From canceled festival shows to performing at the campsite: the Zwolle rock trio Paceshifters experienced all the vicissitudes of a band in corona time. At Eurosonic Noorderslag they can finally present their new album, albeit in an online set.
The rock trio Paceshifters was in a fine artistic flow three years ago. The band had built up a robust live reputation after a few series of impressive shows on the festival and club circuit at home and abroad. The hard rocking people of Zwolle could also rejoice in a loyal following of fans. And they were overflowing with inspiration for a new album, to seal all that beauty.
Singer and guitarist Seb Dokman: ‘So we thought in 2019: we’ll take it easy live this year, so that we can focus on new work. That turned out to be a case of bad timing.’ You can say that: when the band released the album Brand New Plan After just about mixed and wanted to make a few rounds in the Netherlands to celebrate the new milestone, everything was locked. Many hopeless lockdowns would follow. ‘It has been impossible to plan anything for the past two years. Everything was dead. Time and again.’
Next week the Paceshifters will finally play live again, although it is still very different than usual. For the online edition of ESNS, the band can supply one of the dozens of streams that will be recorded next week in the Oosterpoort in Groningen. Dokman: ‘We can play for fifteen minutes. Difficult. How do you build such a short set, if you are used to blowing for an hour and a half? And how do you deal with the awkward silence that falls when a song ends? There are never any silences at our shows.’
But still: they’re back, and an audience outside of that regular following can finally get acquainted with that inspired and extraordinarily talented band with those compelling rock anthems. How important it is for an emerging band to have a stage, Dokman explains with two years of corona and lockdown experience in the band luggage.
Seb, his brother Paul Dokman (bass) and Jesper Albers (drums) have been through it all, like hundreds of Dutch bands with them. ‘We initially postponed the release of our album. Because if you can’t play a record live to the fullest, it will die. But things went completely wrong in the music, one lockdown followed another. And we could no longer play abroad, where stages were often still open. Our foreign booker, who often gave us shows as support act for major American bands, was far too busy to postpone or cancel those major bands of his. We weren’t high on his list of priorities.’
After that, the Paceshifters themselves sought contact with the enthusiasts, nice and creative. ‘We came up with a camping tour, within the possibilities of the measures. We went to camp sites with our fans behind us, all with tents. Then we played an acoustic set in the evening. That way we got to know our audience in a completely different way.’ They played curious shows for very few seated audiences at tables. “We felt very uncomfortable.”
But the biggest inconvenience meanwhile became more and more acute. “Our band relies on live shows. We use the proceeds to finance recordings and the rental of the rehearsal space. So you have to play a lot to be able to record an album. If that income disappears, that is quite dramatic.’ Plus, the Paceshifters watched their new album age right in front of them. ‘At the end of 2021 we thought: now we have to release that record, because the stages are slowly opening again. And otherwise we have lost touch with those songs at all. Then the songs suddenly feel like old work.’
It went wrong again. ‘A week after we announced that we were going to do three shows in the Ziggo Dome, as support act for Kensington, those concerts were canceled again.’ That loss doesn’t make up for anyone anymore. “Of course we could have had an incredible experience there, which would have been very important in the development of the band.”
The silence of the live circuit took its revenge on many levels, says Dokman. ‘We had five festival bookings for 2021, all of which were cancelled. That means that you are unable to attract a new audience, people who walk past your show at Paaspop or the Zwarte Cross and think: nice band, I’m going to check that one at home. Our record was very well received by critics and the entire music industry, but in the end very little happened.’
A slick video clip for the song Wasted Days was viewed four thousand times on YouTube in almost a year. If you don’t have a podium, you don’t win souls.
And Dokman eventually noticed the malaise in the inspiration, in the fun of band life. ‘Last year we started working on a new album – you have to do something. And I had planned a day this week to make beautiful lyrics for a song that had already been composed. But I thought: I refuse to write anything about corona. And nothing else came at all. I was completely empty.’ According to Dokman, it is a corona struck crater that you do not notice until you fall into it. ‘If you spend a week in a van with your band, for a few shows in England, you come back and then you walk over. You are then so motivated, you are full of stories and new songs.’
The Paceshifters are not bitter, says Dokman. Full of hope for better times, and also a little resigned. ‘We have a new tour planned from March, with partly the dates moved forward from the previous series. And now we think: it won’t last. If so, that’s included. I think a lot of people in the pop industry now think that way. And everyone thinks that it all takes a very long time. Like, we’re all vaccinated. Let’s go!’
The album Brand New Plan from the Zwolle band Paceshifters has appeared on Ada. The livestream for Eurosonic Noorderslag can be seen on Friday 21/10, from 23:00.
The War on Drugs
Seb Dokman is not only the frontman of the band Paceshifters, he also likes to stand in front of the stage, as an audience. ‘I am looking forward to a show by the American band The War on Drugs in Copenhagen in March. I wonder if it will continue. Nothing needs to be done, or everything will be postponed again. And if a band member gets omikron, everything stops. I think a lot of bands are now walking around with that tension.’