A few weeks ago I didn’t know who this band was… Now I can’t stop listening to them. Their new album Machine is on repeat and I can’t stop listening to singles “Wonder” and “Risk (feat. Yassin Joris)”. I looked them up on Spotify… 6 albums. How is that possible? I was blown away.
I did some digging, learned they are from Belgium (one of my favorite countries to visit) and have been producing music since 2012. I haven’t had time to listen to everything they’ve produced, but do plan on going down a rabbit hole soon. Their sound is unique… Just puts me in a good mood. It has a certain “vibe” to it.
I’ve been looking forward to this interview for a long time and I am SO excited to introduce you to Boogie Belgique.
Boogie Belgique is a Belgian experimental hip hop and electro swing band (self-described as swing hop started by Oswald Cromheecke in 2012.
Where are you guys based and where did the name come from? It’s unique!
Hi! We are a Belgian band with our homebase in Brussels. The name itself came from an old magazine from the 1940s which contained an old commercial for Belgian candles. In French (one of the 3 languages in Belgium) “Des Bougies Belgique” to be precise. After a bit of a funny twist, I came upon the name “Boogie Belgique” to better fit the music.
Boogie Belgique was founded by you, Oswald Cromheecke. Tell me more about that and the other band members.
Boogie Belgique’s story began in 2012 when I started producing while studying illustration and animation in Belgium. From that point on Boogie Belgique was born and the music found success on platforms like SoundCloud and Bandcamp, eventually picking up some live gigs. I totally lacked any experience on stage so I asked my best friend Cedric (who played the trumpet) to join me on tour for a DJ-set + trumpet. When we started working together, I immediately noticed the musical improvement of adding a live instrument. Together we had the dream of expanding Boogie Belgique into a full live band, inspired by bands like Bonobo, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Chinese Man and The Cinematic Orchestra.
That is when we invited pianist and multi-instrumentalist, Aiko Devriendt and drummer and percussionist, Martijn Van Den Broek to join us on our musical quest.
After some successful tours, we invited Ambroos De Schepper on tenor and soprano saxophone. And finally, we started working with Emily Van Overstraeten, known for her soulful vocals on our most known track “Every Time”. With this collective we are now touring Europe and presenting our new album.
Tell me about your new album Machine.
We have been working on and off for 5 years on this album and we are very proud of what it became.
As a follow-up album after Volta, we wanted to go much deeper in the world of Boogie Belgique and perfect our trademark sound, while experimenting with different genres, atmospheres and song structures. To us, Machine is the first album where “beat-making” and “songwriting” and “live music” really comes together. A sound we have been looking for for many years.
We were right in the middle of recording the drums for our album Machine around the first lockdown in Belgium. We tried to cope as much as possible by working remotely but as you can imagine, you lose a lot of human interaction, which is essential to writing music. Therefore, some of the tracks we were working on were put aside for a long time, while we worked on others. Although these times were tough, it was interesting to see how some tracks changed when we could work together again. Some of the tracks took shape over a time of several years and evolved to completely different results than the ideas that we started out with. With Machine we also avoided the usage of samples and found new ways to record, mix and build a song without losing our core sound. All these things were possible due to the lockdowns and the time they gave us to think and experiment.
The general theme of the album also took form under the pandemic and its aftermath. Like slowing down in life and enjoying simple things, the danger of never-ending growth and the importance of fighting climate change.
In our own way, we tried to bring these themes into our songs. But with all music of Boogie Belgique, we tried to keep much of the mystery alive and let the audience interpret the songs how they want. For someone a track can work as a breakup-song, while someone else uses it on a dancefloor.
I hadn’t heard of Boogie Belgique before this album dropped… Then I went down a rabbit hole on Spotify. Tell me about your other albums and how your sound has changed over the years leading up to this release.
I think it is really important to stay recognisable as an artist while you evolve over the years. We really try to stay consistent in our core sound and in all the artwork. But we definitely changed over the years. Starting out as a solo producer band, the input of live musicians was crucial in influencing the music in a positive way. Playing together for several years gave the experience to evolve and give more depth in our songs. Personally I think our sound now is what I’ve been looking for from the beginning of Boogie Belgique and makes me feel that we’ve only just started.
What can fans expect from seeing Boogie Belgique perform?
We really try to do something special with the song on stage and try to transcend the album version.
This implies a lot of improvisation and experimenting in order to bring the listener inside the world of Boogie Belgique. On stage we have keys, drums, percussion, trumpet, saxophone, guitar and vocals. We try to have our listener walk out happy and fulfilled after experiencing a full range of Boogie Belgique songs.
Do you ever make a mistake on stage? If so, how do you course correct and finish strong?
We absolutely make mistakes on stage and see these as part of the experiment of the live project. We always search for the perfect live version of a song, which can be really difficult. Some songs work really well on stage while others just don’t. Playing live is a team effort, where rehearsing and experience is really important.
Boogie Belgique is active on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter… Who is managing all of that content and where are you coming up with ideas for fresh content?
We really try to manage most of Boogie Belgique ourselves, including social media. In my opinion, I think artistic authenticity is really important in every aspect. Being an artist is so much more than just delivering music. With the best artists you can feel their influence in their artwork, photoshoots, liveshow and communication.
We think it is really important to have a real connection with our fanbase. We read every comment and message and try to answer as much as possible.
There are a lot of great venues in Belgium. What are some of your favorite places to see a show in “The Battleground of Europe”?
A while back, we filmed a live session at De Roma in Antwerp. This beautiful building used to be a cinema theater but now hosts artists from all over the world. Besides being one of the most beautiful stages in Belgium, the crew (technicians, cooks,…) are the nicest and most professional people in the business.
Just recently we played our first show, after 3 years of downtime, in Le Botanique in the center of Brussels. An amazing building with multiple charming stages. A perfect setting to have started off our Machine Release Tour!
What are all those icons on your website? I’m intrigued!
Each track on the album has its own icon with its own meaning. If you combine all the icons and lay them on top of each other, you get the orb and center of the machine. I’m not going to spoil too much about each individual meaning and leave this to the listener as much as possible.
What’s your favorite single on Machine?
Really difficult question since we love and stand by every track on the album. If we have to pick one, I think we would choose “Mercury”, our first single from the new album.
This song contains both nostalgia and drama, key components in Machine.
I also loved making the music video. Using old footage like a collage, building the world of Machine in the Boogie Belgique universe was really fun.
Blueberry Hill and Nightwalker Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 have been released for free under a Creative Commons license. What does that mean and why those albums and not others?
When I just started, the internet was a totally different place than it is today. It was much more difficult to find good music so you really had to scour blogs and playlists for your favorite tracks. I was a big fan of the concept that music could be downloaded and used for free online. For this, a Creative Commons license was perfect. People could share the music freely without paying in any way they wanted. As long as they weren’t using it commercially or would change the song in any way. Music could spread over the internet much faster and it was my opinion that money would come eventually, in one form or another. You could keep control of your music and weren’t obliged to work with the regular labels. The music industry was changing fast and social media was the best place to promote your music. The Bulgarian netlabel Dusted Wax Kingdom, where I released my debut album Blueberry Hill, was releasing music from a lot of artists (whom I really liked) for free (under Creative Commons license) It was a great honor to release an album on a label with whom I shared the same ideals about the music industry.
Around 2015-17, the music industry started changing again with the rise of platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. For Boogie Belgique, this was a good thing, since the music started to make money (although maybe not much) and music spread even faster. However, a lot of algorithms on social media started messing up the connection between artists and their fanbase, which totally changed the game. Labels and other more traditional players were regaining their power in the music industry. Their reach and ways of communicating to possible fans became really necessary again to thrive as an artist.
At the moment we try, as much as possible, to use the best of both worlds. On the one hand, stay in control of your own music and identity and on the other hand, try to work with more traditional partners in spreading our music. I think it is crucial to adapt as much as possible in a continually evolving world. But that is of course sometimes not easy.
Tell me more about the Machine album cover. What is that building?
The building is inspired on an old German building that was bombed in WWII. On the one hand it was used to host exhibitions of artist from all over the world and on the other it was later misused by the Nazi’s to promote their idiotic views. Later in the war, this beautiful, although controversial building was totally destroyed.
In the world of Boogie Belgique this building contains the Machine. The representation of never ending growth and industrialisation standing in the middle of a wasteland of machinery and factories.
I LOVE the “Tales of Old” music video. Where did you produce that and how long did it take you to film?
I try to make most of Boogie Belgique’s artwork and video clips myself. For this particular music video, I used old public domain archival footage from archive.org and changed them in such ways that they fit more into our narrative. I love using videos like a sample, changing them in such ways that can create a new story.
There are so many great bands out there… But you have such a unique sound. Who inspires you and what are you listening to when you’re not recording.
Thank you! I personally try to listen to as many genres as possible. I love bands who have their unique sound and atmosphere. Every member of Boogie Belgique has a quite different musical taste but we find each other in writing for Boogie Belgique and some genres or bands that we all love. Would love to recommend some other Belgian artists that we listen to like Morisse Monty, Soft Focus, Chandler Bing, Bombataz and Schntzl.
I only see 7 stops on the Machine Release Tour. Nothing in the States. Any plans for a bigger tour next year? I need to see you perform! Of course, we have friends all over Europe. Twist my arm!
It has been 3 years since we’ve been on stage so we are so happy to get back on the road again. We wanted to start with a smaller tour and go bigger next year. Not absolutely sure but there is a good chance we will play in the States soon. Fingers crossed!
What’s next for Boogie Belgique?
We have a lot of plans for 2023, but for now we will still keep these a secret. Although we can say that we are building further on the album and mindset of our new album Machine.
Where can folks at home learn more about Boogie Belgique?
Find us on social media, where we keep our fans up to speed on everything that we are working on. If you want to listen to our essential songs, this playlist might help: https://spoti.fi/3UuEP8I
Thank you for doing this. That was fun! In all of the interviews I do, I always give the artist the last word. Go.
Thank you for the great questions! What can I say… Listen to Boogie Belgique and eat your veggies!
For more information about Boogie Belgique, go to:
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