What’s New Pussycat?

50 Shapes of Nits: The 40th shape are the Videotapes

DIAL NITS: “EEN JONGEN UIT DE MEER”

Well for one thing there’s a new episode of the podcast DIAL NITS. And it’s a lovely one – or should I say a “gezellig” one – with Henk, Eric, Rudy the barber and the cat of the Hofstede household whose name I didn’t catch. They are all talking – and miaowing – while walking through the Amsterdam neighbourhood where Henk Hofstede grew up – visiting some of the family houses and a barbershop – or sitting at the kitchen table in Henk’s home where milk or food is being served – for the cat that is. A really interesting episode too that sparked a few reflections in my mind which I need to release and set free: thought in head.

The leisurely stroll through Watergraafsmeer where most of Henk Hofstede’s family lived is a wonderful piece of exploring the autobiographical elements in the lyrics of Nits and of course to get acquainted with this particular community of people, the streets and the houses, the scenery and even the smells – of chocolate no less! The lyricist of Nits talks very affectionately about his memories of people and places in this part of Amsterdam that you could certainly qualify as the birthplace and cradle not only of the band Nits, but maybe also of the typical Nitsean way of being that would establish itself along the years through their vast oeuvre. In that respect – I must say – this episode displays some clarifying clues – mostly perhaps through some of the chosen music – which allow us to see and understand the evolution that Nits certainly went through – even relatively soon in their career – a little better, both musically and lyrically. The first song that I want to draw attention to is the in my opinion wonderful wonderful “Fantasies and Factories”. I wrote about this song in a previous text: how it opens up the scene, the world where Henk Hofstede will take us to in his lyrics, it definitely had set the stage for the lyrical wanderings of Nits; the word “stage” is important – the curtains of the Nits stage are opened as it were. You can already sense that Henk wants us to visit and go places and that will not change – places closeby and a little further afield. I think that if this song would have been re-released a few years later – as would be the case for the song we hear next “The Bauhaus Chair” – it could have become a hit too just like the song of the famous chair! It has such a catching melody – a real “old-fashioned” anglophile pop melody like the ones Elton John wrote. It is in English, but we are already setting our first steps on the European mainland – quite literally – away from the island, away from the American continent too. It was a fabulous first step! A small step for Henk, a giant leap for Nitskind.

The discussion about the language that Henk Hofstede uses as a non-native speaker of the universal language of pop music is a thought provoking one too. I would not refer to the general language of pop lyrics as a form of esperanto – since it is not an “artificially created” language – but rather as the lingua franca of pop music, used by both native and non-native speakers of the English language to express their lyrical thoughts that match the nature of the pop sound. Henk rightly observes that using the English language transported him into another world, the world of pop music where he longed to be. Change of language equals a change of world. That is certainly the case. But then … came a somewhat unusual changing of direction in the work of Nits, that would set it apart – eventually- from not only mainstream pop but also from pop music itself, and the language certainly plays a role in this shifting away from the English-speaking form of popular musical expression.

The early version of “The Bauhaus Chair” that Eric proposes us next is a real eye-opener. The song as we know it now has changed tremendously – in a good way I’d dare to admit – both when it comes to the musical form and to the lyrics. The latter especially are essential! It is clear that Henk chose a different style of language: it is – in his own words – more bare, naked. The 1970’s version of the song boasts lyrics that are still very tributary to the usual, standard sort of idiom of pop songs, love songs often and this early version of “The Bauhaus Chair” – charming as it is – certainly reminds us of the often unoriginal way of writing pop lyrics. I think Henk Hofstede soon after retreated into his own way of lyrical writing which is not surprisingly a language of the senses, of pictorial images, of impressionist observations or sketches, of picturesque storytelling just like an artist observes and tells stories. I sometimes think that if you take a random song of Nits and listen to the lyrics, pick out one or two lines you’d always end up with a beautiful visual representation which you could then frame and hang as a picture on the wall. And that is indeed very different from the traditional way of writing words for a pop song. Henk would introduce a directness of impression into his lyrics, that seemed to have been born almost spontaneously in the time of observation. Observation with the senses seems to be often directly linked to the words he chooses. It could be described as “primitive” or “simple”, but it is also alive, vivid, delicate, colourful and fresh. It is Henk’s own personal language which doesn’t necessarily evolve from a so-called “limited” knowledge of the English language. It is an entirely full mastery of lyrical expression that resulted from the complete set of circumstances where those words were written in. I must say that when Henk describes his own lyrics as a sort of “hotel guide” where they explain how to use the bath or shower, he is doing great injustice to his lyrical writing.

And it’s not only lyrics-wise that Nits would retreat to the European mainland. The music, of course followed in the footprints of the words. They developed together, took on the shapes of a definitely European form of music writing that was deeply rooted in ancient or all kinds of inherited forms of cultural expression typical of the mainland with its variety of linguistic, theatrical and artistic influences. The fact that Nits are native Dutch speakers is just as much a blessing as the other facts of their lives: the time and place they were born, the community and landscape where they grew up, their personal interests and sensitivities. When you take all that into account, when you bring it all together, you get the fertile soil where the work of Nits was shaped out of. The language is an essential part of that, the way it sounds, is too: have you heard the soft pronunciation of the consonant “V” for example as in “the shelf with the Videotapes” .. so very typically Dutch, so very typically Nits. Perhaps the element of Nits where their Dutchness is heard most of all, is in the pronunciation of certain English, French, German or Finnish words … and I can only see and define it as richness. Nits made their own idiosyncratic “pop music” in a musical and textual language very much their own.

So, I’d say that more than a defect or shortcoming in the English language skills of Hofstede, his use of language is of the kind that perfectly suits the whole imaginative, sometimes naive and innocent, visual, straightforward, sensory everyday world where the songs take shape. The music, even when it’s more complicated, has the same directness of expression to it. It is not hermetic. The lyrics, just like the music, are often born in a lively time of observation or a time of just being or playing, which can be very intuitive or spontaneous and an inspiration of the moment. Every writer will tell you that words or ideas seem to pop up in your head seemingly out of nowhere – I guess it’s just the way our brains work … Surely Hofstede is no Keats or Byron … no Mitchell or Dylan either. I think that even native English speakers can have a hard time deciphering the verses of Byron and Keats. But Hofstede’s lyrics are certainly not “passe-partout”. I’d agree that indeed many pop bands use a sort of “pop esperanto” as Eric calls it, even “pop natives”: how many times do we hear the same clichés in pop writing even by natives of the English language such as “I love the way she walks …. I love the way she talks” … and many of these other love clichés …?! You won’t find these clichés with Nits.

To conclude I’d put it this way: Hofstede as a non-native speaker of English – the lingua franca of pop music – has shaped the language to his needs, to the needs of this delicate music the band creates and in perfect alliance with the flow, patience and observational qualities of the music. Whether it is poetry or not, is just a matter of semantics. I’d say it most certainly is: hermetic complexity or linguistic intricacy or difficulty are no requisites of poetry, but imaginative and idiosyncratic use of the language in a meaningful way that sheds a different light on the words, the way they are used and the reality or sur-reality that they describe or evoke, most certainly is. As Facon remarks, Hofstede, while using his linguistic situation and making the best of it, arrives at times at expressions that a native speaker would perhaps not use, which surely is a strength, but not merely one that flows from a lack of mastery of the English language.

So this walk and talk in the episode “Een jongen uit de Meer” come very highly recommended if you want to hear another excerpt of the history of places and times of NITS in words and music… and miaows … Have a listen!

Joke Roelandt, August 2025