Just before Christmas, guitarist Ingmar Spaaij and drummer Nicky Hustinx graduated from the Rotterdam Pop Academy with a flashy finish. Ingmar performed with his band Field (in which Nicky appears as drummer) in the WMDC. The day before, Nicky had treated an audience in Theater Lantaren/Venster to an ‘evening of sonic diversity’, performing with the band Woost, JW Roy, Mike Roelofs and Eric van Dijsseldonk. At the beginning of the new year, they take a look back at the hectic final days of their studies.‘The night before the concert I hardly slept. I went over the past four years at least fifty times in my head. I was incredibly nervous, but then when I started to play, all that nervousness just melted away.’
Nicky also felt that the performance was a unique experience.
‘It is emotional, because playing music is so personal. In fact, the playing becomes really healing. Half way through the performance, our music gave me the shivers. The next day I had a great feeling of happiness at having completed something. I noticed that it was less life-changing than I had imagined. Life just goes on.’
Ingmar hasn’t had time since the final exams to fall into the infamous black hole.
‘I teach a couple of days a week and play in two bands, including Field. I’m also working to get an international music workshop organisation started, although that is still a pretty vague plan.’
Nicky’s plans are even more vague:
‘I really don’t know what I want to do. Maybe continue with my studies, but I also need to earn some money. I play in a lot of diff erent bands, and they all have something that I love. I haven’t given up on the dream of being able to make a living doing that, but it isn’t at the top of my list. I want to concentrate on others things in the future, like playing the guitar, and production and recording technique. If I have to work as a garbage man in order to make my living, I don’t mind.’
They both find it difficult to say exactly what they learned during the last four years. Ingmar:
‘The way that I look at music hasn’t changed that much. As a guitarist, I have a much better idea about the sound that I want to produce with my amplifier and how to achieve that. I am more conscious of how I play, and that can be frustrating, because you’re so much more aware of the weaknesses in your technique.’
Nicky experimented a lot with his drumming sound.
‘I have achieved a basic level of competence as a drummer that I can always fall back on. I started to play in a less complicated way and have tried to really explore simplicity.’
Both of them have been influenced by so many different impressions over the past several years. Ingmar:
‘During four years at the conservatoire, you take in an unbelievable amount of information. You hear music the whole day long, you see so many performances, and you learn so much from your teachers. It will be years before you have really processed it all. In a sense, the final exam is really more of a beginning than an ending.’
Article republished with permission from Codarts Magazine February 2007. (www.codarts.nl)
