Dutch band (The) Nits looks back on an extraordinary career of fifty years, in which the band has published an enormous amount of very different albums, has played countless concerts all around the globe and has participated in many side ventures. A band that chose its own path and that continues to evolve in unexpected ways. Starting out as a power pop band with songs in the vein of the Beatles, the Kinks or the the Hollies, they evolved into an outfit with an own sound, a mixture of pure pop with classical and neo classical, jazz and folk elements. Then came the hits, like "Nescio" or "In the Dutch mountains", but the Nits kept on exploring their sonic possibilities, thereby expanding the envelope of pop music. A curious band, in all senses of the word.
"Dial Nits" features core members Henk Hofstede, Rob Kloet and Robert Jan Stips in conversation, but also collaborators, friends and family from many different countries talking about the music and about the background stories to this unusual career of musicians from the Netherlands.
Production: Darren Hayne.
In more than half a century, Dutch band The Nits have created their own musical and cultural universe. Over the course of many episodes, we have attempted to describe and analyze this world, to approach it in interviews with the protagonists and fans from many countries. Now the time has come to ask the really important question: Why?
On Monday, the 16th of May 2022, a fire destroyed their rehearsal room, studio and archive of Dutch band The Nits. Despite this devastating event, that robbed the band of their creative laboratory, the musicians and their team went on. The first step was to record six songs that document the burning of the Werf.
For many years, the Nits have been participating in side-projects with other musicians. The focus of this episode is on these rewarding musical expeditions and collaborations with musicians and singers from the Netherlands, Finland and Switzerland.
Where are these Dutch mountais? In the east of Amsterdam, in Watergraafsmeer. Rows of two storey brick houses, far from the touristy part of the city. A walk through the neighborhood provides sources for the many songs of the Nits, that have this place as a backdrop. A walk through the place with singer and lyricist Henk Hofstede.