Lieselot Elzinga, singer of electro-punk trio Baby Berserk, does something unexpected with every performance. She climbs onto a scaffolding, on a roof or platform, or hoists herself up on a cable. There she is, on top of the roof of a shed or a storage room and suddenly realizes that she is actually very afraid of heights.
According to Elzinga, risks are a condition for successful action. By challenging herself, she challenges the people in the room. “I think the public needs to be pushed a little bit. People are very self-conscious, even during a concert. While they are looking at you, they are busy with themselves. ‘How do I move?’, ‘What are the people around me doing?’ But if I do something crazy, climb or suddenly scream, they forget about themselves. Then they are completely alert to my daredevilry. They start cheering or dancing a little looser.”
In her studio in Amsterdam-West, Elzinga, also on a Tuesday afternoon with theatrical make-up around her eyes, says that she takes an example from male performers such as Iggy Pop and the late Lux Interior of The Cramps, who also climbed and jumped from everything. During their concerts she has a fixed moment when she does her escapades, during the song ‘Piggy Piggy’, with the words ‘You’re afraid, yes, you’re afraid‘. “I think that’s a funny contrast.”
Together with musicians Mano Hollestelle and Eva Wijnbergen, Elzinga created a hot-blooded marriage between punk and electro; ‘punk’ are their attitude and lyrics, for example in that song ‘Piggy Piggy’ about the behavior of authorities: “Blood on your hands”.
Elzinga has a cool singing style with which she delivers those words quickly. But beneath the brutal surface, musical subtleties shine through: several layers of shiny electronics are supported by bubbling percussion and pounding bass drums, occasionally pierced by ragged chords.
Baby Berserk has been around for about four years now and is steadily touring concert halls and festivals, from Spain and England to Germany, Turkey and Canada. They play relatively less often in the Netherlands, but will be at the Eurosonic Noorderslag festival in Groningen next Wednesday.
The fact that Elzinga has such a clear idea about her task as a frontwoman is the result of a long history as a musician: she has been playing in bands since she was fourteen. At the time, she was the bassist of the group of friends Fuz, which performed at Lowlands in 2008 as the ‘youngest band of the festival’ (and will give a reunion performance in Paradiso in February). And yet a career as a singer was not self-evident. Elzinga studied fashion at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and then started her own clothing brand ‘Elzinga’, with colleague Miro Hämäläinen. “I was always in bands, but when I graduated I thought: ‘I’m going to focus on one thing for once’. So I quit music and devoted myself to fabrics and design.” Together with Hämäläinen, she created four collections a year and organized high-profile fashion shows with punk performances by friendly bands, wildly dancing models and grotesque make-up, for example during London Fashion Week. The idea for the brightly colored clothing with large collars and bows was based on Elzinga’s own taste: “For a new design I always thought: ‘What do I want to look like if I were on stage?’.”
Their label made a name for itself. When singer Adele wore a black Elzinga dress on her birthday in 2020 and shared a photo of it, the garment quickly sold out. But shortly afterwards the corona lockdown struck and there was no longer any interest in their extravagant designs. “People only wore house suits.”
Elzinga started making music again, together with Hollestelle and later Wijnbergen, between the clothing racks in her studio. The first single ‘What I Mean’ was immediately noticed by the Swiss record label Bongo Joe, through which they were able to do their first performances abroad and which still releases their music. This is how Elzinga’s career changed: from a traveling fashion circus to a traveling music trio, crammed into a passenger car, criss-crossing Europe. She only designs clothing on special orders. “And for myself, I always make something special for my performances.”
It is a dazzling mix of bravado and venom with which the trio performs on stage, as can be seen during the presentation of the second album, Slightly Hysterical Girls With Pearlsend of November. In the small club Nachbar in Amsterdam, Elzinga climbs along a wall, pulling herself up on heating pipes. The cheering audience reacts as she hoped, ‘expressive’ and dancing.
After the performance, Hollestelle and Wijnbergen say that they respond to Elzinga’s timing. Their electronics are not pre-programmed but are largely played live, via footswitches and a series of linked MIDI devices.
According to Wijnbergen, it is necessary that the music can be adjusted spontaneously, because Elzinga is unpredictable during their performances. “We pay attention to Lieselot, she determines how long it should take to build a song. And that depends on the time and the country where we play.” Elzinga: “The further south you go, the wilder the audience is. In Italy, visitors immediately go crazy.” Hollestelle: “In other countries it sometimes takes longer. Then we play more extended intros to warm them up.”
Although the music sounds contemporary, the musicians’ influences are timeless: they love the primal rock ‘n’ roll of Bo Diddley, dub reggae of Lee Perry, art rock of Roxy Music and the druggy club sound of the Hacienda club scene in Manchester. And, an important example, the song ‘Jelly Fish Jam’ by cartoon hero SpongeBob. Hollestelle: “His rave style was great. That clumsy stadium sound had exactly the energy we were looking for.”
Baby Berserk performs during ESNS: 15/1 Oosterpoort, Groningen (1 hour 20). Slightly Hysterical Girls With Pearls appeared on Bongo Joe.