Start Listening To: The Klittens

From DIY origins to the universal experience - The Kilttens talk music, chaos, and crafting joy.

Photography By: Jade Sastropawiro

In the subterranean birthplace of Amsterdam's enigmatic ensemble, The Klittens, a unique musical journey unfurled. What began as a political platform morphed into a blend of pop, art rock, and subtle societal critiques. As they prepare to embark on a UK tour with Personal Trainer, we sat down with Laurie and Yaël of The Klittens for an insightful Q&A.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

Laurie: “We’re The Klittens, we spawned five years ago in a dusty rehearsal room in a basement in Amsterdam. We started playing together for fun but it turned out to be so much fun that we are now here, releasing music, playing shows throughout the whole of Europe and UK and doing interviews with magazines that are interested in our music. How fun is that!? Initially we wanted to start a political platform and write punk songs, but every song we wrote turned out to be way more poppier and art rock-ish so we decided to explore that side of the spectrum more. There’s still sometimes a hint of critique on society in our lyrics, but in a less in-your-face way. You really have to listen closely to our lyrics to find a hidden message.”

"Universal Experience" is a captivating track. Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind the song?

Yaël: The song is about not growing up in healthy circumstances, and therefore, not receiving what you need. When you become an adult  and come out of your childhood unscathed (sort of) you have to then play along for the rest of your life. It’s funny because the meaning of the lyrics is not as clear as we thought it would be, basically we’re talking about the luxuries that are kind of alienating when you’re not used to them. And we don’t mean we want to go on ski trips, we mean the absurdity of trying to relate to these experiences when you are used to not having the basics.

Laurie Zantinge mentioned that the chorus of "Universal Experience" hooked the band almost instantly. Could you share the story of how the song came together in less than two hours, from that chorus to a fully recorded demo?

Yaël: For these new songs we tried a different challenge where each member would come up with the base of a song after which we would explore it further as a band. With some of the songs it would take us a while to find the communal core but Universal Experience flowed quite naturally. I had only the chorus and a verse and I imagined it to be this sort of dark 80s song, but everybody kept adding these cool ideas which made it much….happier? I wasn’t even sure they would like it but it became one of those moments where you make perfect sense together, as if you could write an album a day.

Your DIY approach, from songwriting to booking shows and tour management, is a defining aspect of The Klittens. How has this hands-on approach influenced your artistic growth, and what are the advantages of maintaining such control over your music and career?

Laurie: “It never really was a conscious choice of us to be so DIY on so many different levels, but it really works for us. For all of us this band is the first real band and nobody really told us you need a manager, booking agent, tour manager, label, social media strategist, stylist, plugger, financial controller and all of that, so we started doing this all ourselves. In the meantime we have learned so much from this whole process that we know exactly what we are doing and it gets more and more difficult to give these responsibilities to someone else. The band turned into our baby which needs to be handled with a lot of care. It’s a big advantage that you completely have the possibility to stay true to yourself. You don’t have to put yourself in situations that don’t really feel comfortable and you get to play the coolest venues, meet the nicest people and are totally in charge of every step you take. Although it’s becoming harder and harder to organize everything besides working our daytime jobs, so we’re slowly starting to get to a point where we could use some help with booking shows. directing music videos, et cetera, before we start to lose focus on making music, haha.”

Yaël: Yeah, so basically we are all good-natured control freaks.

"Universal Experience" is the first track from a new collection of material. Can you give us a sneak peek into what we can expect from this upcoming collection of songs, and what themes or concepts you're exploring in your new music?

Yaël: Well, these songs were very much about experimenting, with the music and the musical process, so we are gonna take you all over the place. As for the theme(s) behind them, the binding factor is the process of becoming an adult and standing still and looking back at what came before and how you will go forward. And perhaps, coming to terms with the emotions behind some of the realizations that come with this process. 

You've had the opportunity to perform with notable acts like Alex G and SASAMI, as well as touring with Otoboke Beaver. How have these experiences influenced your approach to live performances?

Laurie: “These experiences have definitely influenced our approach to live performances. Especially when we were touring with Otoboke Beaver, it was really inspiring to see the band play live. They’re such a great band and are outstanding musicians, but also in the way they are performing on stage and get the whole audience with them is really inspiring to see. Off stage they were completely different personalities, it’s a whole act (in a good way!) that they’re performing. We try to take that with us now when we’re performing as well.

Also performing as a support act takes away a lot of pressure: people don’t come to watch your show in the first place and they just either like your music or they don’t, so you feel much more comfortable on stage. When you’re playing your own headline show you feel more like you have to meet the audience's expectations.”

Yaël: It definitely taught me a lot about taking control of a stage, or rather, letting yourself be in control of a stage. With Otoboke Beaver as well, they don’t exude a need for approval or attention, when you are in their space you follow their rules. And of course they don’t need it, neither do we, but the attitude itself is a very powerful thing to see. I don’t totally agree with Laurie about their stage persona being an act but I know what she means. Such friendly, reserved and polite personalities that can (seemingly) instantly switch to fiery performers.

Playing with all these big names also has an unexpected soothing effect, in the end we all have to relive our music for ourselves. The number of people watching you can be strangely unimportant.

Your upcoming UK tour with Personal Trainer sounds exciting. Can you share your expectations and aspirations for these shows, and what can fans anticipate from your live performances on this tour?

Laurie: “This tour is going to be so so so much fun, I absolutely can’t wait. We’re all good friends with both Personal Trainer and Real Farmer and they’re both my favourite Dutch bands at the moment, so I can’t wait to be on the road with them for a week and be able to see them play live six nights in a row. Although I think it’s also going to be very chaotic haha, but in a fun way. Personal Trainer fans are very supportive and very interested in discovering new music, so I think (hope!) that there will be a lot of people who would like to get to know our music as well - or perhaps even know it already. What can you expect from our live performance? Since it’s going to be a triple Dutch tour I think we’re going to throw loads of stroopwafels, herring and hagelslag off stage.”

"Universal Experience" features a stop-motion video that adds a visual dimension to the song. Can you tell us about the concept and creative process behind the video, and how it complements the song?

Laurie: “Michelle (our bass player) came up with the idea of making a stop motion video that represents the full fridge and warm meals that come with the ‘universal experience’. Because we’re on a budget (ironic, isn’t it?) but still wanted to make a visually interesting and fun video, we decided to do some claying on a rainy sunday. It was actually so much fun to do, but I think we also underestimated how much work it is to make a stop motion video of three and a half minute. Nevertheless, we really enjoyed making the video and it was a perfect activity for a rainy sunday. We enjoyed it so much that for our next music video we also have gotten our hands dirty on some good ol’ stop motion.”

What do you love right now?

Laurie: “The huge amount of support we’re receiving, oh my god. It’s not like we’re playing sold out arenas, have screaming fans everywhere we go and are on the radio 24 hours a day, but I think none of us expected the band to grow to the point where we are now. And we’re only at the beginning! If you would’ve told me a couple of years ago that we would be playing in different countries and that there’s people that know our songs and buy tickets to come see us do our silly little thing, I honestly think I would not believe you.

Yaël: It’s funny how you can keep discovering things that you love, and there are a lot of things in life that I love. But I’m gonna go with Laurie here, I love our band and I love writing and performing music with them. It’s such a strange and wonderful thing to be able to do something like this with such amazing people.

What do you hate right now?

Laurie: “This is a very hot take, but shirtless white cis hetero men running around on stage raging about toxic masculinity and thinking they’re really changing society and are being original. There’s too many of these bands taking up too much space on festival and venue line-ups. There’s some really good ones though, but you can easily see what bands use it as a way to brand themselves and what bands do it because they really feel like they need to do it. ”

Yaël: That people don’t believe in situations they can’t fathom themselves. As if you have some natural instinct to know what could and couldn’t happen and the world isn’t a strange huge ancient place with billions of life forms. It sounds like I mean aliens but I was thinking more of the fact that we as a society seem to be drifting further apart.

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?

Laurie: *checks her Last.fm page* “I’m trying to come up with an original answer but the absolute winner for me is Favourite Worst Nightmare by Arctic Monkeys. It’s the album that got me out of my indecisive mix of Hitzone compilations and random new wave stuff I downloaded for my dad on Limewire and got me into the type of music I listen to now everyday.” 

Yaël: When I was little my dad had these ripped CDs which didn’t have a tracklist. So I would listen to it a lot but have no idea what I was listening to. These CDs were really important to me but most of them were weird mixes of different genres, and most of the songs I only found again when I was much older. There was this beautiful song on there which was a cover of a Johnny Cash song “The L&N don’t stop here anymore” sung by Michelle Shocked. She doesn’t want her music online so it can be quite hard to find but a friend of mine found a tape in a secondhand store. So now I can listen to it again, still beautiful.

Finally, what do you hope listeners take away from "Universal Experience" and your music in general? What emotions, thoughts, or experiences do you aim to evoke with your songs?

Yaël: That would be a joy, if we could convey our specific thoughts through our music. Sometimes I feel our lyrics, for instance, are too cryptic to the point of indiscernibility. For Universal Experience it would be great if people feel less like the odd one out, especially if they are the odd one out. And in general, I hope we convey a feel of togetherness…..and defiance. 

Laurie: “I hope we can convey to people how ridiculously much fun we experience playing in a band and also inspire other people to make music because - to be completely honest - my life had no purpose until I started playing and touring with the band.”