Songwriter Christiaan Coenraads (56) from Groningen is certainly not a novice. But perfectionism and doubt stood in the way of his band De Piloten for 20 years. Now it’s finally time to leave the practice room. “To my own surprise, we skip the bars and go straight to the theater.”
Hello Christiaan, a debut after 20 years in the rehearsal room. That requires explanation.
“Yes, that is immediately the embarrassing thing. The story is that I’ve been writing songs since I was 12. For a fun evening at school, so to speak. Later, quite unexpectedly, I won the cabaret part of the Pythian Games, the largest cultural student festival in the Netherlands. I entered the cabaret with those funny songs. I did that together with Wilfred Genee.”
The Wilfred Genee?
“The one from Today Inside, indeed. We were good friends, but that faded a bit later. Wilfred is also super busy, of course. Anyway, we performed a lot together.”
That left me wanting more.
“No, I discovered that I actually didn’t like it at all. Writing was fine, but performing was not for me. So I ended up more in the background. Wrote a musical that was performed in De Oosterpoort and then sold to De Bonte Wever. Made music for Theater te Water and for pieces by director Jack Nieborg. But at that time I was also writing pop songs.”
I read that. For NPO Z@ppelin and Children for Children, among others.
“That’s right, but also songs for myself. And at one point I thought: it would be nice to ask good musicians for that. I already knew the guys from De Piloten – or men now, we are all in our 50s – and we always had a lot of fun in the practice room.”
So nice that you were in it for 20 years.
“Yes, their patience is really incredible. I just didn’t think I could sing. And when I listened back to some of what we had recorded, I wasn’t happy with the arrangements either. So that’s been quite a process. In the meantime I have learned to sing acceptably. Not brilliant, but it can be done. And we learned a lot about mixing, recording things, practical things like that.”
Long story short: time to play.
“We did that for the first time just before corona. At Meedener Pop, a quite professional festival with three stages. We did about five songs there and the reactions were so positive… I drove back with someone I didn’t know at all, but who turned out to have a booking agency. His wife in particular was very enthusiastic. She said, you’re a boy band for middle-aged people. Anyway, they have arranged an impresario for us, so we can now do a number of theater performances.”
Special. Most bands start in the café circuit.
“I find that very strange myself. I don’t really understand how that works, because we are completely unknown. And yet we are booked in Weesp and Soest. The list of performances is still short, but it is our ambition to play everywhere.”
So your doubts about being on stage have disappeared.
“Also because we have just had two full weeks of rehearsals with our technician, actually our fifth band member. He manages a small theater where we practiced from early in the morning until late at night, including weekends. And that was just a lot of fun.”
With your background, are you heading towards cabaret again?
“I hope not. I’ve come to hate cabaret quite a bit. Well, more like listening songs that try to explain something to you. My own lyrics are quite abstract. One of those songs Bitter Water, is also sung by the choir of our keyboardist Hans Kaldeway, who is also a choir conductor. I noticed that a lot of people didn’t actually understand the text. But I don’t really like explaining it all. Moreover, I often don’t really know myself. It’s more the atmosphere, the sound. And you know: that works too. In that choir it often happens that people are crying in the hall. Then the glasses come off and they rub their eyes for a moment. That has given me the confidence that texts do not have to be completely concrete.”
Reminds me a bit of Spinvis, as you describe it. But the songs I’ve heard are actually very cheerful.
“True, but that does not apply to the entire repertoire. None of the songs are really depressing, but we do have a bunch of ballads. This is also necessary when you are in the theater; You can’t rock all night long.”
What are the musical influences anyway?
“We don’t really have one style. One song is a bit rocky, the other early Beatles with a modern twist. Do you know Joe Jackson? He does something completely different on every record. Prince ditto, in his good times. Those have always been examples for me. The adventure: what are they going to come up with next?”
The four Pilots all have a different musical background. Quite difficult to sell to the theaters.
“I’m quite concerned about that too. Because look, we really want to do something with this. In that regard, I see Spinvis as an example. He is a few years older than us and has found an audience that I suspect may also be our audience. A mixture of people our own age and young people.”
A boy band for all ages.
“Who makes no concessions to the music. Because we are ambitious, but we are certainly not 20 anymore. This is just what it is. If we just perform that as best as possible, with quite a bit of a show, then I’m sure people will have a nice evening. And then I hope that that will spread a little further.”
Premiere
The theater concert Who are you? by De Piloten will premiere on Saturday February 10 in the Kielzog theater, Hoogezand. The band consists of Christiaan Coenraads, Jeroen de Jong, Hans Kaldeway and Junior Martir. Start: 8.15 pm. Entrance: 19.50 euros.