IT'S A TALE AS OLD AS TIME; TWO SCIENTISTS WALK INTO A RESEARCH FACILITY AND EMERGED WITH A BRAND NEW MUSICAL ADVENTURE. ONE BASED IN MELBOURNE, ONE FROM THE NETHERLANDS, THIS ADVENTURE SOON GREW TO BE KNOWN AS DUTCH MONKS, AND A DEBUT SINGLE WOULD FOLLOW. AND WHILE COVID-19 HAS KEPT THESE STAR-CROSSED ARTISTS CURRENTLY APART, TODAY IT IS WITH GREAT PLEASURE THAT THE SOUNDCHECK PREMIERES THE BLISSFUL MUSIC VIDEO FOR DUTCH MONKS AND THEIR DEBUT TUNE COLOUR BLIND - BEWARE, SOME DREAMY FEELS AHEAD!
Ask any musician in a band about the difficulties of getting everyone in the same room at the same time, and you'll generally be greeted with tales of missed rehearsals, forgotten meetings and the drummer rocking up three hours late (sorry drummers). But for Jesse Rudd-Schmidt and Thijs Flinsenberg, add in the fact one band member is based in Melbourne, the other in Utrecht in The Netherlands - plus a global pandemic! - and you've got yourself a potential recipe for losing creative momentum. But Rudd-Schmidt and Flinsenberg are certainly not your average band, coming to life after a fateful meeting working together in medical research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, eventually forming a strong musical bond and, before long, an actual band - Dutch Monks.
Riding fresh off the release of their debut single Colour Blind, Dutch Monks have quickly established a charming M.O, blending the upbeat jaunt of classic Aussie indie rock with raw thematics. A track that on the surface presents as a frothy earworm, all glistening keys and cordial glee, Colour Blind in fact details the realities of a relationship straddling mental health challenges, painstakingly capturing the pockets of bliss that can still permeate despite the lows. And amid the restrictions of COVID-19, Dutch Monks have conjured an accompanying music video for the track that heartily enhances the lyrical journey of the track, while expanding on notions of being true to yourself.
“I just love what Scott (Marrinan) came up with for this video! I had some vague ideas about a dream scene that I presented him with initially, and he just took it and ran with it to come up with something like this! In a light-hearted way, I feel like the video really conveys the message that you shouldn’t pretend to be something that you are not. And shows the hurt that you can inflict on yourself and others when you do put on a façade like that. We were actually really lucky to get to record this at all, it was filmed only a few days before new, stricter COVID restrictions were announced and would have prohibited it completely! Of course, even as it was we had to be very careful in the way we planned it, ensuring we maintained a COVID safe set. To reduce the number of people on set at any one time, I was only allowed to be on set for the specific scenes I was part of…so I didn’t actually see the majority of the video being filmed! Needless to say I was blown away when I saw the final result!” - Jesse Rudd-Schmidt, vocals/guitar
With the winning combination of loosely assembled Australian poetry and beautifully direct Dutch musicianship, it's certainly set to be a beautiful ride as Dutch Monks journey further towards their forthcoming debut album Yours To Lend. And if their first track is anything to go by, this trans-continental duo have a lot more magic in their sights to gift us. But for now, go get a peek at the new clip below before it officially releases tomorrow!
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BY TIANA SPETER