The Hobknobs are a Dutch duo consisting of Arie van Vliet, singer and guitarist of the post-punk quartet Lewsberg, and Yaël Dekker, singer of all-female indie-outlet The Klittens. The two of them just released their debut recording, a DIY tape in a limited edition of 50 copies, on Correct Cassettes. It’s only 20 minutes long but offers three stylish and playful tracks in the style of Belle & Sebastian, The Velvet Underground, Buddy Holly, or Jonathan Richman.
skug: How did you meet?
Arie van Vliet: In 2020 I bought the three-song cassette »Pigeonhole« by The Klittens for 5 Euro. It included the German-language song »Liebe Resi«. Later that year we played a song with Lewsberg at the corona edition of Left of the Dial, in the Maassilo in Rotterdam. There were no visitors that day, but there were a lot of bands, and each band played a few songs for a video recording. Shalita and I were listening in the back of the room, The Klittens played »Canned Air« as the last song, and even though contact between the bands was not encouraged that day, we couldn’t help but say afterwards how much we liked it. I think that was the first time we spoke to each other. In 2022 we released the song »Six Hills« with Lewsberg, the lyrics of which are a loosely formulated answer to »Liebe Resi«. I think we felt a little less like strangers to each other since then.
Yaël Dekker: Arie was always a bit of a mysterious figure to me. A moment that sticks out to me is when Arie, after a performance of his own, came to Klitfest and he suddenly stood next to me on the dance floor. That stands out because he is two meters tall. That was the first time I got an idea of how specific he is. The Klittens were honored and pleasantly surprised when we read that »Six Hills« referred to the lyrics of »Liebe Resi«, I remember that very well, we were on tour at the time. Lewsberg was an act that both my environment and I thought was really cool, but certainly in that period I would never have thought of »just« making music with someone.
Arie van Vliet: The idea of working on music together has slowly grown since then. We even played a very hasty and half-prepared performance at the Paviljoen aan het Water in Rotterdam in the late summer of 2023. That was a special evening, but neither of us like to be reminded of that performance. After that it took a while before we could write together again, because Lewsberg and The Klittens were both on tour a lot, often in turns.
What do you have in common? And how do you differ from each other?
Arie van Vliet: If I may speak for both of us: We worry about the same things, are amazed by the same things and moved by the same things. We have both created our own peculiar world, a world that is completely logical to us but often not at all to other people. These are worlds that seem hermetic, but in which we actually welcome others with open arms. Because we are both also quite curious, we seem to feel somewhat at home in each other’s world, but fortunately there is also more than enough that we think differently about.
Yaël Dekker: Arie and I are quite similar. In any case, I have the feeling that I don’t need so many words to, indeed, share my world of experience with him. As for our differences: sometimes Arie zooms in on the small or banal moment, where I have a penchant for the big or explosive. You don’t see that so much in how we behave, but rather in our taste in artwork, or when taking press photos. Before we started on »Gather No Moss« we went through Arie’s vinyl collection and discussed what we thought of the artwork for each copy.
Arie van Vliet: That was an interesting journey of discovery, our ideas about this are quite far apart, but I believe that we mainly found a lot of agreement in things that we really found ugly.
Things that come to mind when I listen to The Hobknobs: Belle & Sebastian, The Velvet Underground / Lou Reed / Nico and Buddy Holly & The Crickets.
Arie van Vliet: This is music that I have listened to a lot, but we didn’t necessarily discuss in advance which direction the music should go. I don’t feel any urge to innovate at all, but I also don’t feel the need to imitate anything. The things we talk about often end up in our lyrics and music, so it’s not necessarily a surprise to me that you come up with these kinds of names. But we also talk about Sinéad O’Connor, Nina Simone or The Submissives sometimes.
Yaël Dekker: I really like that you mention Belle & Sebastian, but these are indeed not deliberate references. This is a good example of an act that is both theatrical and sincere.
Arie van Vliet: By the way, I think that Jonathan Richman would also fit in the list of names you mention, he might be where you end up if you say Belle & Sebastian, The Velvet Underground and Buddy Holly crosses.
Can you tell me how the recording process of »Gather No Moss« went?
Arie van Vliet: We went to the Katzwijm studio for a few days with Jaap van der Velde, who makes music with The Homesick, Milojkovic Trio and Yuko Yuko and recently also on his own as Byinoar, near Voorhout. So actually nowhere really nearby. During the day it was just warm enough to sit in the sun out of the wind, but at night the cold kept us awake even with three blankets on top of each other. The Katzwijm control room was temporarily out of service, which meant that Jaap had to set up all his equipment in the live room as well. As a result, the three of us were able to work on the music very directly, very relaxed, with a lot of attention for the songs and less for the details. Exactly the way I like it.
What does the band name The Hobknobs mean?
Arie van Vliet: In the meantime, we have also spoken to some people who think The Hobknobs is a nice name, but in the beginning, everyone seemed to think the name was terrible. At one point, there were so many people who criticized it that I started to embrace it more and more as a nickname. A year or two ago, I saw a documentary about the creation and marketing of the Hobnob, a modern classic British biscuit. Quite boring but certainly worth it. Both the documentary and the biscuit. I thought that suited us, so I suggested it to Yaël. She said that she might find it a bit more awkward with a k in between, that it would give it more meaning, which at the same time makes it less clear what The Hobknobs are.
»Gather No Moss« will be released on Bandcamp, but also as a cassette, in an edition of 50 copies. Is it important to you that there is a physical object of a release?
Arie van Vliet: The internet is a terrible place. We all use it of course, but as far as I am concerned only as an unfortunately unavoidable tool to navigate through real life these days. I would prefer to see the internet disappear today. Both directly, by devouring energy and raw materials, and indirectly, by facilitating neo-fascism, absorbing and abusing all our data, hollowing out communities and much more, the www brings us so much misery. I would hate to think that the things I do could only be found on the internet. Doing things offline is a form of resistance, and also a form of searching for new ways to live. Because in recent decades we have let ourselves be carried away a little too easily by all the technological developments, without really having or taking the time to think about what the consequences could be. But we must take that time, even if it is actually already too late. Whether it concerns releasing music, finding our way on the street or gathering knowledge.
Link: https://thehobknobs.net/
