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.
Covering songs by the Nits isn't the easiest task, and neither is it one that has been often undertaken. For the 40th anniversary of the band, some Swiss Nits-enthusiasts thought it was high time to change the latter. The result: “Isnt Nits”, a 3 CD-box with 51 cover versions from artists from around the world.
As usual with the Nits, another album means another approach. Gone are the more straightforward poppy structures of the two albums before this; “Malpensa” from 2012 is built on electronica and loops. 2014 is filled with celebrations for the 40th birthday which allows for a look back at history with a Best Of-box set and a second live album in 2015.
The Nits are children of the Sixties. In 2008 and 2009, the Nits publish twin albums, that bear the influence of the period of classic pop music. These are shorter, upbeat songs, that still bear their own unmistakable mark. Back to the future!
A band is not only made up of musicians, there is a team behind them. In the case of the Nits, it is something akin to a family: a manager who has been there since the beginning, a sound engineer who grew up with them and a lighting engineer who has worked with them for years. This is the centre of operations, around which revolve many more people.