Which songs are on ‘4us’, one of Doe Maar’s most successful records? You would think that singer and bassist Henny Vrienten should know that. But no: “Henny said: ‘I am the songs. So I don’t listen to the records, I don’t know what’s on them.” Vrienten died in April and was 73 years old. Martin Kuiper had spoken to him extensively and decided to make a film of it. The result can be seen on Saturday in Tilburg.
Kuiper interviews musicians for his YouTube channel FaceCulture, from Steve Lukather van Toto to Gilbert O’Sullivan. He had several long conversations with former teen idol Henny Vrienten: 3.5 hours of interview material. “When he died, I started looking back at things and I thought: hey, this is very beautiful.”
Kuiper asked permission from Vrienten’s family and sent them his raw material: “His wife and son Xander looked and Xander called me. “Go for it,” he said. Then I started making the film.”
“4us is a good record, but we were scared.”
The moment that Kuiper hands his mobile phone to Vrienten with the list of songs from ‘4us’ on it, is one of the striking moments in ‘Henny Vrienten – In His Own Words’. Kuiper: “When I give him the track list, you see him making the analysis at that moment.”
Vrienten sees titles such as ‘Heroin’, ‘Bang’, ‘Find it out for yourself’ and ‘Never sleep again’. “He realized it was a very scary record. “It’s a good record, but we were scared,” he says.
“Vrienten has slowly grown to a moment when he was really proud.”
Of course, the illustrious history of Doe Maar, the most successful Dutch-language band of all time, is extensively discussed in the film. Vrienten wrote most of the lyrics together with Ernst Jansz. He acknowledges that it has brought him a lot: “It was like a trip to the moon,” he says. But also: “It is impossible to explain. It has something of a mystery, a treasure that you carry with you.”
Kuiper: “For a long time, Vrienten did not want to talk about Doe Maar. It was traumatic. But the comeback in 2000 has been cathartic. After that, he slowly grew to a moment when he embraced Doe Maar, when he was really proud.”
Kuiper also spoke with Vrienten about his childhood in Hilvarenbeek. “My father didn’t say much and my mother couldn’t shut up. So I just listened to myself. I couldn’t get what I was looking for at home,” said the former songwriter and singer.
Then it is about the relationship with his father. “You are a citizen and you are a coward”, Vrienten once shouted to his father. “He didn’t thank me for that. And neither do I, afterwards,” he says about it in the film.
“Vrienten did not want to talk about the juicy details.”
Kuiper noticed that some things were impossible to talk about: “The juicy details. From a song like ‘You walk after your dick’ you can conclude that he did enjoy the success. He was not always faithful. But you didn’t get any details and you don’t have to.”
During the making of the film, Kuiper started to think more positively about Vrienten: “My impression was that he was distant and a bit strict. But he was a warm and sweet man. And a genius songwriter. He was the arranger, the man who had very good ideas about how he wanted to color the Doe Maar songs.”
The film ‘Henny Vrienten – In His Own Words’ can be seen on September 3 at the Music Film Festival in Tilburg. More information find you here.
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