The analogy of Nick Drake’s fate with that of Nits, in the often uniform universe of pop music, is of course striking. While Nits certainly deserve the epithet of some of the finest musicians and composers of pop music, their renown remains rather limited in comparison to the exceptional quality of their work. And the world of riches is theirs only metaphorically.

Nits are often given the cataloguing stamp of “European Pop”, and rightly so I think. But everyone can hear that their “pop music” is different in many ways from most music in the genre. While Nits could easily be classified under the broader term of pop and they certainly belong in the house of pop – even have their roots there – they transcend the genre in almost every possible way.

I heard Henk Hofstede commenting on this issue of the European nature of their music, saying that it was probably best defined as the absence of a typical “American” sound. And he might just be right. But what does it mean to sound “European” I keep on asking myself…

The roots of American pop music are evidently lying in a regained freedom and liberated sense of the self from all sorts of tempering and restrictive ideologies, be they political, religious or moral, a break with conventions. American pop seemed to be inspired by a certain drive – perhaps essentially sexual in nature, but not exclusively – a drive of optimism and prosperity, a haste for renewal, the directness of instinct, the search for an almost unlimited freedom. It was inspired by the rhythm of music from different ethnicities. Rhythm was paramount, it moved along hurriedly, it was alive with a natural drive that was a characteristic of a renewing society.

I think those two notions of drive and instinct, that are so typical of many American pop sounds, are far less present in the music of Nits. The element of sex or sexual love e.g. which is quite omnipresent in the American, even Anglo-Saxon scene – and of course in most European pop music too – is all but absent in the work of Nits, this characteristic drive that pushes the music forward is far less obvious in most Nits songs. In matters of love, Nits take over the patient restraint and courteousness of the bard.

The same goes for the “instinctual nature” of most pop, connected of course to this drive, which often seems to be in a hurry or in a confused rush. I have always felt that Nits take their time when composing songs, the instinct seems to be replaced by patience and a reflective distance. I feel their music is more connected to e.g. the theatre with its birthplace in the ancient Greek dramas. Nits compose from the perspective of a dramaturgy which takes time to develop itself and which houses a thinking distance. As most art forms, the music of Nits is born out of a reflection, an intuition via the senses, an idea or thought, a story, a complex feeling that demands time and a certain intricacy to show itself. Nits are masters at this discipline where they transform the time of music in an awareness that delves deeper than the instinct, deeper than the drive. The music creates a setting, a decor, intriguing characters, elements of fantasy that all belong to the refined cultural expression of the arts. And all this requires patience which Nits have in abundance. They have always taken the time to see where their music leads them, following all kinds of input they receive from being in the world, and fully using their senses, just like artists do. The drive is sublimated as it were.

“I went out this morning to paint a tree”, Henk Hofstede sings in the gorgeously pristine Malpensa song “Paper”. This is exactly what I mean. Nits take the time to carve like a sculptor, they start off from a white, empty piece of paper, a white canvas and they fill it with beautiful forms and figures, stylised specimens of musical thinking, musical dreaming, musical imagination. Their music is less “direct”; it takes the long and winding road. And with the theatre in Greece, philosophy came too. Nits have always strived for this limpidity, this clarity, this reflection as clear and fresh as water, which also characterises the work of the philosopher. The thought might be complex, the form is translucent and exact. The work of Nits is more cerebral than instinctual. Its roots could be retraced to old European art forms that were all defined by a distance, a recreating, an imitation of the world as we experience it. Ultimately, this is what Nits have always been doing, in the footsteps of artists, young and old, in the footsteps of thinkers, ancient and recent. They recreate a world as through a mould or a maquette or a still life that moves in time or a drawing that evolves into a piece of cinema. I think this could be the meaning of their European sound, its connectedness to a European culture of art forms.

One of the most “Nitsy” songs – and also one of their most beautiful – is named “In A Play” with the lovely German addition “Das Mädchen Im Pelz”. In the centuries-old tradition of European culture Nits write musical plays – you can hear the time unfold from Sophocles and Aristotle onwards – in a simple and pure form of chamber pop that remains unequalled. It is magistral in style and eloquent in its message as only true art can be.

The video of “Nick In The House Of John” is really worth watching until the end. Not only is it a wonderful live rendition of the song, it boasts instrumental passages between Henk on the banjo, Rob on drums and Laetitia on the keyboards that sound like a jazzy improvisation. Strawberry Wood houses quite some surprises … come to think of it … There’s humour, tragedy and wisdom just like in the olden days when it all started.

Joke Roelandt, June 2023