A Day`s Work
with Paul on Dec 23, 2003
New, talented, professional and from Holland: A Day’s Work. A few words with singer Paul who explains us why A Day’s Work’s emorock should be heard by as many people as possible.
  Please introduce the band, the music, the ideas and the ambitions of A Day’s Work.
A Day’s Work started in 1999. Before that time most bandmembers played in a band called Freebase. A Day’s Work consists of Ronnie van der Veer (drums and samples), Michel Rietveld (bass and screams), Maarten Appel (guitar), Bart Jan Weel (guitar) and Paul Glandorf (vocals).

Our music can best be described as emorock. For as far as ideas and ambitions go we most of all want to play live as much as possible. Everywhere we can. We want to show the world what we have in store. We’re a band who wants to keep developing, musically and structurely. Not just doing one certain trick, we want more and better.


You guys are from Holland. Not really a country where many bands in your style are active. Who and what has influenced you?
Most bands who inspired us are indeed not from Holland: Filter, My Vitriol, Coldplay, Medication, The Cure. From Holland bands like The Spirit That Guides Us and Face Tomorrow are on our playlist a lot.

What makes A Day’s Work different from others?
It’s the way we approach music. We don’t want to be in any charts. With our music and lyrics we want to reach into people’s souls and not in their wallet. Also, it’s not easy to put us into a certain corner of the musical spectrum. We use a lot of different influences from various musical styles that we transform into interesting, beautiful music without much drivel.

If you want to reach anything with your band, you have to have a good organisation backing the band. The five of us work hard at that. Everyone of us has a certain task, so we don’t do double work or forget stuff.

You have a very proferssional attitude. Where will it take A Day’s Work?
We shall see where it takes us. We don’t have the illusion we will ever play large venue’s like Ahoy. What we try is to find maximum profit from everything we do and hope this will lead us into new paths. It’s important we keep developing, step by step. There’s a lot to reach and experience in music and we are not done by long.


Do you have the feeling that you are taken seriously, being a Dutch band? I mean, for years we have ignored talented Dutch bands.
It’s difficult to build a name as a new band, but if you work hard to seriously reach something you will be appreciated. I can’t really say that lack of appreciation has bothered us so far. If we do a gig, people are usually very enthousiastic. Truth is that record companies play safe and sign few young bands. And that is not typical for Holland.

Your new EP Drowning In What I Believe will see life on January 18th. How can folks get their hands on a copy?
For the time being, unfortunately only on www.adayswork.nl. Although copies will be available in the better record stores in Alkmaar and Amsterdam as soon as possible. And at shows of course. We are still looking for a distribution deal, so you can buy a copy all over Holland, or at least in the major cities.

You already have a nice amount of shows on your resume, like the Paradiso club and Parkpop. What now? Dreaming of Pinkpop or Lowlands, perhaps a short tour in the Benelux?
Always dream. There’s nothing wrong with that. Pinkpop and Lowlands are perfect for young bands to present itself to a larger audience. Just as Parkpop by the way. A tour in Belgium, Luxemburg and Germany would be very nice as well. The shows we did in Belgium and Germany so far have been fantastic experiences and each experience leads to a new one. So if we don’t play at Lowlands, we will not give it all up, but instead we will look for new roads to travel in and other challenges.

  The new EP is finished: satisfied?
Yes, very much. It sounds more adult than our last cd. The songs are structured better and sound more like a whole. Besides, production wise it all sounds much better. We really had a good time recording the EP. It sounds great, the artwork looks great and the multimedia part is so extended you would think it’s a 20 track cd. So yes, we’re really proud of Drowning In What I Believe.

  How important are your lyrics? With a title like Drowning I What I Believe you create certain expectations towards your lyrics.
Lyrics are most certainly important. I try to write lyrics that both have a certain message and are to a certain point autobiographical and are still recognisable to the listener. I’m not trying to convert the world, but I can try to make people think. The title of the EP is from the song “Here I Am”. It’s about hiding yourself while you have things to tell. Let people walk all over you and discover you are not as weak as you think you are.

“Around My Head” is about someone who’s in disarray with himself. He looks in the mirror and comments on the person he sees in the mirror. “From Where I Stand” is written by Michiel and speaks for itself. A song about love without getting too mushy. “Who Will Save Us” is for a large part written by Michiel. It deals with the fact that there’s always a certain part of your life that’s determined by others. Governement, social obligations, God, etc. You are not in control of everything in your life.


You release the EP yourselve. Is there no interest from record companies or do you feel that in this phase of your career it’s best to keep selfcontrol?
Right now it feels very fine to keep control ourselves. We have the last word and control, so nothing happens without us not knowing about it. Downside is that we have to make all the contacts ourselves and that takes time. We are however looking for a record company or a distribution deal. They have the neccesary contacts that could realy help us get going. A festival like Noorderslag for instance, only books a band if it has a record deal.

Last words?
If you can come and see us January 18th in Atlantis, Alkmaar (Holland). It’s our EP presentation and it’s for sale the first time. Doors open at eight o’clock, half an hour later Skip The Rush from Amsterdam will play. Entrance is free. For more info check out www.adayswork.nl

(Marc Lochs)

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