Laura Hofman organiseert al jaren evenementen in Rotterdam. Met al jaren een scherp oog voor toffe underground acts uit Europa en acts uit Rotterdam. Vroeger was ze een van de weinigen die interessante Belgische acts naar onze stad haalde, tegenwoordig doen meer podia dat gelukkig. Met King Sepi Fest op vrijdag 30 augustus brengt ze een ode aan de underground cultuur in Rotterdam en verder. Met Neighbours Burning Neighbours, Forbidden Wizards, run Sofa, Vulva, Zea (Arnold de Boer van The Ex), Hurricane Joe, Logosamphia en Alienbaby Collective. De antwoorden van Laura zijn in het Engels omdat ze zich zo beter kan uitdrukken.
Neighbours Burning Neighbours are a manic, relatively new Rotterdam-based outfit comprised of members of various other neighbourhood noiseniks (The Sweet Release Of Death, AC Berkheimer, Cusack). The band has already earned quite the fiery live reputation, sounding like Girl Band, Bad Moon Rising Era-Sonic Youth, The Ex and Blonde Redhead going through the shredder.
https://neighboursburningneighbours.com/
Wat doet King Sepi?
Laura Hofman: King Sepi is an independent Rotterdam-based live platform, founded in 2013 by local promoter Laura Hofman. So basically King Sepi books and organizes concerts.
Wie helpen er allemaal bij King Sepi?
L: 'I do it all alone with me, myself and I. Frank Schröer designs my posters and for King Sepi Fest Bart Kalkman has made animations but the rest I do everything alone. King Sepi is one woman's dream come true in someways.'
Wat is de opzet van een King Sepi event?
'I want to introduce new music/bands for the audience/scene in Rotterdam. I want to bring good quality music from different genres to Rotterdam. When I started nobody else booked bands from Belgium, Germany, nordic country's or East European country's. That was a clear choice what I made when I started that I let the other promoters keep booking Dutch bands and I focus bringing bands from other country's. Now I see a change, Rotown books more and more bands from Belgium which is a great thing because there's so much great music in that country, Nordic indie pop scene is also becoming more popular and it's not a wonder to see a danish band playing in Rotterdam. I was bringing artists from the east side of Europe and Russia to Worm and it's just heart warming to see them still doing that and digging deeper and making connections between local and foreigner musicians and artists.'
Is dat veranderd in de loop van de tijd?
'Of course a bit. Now I know much more people from the scene than when I started and the first few years I felt I was really doing everything alone and fighting against windmills. Now if I have a problem, I can always call somebody and get help or advides. At the begin I was constantly questioned because I'm a woman, foreign and I have kids. Now I don't have to listen anymore how I'm a terrible mother by doing what I do and how I just want to book bands so I can hang around with musicians. Btw, I hope that's not anybody's motive to do this work! My network got bigger, both national and international, and now I don't have to search bands that much anymore. The music comes to me.'
Waar komt de naam King Sepi vandaan?
Sepi is my dear old nickname which my best friends back in Finland cave to me when I was 9 years old. It comes from my family name Seppänen. I come from a small city up north in Finland and I want to remember my background. I choose King to go with Sepi because I was told so many times that I can't do this work because I'm a woman so I thought, fuck you all, I call my self a king and we will see.
Waarom organiseer je een King Sepi Fest?
This is my 7th year organizing shows and third year at Roodkapje so timing felt right. I have already done few evenings with 4 bands so this had to be a bit bigger than that! I'm extreme grateful for the local bands who wants to come play at my shows so this is also my way of saying thank you to them and giving a spot to play. King Sepi Fest is ode for the underground scene in Rotterdam and beyond.
Rotterdam punks Forbidden Wizards harbor a curious obsession with 3rd Rock From The Sun, reference Mr. Bar Rescue himself, Jon Taffer, and devoted one of their songs to the king of comfort foods: macaroni & cheese. And really, it all makes sense once your ears meet their unruly noise punk projectiles. You just want to gulp it all up in record time, disregarding any type of choking hazard.
Hoe laat begint het?
Doors/DJ Pygar 19.30, Alienbaby Collective 20.00
Wie schrijft de teksten over de acts?
Jasper Willems wrote 5 bios and I wrote the rest.
Organiseer je alleen in Roodkapje of ook op andere plaatsen?
Yes at this moment my concerts takes place at Roodkapje only.
Wie organiseren er nog meer in Roodkapje?
Bound Centre and Kampung and then rental things like Textuur, Kracle, Rotown.
Hoe is King Sepi ontstaan & wanneer ?
On 2013 comic magazine Zone 5300 released a special Finland number and I could organize their release party at Worm. I booked Randy Barracuda, talented finish musician who unfortunately died last year, and then realized that this is what I want to do more often. I have a background in music and art but I was interested in so many things that I couldn't really make up my mind what should I do until I organized my first concert. While Randy Barracuda was playing, it was really clear to me that this is my path what I'm gonna follow and here I am years later.
Hoe vaak organiseren jullie shows?
Every month is a different and it depends what's availabe. Who is releasing new music, who is on tour etc. Sometimes I have 3 shows in a month, sometimes just 1.
VULVA is a new female stoner rock band from Rotterdam.
This two-headed beast of dark, brooding & unearthly noise has only been spoken of in myth and folklore, so it might come as a surprise that it actually exists. Our little birds have seen and described the band as a concentrated miasma of guitar/drums stoner rock violence, playful & irreverent vocal yelping and chaotic theatrics that bleed well beyond the confines of the stage. Vulva shall erupt!
Wat zijn bands waarvan je trots bent dat je ze hebt kunnen boeken? En waarom?
White Wine from Germany had pretty special show, audience was part of it in a way that nobody could plan ahead and I think the band will remember the show rest of their lives. Ouzo Bazooka is a huge huge band in Israel and it was great to have them over. November 2019 Martin Bisi, producer of Sonic Youth and Swans comes to play at King Sepi with his band and that's also pretty amazing. I still see myself as a young girl from north part of Finland and then I get an email from producer of Sonic Youth who asks if he can come to play at my event. My event!
Wanneer is na King Sepi Fest de volgende King Sepi?
Confirmed ones are 15.11/ La Jungle and 30.11 Martin Bisi. Other things are also cooking but not ready to be publish yet :)
One of Run SOFA ’s songs basically repeats the word ‘WEIRD’ like a bad case of Tourette syndrome, and indeed, ‘weird’ is definitely the gist of their cartoonish brand of noise rock, electronica and hip-hop. The Belgian group’s erratic sound channels and transcends this glitchy feverish anxiety, pounding their audiences into submission with a sinister, demented grin.
Our mysterious swashbuckling hero Hurricane Joe channels a working-class punk rock grit into his frenzied country anthems. With a bark as potent as his bite, this lonesome masked gunslinger has plenty of ammunition at his behest, finding that odd balance between the monochromatic industrial terra firma of Rotterdam and the vast bewildering voids of rural America.
Alienbaby Collective is an attempt to communicate by moving in and out of songs and noise improvisations with short guitar loops and distorted vocal textures. The hope is to create something both familiar and unknown, a space made of sound where the individual is asked to immerse themselves in that comfortable obscurity and join the collective.
Logosamphia is a Persian composer of electronic music who lives in the Netherlands. With one foot in the french underground party scene, and another in Netherlands avant-garde noise performance & arts, he represents one of the few Iranian musicians active in non-mainstream experimental music. With a background in the rave & free-tek culture, plus a big heart for combining incongruent influences from both traditional & modern techniques, he often presents enchantingly unique and catchy arrangements. His chaotic live shows are filled with raw silliness, noisey micro impulses & a healthy dose of fruits and vegetables.
Performance from ZEA (Arnold de Boer, The-Ex) deploying guitar and sampler for an almighty bout of intense and high energy songs. Urgent lyrics over guitar, roughshod beats and grimy bass lines. Zea makes fat-free music with no words wasted; joyfully obstinate, wonderfully bonkers. For more than fifteen years Zea has been playing all over the world, including Ghana, Ethiopia, Lebanon, 4 tours in the USA, 7 in Russia, 2 times Canada, 17 times UK and many in Belgium, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Balkan, Scandinavia and more.