MOUTHY ISSUE TWO
May 2003
CASUAL SILENCE
interview by Ian C Stewart

Dutch prog band Casual Silence formed in 1993 in Helmond - a city in the south of The Netherlands. The band's name comes from a Marillion lyric. "At first, Casual Silence was a piece of text used in the Marillion track "Warm Wet Circles," and it's one of [singer] Rob Laarhoven's favourites. For him, the name Casual Silence symbolizes a state of mind when your world stops turning because of something happening in your life that has impact - but the real world is still turning. It symbolizes a situation in which you realize that you're a small piece of a big machine."

Songwriting: "Most of the lyrics are written by Rob Laarhoven. Some parts are written by [bassist] Eric Smits and [guitarist] Ernst le Cocq. The content of most songs is autobiographical. Most of the time it's about a specific state of mind, or a broken relationship, or death or other things that occur in the world that keep the songwriters thinking. No funny stuff, but symbolic words about serious things and feelings."

Playing live: "We try to play as often as possible. In the local scene, but also in the rest of our country. In the last four years we did some festivals and some shows as a support act for the Gathering, Skyclad, Jadis and Tony MacAlpine, Virgil Donati and Philip Bynoe. I guess the biggest show we've played was Planet Pul festival 2002 in Uden, The Netherlands, a fantastic prog rock festival."

"Casual Silence is a band that has existed for ten years now. We've grown up together - we're a tight group that shares tears and laughs. Rob is Ernst's uncle. In 2002, we were the support act for Jadis. The Jadis tour bus got stuck in traffic and arrived a bit late at the venue, when Casual Silence just started their show. Some of the venue's staff came onstage to make an announcement between the second and third song. The announcement was: "A red Volvo is parked in the wrong place, please remove the car, because it's blocking the way in for Jadis' tour bus." [Bassist] Eric said "Ooops! That's my car!" He threw his car keys to his girlfriend, who was standing in the crowd. She could moved the car and Eric played on!"

"Casual Silence just recorded their new album, Once in a Blue Moon. The official CD Launch will be held in Plato, a famous rock venue in Helmond. We hope to have a lot of gigs this year."


www.casualsilence.nl


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