Douglas Firs emerged from the sparkling Belgian music scene alongside Balthazar, Warhaus and Faces on TV, and made its way to fans in the Low Countries, Germany & Switzerland with beauties such as "Pretty Legs and Things to Do", "Caroline" and "Don't Buy The House".
Gertjan Van Hellemont - Douglas Firs’ heart & soul - clearly found his initial inspiration in classic seventies songwriters from the North-American tradition – the obvious Neil Young, The Band, or, more recently, Ryan Adams - but is slowly sculpting an authentic, vintage Douglas Firs sound. The young combo quickly found its way to some of the best clubs & festival stages such as Here comes the Summer, Dranouter, Boomtown, Amsterdam Woods, Brussels Summer Fest, Down The Rabbit Hole & Pukkelpop.
In autumn 2016, Gertjan travelled to Canada & New York to write and play a lot of new songs. Along the way, things became clear on how these fresh songs should sound.
Douglas Firs is Gertjan himself alongside his brother Sem Van Hellemont, Simon Casier (Balthazar, Zimmerman) on bass, synth-wizard Senne Guns (Pomrad, Admiral Freebee) and Lokko on drums. The new album will be recorded in spring and mixed by Kevin Ratterman (My Morning Jacket, Ray Lamontagne), ready for release in Autumn 2017.
Just one more thing: before starting the official album recordings, Gertjan snuck out to a recording studio close to the Dutch-Belgian border and recorded “Shine ‘em Up Sadie”, an uptempo tune produced by Jo Francken, a pilot track for the new direction Douglas Firs is headed.
The lyrics of this song were inspired by the story of the Baldizzi family, a tale Gertjan came across during one of his strolls through Tenement Museum in NYC – a story about the struggles of Italian immigrants in 1929.
The song is more uptempo, spunkier than any of Douglas Firs’ earlier work, but it seems to disclose an optimistic view and an eagerness & hunger for life. In general. Or perhaps to start the next episode of the band’s career…
Brian Lucey (The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, Beck) mastered the track.
DOUGLAS FIRS in bulletpoints:
- Autumn 2017: new album Douglas Firs, mixed by Kevin Ratterman (My Morning Jacket, Ray Lamontagne)
- Band members: Sem Van Hellemont (keys, vocals) Simon Casier (Balthazar, Zimmerman), synth-wizard Senne Guns (Pomrad, Admiral Freebee), Laurens Billiet (drums)
- Leading track: Shine 'em up Sadie, recorded by Jo Francken & mastered by Brian Lucey (The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, Beck)
- Inspired by a story from Tenement Museum in New York. They love the tune and are going to share it!