Electronic pop with an edge. That’s how the Ghent duo Headphone most likes to see its music described. Ian Marien and Nico Steenkiste have been working together since 2003, but only brought out their first long player three years ago.  ‘Ghostwriter’ got a great reception in both the Netherlands and in Flanders. The title track camped up at the top of Studio Brussel’s top 30 programme, De Afrekening, for a while and ‘She is Electric’ made it as a radio hit. Since then they have won over the audience at various festivals at home and abroad and Mariën has dreamed up the soundtrack for the animation film ‘Willie & Wanda and the Texas Devils’.

Today the pair is ready to add an exciting new chapter to its discography with ‘Woods’. The advance-released title track has been booming through the ether for weeks and is an indication that Headphone’s sound has become a bit more pop-ish and more electronic. The two-part vocals are intact, but the guitars have been relegated to the background this time, while just about all the bass lines and drum tracks are digitally generated.  

One thing and another has also had consequences for the manner in which Headphone presents itself live these days. What until recently was a five-man band has now shrunk to a trio, with Gerd Van Mulders as the third man on bass, synth and trumpet. “Now we’ve gone full out for electronica, we’ve chosen a formula which we feel is clearer and more defined”, says singer Ian Marien. That doesn’t alter the fact that these gentlemen have enriched and enlarged their sound on ‘Woods’. Just listen to the excellent trumpet solo in the opening number ‘Alt. End’ or the ear-catching strings in ‘Do It Again’ and ‘Sleep’.

In terms of the internal division of roles nothing has changed since ‘Ghostwriter’. Ian Marien writes the songs, Nico Steenkiste does his bit as a sounding board, and then the two friends develop the basic material together. “A lot of my songs originate on the acoustic guitar”, says Marien, “But even Nico rarely gets to hear them in that form. In my head a song stands or falls with the production. So it’s really about finding the right form straightaway.”

At the time of their debut cd, Headphone was often compared to Radiohead by the critics, but the influence of Thom Yorke and his lot is nowhere to be seen on ‘Woods’. “A natural evolution”, thinks Nico Steenkiste. “As a beginner you’re looking for your own voice. The longer you make music the more your own personality begins to shine through. Today we sound more like ourselves, but paradoxically enough that means we have less grip on it. Because as soon as your familiar references disappear, you have no idea any more whether others will like what you’re doing. That’s a bit scary.”

Altogether the duo has spent about two years working on their new record. That Marien and Steenkiste have given a lot of thought to what they’re doing  is obvious from the fact that they recorded ‘Woods’ no less than three times. “After we had made detailed demos, we moved to the Brussels ICP studios with a famous British producer. But it didn’t work out as there was shockingly little input from his side. Our record company had invested a lot of money in us but the result was so half-hearted that we had no choice but to tip the whole lot in the dustbin and start again from zero. That was a bitter pill to swallow.”

Headphone decided to dismantle the tracks to the extent that only the bare bones were left and then gradually built them up again. “That kind of drastic approach works better for us than endlessly arguing about small details”, explains the singer. “If you go on fiddling with something for too long, you get bored and risk scrapping precisely those ingredients that make the song special. It’s better to avoid that.”  

At any rate, this transformation made sure that the gentlemen retrieved their belief and enthusiasm. Especially when songs like ‘Miracles’ and ‘Woods’ were given the treatment by mixer David Bascombe, a Brit who counts names like Depeche Mode, Placebo, Goldfrapp and Suede amongst his ‘clients’. It was immediately obvious that Bascombe and Headphone were on the same wavelength. “Actually Dave’s interventions were minimal”, says Steenkiste, “Just a question of putting a few accents. But Bascombe’s instinct and expertise made sure our music sounds even better on the radio now.”

At times ‘Woods’ is a pretty danceable electro pop cd. Nonetheless Headphone didn’t directly want to make a ‘hands-in-the-air’ type of record. “We’re all about warmth, atmosphere and melody. That’s how it was when we started and we have made a conscious decision to carry on like that.”
The duo has been left with some first-rate synthesizer tracks from its stay at ICP, anyway. “That studio is known as ‘Keyboard Heaven’, eh? They have a whole collection of authentic Moogs so we felt like kids in a sweetshop. Fortunately we have been able to use a lot of the recordings we made there.”

True to tradition, Ian Marien’ song lyrics are on the vague side. Rather than reveal hard and fast details he wants to tickle his listeners’ imagination so that they can make up their own story when they listen to Headphone’s music. “It’s not in my nature to write something very direct and recognisable”, he explains. “Too much information detracts from the power of a song. What you fill in yourself as a listener makes it so much richer.”

A lot of tracks on the new cd seem to be about power games in relationships and evoke an atmosphere of underlying threat and violence. “That sinister side is what makes it interesting, isn’t it? If I manage to create the impression that there’s something odd going on in the songs, that’s great.”

Headphone has always attached a lot of importance to design. On the cover of ‘Ghostwriter’ there was a strange landscape to be seen with Headphone figures they’d designed themselves wandering around. For ‘Woods’ the duo teamed up with photographer Stephan Vanfleteren. “He is a man with a vision, who goes on shaping an idea till it’s just right. His approach suits us well!”

What has the pair got better at since their debut? “Making choices”, answers Nico Steenkiste promptly. “We know now that making our next cd will go easier and faster in every way.” Ian Marien thinks a minute. “In articulating”, he says, laughing. “As a singer I mumble a lot less than I used to.” Despite their talent these Ghent-based musicians have not lost a sense of perspective: they can still see the trees through the ‘Woods’.