Tom was on Radio 1 yesterday and he told the new album will be released in April.

(thx to Rabbitfield)

dEUS had 5 tracks in Radio 1's 100 op 1, the chart of the best Belgian songs ever. Here's the complete list.

• 3. Nothing Really Ends
• 11. Suds & Soda
• 23. Hotellounge
• 31. Instant Street
• 39. Little Arithmetics.

dEUS had 5 songs in Studio Brussel's Tijdloze 100. Click here for the complete list.

• 10. Suds & Soda
• 16. Roses
• 25. Instant Street
• 41. Hotellounge
• 45. Nothing Really Ends

Tom will be talking about Nick Drake on Belgian Radio 1 tonight. He will also pick his favourite Nick Drake-songs.

A small round-up about the new album.

• the album will be released in March
• two songtitles have leaked out: The architect and Corruption
• the album will possibly contain 12 songs
• Tom said back in August that they had finished 15 songs
• the mixing was done in ICP Recording Studios in Brussel
• the album is produced by Dave McCracken. He worked as a producer for Ian Brown, Depeche Mode, Faithless, Paul Oakenfeld and James Lavelle.
• the band will tour Europe and the USA afterwards. No news on other territories yet.
• the album is recorded in the brand new dEUS-studio in Borgerhout

I have launched a new poll. You can now vote your the best dEUS-videoclip so far. If you want to watch the clips, just click one of the links below.

• Suds And Soda
• Hotellounge
• Via
• Worst Case Scenario
• Theme From Turnpike
• Little Arithmetics
• Roses
• Fell Off The Floor, Man
• Instant Street
• Sister Dew
• The Ideal Crash
• Nothing Really Ends
• 7 Days, 7 Weeks
• What We Talk About

The results of the first poll: The Ideal Crash is the favourite dEUS-album of visitors of this blog. 327 visitors have voted the past two weeks.

1. The Ideal Crash 34%
2. In A Bar, Under The Sea 32%
3. Worst Case Scenario 15%
4. Pocket Revolution 12%
5. My Sister=My Clock 4%

Apparently Belgian-dance-producer Regi Penxten (Milk Inc) shouted Fuck dEUS in his reality-soap on Jim TV. Pinxten had just played a club in Chicago and was disappointed in the lack of interest of the Belgian press. He explains in Humo (and in Flair too) that he has no problem at all with dEUS, but he wanted to scream out his frustration about the Belgian press ignoring his succes outside Belgium.

Here's an small audio-interview with Tom in Leuven last week. Tom talks about art and the That's Blue-compilation.

You can start voting for the best Belgian song ever on the Radio 1-website. Last year dEUS had 5 songs in the 100 op 1-list. Since there are 10 dEUS-songs on the longlist this year, it's possible they score even better this year.

Het Depot (Leuven) is organising a couple of (free) evenings about the music industry. Two journalists will interview different key players in the industry. On December 18th you can catch up with Christian Pierre. More info over here.

BIG NEWS. The new album will be finished on December 10th. . It will be released in March 2008. And we might expect another dEUS-album in 2009.
In an interview with Veto Tom describes the new album as loud, eclectic and extravert. They will also tour the USA again, supporting bigger bands.
He also talks about his movieplans. Tom would like to have the scenario's for three movies finished within three years. He plans to start filming in 5 years.

Click here to see all items on the new album I've posted before.

Update: Jyves translated the interview for the non-dutch-speakers.

According to this (old) article from NRC one of the songs on the new album will be called Corruption. It's about daily corruption, the way people behave in relationships.

(thx to Tijs)

For those of you wandering if the ISR Community will ever live again: yes, it will. Vincent forwarded me an e-mail from Arthur. Arthur is currently reworking the community. A new version will be live within two weeks.

I've been playing around with a couple of new Blogger-features. I added a poll dedicated to your favorite dEUS-album in the sidebar. It will run for the next two weeks. If it works fine, I will add more polls in the future.

Tom will talk about the link between music and art in Het Stuk (Leuven) next thursday. There's a small interview with him in Campuskrant.

Yep. It's that time of the year again. You can vote for De Tijdloze from Studio Brussel. Last year dEUS had 5 songs in the top 50.

I forgot something in my update about the new album: the mixing will (again) be done in ICP Recording Studios in Brussels.

Youth Sentiment, my other blog, has been nominated for the Site of the year-awards by Clickx Magazine, a Flemish computerweekly. Don't be afraid to leave your votes on www.sitevanhetjaar.be. You can catch me in the category Blogs - beste nieuwkomer. Thx alot!

The Flemish parliament has officialy announced to give a medal to Tom for his artistic merits.

There's a small interview with Tom in Humo about the screening of Any Way The Wind Blows on Canvas. He shortly talks about the new album: it's gonna be good, will be released in march and will be produced by Dave McCrachan. There's no working title yet.

He also talks about the movie: the title isn't reffering to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, but to a song by JJ Cale. His other movieplans include a film noir, a historical movie and a comedy.

Tom will be deejaying at a FM Brussel-party in Mirano (Brussels) on friday november 23th.

(thx to Gilles)

If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to catch Any Way The Wind Blows next wednesday (November 14th) on Canvas.

(thx to Gilles)

dEUS will launch a new website together with the release of the new album. The site will be designed and developed by Milk And Cookies, a company that works for Prada, Rem Koolhaas, Diesel and Soulwax.

(thx to Michael)

The Flemish parliament is planning to give a kind of medal to a couple of musicians including Raymond van het Groenewoud , Will Tura, Dirk Brossé and Tom Barman. Vlaams Belang has objections to the medal of Tom because he has been acting against the party that is representing 24 percent of the Flemish people.

A small update on the new album: the recordings are almost finished. They are more or less focussing on 12 songs. The mixing will start somewhere in november. Release is scheduled for February-March (although Christian is still clearing things out with Universal and V2). I'll keep you posted when I have more news.

(btw: sorry for the lack of updates the last weeks, but I've been in bed most of the times. I have a rupture of my achilles tendon and working on a computer is still very painfull)

Christian wrote a letter to Flemish newspaper De Morgen after Sam Valkenborg (Fixkes) said dEUS has not that much success outside Belgium. The letter mainly states that they are making profit from touring (as already mentioned before).

Ik snap niet goed waarom Vlaamse rockartiesten in de pers toch zo graag het buitenlandse succes van dEUS willen minimaliseren. De eerste tien jaar was iedereen nog fier en kregen we zelfs felicitaties, de laatste vijf jaar gaat er geen maand voorbij of ik lees wel ergens een interview waar iemand het weer eens nodig vindt om onze verkoopcijfers en/of de opkomst bij onze concerten in het buitenland in vraag te stellen. Normaal laat ik zoiets passeren, maar nu wordt het toch wel wat gortig.

Naar aanleiding van recente uitspraken van Sam Valkenborg (Focus, De Morgen) wil ik jullie lezers graag juist informeren. Ik zal me beperken tot de feiten.

Tijdens de laatste tournee in 2005-'06 speelden we 150 shows, waarvan 6 in België. Dus 96 procent van onze optredens is in het buitenland. We hebben 27 landen aangedaan. Optredens in het Postbahnhof in Berlijn (capaciteit 1.200), de Olympia in Parijs (2.500), Shepherds Bush Londen (2.000), Aula Magna in Lissabon (twee avonden, 3.000), om er maar enkele te noemen, waren allemaal uitverkocht.

Er waren een 40-tal festivals waarvan we ruim de helft co-headliner waren. Roskilde, Sziget, Electric Picknick... Zeg maar de Pukkelpops van die landen. Tel daar nog eens 110 andere clubshows bij, waarvan de 12 in de VS de enige verlieslatende waren, en dat hebben we nooit onder stoelen of banken gestoken.

Wat ik wil zeggen: op tournee gaan (met 15 mensen, in prima condities, zonder toersupport van de platenfirma) kost ons geen geld, maar brengt op.

Tot spijt van wie het ons benijdt.

Christian Pierre, manager

You can still download the gig at the dEUS Podcast.

The profits from 0110 (about 175.000 euro) has been donated to 15 projects in Flanders, 11 in the French speaking part of Belgium and 2 in Brussels. Listen to Tom talking about it in De Ochtend on Radio 1.

(thx to Gilles)

At least, somebody on Myspace is saying so. Do you agree? Which Tom do you like the most? The one from the time before Magnus? Or the other one?

Tom is talking about Luc Tuymans in De Standaard today. He also says art references are in some of his songs.

• Great American nude was referring to a piece by Tom Wesselman.
• Opening Night is inspired by the movie Opening Night by John Cassavetes
• The architect (a new song?) is about architect Buckminster Fuller

Universal Music has opened a clipzone at Garagetv (a Belgian Youtube) and look what I've found: a video by a band called dEUS for a song called Nothing Really Ends. I haven't seen it before (it's even not on the official site)

Knack has an interesting article about Belgian bands having succes in other countries. There's a small interview with Christian Pierre about the subject. Most of the story is probably known by all of you, but i'll repeat it anyway.

• In the early 90's only Bang! was interested in dEUS
• They arranged a showcase in Londen (dEUS as a support act for Girls Against Boys)
• At the showcase they were discovered by Island Records
• They've started touring without loss at the The Ideal Crash-era. The earlier tours cost them between 1000 and 5000 euros for each show.
• By touring as much as possible at that time, they've built up someting
• Playing in small towns as Staffordshire wasn't a lot of fun, but they knew it was necessary to get to the point where they would like to be

dEUS appears 10 times in the Kink FM 1212, a list of the 1212 best songs ever voted by listeners of Dutch alternative radio Kink FM.

• 52. Hotellounge
• 105. Suds & Soda
• 158. Instant Street
• 201. Roses
• 333. Nothing Really Ends
• 465. Little Arithmetics
• 598. 7 Days 7 Weeks
• 801. The Ideal Crash
• 851. Via
• 1054. Theme From Turnpike

Entertaining story (in Dutch) from two girls on a mission to kiss Tom.

According to an item on the blog of Michael Ilegems, Dave McCracken will be producing the new album. He worked as a producer for Ian Brown, Depeche Mode, Faithless, Paul Oakenfeld and James Lavelle.

Humo had a small interview with Tom about the first anniversary of 0110.

Tom will be replaced by DJ Stijn at the opening party of Cultuurcentrum Mechelen next saturday. Christian Pierre told newsagency Belga that Tom will not be deejaying the next few months. The new album will probably be released at the beginning of 2008.

Hearing problems forced Tom Barman to cancel several Magnus/DJ dates, including Mechelen, Liège, Brussels and Roeselare. Hopefully this won't delay the new album's recording sessions, which should be in full swing by now.

[thanks to disappointed Marshall on the ISR]

MTV will air the Brand New Live Concert again next tuesday (September 18th) at midnight.

Nice one, Tom has an entry in the Norwegian Wikipedia.

The trailer for the movie Ben X including Include Me Out. The movie won some awards at the Montreal World Film Festival last weekend.

A new website about Belgian music has been launched yesterday. Muziekarchief.be contains the most complete dEUS-discography ever seen on the web.

(for a very special person)

Christian mailed me a list of upcoming Magnus / Tom dj-sets. Here we go

25/08 - Mechelen - Maanrock (Magnus)
30/08 - Heerlen (NL) - De Nieuwe Nor (Tom)
31/08 - Namen - Working Class Club Nights (Tom)
08/09 - Bergen - City Parade (Magnus)
08/09 - Haarlem - Patronaat (Tom)
09/09 - Tilburg - O13 (Tom)
14/09 - Frasnes - Sugarock (Magnus)
15/09 - Brussel- Botanique - B-live (Magnus)
15/09 - Roeselare - 5 Senses (Tom)
21/09 - Brussel- Anarchic (Tom)
22/09 - Mechelen - Cultureel centrum (Tom)
22/09 - Luik - Soundstation - B-live(Magnus)
27/09 - Leuven - Silo - B-live(Magnus)
02/10 - Brugge - Maz (Magnus)
06/10 - Geraardsbergen - Jeugdhuis Spiraal (Magnus)
12/10 - Brussel- Sound & Music Festival (Tom)

A bit dEUS-related: Universal Music is planning to acquire V2 Records. Which means that dEUS will no longer be part of two different record companies. At this moment dEUS-albums are released by Universal in Belgium and by V2 worldwide. Universal Music Group is the world’s leading music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 77 countries.

Tom will deejay at De Nieuwe Nor in Heerlen (The Nederlands) on August 30th. On August 31 he will be at La Ferme Blanche (Namur) for Working Class Night.
If you live in Haarlem you can catch him behind the decks on September 8th at Patronaat.

Tom talks about his memories of the Lowlands-festival on the 3voor12-website. Apparently they have carjacked a golfcaddy in the backstage once.

(thx to Paul)

Pukkelpop-organizer Chokri Mahassine talks about his record collection in De Morgen today. One of his favorite albums is Worst Case Scenario.

"In 1992 ging ik naar de groep kijken in Leuven en een dag later sprak heel Vlaanderen erover: kippenvel. dEUS heeft de Belgische scene ontvoogd, ons zelfvertrouwen opgekrikt. Sindsdien zijn onze ogen en oren niet langer uitsluitend op het buitenland gericht."

Two dEUS-albums have made the album top 100 selected by readers of Dutch popmagazine Oor. The Ideal Crash is on 19 and Worst Case Scenario on 31. Worst Case Scenario was the only dEUS-album in the same list selected by music-professionals.

(thx to Paul)

There are rumours that Tom will perform at MusikoMetro 'Busking Brussels', a small festival in Brussels on September 15th. Belgian top-artists will play three sets at three different metro-stations in Brussels. As far as I heard Tom will do something together with Stef. I'll keep you posted as soon as I get more info.

The soundtrack for the Belgian movie Ben X will also feature a song (or more) by dEUS. I'll try to get more information on which song exactly.

(Source: De Morgen)

Studio Brussel aired a small interview with Magnus at the Lokerse Feesten. It contains some dEUS-news too. They will start recording soon. They've finished 15 songs. According to Tom it will sound completely different from Pocket Revolution.

He also talks about the dEUS-studio in Borgerhout. It contains a big recording room, a kitchen, a terrace, a living room,.... CJ Bolland is also using the same studio. They will also record a new Magnus-album. But there's no deadline for that, since dEUS will hit the road next february...

(thx to Wouter)

There was a small interview with Tom about his dj-adventures in De Standaard this weekend. He tells about the start of his dj-career at the time when we was organising gigs in Cartoons. Later he became a resident in Cinema and after that came Magnus.

He says he has never had a hobby before and he thinks deejaying is a great one. He likes to play Mr. Oizo and the classic anthems Higher state of consciousness (Josh Wink) and Freak (LFO)

(thx to Gilles)

Tom is on the 99th place in the top 100 list of best singers from Humo.

(thx to Gilles)

Just noticed that Universal Music Belgium now also has a website. Including a page dedicated to dEUS.

A short interview with Tom at de Gentste Feesten saturday evening.

Apparently Bad Timing is used in a promoclip for the BBC’s ‘The Commander’ featuring Amanda Burton.

A nice story about Tom and Prince on the blog of Eric Laforge. Tom was/is a huge fan of Prince. A couple of years ago when Prince performed in Antwerp, Tom was working in a service station and suddenly a big American car with some people from Prince's band stopped. They talked a little bit and later that day Tom was invited backstage. He talked to Prince for almost 20 minutes.

Found this interview with Tom a couple of weeks ago on Youtube.

Tom will deejay in the Petrol-club (Antwerp) on August 3th. There's a Radio Centraal-festival that day including performances by Mauro, Rudy Trouvé & Elko Blijweert.

Magnus will be deejaying at Studio Brussel's Love Boat Party on Saturday July 28th. They'll be at Tomorrowland the same day too.

Other dates this summer:

04/08 - Lokerse Feesten, Lokeren
11/08 - Marktrock, Leuven
16/08 - Pukkelpop, Hasselt
25/08 - Maanrock, Mechelen

(thx to Gilles)

Great video for Sun Ra by a German student.

A nice remix of What We Talk About

I already blogged this in October, but the episode of Who's Next with Tom is now also on Youtube.




(thx to Gilles)

A message on the website of Lier's Cultuurcentrum informs us that a 2008 performance with Mauro Pawlowski and Dutch/Palestinian writer/actor Ramsey Nasr is cancelled because dEUS will release their new album "sooner than expected" and start touring in April.

[thanks to hansje909 on ISufferRock]

I will be offline until next saturday. See you soon!

There seems to be a UK-based band called Worried About Satan. Their Myspace says they're named after the Turnpike-b-side.

(thx to Wouter)

Magnus will be at de Lokerse Feesten on August 4th.

Tom will receive this year's Prijs voor de Democratie for the 0110-event. The price is awarded every year since the first Black Sunday in Belgium in 1991. Black Sunday refers to an electional victory of Vlaams Blok/Vlaams Belang.

(Source: De Morgen)

Besides his dj-set at Art Makes You Happy, Mauro will also perform in De Droge Coo in Oostende next saturday. Other acts on stage include Annelies Monseré and Kumisolo. And Othin Spake will perform at KC Netwerk in Aalst on September 28th with Jessica Bailiff. For more Mauro-dates check the new version of Mauroworld.

<--Start tabloid-modus-->

We don't know a lot about Tom's relationships. Today I heard about two affairs he had in the past. The first one was with politician Freya Van den Bossche and the second one with Moloko-singer Roisin Murphy.

<--End tabloid modus-->

Tom and Mauro will be deejaying at the All True Artists-event in Antwerp this summer. Mauro will be behind the decks next saturday (June 30th) and Tom will be there at the end of July (the 28th to be exact)

Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol) is saying something about dEUS in Het Belang van Limburg. He's following them from the beginning, says they're making music from a different planet. The Ideal Crash is one of his alltime favourites. dEUS had a party at his place when they were playing in Glasgow.

“Ik ken dEUS van toen hun eerste plaat uitkwam, in 1994 of zo. Ik had ‘Suds & Soda’ in Engeland op de radio gehoord, en ik was er kapot van: die waanzinnige violen, verpletterende gitaren, en daarboven die fantastische bariton van Tom Barman. Muziek van een andere planeet. Ik ben de groep blijven volgen, en ze maken nog altijd fantastische platen. ‘The Ideal Crash’ is een van mijn favoriete albums aller tijden. Ik heb ze, toen ik ze al een tijdje volgde, in Glasgow ontmoet, toen ze bij mij in de straat speelden. Achteraf zijn ze bij mij wat komen drinken. Op het einde van de avond was er geen druppel meer in huis. De beste manier om vrienden te worden.”

One of my harddisks crashed this week and I've lost a couple of dEUS-recordings. I've managed to recover a couple of them in the meantime, but two gigs are still missing. Does anyone have Middelburg 2006 and Pinkpop 2006 somewhere available? Thanx for letting me know.

A short review of yesterdays dj-set by Gilles Simonet:

Tom was unbelievable again as a DJ in the Theatre de Vaudeville in Brussels last night. He played from 1 tot 3 in the morning. A terrific elektro-set. Everbody loved it, also the first DJ of the night Cozy Mossy. I talked to Tom very briefly. The new dEUS-album is coming on great. They're gonna start recording next week. The rehursals are over. He's also looking forward to the summer festivals with Magnus, especially Dour-festival, one of his favorite festivals.

Apparently Stéphane is also drumming in a band called Soapstarter. You can catch them at Pukkelpop and Feest in het Park. Their debut-album Naked Wheelz will be released tomorrow. Give them a listen on Myspace.

Tom will deejay at Anarchic in Theatre du Vaudeville, Brussels next friday (June 22nd).

According to The Scene-singer Thé Lau Tom will not join them on stage next friday during the The Scene-gig in the Ancienne Belgique (Brussels). He might do it somewhere during the summer on one of the festivalgigs.

Tom will be deejaying at Vertpop next friday (tomorrow). Vertpop is an event organized by Ecolo, the green party of the French speaking part of Belgium.

The Ancienne Belgique launches Rewind, a series of concert where Belgian artists play a key-album from their backcatalogue. Gorki and The Scabs have already been scheduled. Worst Case Scenario is also on the wishlist of the organizer.

'Het is nu niet nodig. Er is ruzie binnen het Vlaams Belang, het schip is al aan het zinken. Er is een klein lekje, maar lek is lek.'

Tom Barman explains why he remains quiet about the upcoming elections in Belgium

Actress Chloë Sevigny (Zodiac) says she likes Antwerp. She has been there a couple of times and spent her time shopping and partying with the guys from dEUS...

(Source: Gazet Van Antwerpen)

An article in De Morgen pointed me to www.keukengeheim.com. Tom is talking about his experiences in the kitchen. He says he's famous in his neighbourhood for his croque monsieurs. He's also talking about his mother. And he gives a recipe for one of his mother's specialties.

You can download Tom's contribution to the new The Scene album on iTunes.

(thx to Frederiek)

I'm having some troubles with my layout in Firefox. Strange thing because I haven't changed a thing for months. Since a lot of people complained about it, I decided to pick a default Blogger-template as a quick-and-dirty solution. I hope to find some time to work on a new layout in the near future.

Gilles wrote a review of the Magnus-dj-set at Randomania. He also had an interview with Tom (mp3)

dEUS in Studio Brussels Album 100:

7. Worst Case Scenario
16. In A Bar, Under The Sea
21. The Ideal Crash
28. Pocket Revolution

A review of Pocket Revolution Burnt

The last episode from Escape TV contains a small interview with Tom.




(thx to Tijs)

Tom will be deejaying at the 2nd Geen Daden Maar Woorden-festival in 's-Hertogenbosch on May 19th. Tom and Wilfried De Jong will be playing freaky jazz. He already shared the decks with De Jong at the first edition of GDMW last year.

(thx to Tabitha Vogels)

Renaat Lambeets has done the camerawork for the new company film of Corelio (the company I work for). Lambeets has been working with dEUS a lot and also did the camerawork for Any Way The Wind Blows. The movie contains a new song by Guy Van Nueten played by Tim Vanhamel (vocals and guitar) and Alan Gevaert (bass). As soon as I get a copy of the movie, I will post it here

I talked to Christian Pierre yesterday evening and I have some news for you.

• dEUS is building a studio at Plaza Real (the bar of Klaas). They have been rehearsing for the new album over there and currently the studio is being build there. After that they have to install the technical stuff and it should be more or less finished somewhere at the end of June. The band is currently rehearsing in their old place.
• They are still looking for a producer for the upcoming album. They will probably pick somebody that is willing to work in the dEUS-studio.
• The album will be released somewhere before the summer of 2008
• Magnus will probably release a new single in the near future although it's not 100% sure yet and the song isn't finished either.

Tom and Mauro will be deejaying before, between and after the concerts at the Blue Note Records Festival in Ghent on July 13th.

A small review of Tom's dj-set at Novarock by Gilles Simonet. Tom joined the Ex-drummer-band on stage to sing along with Champagne (Millionaire). I upload two pics to the dEUS Flickr Group.

Gisteren naar Novarock geweest. Leuk, maar met alle respect: West-Vlamingen
zijn saaie mensen. Enkel voor hun Flip Kowlier komen ze los. Anyway, Tom is even
komen meezingen met Ex-Drummer Live, namelijk Champagne van Millionaire.

Voor zijn dj set was de zaal al grotendeels leeggelopen. Hij nodigde daarom iedereen uit om rond hem te komen dansen op het podium. Van die gelegenheid maakte iedereen gebruik. Tom was in vorm en heeft twee uur gedraaid. Hij heeft wel een kaart voor RandOMania van me gepikt :-)

Tom will deejay at the first Nacht van Europa (Night of Europe) in Amsterdam on May 9th.

“ Tom Barman is een tamelijk sympathieke janet uit Antwerpen, ook al zit hij
iedere dag wild rukkend zijn naam te googelen”

Rock-journalist Serge Simonart (Humo) about Tom in Studio Brussels Brussel Midi.

If you're a Twitter-user, you can follow this blog by adding this twitterpage to your account.

Forgot to mention it yesterday (although I got a couple of mails pointing me to it): Tom was in De Wereld Draait Door yesterday. He talked about the Bob Dylan-dvd Don't Look Back. You can watch it here.

You can buy the dvd Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back (1965 Tour Deluxe Edition) on Amazon.

Tom is one of the nominees in the category Aantwaarpse figuur from the Aantwaarpse Awaards. The winners will be announced on June 3rd.

A couple of months ago I linked to an interview with Tom in Hungarian. Tim Mussche was kind enough to ask his friend Takács István Gábor to translate it.

"I can say that this is the best line-up" - dEUS - Interview with Tom Barman

I fell in love with dEUS when with many others I first heard them on the 1997 Sziget Festival. Through the years - just like an exciting lover - they sometimes span me up, sometimes soothe me but always held me on their palms; they have disappeared and returned renewed. Their new album Pocket Revolution came out a year ago, and the Belgian fivesome shows that with the lead of Tom Barman they still can balance between pop and wierd artrock. We have been talking to Tom, also active as a movie artist, before their second show at Sziget.

- Your fourth album came out with a new line-up. How do the fans react (accept) the new dEUS?
Tom Barman - We have had very good feedabck so far. We've left a pretty hard time behind, there were big moves in our band - members left, then came back, then stepped off again. We have completely stopped in 1999, and reactivated ourselves again in 2004. It was really an art to put together and set everything afloat. To cut it short: finally we have found some very cool guys whom we knew each other earlier. Mauro (Pawlowski - guitar, vocals, -the editor) from the Evil Superstars and Alan (Gevaert, bass, vocal) who was around the world with Chris Whitley - joined us.

- What is it like to work with them? Do you have good relationship?
TB: We have been playing together with the violinist and pianist Klaas, and with Mauro we got together when we did one of my musical projects Magnus. I can say that this is the best line-up, even compared to the band that was at the beginning of the 90s. If you see the concert you will agree. We have finished the album this time last year, and we have been touring since. We have been to 25 countries since September.

- You couldnt imagine life any other way right?
TB: Good question. I really could not live without this (smiling). And this is my simple answer.- At this recent tour, which show was the most memorable?TB: We gave many concerts so its hard to answer, but maybe it was the most exciting to play in Iceland. This was our first time in Rejkjavik, and it really captured us. We have played for full house and people were going mad! I can say we have had only good shows so far because we feel that this team is really good. We play old and new songs too, though I should not say that the songs from Pocket Revolution are new, because they are one year old. We soon start to write the new material, maybe already in August.

- Do you write songs easily?
TB: Not really, I do not write too much. I am not the kind who quickly puts together 14 songs, then chooses 5 at the end. I am more like writing only 5 but using all. I work a lot but not only with songs. My latest film, Any way the wind blows was shown in 2003.

- Does it have anything to do with the same last line of the Queen song, Bohemian Rhapsody?
TB: Its just accidental. This movie is like a 24 walk in the city. Little fragments from people's lives.

- Do you shoot commercials? Ive heard a car company has asked you once...
TB: That has happened a long time ago and did not end well. They had no use of it.

- It was not popular taste enough?
TB: Exactly.

- Do you have to pay attention to being popular enough when doing your records?
TB: We always experiment, we are open minded. This is more typical of Belgians than English. We come from a small country where we like to mix flavours and styles. Theres not such a heavy burden of tradition on us than on the British. We like to combine free jazz with pop, hard rock with ballads, and so we do.

- I have read somewhere, that you are almost like traveling ambassadors of Belgian culture. Being Belgian: is it an advantage or disadvantage in the musical world?
TB: The hardship is that we have to work very hard for being known. We are not from such an exotic country as Hungary or Finland. These names mean much more to people, move their fantasy easier. Ours is a small country, the world does not know much of us. I am glad though that we have just won two gold medals at the European Championships. But it is also an advantage to be Flemish, because, as I have said, we think freely, and we can easier deepen and flow into things.

- Do you sing on your native language?
TB: Yes. With a Dutch pianist, Guy van Neuten, who played with me on my solo nights. I like to return to my roots time to time, therefore I play others songs too: Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake and Captain Beefheart. We were playing some 35 nights that were very good. We have issued a double CD with the live recordings. If I have some time I like to spend it like this: singing and playing for the audience's, and my own pleasure. Now my solo projects stopped because I am fully concentrating on dEUS, we should do the new album, theres the tour so I dont have much time for else at the moment.

- And Magnus, your electronic project with the famous remix-producer, CJ Bolland?
TB: It was so much fun working together, there was no pressure on us. I've been doing a lot of DJ sets, and I plan to continue this. We plan to make a new Magnus album too.

- Its hard to imagine you behind the desk, because you are such a R&R guy.
TB: Thanx (playing sad)... but I am really good at it!

- I did not mean to bug you: its more like a nice surprise, I like electronic music.
TB: When Im puting on the records I keep dancing and singing. I look like an idiot, not a typical DJ with a poker face.

- You have been to a lot of festivals. Who was the best to be together with on a stage?
TB: The Gueens of the Stone Age. They have become my favorite band during the last few years. They are unbelievable! Its very sexy as they play rock music. And Tool. I am a great fan of them.

- And you play before Radiohead today...
TB: Of course this is a great honour. I have not seen them for 10 years, finally I will.

- After this tour, shall we expect another live DVD?
TB: We are working on it, collecting the materials. We would like to do something special, something more than a conventional live record. I am thinking about the concept.

- Do you direct your clips?
TB: Not any longer. I ask someone else because its too much work to direct and play at the same time. Singing while everybody looks cool but I look tired is not good. I want to look good in the clip.

- Are you interested in contemporary art? Can you follow it sometimes?
TB: Yes I buy books regularly and get to museums too sometimes.

- Will you have time for it in Budapest?
TB: We have been walking the city for 3 hours yesterday. We liked very much what we saw.

- How long can you stay? On Monday, your friend Brian Molko plays with Placebo at Sziget...
TB: Unfortunately we leave on Sunday, but if you do an interview with him, give him my greetings!

Apparently Tom has participated in the recordings of the new album of The Scene. He has contributed to a reworked version of Rigoureus.

(thx to Anthony)

Magnus will be deejaying at Rand-o-Mania, the 10th anniversary party of De Rand, a cultural centre near Brussels on May 16th.

Maybe you've noticed the links I added on the left side, maybe not. Just to say that I've started another blog. A videoblog with songs that remind me of a time long ago. If you were born at the end of the seventies, it will probably give a couple of nice flashbacks.

And yes, I know dEUS is not on it (yet). Keep following the blog and you will see our beloved band popping up!

Steven is selling a US-version of Worst Case Scenario on eBay. The tracklist is the same as the Island-version but according to Hotellounge.com it contains Zea as a bonus-track.

Tom has been chosen as Man Of The Year by the readers of Flemish weekly Humo. He also won in the category Best Singer. dEUS won the category Best Belgian Band and the 0110-gigs received the award for Best Concert.

Here's an article from De Standaard about it.

Jezusfactory will release an album with songs from Mauro, Craig Ward and Rudy Trouvé. Check the myspace for more info.

If you missed it last year, KEXP has republished the dEUS-live session from last year in their South By Southwest-special. You can listen to it here.

If you're following ISR, you've probably noticed the rumours about some dEUS gigs in the Ancienne Belgique somewhere in 2007...

Pocket Revolution Burnt was reviewed by Kindamuzik.

Tom Barman and Tom Boonen are the cultfigures of 2006 according to a survey from CJP.

Turkish newspaper Radikal asked a couple of Turkish women which men are understanding women the best. Actress Pelin Batu mentioned dEUS because ''their songs smell like roses''.

If you understand Turkish: here's the complete article. It mentions David Bowie, Pedro Almodovar, Oscar Wilde, Charles Bukowski and many more.

(thx to Christian)

An interview with Tom at the ceremony for the Moustiques d'Or.

(thx to Gilles)

There's a big item about Mauro in Gonzo Circus. It also includes an online special where Mauro talks about 12 songs that were featured on one of the free cd that came with the magazine the last 15 years.

They also let him listen to a track by Annelies Monseré (Myspace), the girlfriend from one of my colleagues at De Standaard. The guy is also running a small record label, called Morc Records and he gave me a tip about the Gonzo-feature. And about a split-lp Mauro will be releasing somewhere in a few months.

Tom has won the Moustique d'Or 2007 (one of the categories of the pop-poll of Télémoustique)for personality of the year.

Some pics of Tom deejaying at FM Brussel Tonight last friday.

The Antwerp Rotary Club is planning to send material to make a painting to some famous people in Antwerp: Tom Barman, Gaston Berghmans, Stany Crets, Jan Decleir, Tia Hellebaut, Walter Van Beirendonck, Erik Van Looy and Patrick Janssens. The paintings will be sold for the good cause during an auction on June 1st. There will also be an expo from May 10th to May 13th at Mon Bernaerts' place.

(Source: Gazet van Antwerpen)

Tom will be deejaying at the Novarock-festival in Kortrijk (Belgium) on Saturday May 5th.

A songbook with all lyrics and chords for the songs on Pocket Revolution has been released. You can order it here.

A small interview (in Dutch) with Tom and Mauro at the Zamu-awards can be found here. They both look pretty happy (and drunk too)

Tom will deejaying at Motel Mozaïque 2007 on Saturday April 14th.

dEUS has won the Zamu-award for best (Belgian) live act of 2006. What We Talk About (When We Talk About Love) was competing in the Best Song-category. That category was won by The Player (Daan)

Well, it's not really breaking news, but Glen Hansard of The Frames has apparently been talking to Tom about doing something together.

A video of the gig in Montreux has popped up on Dimeadozen.

Other torrents still available

• Pacific (Antwerpen) - 1994
• Werchter - 2006
• Paris - 2006
• 0110
• Astoria (London) - 1995
• Middelburg - 2006
• Vielles Charrues - 2006
• Pinkpop - 2006

Tom mailed me an article from De Zondag about the funeral of Marc Meulemans. It contained a picture of Tom holding a speech.

There's an interview with CJ Bolland in Metro (Belgian free daily) today. He talks about a new Magnus album coming up somewhere around August 2008. He says dEUS will finish the new album and the forthcoming tour first. Magnus will be releasing a couple of singles in the meantime.

This could be an indication that the next tour will be indeed shorter than the Pocket Revolution-tour. Alan already mentioned this in an interview back in August.
The new dEUS album is scheduled for the end of 2007 / the beginning of 2008. If the new Magnus album will be released in August, that leaves about 8 months of touring (including the summer festivals)

Check your snail-mail, Ingrid Bries. Two tickets for the Magnus-gig in Opwijk are coming your way. I hope you don't mind I share your story with the other visitors.

I met Tom on one of my flights last november. I always have liked the music of dEUS, but honestly Tom Barman... I thought he was an arrogant, big Egokind of guy... until that night!!! What a nice and friendly man!!! If only all our passengers were like him, my job would be a lot easier! I got intrigued and since that day I have been reading everything I could findabout him on the internet. I bought the CD's, DVD's... I must say I amreally impressed!

Someone pointed me to this video. The song used in the video is called There's nothing impossible and it's performed by a band / guy called Deus. The full-album is available for download here.

I have two tickets for the Magnus-gig in Nijdrop, Opwijk next friday (February 9th). They could be yours too. Just drop me an e-mail explaining me why you should get the tickets. Because I will send the tickets by mail, contest closes monday noon. And please, don't enter the contest if you can't make it...

There will be a ceremony for Marc Meulemans in the crematorium of Wilrijk next saturday. Tom is said to be doing something there.

Kindamuzik has a special about Ex Drummer, a Belgian movie. The movie contains music by Tim Vanhamel, so check out the Myspace or the trailer.

The Kindamuzik-special includes an interview with Stéphane Misseghers. He thinks John Bonham from Led Zeppelin is the best drummer ever. He also talks a bit about dEUS. They've finished a couple of new songs and they're building a studio in Antwerp.

Stéphane is also in a band with Tim Vanhamel and Ben Brunin (ex-Vive la Fête). They've recorded a cover of Physical’ by Olivia Newton John for a Swedish tribute album.

You can listen to Pocket Revolution Burnt: The Jagz Kooner Excursions on the VPRO-Luisterpaal.

(thx to Amber)

Sad news: Marc Meulemans, the guy who did the dEUS artwork since 2004 has died last friday. Meulemans did the artwork for the download-only single If You Don't Get What You Want (summer 2004) and for Pocket Revolution (and the singles from it). He also worked for Magnus and Any Way The Wind Blows.

An update on the Europe-gig: some names have been confirmed: Arno, Axelle Red, Clouseau and Simply Red. No Tom (yet?).

There's a small interview with Manu Riche in De Morgen today. He also talks about the movie he's making about Tom. He hopes to have it ready in September 2007. They've followed dEUS on tour last year and they will also be shooting footage from the band working on the new album

Duke from ISR has created a French Wikipedia-page for dEUS.

The Jagz Kooner-remixes (the extra tracks on the Pocket Revolution Burnt-album) are available on iTunes.
Click here to download the entire album

Here are deeplinks to listen to snippets of the remixes

1. If You Don’t Get What You Want
2. Cold Sun Of Circumstance
3. 7 days, 7 weeks
4. Bad Timing
5. Sun Ra
6. Nightshopping
7. Pocket Revolution




(thx to Frederiek)

A message straight from the Musickness-headquarters: Tom will not be deejaying at the Sex, Lies & Andy-event.

Some more info on the Europe-birthday-gig in Brussels: apparently each country will be sending a big shot. First names are Julio Iglesias (Spain) and Eros Ramazotti (Italy). I haven't found any confirmation of the other names yet, but The Scorpions (Germany), Bryan Ferry (United Kingdom), The Corrs (Ireland) and Yannick Noah (France) are said to be performing there too.
As mentioned before Tom Barman/dEUS and Arno are rumoured to be the Belgian acts.

I have some doubts about Bryan Ferry because he has a gig in the UK the same day.
The website about the anniversary mentions the gig and tells us it will be screened on television.

A nice quartet Tom Barman-pics.

Just tested the Fabplayer from Fabchannel.com. Enjoy the Zita Swoon-gig in Paradiso (March 2005).

Mauro and Rudy Trouvé have created the music for Trust, a piece of music theatre by Braakland. Trust will be played for the first time on February 15th and 16th in the Stadsschouwburg of Leuven. There's a small trailer featuring Mauro and Rudy over here. And you can listen to two snippets of the soundtrack here.

The piece is based on a moviescript by writer, director and musician Hal Hartley.

BTW: on the 17th The Love Substitutes will also play Leuven.

V2 America has fired 35 people, including president Andy Gershon, as part of a restructuring. The label will mainly become a catalog label and will not release any new stuff from bands as the White Stripes, Moby and the Raconteurs. The only genre the company plans to participate in going forward is gospel.

Don't know what this means for dEUS and America, but something tells me this isn't very good news. They already had a lack of support in the States and it probably won't get better.

Update: Pitchfork on the same subject.

Antwerp based Radio Centraal aired a special on De Muziekdoos this weekend. It included an 8-minute interview with Tom about this import place in dEUS-history. You can listen to it on the podcast.

I've setup an Amazon-store dedicated to dEUS.

dEUS.be reminds us that our beloved band is nominated for two Zamu-awards. If you want to vote for dEUS as Best Belgian Live Act, click here. if you want to vote for 'What We Talk About' as Best Song, click here.

Michael Illegems (dEUS-fan and visitor of this blog) is making a paper about music and new media. There's an interview with Mauro on the subject on his blog.

On March 24th there's a big event in Brussels to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the treaty of Rome. There will be a concert near the Atomium in Brussels. There are strong rumours that Tom Barman and Arno will be performing there. I'll keep you posted.

The video for "De Doorgedachte", the song Tom Barman wrote with former Doe Maar frontman Henny Vrienten, can be seen on PCZapper.tv. It's part of a show on NPS television called "Het Uur van de Wolf", dedicated to the album "De Nacht" by Vrienten. Direct link to the video: fast-forward to 19:23 to hear Tom & Henny sing.

(edited: I corrected Vrienten's name. Thank you, anonymous reader.)

[thx to Myrdin on the ISR forum]

Tom and Mauro will be performing on Sex, Lies & Andy, a 3 day-tribute to Andy Warhol by Klara and the Beursschouwburg. Tom will be deejaying on February 22th and Mauro will play some ‘sounds for Andy’ the same evening.

(thx to Simone)

De Morgen has an article about Tom's movieplans. Tom says we can expect more movies in the future. He's got plans for a comedy, an adaption of a book and a self-written script. Nothing is concrete yet and he will be focussing on music first now.

About AWTWB: he has seen it a lot: the movie was selected for 25 festivals and mostly he travelled along. It was a bit of a shock to see it back again in Dublin last september, because it was the first time he saw it in a long time.

dEUS has been nominated as best live-act for the yearly Zamu-awards. What We Talk About (When We Talk About Love) is competing in the Best Song-category.

Dirk De Ruyck, the guy who started the Belmondo and Eskimo-parties in Ghent and who founded the Culture Club, is gonna work for dEUS in the future. The article in Gazet Van Antwerpen doesn't mention what De Ruyck is going to do.

(Source: Gazet Van Antwerpen)

Sad news: apparently the Antwerp pub called De Muziekdoos is closing because of financial troubles. It's the place where bands as dEUS and Moondog Jr played a lot in the early years.

Tom about the Blue Note Sidetracks-compilaton in Neon (Radio 1)

I got a mail from Christian Pierre about Tom's cocktail. Apparently it's the SIPS who deserves all the credit. And Sura Dohnke is an actress in Any Way The Wind Blows (as someone posted in the comments).

dEUS scored 5 tracks in De Tijdloze Honderd from Studio Brussel.

8. Suds & Soda
13. Roses
28. Instant Street
40. Hotellounge
41. Nothing Really Ends

Tom was nominated for the Antwerpenaar van het jaar by Gazet Van Antwerpen.

De Morgen had an item about Belgian rockers (Tom, Daan, Stef-Kamil, Stijn) singing in Dutch. It doesn't contain anu new info, but here's the dutch text anyway.

dEUS-voorman Tom Barman, die jaren geleden al meeschreef aan Gorki's 'Ik ben aanwezig', leverde onlangs met 'De doorgedachte' zijn eerste zelfgeschreven Nederlandstalige liedje af. Het belandde weliswaar op de jongste plaat van Henny Vrienten, maar toch, daar zal het volgens de Antwerpenaar beslist niet bij blijven. Want of hij zich nu van de taal van Shakespeare, Molière of Conscience bedient, voor Tom Barman telt in de eerste plaats de kwaliteit van het nummer.

"Eigenlijk is in het Nederlands schrijven niet zo anders", schokschoudert hij. "Je moet er enkel voor zorgen dat je geprogrammeerd staat op je eigen taal wanneer je je gitaar vastpakt, en dat vergt niet meer dan een eenvoudige klik." Barman voegt er echter aan toe dat het Nederlands zich weliswaar uitstekend leent voor een traag nummer, maar voor het uptempo werk moeilijker te beteugelen is. "Dan moet het spitser en energieker en kun je het sowieso niet over dezelfde dingen hebben."

Barman onderschrijft Daans stelling dat er voor een Vlaamse zanger-muzikant minder risico op geloofwaardigheidsverlies bestaat wanneer die van het Engels naar het Nederlands overschakelt. "Puur geografisch is in het Nederlands beginnen dus een vernauwing, maar dat kan volgens de
perceptie blijkbaar wel. Omgekeerd komt het al gauw over als een carrièrezet, en ik ken eerlijk gezegd niet veel voorbeelden die daarmee weggekomen zijn. Kijk maar naar Clouseau."

Een niet onbelangrijke consequentie van schrijven in de moedertaal is wel dat je als tekstschrijver zogoed als naakt komt te staan. Maar dat is net opwindend, ondervindt Barman. "Al mijn teksten zijn immers persoonlijk. Alleen is het niet meer dan normaal dat men hier in Vlaanderen of in Nederland automatisch beter zal luisteren naar een Nederlandstalige tekst.
Dat plots een barrière wegvalt, dat je je in een song kunt uitdrukken zoals je dat in het dagelijkse leven doet, maakt het des te spannender."