Hi there,

It’s still pretty amazing to be in Kids With Guns, although I miss playing shows every weekend. The pure adrenaline rush I get from playing live is something we can’t compensate by practising three times a week. We played some fun shows though lately, we did our first support show ever in lovely Middelburg for our friends in John Coffey, (who are taking over the world) and traveled to Mönchengladbach(Germany) last week to play a show in a rundown venue with April. Good times.

with John Coffey

with April.

I know though, that the time we spent right now, both in the rehearsel room and at our lovely home, making plans, talking about what we want Kids With Guns to be are probably the most important months to us ever. Yesterday we had Guiseppe and Thanos from Bodypolitics (we heard some of their new songs.. geeezzz) over for some food and drinks and Giuseppe told me that he was affraid that we would stick to playing shows without ever taking a break to start creating and developing. He said he was happy to see that we did. I sure do not feel that way all the time, but I think he is right. We are definitely getting there where we want to be. I just really can’t wait to start recording and fire up the whole thing again. After seeing Dave Grohl’s Soundcity I’m even more excited than ever to record in a studio and leave the recordings in our livingroom behind. As soon as we make a decision where we’ll be recording and with who, I’ll let you know. We don’t even have a clue as of yet, so I can’t wait myself either.

If you want to see us play some new songs, these are the shows for this spring.

• April 29, 2013 | Pakhuis Wilhelmina | Amsterdam
• May 3, 2013 | Het Paard | Den Haag w/April
• May 11, 2013 | Xinix | Nieuwendijk w/TDTMCM
• June, 8, 2013 | Pedro Pico Pop | Raalte w/John Coffey, Traumahelikopter
• June 8, 2013 | PlankenkoortsFestival | Hendrik Ido Ambacht | w/VanDryver, Herrek
• June 15, 2013 | De Spot | Middelburg w/Jack Parow

Thanks for paying attention.

Niek

We’re really happy with our new band shots by Julia Hendriks. Check out her band April.

Hi there kiddo’s!

It’s been a while since I typed something for this blog. We’ve been taking a little break after we finished the Popronde last year, spent some weekends at home, Sebastiaan visited his brother in China for a couple of weeks and we all met up again in the second week of january to talk about our future and the plans we have for this band. Since Rik and I live together this band is something we deal with on a daily basis. We’re always talking and discussing new songs, plans and everything you can imagine that comes with playing in a band.

After the popronde we really felt that we wanted to change some things in the way we make music and especially the way we perform live. This is something we have always been talking about but due to the amount of shows we’ve been playing we’ve never really given ourselves the time to properly work out what we had planned in our heads. This minibreak is the first time since the beginning of this band (read: our crazy kickstart in Athens) that we actually had the time to go and try out some new stuff. Obviously, now that we’re with the three of us instead of two, Sebastiaan started to play a much bigger role in our music.

To make a long story short, the next time you’ll see us, some things will be slightly different. We like it a lot. We hope you will too.

The way things are shaping up in our rehearsal room are also effecting our plans for the near future. This means no new recorded songs anytime soon, although we are already playing a lot of new material live. We wanted to leave our bedroom recordings behind us and started looking out for a proper studio to record in and are trying to find the right producer for us right now.

I’ll keep you updated on that matter. Don’t be sad, it’ll be for the better. We are more enthusiastic and confident than ever about this band and sometimes it’s about having a long breath.

In between all this searching and discussing etc. we are also playing shows.

Confirmed for now are:

• February 6, 2013 | Stukafest | Nijmegen
• February 23, 2013 | EKKO | Utrecht //APRIL 7 inch release
• March 8, 2013 | De Spot | Middelburg w/John Coffey
• May 11th, 2013 | Erasmus Sound Festival | Overloon
• June, 8, 2013 | Pedro Pico Pop | Raalte
• August 18, 2013 | Dresden City Festival | Dresden (Germany)

I hope to be able to announce some more pretty soon.  Untill then, thanks for reading, take care and see you at a show.

Niek

Popronde is now official over. After last weekend there are no more shows left. We finished with a bang. Played 4 shows and attended all possible afterparties. I am really thankful we had the opportunity to join the Popronde, play all (20!) these shows and reach a big new crowd we could introduce ourselves and our music to. We’ve got to know new bands and other bands became better friends. Sharing a passion is a powerful thing. I would like to thank everyone involved, both organisators, bands and visitors for making this an awesome experience.

Last weekend was just a blast, we played very crowded venue’s in Middelburg, Eindhoven en Maastricht, had our first stagedivers and crowdsurfers and played a fun show at the Popronde afterparty in Nijmegen. We slept over, making this a south Netherlands mini-tour and even hiked the very few hills we have here in The Netherlands. We kept the van clean this time, only to lose our navigation system somewhere along the way. In the end 4 days was just too short. I can’t wait for our first full week tours..

These last three months have been really good for us as  a band and I can’t be happier about the progress we’ve made over the last year, from starting out as two friends having an idea, getting flown into Greece for your first show to where we are now, with the three of us  and the ideas we have for next year. We are far from done with this. We’ll spent the next two months working on our new live-set, finishing up the next EP and preparing the release. This thursday will be our last show for 2012 and we’ll play it at lovely Wageningen, where we had to cancel our Popronde gig due to me being to sick to play. Come out if you can. This will be the last time we’ll play some of the older songs.

We’ll keep you updated.

x Niek

PS. I’ve noticed a lot of views from several cities in South Africa lately. Please make yourself known, I would like to know why you show interest in this little Dutch band.

It always surprises me how long it takes before a spic-and-span van has turned into amassive dump. I remember being on tour in Germany last summer actually shooting my own mini-doc by slowly working my way through empty beer bottles, McDonald’s packages, cardboard coffee cups filled with cigarette butts, German porn mags, gnawed fruit such as apples and bananas, and who knows what else. I loved it. Kinda made me think of the VPRO-documentary Stuff on Frusciante. Awesome, like a New Yorker would say.

This weekend I kept up a small diary which I would like to share with you.

Thursday, Den Haag. Arrived there around eight o’clock. After trudging our gear into some soup kitchen, we had a decent cup of coffee while admiring the six or seven chandeliers which decorate the ceiling of Paardcafé. The show was good. Even the politicians and businessmen (who you’ll recognize by the double windsor knot in their necktie) were grinning enthusiastically. We made new friends that evening. Bartenders were nice by the way: they gave us some beers and soda to drink on our way back. To drink, and to lie around in the van afterwards of course. Visionary bartenders.

Friday, Haarlem. Once again arrival at eight, only his time we were not alone. Lovely April joined us. However whether they are lovely is completely beside the point. They are great people. Know how to drink their cheap-ass beers and throw them away fashionably. In the van, that is. We enjoyed April’s show and then played our gig. Niek was really good that night. I remember hitting stuff with sticks, thinking: you sexy swine, go for it Diva! Of course I had to reward him on our way back with those Belgium beers I found somewhere. And Rik made us stop at a gas station to buy food – nice!

Saterday, Oss. Oss was interesting, to say the least. Drunk, middle age men fighting on the street in front of “our” bar functioned as a warm welcome committee. The time between the guys performing before us and our gig was rather short, so we had to set up our stuff quickly. For the first time in Kids with Guns-history we had some technical fuss for which we were most likely not to blame. Shit happens though. Luckily we did finish the show. After opening a bottle of gin gut feelings disappeared like a snowman under dog piss. The bottle disappeared somewhere in the van.

Now: Rik understandably hates the sound all those empty cans and bottles make while driving. Perhaps the first thirty minutes he’ll keep quieted, but then, not unusually after I have navigated us into a wrong direction, he’ll start complaining. Can somebody clean that shit up? I am sorry, Rik, I will never do that. By now, I hope you know why.

With love, Sebastiaan

It’s October now, our heater is on and we’re halfway through on our popronde adventure. It’s been a lot of fun so far and we can recommend everyone in a band to join if you have the possibility. We got booked a lot and  even played some shows besides the popronde schedule, so the last few weekends have been filled with little bars, crappy PA’s, old friends, new friends, friendly people, not-so-friendly people and a lot of people who came out to see us. This is something really special to us, to see people make the effort to travel to a show and sing-a-long the songs we’ve recorded for our first EP.

We played some really cool shows and some lesser ones,  like the one in Helmond, which felt like playing in a Jersey Shore episode, complete with me being attacked by a girl in the audience after I accidentally smashed into her while playing. After that show we broke the back window of our rental car, which made us play a lot of shows just to cover the insurance costs. I guess in the end it’s just a good story..

We met an awesome photographer named Tom Roelofs who is following the popronde and came to a few of our shows and shot the best photos ever taken from us. He made the photo’s that I wanted to have since I was 14 and first decided I wanted to be in a band after all. I posted some photo’s by him in this blog to make it look less dry.

It’s really cool to play this many shows, but with all the driving back late-at-night it gets kinda tiring. Not to complain or anything, we absolutely love it, but the difference with being on a real tour is that we have to get home every night, since we have to bring the rental car back, work or go to university early in the morning. We’re definitely creating stamina.

In between al the shows we’ve been writing and playing some new songs lately and we are recording them and getting closer and closer to finishing our second EP. We’ve been doing everything ourselves at home and Rik keeps surprising me with the stuff he makes and comes up with. Just this evening I’ve listened to one of the mixes we’ve completed last night and I am very proud of the steps we made during the last year. Having said that, we won’t play any shows for a while after the popronde is finished. We’ll hit the rehearsal room for two months in December and January and come back with a brand new EP in February. We are still working on all the details concerning this release and I’ll keep you posted every time we have something new to share. I also think it’s about time to properly introduce you to our new drummer, since we’ve already almost played 30 shows with him. That’s something for a new blog.

Until then, thanks for reading and come see us on one of our last shows for 2012.

x Niek

• November 1, 2012 | Paard Café | Den Haag (Popronde)
• November 2, 2012 | Cafe Stiels | Haarlem
• November 3, 2012 | Café Tijn | Oss (Popronde)
• November 9, 2012 | Fenix | Sittard (Popronde)
• November 15, 2012 | Seventy Seven | Middelburg (Popronde)
• November 16, 2012 | Altstadt| Eindhoven (Popronde)
• November 17, 2012 | Zondag | Maastricht (Popronde)
• November 18, 2012 | Karolingenzaal | Nijmegen (Popronde)

We are having a really good Kids With Guns summer. Our first steps in to Germany were made and those made us hungry for more, loads more.

Playing live is the thing we love most and what this band is about, and to be able to sit in a van for 10 hours with your friends and play a show to complete strangers, hundredths of kilometers from home and end up having a really great night is what this is all about for me. Luckily we’ve been conforming a lot of shows lately, so we’ll spent quite some time on the road in the next few months. Here is a list of all the shows confirmed for now.

• August 25, 2012 | Vogelpop | Anssen
• September 1, 2012 | Broekrock | Broekland
• September 2, 2012 | De Wasserette | Breda
• September 4, 2012 | Tivoli Oude Gracht | Utrecht
• September 7, 2012 | Metz | Nijmegen (Popronde)
• September 8, 2012 | Along The TraX | Barendrecht
• September 13, 2012 | Piet de Gruyter | Amsterdam (Popronde)
• September 14, 2012 | WORM! | Rotterdam (Popronde)
• October 4, 2012 | Villa Bloem | Wageningen (Popronde)
• October 6, 2012 | De Kunstlinie | Almere (Popronde)
• October 6, 2012 | De Duycker | Hoofddorp
• October 11, 2012 | Crowbar | Groningen (Popronde)
• October 12, 2012 | Kinki Kappers | Arnhem (Popronde)
• October 19, 2012 | Cul de Sac | Tilburg (Popronde)
• November 2, 2012 | Cafe Stiels | Haarlem
• November 3, 2012 | Café Tijn | Oss (Popronde)

We’ve been trying some new songs lately and we’re really happy with the way they are turning out. We’re definitely growing as a band, both live and on record. I’ll try and post a larger update on that matter pretty soon.

For now, thanks for reading and see you at a show!
Love,
Niek / Kids With Guns

Last week, we played our first shows ever in Germany. We absolutely had a blast, made new friends and got booked again! Yes sir, we are going back to Germany in two weeks and we’ll be playing Manifest Festival in Dresden en Taraxacum Officinale in the Chemnitz area.

This is all happening on a really short notice and as we do realize it might be hard, we would like to try to play a third show to help cover the expenses. So if you’re a booker, know someone or know about a show that’s happening that we could join, please get in touch. These are the dates. Anything in Germany that’s not completely south or north will be great. Thanks and see you soon!

August 16, 2012 | AVAILABLE (Germany)
August 17, 2012 | Manifest | Dresden (Germany)
August 18, 2012 | Taraxacum | Chemnitz (Germany)
August 19, 2012 | AVAILABLE (Germany)

All help is much appreciated.

Love, Kids With Guns

ps. some pictures of shows lately.

These are our shows for this summer. When the summer will be over, we’ll have played 40 shows in our first full year. We are really excited to have the possibilities to play that many shows as a young band and can’t wait to do a 100 next year.

• July 7, 2012 | Bergpop | Wageningen
• July 29, 2012 | Uit Je Bak | Castricum
• August 3, 2012 | Freakstock | Borgentreich (Germany)
• August 4, 2012 | In Vervoering | Utrecht
• August 9, 2012 | Clouso | Meppel
• August 25, 2012 | Vogelpop | Anssen
• September 1, 2012 | Broekrock | Broekland

We hope to be able to confirm some more Germany dates soon. Also, we’re working on a new EP wich we hope to release somewhere September/October. We’ll keep you updated.

ps. We see a lot of photographers taking pictures at shows but we never seem to find any online, if you happen to be a photographer or if you DID find any pictures, drop us a line on Facebook or send me a mail. We would love to be a more narcissistic band and we get kinda sad only finding pictures of little texans playing with guns.

thx! Niek

(here are some photos we did found to keep you satisfied!)

It’s been a while since we posted something here, so I’ll give you a short update on what we are doing right now and what the the next few months will be like.

First of all, we’ve been selected for the Popronde, which is a travelling festival in 32 cities all over the Netherlands, meant to give upcoming bands a stage. This doesn’t mean we’ll play all 32 cities, but we’ve made the first step by making the selection of 100 bands out of which all the promoters can make their pick. This will take place from september till november, so let’s hope for a busy fall.

We’ve been playing some really cool shows lately, seems like a festival crowd is a good crowd for us and we love that. I’ve also just added some more shows for this summer and I hope to be able to announce some more pretty soon.

We won’t play any shows in june, we’ll take that time to start recording some new songs for a future EP we’re planning to release somewhere later this year. We have been working hard on demo’s and although the release of Where To Begin is only a few months ago, we really feel like this shouldn’t wait till the end of this year. We’re quite productive and we want to share our progress with the rest of the world. I’m really excited about the way we’re going and I’m really proud of the songs we’re working on right now. I’ll keep you updated about this.

That’s pretty much it.

K. Bye!