On November 1, 2024, the highly anticipated second album from Thijs Boontjes, titled Dancing Boontjes, will be released. In this follow-up to his debut album Geen Achttien Meer (2019), Thijs reveals himself as an activist, bon vivant, and occasionally, a partner who messes up. The new cabinet faces his critique in the protest song Fiasco (Gênant, Gênant), while in Nachtportier, he laments the rising xenophobia, homophobia, and other forms of intolerance in our society. Even under the bleakest of circumstances, Dancing Boontjes manages to keep spirits high, with a bittersweet drink (Campari Soda) in hand, as an antidote to the deeply ingrained Calvinist restraint of our homeland. Thijs Boontjes, like no other, brings words and context to the concept of "human clumsiness," without sparing himself in the process. Musically, the album travels through rock 'n' roll, italo, and even a punk outburst or two, always circling back to its Nederpop roots, which shine through in every track.
The album’s title refers to his family’s auto garage in Schagen, North Holland, which in the post-war years would occasionally be transformed into a “bar dancing.” When the urge to party struck, the showroom would be converted into a dance floor, and an ad in the newspaper would announce that Dancing Boontjes was open once more. The nostalgia of this place, which Thijs himself only knows from old photos and stories, inspired the album. Thijs says, “I love glory, especially when it’s faded. It’s fine if it looks glamorous, as long as there are cracks in the walls and sun-faded curtains that haven’t been opened in years.” The image of this worn-down bar symbolically represents a world where everyone’s true nature eventually comes to light. With Dancing Boontjes, Thijs creates his own nocturnal universe where the unusual seems perfectly normal and vice versa, allowing listeners to dance away both large-scale suffering and the everyday grind as if no one is watching.