|
|
Drive |
|
|
Dentist Guitar |
|
|
Blueprints |
|
Marjan Debaene…
is one of the top five female singer-songwriters in Belgium.
She has been so for the last decade, since her first album, Growing Pains, was released in September 1996. That album, containing 17 acoustic-electric poprock songs, got some good reviews in specialized magazines and media in Belgium. Now after ten years and a second album called Humanoid, which was released in 1999 and which generated a huge tour in Flemish and Dutch cultural centres, Marjan is back again.
For the bigger part of 2005 and 2006, Marjan has been preparing herself for a new record. She has been arranging and producing the new material, which sounds more grown up and more edgy, with Alex Brackx. The album is due for release in the fall of 2006. In March 2006, Marjan released a new single ‘Charlie Chaplin’ which sounds very much unlike her previous work. It is a song that stands alone on the new record in terms of style and sound, but is so unbelievably catchy that you just have to move your body when you hear it. Keep Blondie in mind for this one...
A second single, Drive, was released in Belgium in August 06 and received airplay on national Radio 1 and several local radio stations. The album itself, entitled Wolfish Times, contains 14 new songs written between 2001 and 2005. The album tells stories of hurt, happiness, bad luck, good tidings, changes and love.
Marjan produced this record with Alex Brackx, who has been her permanent guitarist for a over decade. The sound they chose was an honest one, no artificial effects but just pure songs played by a small group of musicians, with Marjan’s voice in the center of the attention. Musical references are the early Sheryl Crow, Chrissie Hynde, Suzanne Vega, the Wrecking Ball album of Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin…
Marjan is currently touring with her accompanying band, featuring bassplayer Bert Embrechts, drummer Eric Bosteels and guitarplayer Alex Brackx to present this album in Belgian clubs and venues but the new album also generated very interesting supportgigs for Luka Bloom, Seth Lakeman and neeka.
And, to top all that, this album is helping Marjan cross borders. In February 2007, she was part of the Rockolates Tour in the UK . In the summer of 2007, she was the first belgian poprock artist ever to play in Bosnia-Herzegovina since the war (1992-1995). In 2008 her first French gigs are coming up. It seems like Europe is succumbing to Marjan's bittersweet vocals and songs...
