Debut EP 'All is quiet' by The Vain Travail releases today

The Vain Travail releases their debut EP 'All is quiet' on Friday April 9th. It consists of four tracks, including lead single 'Do you see the sun?'. The EP takes you into the mind of the main character who has woken up in a strange world. Did a disaster happen? Is he abandoned? Have all certainties disappeared in his life? The feeling of derealization and mourning runs like a thread through the work of The Vain Travail. Fortunately, comfort or acquiescence are never far away.

The band members are well known to many Dutch music lovers; they play in a great diversity of bands and other music projects. In between all the busy touring schedules, they worked on The Vain Travail for two years. The inspiration for the band's name came from Sir Thomas Wyatt's famous 16th century poem "Whoso list to hunt", about the futile hunt for a loved one.

In the past two years, the band did not get together. Not even once. They organised writing and recording sessions with two or three members at the same time, sending each other ideas that the others would complement with their own visions. This process resulted in twelve promising demos, but then the world was taken over by the pandemic and the entire music industry came to a grinding halt. The band, however, did not. The absence of shows meant more time for new music. The method did not change, the intensity did. Now it’s time to release the debut EP, which will be followed by an album in November 2021.

The lyrics of the EP had already been written before the Covid-19 pandemic erupted, but it turns out they describe this new world and reality bizarrely accurate. The deserted streets and looming doom in 'All is quiet', the confusion that remains when the world just keeps turning after everything collapses in 'I must be dreaming', the light at the end of the tunnel and the patient acquiescence in 'I'd be dancing' and the hope after troubled times in 'Do you see the sun?'.

The Vain Travail:

• Dirk Schreuders (from Bertolf, Her Majesty) on bass and vocals,
• Jonas Pap (from Red Limo String Quartet, Sevdaliza) on cello,
• Dave Menkehorst (from Henny Vrienten, Helge Slikker / Polar) on drums and vocals,
• Len van de Laak (from Sandra van Nieuwland, Navarone) on keys, synths and samples,
• Arthur Adam ten Cate, (singer-songwriter and philosophy teacher) on guitar and vocals.