Just like The Tallest Man On Earth, Dutch folk musician Thijs Kuijken started playing and releasing as I Am Oak at about the same time as this project, The Influences. At the time, around 2008, I was still writing for the local music website 3VOOR12/Utrecht and saw him perform with some regularity. At first mainly introverted and with visible discomfort, but invariably with strong and beautiful songs. Kuijken also played on a The Influences session of The Secret Love Parade, but miraculously – despite the intentions of both sides – we never got round to filming a session for The Influences with I Am Oak. Until now.
With his beautiful new album Time Drifts just released, we filmed Dreamt Of You (featuring Immen) and covers of Arthur Russell’s Lucky Cloud and Joanna Newsom’s Peach, Plum, Pear.
On the same day and place – Ruisendaal Studio in Den Dolder – we recorded three more sessions, with Immen, Chima and Tamara van Esch. The first two of them are available on theinfluences.com already.
“Often that first hunch is the best.”
Just like Conor O’Brien said about the latest Villagers album That Golden Time, Thijs Kuijken recorded all of Time Drifts‘ songs himself, in the music room of his house. Originally with the aim of taking them to a studio as demos, but eventually he discovered that – apart from a piano – the songs needed nothing more. “I like that I can take my time. In a studio you have to have everything in order and do everything in a very closed time. That can also work well. But I think it’s cool to just have the time for that. Anytime I’m home and have inspiration, I can work on something.”
“This way it can sometimes only be half an hour. That is not possible in a studio. Having a room at home works very well for me. I can give up very easily. Because I can go do something else for a while and come back later. But you can also jump back in very easily if you feel inspired. You have to be disciplined too.”
A common pitfall that comes into play in your own studio is the tendency to become a perfectionist. Kuijken recognizes that aspect of it: “Yes, that’s something I certainly ran into with this record, Time Drifts. I’ve worked on it for a year, coming back to songs very often, throwing things away and making new ones again. Often that first hunch is the best, with adjustments here and there.”
“I don’t think it will ever go away.”
The longer you work on something alone, the less you know how it really comes across, Kuijken realizes. “That’s why I often have to rely on my first impression. When I’m working on an album, I keep a number of songs because I decide they’re worth keeping. The further I get in such an album process, the more I go up and down from ‘this is all good’, to ‘oh no, I really have to scrap everything and start over’. I have to rely on that moment when I thought ‘this is cool, I’m going to keep this’. Even though I may think differently about it at some moments later.”
It is a process that is probably familiar to all artists. “I don’t think it will ever go away. And I think it’s a good thing because you start listening critically. And the longer you sit with something, the more critical you may become. It’s a bit of a search for that balance of do I really have to do something to make it better or was it just good and I’m now going a bit crazy.” Thijs Kuijken keeps working on his music by himself for as long as possible. “If I have something substantial, I let a few people hear it, especially to see what their first impression is. That helps me to have perspective.”
“I am more confident about who I am as a musician.”
Back to fifteen, sixteen years ago. A hugely different time. “We were in a different phase of life then, but the world was also different. Just like the music industry. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s different. Making music still feels the same, also because I still do so much myself and at home.” The things that inspire Kuijken have changed. “In the last ten years I have gradually been listening more to instrumental music. Some longer pieces; a lot of jazz stuff and some minimalistic, classical stuff.”
“At the start of my career I referred more to other music that I listened to. I do that much less now. I don’t listen to the kind of music I make myself anymore. And I gradually refer increasingly to my own music. That has been a big change, over the years.”
This is especially the case with the last two I Am Oak albums – on which Kuijken sounds even more confident and self-aware. As if all the important pieces have fallen into place, whereas on earlier records he was searching a bit. “Yes, I think it is. I’ve taken more time to work songs out. I am more confident about who I am as a musician. And I don’t have to mirror myself to others.”
With a new album it is almos