Hard, fast and simple. RTV Drenthe starts the new Djammen season well with The Sensational Second Cousins. “All the way from Klazienaveen Drenthe”, in the words of singer and guitarist Henri Sulmann. Together with his great-nephew (second cousin) Jerk Heijnen, he has been traveling through the province and beyond for about a decade with little more than a guitar, a stripped-down drum kit and sometimes a kazoo.
“We started about ten years ago, we had a break for a while and now we’re back,” says Sulmann. After the corona pandemic, the gentlemen are slowly picking up again and that bodes well. At least, that’s what they go for with their special genre.
“It’s a bit too wild for the real rockabilly fans and a bit too tame for the real garage rock fans,” explains Sulmann. Garage rockabilly. A nice mix between the two genres. “So you can’t do anything with it,” he jokes. Sulmann is well known in the garage rock world. In addition to The Sensational Second Cousins, he is also the frontman for garage rock band The Heck. Before that The Keefman. “Back then I had a lot of rock and roll songs that we couldn’t do anything with,” he says. Simple songs with a primitive and perhaps bare character. “Then I thought: we can undress that even more: the bass player gone, a little easier on the road. Together in one car and bang. And thus conquer the country a bit with rock ‘n roll.” With that, ‘The Cousins’ became a fact.
The duo was one of the most booked acts of the Popronde about ten years ago. “We’ve had good times”, Sulmann sighs. But the draft got in the way for several reasons. The corona crisis was one of them. Now the men are back and they want to go full throttle again, they say. They are currently working on a new record. “The songs are ready. Then we’ll record them at my house and then we’ll have to see when we can properly plan to release it.” There will be – of course – a physical record. “On vinyl, anyway”.