{"id":2325,"date":"2021-07-05T10:51:41","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T09:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fr-nt.nl\/?p=2325"},"modified":"2022-06-07T22:45:42","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T21:45:42","slug":"de-zoete-vrijheid-van-de-soloplaat-hoe-alicia-breton-ferrer-weer-een-kind-aan-een-knutseltafel-werd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fr-nt.nl\/en\/2021\/07\/05\/de-zoete-vrijheid-van-de-soloplaat-hoe-alicia-breton-ferrer-weer-een-kind-aan-een-knutseltafel-werd\/","title":{"rendered":"The sweet release of the solo record: how Alicia Breton Ferrer became a child at a crafts table again"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a member of the tight-knit noise rock and post-punk formations The Sweet Release of Death and Neighbours Burning Neighbours, Alicia Breton Ferrer has been making dark music that keeps the listener in an iron grip. During the pandemic, the Rotterdam native suddenly stood on her own two feet and \u2013 more or less by accident \u2013 \u200b\u200bmade her first solo record, in which the darkness is counterbalanced by playfulness and humor.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by: <\/strong>Dirk Baart
Photos: <\/strong>Cheonghyeon Park

\u201cYesterday I cut open a sandwich and for ten minutes I debated which half I should put hummus on and which half I would put other toppings on\u201d, says Alicia Breton Ferrer, a lot more cheerful than you would expect if you are familiar with the music of the bands she is a part of. \u201cThe bottom of the bun is softer than the top, so you really have to consider the taste sensation. Then I thought, okay, maybe I'm taking too long on this choice. And I actually have that with everything in my life, except with that solo record. With that I thought: I'm just going to do this, whether it's crap or not.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breton Ferrer walks in the sun on the Rotterdam Luchtsingel, a stone's throw from the house where she was born, the daughter of a Dutch mother and a Spanish father. She marvels at the center, where she hardly ever goes, and talks about the Chilean director, writer and actor Alejandro Jodorowsky (The Holy Mountain<\/em>), a ghost from the past, when Breton Ferrer studied film. \u201cHe once explained how he and a friend decided that they would just walk straight ahead. Sometimes they ended up at a door and had to knock to ask if they could go straight through. Are we going to do that?\u201d The reaction that the walk should eventually lead back to Rotterdam Central Station is quickly rejected. \"Or not! Why do you always have to go back to where you came from?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That fresh, optimistic view of things fits with Headache Sorbet<\/em>, Breton Ferrer's solo debut that came out at the end of April via Subroutine Records imprint Glove Compartment, exactly one year after she started making it. For a moment she did not concern herself with the bands with which she had left an impression in recent years, but explored new territory. That did not go without a fight: \u201cWhen the first lockdown started, I thought: now I'm going to make music myself, I'm going to learn a language, I'm going to work on sick skills. That didn't work at all, because I put pressure on it. I also missed all my bandmates very much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I'm just going to do this, whether it's crap or not.\"<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That's no wonder: Breton Ferrer is a member of two very close-knit formations, in which all members have their own face, but in the end the unit always triumphs. The Sweet Release of Death in particular has been an anchor in Breton Ferrer's life for years. She formed the band with guitarist Martijn Tevel and drummer Sven Engelsman, whom she has known since she was fourteen, when they met in youth center Texmex in Spijkenisse, where she moved with her parents when she was four. \u201cWe are like siblings, we have been through so much together. We hardly need words.\u201d After years in the 'underground', the band had a modest breakthrough with third album The Blissful Joy of Living<\/em>. Breton Ferrer laughs a little at the word, breakthrough. And of course, the trio will never become a household name with their uncompromising noise rock, but still: de Volkskrant and NRC suddenly covered Breton Ferrer & co. suddenly, just like the renowned British platform The Quietus. The band played at Le Guess Who? and Noorderslag, a show at the sensational Italian festival Beaches Brew, was still in the offing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Breton Ferrer has been working with Neighbors Burning Neighbours, the dynamic post-punk and noise-pop band she founded in 2018 with bassist Kat Kalkman, drummer Aram Scheeve and guitarist Daanie van den IJssel. In January 2020, the foursome released the double single \u2018Softly \/ Grace\u2019 on Subroutine Records. The group has already played at the Slovakian showcase festival MENT and toured extensively through Europe. Shows at Motel Mozaique and the Welsh festival FOCUS were canceled. \u201cNeighbours are much newer. I didn't know Aram at all before we started the band, so we were discovering a lot more about each other. It is a lot more structured in the rehearsal room. With The Sweet Release of Death everything falls into place when it falls into place and there's no point in pushing that, with Neighbors we can write a song in two practice sessions because it's so focused.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n