SONIC YOUTH live at the PRIMAVERA FESTIVAL in Barcelona, Spain. 05-30-09.

My friend Kurt Lane interviewed me for The Weekly Check-In at Rubin Recommends.
“I met Nick Helderman my first week in New York when he was in town shooting Dutch bands during CMJ in 2008. Since then I’ve had the good fortune of visiting him in Amsterdam and seeing his joint exhibition with Shawn Brackbill as part of Le Guess Who? in Utrecht…” Read the full article HERE.

Together with photographers BEHNAM BORNAK, AMY BARWELL and SHAWN BRACKBILL I participated in the project These Pictures Of You (named after a line in a song by the Cure). Each of us showed our work for a week in art shop DELICATESSEN. And each week different musicians and writers were invited to give their response to one or more of the photos. They were not given a specific assignment, but kept free to interpret the pictures in whatever way they wanted. A week after each opening they performed their response in the gallery.

All of this resulted into a nice small book that features our photos of James Brown, Pissed Jeans, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Mahmoud Ahmed, Lucky Fonz III, Sleepy Sun, Thurston Moore and St. Vincent and the stories and poems inspired by them. There’s also a link to the music compilation that will be updated with more songs in the next couple of weeks.

Participating writers are:

Boris de Jong, Michiel Verburgh, Gert Verbeek, Oscar Smit, Bas Jacobs, Olga van den Berg, Rebecca Wilson and Bernadette Booij.

Musicians are:

Arnold de Boer (Zea, The Ex), Hunter Complex, Case Mayfield, Coen Oscar Polack, The Jack Stafford Foundation, Vicky Lovecat, Andy Moor (The Ex), Showdog, Gerhardt Heusinkveld, Motel Aurora, Dusty Stray, Jacob Arch and Pfaff.

The book is available at the Delicatessen shop for € 10,00 but you can also send me an email through the contact form on my WEBSITE.

Last night THE EX performed at the re-opening of squaters venue De Grote Weiver in Wormerveer, The Netherlands. Amazing show. New singer Arnold de Boer has been with the band for a year now and I think he adds a lot. The band played with the lights on stage full on. A member from the audience accidentally pored an entire beer over the electricity plugs on stage which caused the show to stop for 15 minutes because all the power was down. It didn’t matter, just added up to the beautiful chaos. I uploaded 2 photos of the show HERE and HERE. A new song, Maybe I Was The Pilot, is out now on 7 inch. Your can order it at www.theex.nl or listen to it HERE.

I’ll be joining the band to Ethiopia later this year.

December has been great. The Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht was a huge succes with great music and friendly people. After Le Guess Who I did a solo show at the Delicatessen Gallery in Amsterdam featuring photos of my favourite musicians that I met and worked with over the last 2 years (The Ex, Health, Women, Sleepy Sun, Lucky Fonz III and others). Another exhibition just opened in the streets of Groningen called Popview Outdoor. Together with photographers Titia Hahne, Dennis Duijnhouwer, Annie Hoogendoorn a.o. I’m showing huge prints throughout the city centre. NOS Headlines made a small video about this exhibit.

Dutch newspaper Het Parool launched a photo blog for me and Annie on their website where each of us will be showing a new photo every other week. They also did a really great interview with us and photographer Shawn Brackill about the exhibit at Le Guess Who?

Last week I took pictures at the singer/songwriter finales of De Grote Prijs Van Nederland and spend 3 days with Sleepy Sun while they were in The Netherlands. Check out a few photos here. More Grote Prijs photos will appear on their website in the next few weeks and in a special GUP publication about the award.

I will be showing a photo documentary about Getatchew Mekuria and The Ex at Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, The Netherlands, together with Shawn Brackbill and Annie Hoogendoorn. The opening is on November 25 from 07:30 PM to 11:00 PM. Entrance is free.

Mahmoud Ahmed on his way to the stage at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague, where he performed with Ethiopiques. 07-12-09.