"I remember sitting with my radio/cassette player to record the LoveTown new year’s show at midnight as a 13 year old I started playing guitar around that time and U2 definitely helped me to keep doing that until this day."
Tell us something about yourself, who are you and what do you do for a living?
I’m Bastiaan, 43 and I live in Amsterdam. Who I am is a bit of a tough question, I hope to find out myself some day I worked in software (startups) for a long time and am currently on a ‘sabbatical’ for a variety of reasons (long story). So I have a lot of free time to dive into U2, haha.
How did you become a fan of U2, tell us how it happened?
I think it must have been ’88 when a friend of my parents gave us a cassette with The Joshua Tree on it. We played that a lot during a skiing holiday and it was sort of the perfect soundtrack for the landscape. I guess from Rattle & Hum onwards I was fan, I remember sitting with my radio/cassette player to record the LoveTown new year’s show at midnight as a 13 year old I started playing guitar around that time and U2 definitely helped me to keep doing that until this day.
Did you ever have a special U2 experience like a live concert? Can you tell us something about it?
I’ve had a few live moments I remember very well. There was Dallas sound checking a black Stratocaster in before the Zooropa Rotterdam show (’93) which led me and my friend to speculate/hope they’d play Sunday Bloody Sunday that night, which they did.. I think that was also the last gig for Einsturzende Neubauten as opener as they started to kick back the half eaten hamburgers/plastic bottles into the audience :-)
11 ‘o Clock in Arnhem 2001 was amazing and a surprise, as was Two Hearts Beat As One in 2015 in the Ziggo Dome. So I guess I remember the unexpected surprises the best.
In your opinion, what has been U2's defining moment and why?
Depends on what that moment defined, I think there are a few. But if Achtung Baby (+ ZooTV) hadn’t worked out the way it did, they probably never would have had the career they had from ’91 onwards until now.
What does your U2 collection look like? What kind of stuff do you have and how is it organised?
Not a lot of physical stuff really (as I tend to lose or break that ). Audio-wise I have a lot digitally including many versions of my own mixes, I guess around 2 Macs full of stuff. It isn’t organised at all to be honest and, so finding things is sometimes a struggle
Does anyone in your family or one of your friends like U2? If so, did they introduce you to U2, or did you "convert" them?
Haha, good question.. I’d say a lot will like the odd song here and there or maybe even have a Top-10. I guess the only one I ‘converted’ was my brother. He’d never been into music really but seeing the 360 show in Amsterdam got him hooked. Now he’s the one with a paid U2.com membership and I’m not..
How did U2start (or other forums) influence your music preferences? Did U2 fans influence you liking other artists?
I’m not sure U2start influenced my music preferences, but the forum did ‘start’ some other things that keep me busy these days (:)) I do check the topics about other bands regularly, think it’s great that that has it’s natural place on this forum.
If you could influence the direction of U2's next album, what would you tell them?
I’d tell them to stay away from nostalgia, trying to be relevant or creating the ‘perfect Beatles-like pop song’ and follow their rock ’n roll instincts for a while. I’ve always loved their LoveTown approach, with Edge channeling Hendrix a little. If they mix that with a bit of Zooropa weirdness on an album I’d love to hear that I guess Bono needs to find a character or alternate frame of mind but that can be done, he’s the same age as Johnny Cash was when he recorded The Wanderer, haha.
How different is U2 compared to other artists that you like?
Musically sometimes a lot. I’m not sticking to genres (U2 isn’t either ) but I tend to go for songs that have this bit of ‘magic melody’ in them (of which U2 has quite a few of for me). So that can be Beatles to ABBA, earlier House or The Prodigy..
What are your hobbies and interests away from U2, musical or otherwise?
Apart from various (trivial) interests, I’d say a lot revolves around music. I’ve been playing guitar/singing from age 15 and still do that when the neighbours are gone Recently I’ve had a lot more time so I started experimenting with audio software (triggered by a topic here on U2start) and that became very much a full-time self-taught course in what was possible.
Speaking of that, how did you start your fan remixes and what is your approach for a new remix?
There’s a long very answer tho this , but they basically started because of a topic on this forum in February. I had time + a lockdown so I read/tried/tested a lot of software. Since then I did a lot of mashups, as well as ‘sonic experiments’, haha.
I guess there isn’t a single approach to do a (re)mix, the ‘idea’ is always leading I guess. It’s liking Bono’s low ‘Best Thing Acoustic’ voice sounds, but also liking the Kygo beats. Or thinking how Johnny Cash would sound on U2’s backing on One or what if Chris Martin started singing on Miracle Drug etc. I think I learnt the most from trying to ‘produce’ a quarantine cover of The Fly, because that started from 4 separate recordings and I wanted that to sound like the album version.
I don’t know where it wil go from here but there’s lots of possibilities/ideas and I like collaboration, so if anyone here has an idea, please shout
Age 15, apparently in a bandana-phase and trying to play U2 songs for a largely uninterested audience
Thanks for this interview melon51!
Note: Our crew members randomly pick fans of the month, you can't sign up for it.
Hoping to post a few new 'experiments' in the Remix topic over the weekend