Bewilder

Summary Bewilder is a new band, albeit with several familiar faces. After working for over a year on their debut Dear Island (Excelsior Recordings), the band started off great with performances at Into The Great Wide Open, radio and tv shows, and a Dutch clubtour in fall 2015. Dear Island was very wel received and was declared album of the week by VPRO’s 3voor12, Best Dutch Album 2015 by national newspaper Trouw, second best Dutch album by national newspaper Volkskrant while their song The Unknown ended number #1 in IndieXL End of the Year’s Top100 Single Chart. Bewilder now focusses on 2016 and will start a new club tour in February.

homepage - Facebook - Instagram - YouTube

Biography Bewilder refers to the word 'wilderness'; a situation in which frontman Maurits Westrik suddenly finds himself about two years ago. He is overflowing with ideas and has written an abundance of songs. When he shares them with friends, they instantly propose working on his material in a band formation. The band travels to Excelsior's cabin on the lovely little island of Vlieland, where the band starts by recording a few demos with producer Henk Jonkers (Hallo Venray) and ends up creating an entire album: Dear Island.

Dear Island is an album full of unexpected turns; you never know how a song will end. This fits the Twin Peaks obsession which all band members share and that sometimes can be recognised in the gently sloping synthesizer sounds of Arjen de Bock. It's as if soundtrack compositor Angelo Badalamenti is secretly looking over his shoulder. The other band members, drummer Bram Hakkens, bass player Jeroen Overman and guitarist Arjan Kamphuis add elements of swing and rock to the intriguing compositions.

Bewilder songs can be recognised by a groovy, vivacious indie sound. She Keeps on Talking has a country feel. The songs never end the way they started. 'They are as ominous as the first sip of your favourite cocktail. It tastes familiar, but it might just end up somewhere unknown', Westerik comments. 'Until now we haven't played the same show twice.'

Bewilder's music can be beautifully caught in images. In 2014 the track Safe is showered over the audience as the powerful backing track of a short documentary about sustainable forms of transportation over the sea of the Into The Great Wide Open festival on Vlieland. In March 2015, all of a sudden the attractive video of the song So It Goes appears, followed in June 2015 by the video of Carry On, Carry on, shot by Westerik himself. In November 2015 Bewilder released the video of Forza (It Is), a well received tribute to the 80s video.

Past performance actually does guarantee future results. Bewilder is a new band formation, with familiar faces. Over the past years, they have developed themselves separately. And now they are ready to look forward. On August 28th 2015, Dear Island is released by Excelsior Recordings. The album is baptised at the Into The Great Wide Open festival at Vlieland. Dear Island has become a frequently heard record on Dutch radio. To quote one of Holland's music reviewers: 'It's been a long time since a record as strong and varied as Dear Island has been released in the Netherlands.'

Contact Management E-mail: info@thehiddentrack.nl Phone: +31 (0)6 278 65 885