How this project came to be.

On January 29^th of 2025, around 10.30 PM, I received a message on Signal from my friend and musician Michiel Flamman, mostly known as Solo, telling me that he was terminally ill. Half an hour later, he followed up with: ‘How are you doing?’

Michiel and I go back nearly twenty years, when Solo was just starting out and I had begun writing about music in Utrecht’s small but vibrant scene. We ended up friends and we’ve worked together numerous times; with him playing our live shows and with me filming his concerts, a documentary about his Unterwelten record and producing a music video for Haven’t You Heard The News?.

Hearing such news leaves you feeling utterly helpless, a sentiment many will recognize. A few days later, while talking to mutual friend Elze, an idea popped up: what if we could record a tribute showing people the influence Michiel has had on other musicians?

The idea was pretty straight-forward, and getting people to contribute turned out to be not so hard either. Within a day, we had about a dozen Dutch artists confirmed, and studios and locations were made available. The Influences’ tribute to Solo and Michiel Flamman was in motion. Two emotional but beautiful recording days followed – one in a werfkelder (a canal-level cellar used historically for storage and trade) and Marien Dorleijn’s Studio Hiwhi – not knowing if we would have them done in time for Michiel to see and hear them.

Luckily, we were able to visit him to personally present him this tribute back in April. Michiel’s treatments even worked enough for him to perform a unique concert with Solo in Utrecht on October 2^nd, celebrating the release of Solo’s first record in seventeen years. Now it’s time to share this tribute Solo, by other people with you.

“It’s all terrible. But it’s also very beautiful.”

Erik de Jong (Spinvis): “We have toured with Solo in The Netherlands and Belgium for quite some time. I would wait in the dressing room, except when this song came on, because I would stand in the wings on the side listening, every night. It’s a perfect song. And its meaning now… no one could have imagined that. I translated the song, and for that you really must dive into the lyrics and dig up its meaning. And yes, it’s all terrible. But it’s also very beautiful.”

“That time with Solo was really very nice. Lucas, my pianist, was also there. We experienced this together. Michiel has always had such a drive, you know? That has always intrigued me. But not only this song, all those songs with Simon Gitsels on piano. They made a lasting impression. But yes, everything goes, it’s just a matter of time. That’s it.”

Michiel Flamman: “When Solo was just starting out, record label boss and manager Ferry Roseboom had the idea to take us on tour with Spinvis, opening for him in theatres. It gave us an audience, and it allowed Spinvis to play a more compact show. It turned out to be a stroke of genius. That’s how we built much of our audience. The fact that Spinvis, The Netherlands’ greatest troubadour of the 21st century, has now translated and performed a Solo song is an incredibly moving compliment. Together with his keyboardist Lucas Oldeman, they deliver a glowing version of ‘Everything Goes’, one that even we, as Solo, couldn’t improve upon.”

“A song like Tom Petty used to write them.”

Helge Slikker: “This song has stayed with me from the beginning when we both played in Utrecht often, Michiel as Solo and I with Storybox. I knew immediately that I wanted to do ‘Mind’, because it’s such a timeless song. One of those songs that just keeps on spinning, that you actually don’t want to stop. Like Tom Petty used to write them. You can use the song as a comfort, but if you feel good, it’s also a wonderful song to turn on.”

Michiel Flamman: “In my musical life, I’ve collaborated with many musicians. Sometimes it was by request; for example, a record label would ask me to look at an artist’s songs and help refine them. Other times, it was my own initiative, because I saw potential and thought I could help. I can imagine not everyone appreciated that, but sometimes it was well received, and perhaps I was able to genuinely contribute to someone’s musical growth or confidence.”

“When I became ill and the situation looked grim, people started to come out of the woodwork, some of them from the group I just described, wanting to give something back. Helge Slikker was one of them. A multi-talented artist with a thriving career composing music for theatre, as well as a singer-songwriter in his own right and a member of several bands. A special mention goes to our collaboration in The Playmobeatles, a short entr’acte in which we lip-synced Beatles songs for a few minutes, dressed up like Playmobil figures using cardboard costumes. It wasn’t exactly brilliant, but it was funny; especially the outfits.”

“There is a lot of freedom in it, which is extremely beautiful.”

Stephanie Struijk’s and Michiel Flamman’s music careers started around the same time, Struijk remembers: “When I hear Solo, I think of that time when they and I were just starting out. I’m transported back to that time and I think about what that was like. I feel like he is talking to a young person. Saying to a child: ‘Just go, see where you end up and look back later to figure out whether you were happy with it. Just do what you feel like, because you can’t be sure right now’. I think that’s very beautiful. There are so many opportunities, take your pick. So, there is a lot of freedom in it, which is extremely beautiful.”

Michiel Flamman also remembers Struijk from the early days. “When Solo just came up, there was a TV program that was experimenting with live music. In the beginning, De Wereld Draait Door just put a singer-songwriter on the couch and let him or her play something with a guitar. I was allowed to sit next to Claudia de Breij. It was okay, but the next day there was a musician who did and could do it ten times better. Stevie Ann, Stephanie Struijk, really sang and played out of her skin. It was a dream start for her career. The fact that she is now performing a song by Solo is therefore a great honor. She plays Opportunities as if it were her own. I also think of her beautiful rendition of Few Try at the Dutch radio show ‘Spijkers met Koppen’ and see little reason left to perform our songs myself.”

“With some voices you feel something right away, after just one tone.”

This isn’t the first time Ramses Singeling covered a Solo song for The Influences. Seventeen years ago, in 2008 – The Influences’ first year – he covered two of them with his band Furlong. Michiel Flamman even made a surprise appearance, watching them record the session. This time, Singeling and Jooske Leenders chose to translate Over The Country to Dutch.

“Over The Country is the most danceable Solo song and I like that it’s about music; how important it is and what it can do. The text is very beautiful and it was only when I started translating it, that I found out how beautifully it is put together . One moment you are yourself, the next moment you are a sound wave. I actually found out how poetic it was.”

“There is something in Michiel’s voice. His songs are so cleverly put together, I noticed that now. It seems like a very simple disco song, but there are a lot of things in it. He can do that well, without it looking very difficult. And I like his voice… With some voices you feel something right away, after just one tone.”

Michiel Flamman remembers that Furlong session. “Microvogel is the brainchild of artist Ramses Singeling. Early on he played songs from Solo with his band Furlong. As a musician from the Utrecht scene, he had discovered Solo early on and already in 2008 he covered Come Back To Me. Now he picked Over The Country in Dutch with Microvogel, and we are more grateful than we could have imagined! It is wonderful to hear how people get the core from our English lyrics and distill what is important. Ramses sings it: Sound is our faith!”

“I feel well at home with the melancholy in The Rules.”

Anne Soldaat recorded his Solo cover in his own studio, playing all the instruments himself. “For me, it is a tribute to the beautiful songs that Michiel and Simon have made over the years. The song The Rules is one of those songs and I feel well at home with the melancholy in it. And I would like to express the fervent hope that those two will be able to play and write together for a long time to come.”

When I showed Michiel Flamman this cover at his house in Deventer, his eyes lit up.  “Of the acts that have played one of our songs, Anne Soldaat is the most enigmatic. I listened to his band Daryll-Ann before I ever released a note. The band had something unattainable. Not only in what they had already achieved in my eyes, but musically they were self-contained and magical. That also ensures that I am grabbed again with every listen. Not in the least because of the guitar playing and the voice of Anne, who achieves the same with his own records. On Before We Part, Anne is secretly, with only 4 notes, very prominent in Drunken Bed. I am still amazed that I have achieved that; Anne Soldaat playing on a record of mine and now even a whole song…”

“Hit Me With A Kiss will stand the test of time, even if we ourselves will not.”

Case Mayfield is as direct and sharp in talking about Solo as he can be in his lyrics: “Michiel and Simon. Solo. Heart wrenching and uplifting. Unconditional and unforgiving. Right up my alley. Hit Me With A Kiss sounds like one of those songs you feel like you’ve known all your life. Like the soundtrack of one of your defining memories. To write a song is no easy feat. To write a simple song, nearly impossible. Hit Me With A Kiss will stand the test of time, even if we ourselves will not.”

The admiration is mutual, according to Michiel Flamman: “Case Mayfield is another idiosyncratic musician. One that does it in its own way. Few can play and sing as intensely as Case. I was immediately captivated by his first record and then he didn’t mince his words when he gave interviews. A man after my own heart. When I played live with him once, I felt that I couldn’t stand in his shadow. Where I achieved a restraint with Solo that did my music good, he could give it his all. He screamed out and yet it didn’t fly out of control. That is a gift. In an interview from 2012, I advised everyone not to listen to me, but to him. Case is one of the best when it comes to Dutch singer-songwriters and that’s why I can still say wholeheartedly: Listen to that man!”

Marien Dorleijn: “Good songs can change meaning as your own life changes.”

Before Michiel Flamman started Solo with Simon Gitsels, he was known as J Perkin. Moss singer and producer Marien Dorleijn still owns a J Perkin CD. “Everytime I go into my attic, I see the cd; it is wedged between an electricity cable and a beam. I have known Michiel for a long time. Solopeople, that record did make an impact. A strong pop album with great songs. Not that the songs weren’t good before, but this record stood out a lot, I noticed. There was a lot of talk about that.”

“Michiel and Simon have written so many good songs. But when I think of Solo, I immediately think of Come Back To Me. And now with Michiel’s situation, also… somehow that song covers the load, in my opinion. Maybe it’s misplaced for me to say that, but songs sometimes suddenly have a different or a double meaning. Good songs can change meaning as your own life changes.”

Michiel Flamman: “Everything suddenly fell into place.”

Michiel Flamman thinks back on a special night in 2008. “In the Flitz, the now ‘permanently closed’ café, but a household name among Utrecht musicians, there were once two bands in the back room; Solo and Moss. The room did not sell out. Solo had just split up and Moss’ debut album didn’t do what the band had hoped. But that night something special happened. Moss went for a change of direction and it started that evening. The band, at least that’s how I remember it, played songs from their second album for the first time. I was shocked and I remember how much I felt that this was going to work for them. I also remember the conversations afterwards, in which I expressed my enthusiasm. The songs were fantastic and the sound was one for – or from the future. Never be scared/Don’t be a hero was the record that was released shortly after. I love that record so much.”

“Marien is a fantastic songwriter and singer, I already knew that from previous encounters in the singer-songwriter world, on the radio, at festivals, in the pub in the evening… But that evening with band and the new songs, everything suddenly fell into place. Marien and his band have since become a fixture in the Dutch music landscape and I was allowed to be there when it all clicked. What a privilege!”

“Michiel has always been an inspiration to others and a guide on their paths.”

Bo Menning has – like Michiel Flamman – been a defining character in Utrecht’s music scene in the past however many years. Releasing albums and playing shows with his band Aestrid and now as North Star Runner. And working at everyone’s favourite record store Plato Utrecht, where we filmed this cover. “Michiel has said certain things to me that were just very special. His words have stuck with me for all those years. He always encouraged me to keep going, to keep working on music, to push forward with the band. Defining words in my development and music career. Very special. Words that got stuck in my head. That’s not something that’s granted. I know that I’m not the only musician who felt supported by Michiel, he’s always been an inspiration to others and a guide on their paths.”

“I knew the Solo songs from before and thought they were beautiful. But when Michiel moved to Berlin and made Unterwelten and A Tunnel to Oslo, it was like two wonderful worlds collided. It’s so admirable to step away from what you’ve always done, to sort of discard where you came from and to dare pick a new path for yourself. I remember I just started working at Plato, the record store, and he came and handed me a cassette of A Tunnel To Oslo: ‘Here’s something I made and I’ve got 50 copies.’ Funny thing is, I listened to that profusely back then, and didn’t listen to it for a while since. Recently I rediscovered that cassette and remember how incredible it is; where songs and melodies and noise came together in sound.”

“Bo Menning is still a star to be discovered”

The admiration is – again – mutual, it turned out when I sent Michiel the cover of Unterwelten #2. “If you, like me, walk in a ‘scene’ for a longer period of time, you get to know the people who are a fixture in it better. Allert Aalders is a sound engineer, stage manager, musician and someone who has been working in Tivoli for a long time. Why do I mention him? Because he knows a lot of people from the scene and is specifically a fan of a musician who, despite being around for years, is still a star to be discovered.”

“Bo Menning makes music under different names. Aestrid was the band with which he initially released his music. Although he had been on the radar of people like Allert and yours truly for years, his first record was only released in 2011. The Echo Resistance is one to listen to while staring into the distance or with your eyes closed; Hard, overwhelming, soft and moving. But no matter how beautiful, it was only with later releases like Box that the first reviewers paid attention, usually after one of the overwhelming live performances. And Aestrid, Bo and North Star Runner is still an open secret.”

“In 2010 several musicians played a few songs in De Helling (in Utrecht) in honor of Allert’s birthday. (There’s Allert again.) Bo, who was also present that evening, borrowed my guitar. He had to retune it; because Bo uses special chords. The next day my friend friend Marinus (better known as a balladeer) and I drove to Berlin, where I lived at the time, to write and record songs together. One of the songs we wrote is Unterwelten #2; a dark experiment, which was released a year later on a tape under the name A Tunnel To Oslo.”

“15 years later, Bo contacted Matthijs and Elze about this project and chose to cover Unterwelten #2. How in the world Bo came up with the idea of choosing this virtually unknown song is a mystery to me, because what do you know… Without Bo knowing it, he covered a song that only exists because he borrowed my guitar to play a song on Allert’s birthday. My guitar was still in his tuning, and its sound and Bo’s performance inspired me to make Unterwelten #2 at the time! Without Bo knowing it, he completed a circle. This gives me goosebumps, just like listening to Bo’s performance.”

“Maria is very melancholic and positive and beautiful at the same time.”

Maria is one of Kim Janssen’s favorites by Michiel Flamman, the artist now operating as Cape Sleep explains: “It is a very small subtle song about everyday things; a cleaning lady who never sees the people she works for. Something very small, but at the same time big and tragic. I think she works in that house as a kind of ghost and tries to make it her home. It’s melancholic and very beautiful and the same actually for the for the family. From the point of view that he sings it, is from the person who lives there and has the feeling like ‘There is a kind of watchful angel that we never see.’ It is just very beautiful, very melancholic and at the same time it has something very beautiful and positive. It also ends on a positive note that it’s her home and wherever she is, she makes it her own.”

Janssen actually picked three Solo songs as options, while we were arranging these recordings. “There are so many, and I started digging through the whole Solo discography, but Maria was really my first choice. I also remember that I did a living room tour with Michiel a long time ago and I always thought it was very beautiful when he played it. He was a bit done with the pop venues and he wanted to come with us. I think he had also just released the record Before We Part in 2008 with Maria on it. So, it was always just him and a guitar and that was very cool.”

Michiel Flamman: “To see a timid teenager grow into a top musician is particularly cool.”

Michiel Flamman: “I was lucky enough to work at the Academy of Pop Culture quite a few years ago. It was fantastic to be able to guide young talent. And what a talent! I still meet musicians from the past in “the field”. Close to my heart was Kim Janssen, a singer-songwriter with an extraordinary talent, now active as Cape Sleep. A voice that you recognize from thousands, and because of an upbringing that was almost entirely abroad, he speaks English as if it were his mother tongue. He has a very good network and has already worked with greats such as Eírikur Orri Ólafsson and Paul Jacob Cartwright (just google those names). To meet someone as a timid teenager and see him grow into a top musician is particularly cool. To hear him sing a song by Solo now is a gift and certainly in the choice for Maria.”

Always looking for the perfect song.

Hein Bosman: “Matthijs advised me to listen to Better Man, and I heard someone who wrote this 20 years ago and said, ‘I could have been a better man. I could have done this and that better. But then again, life is what happens to you, isn’t it?’ It’s fascinating hearing that two decades later and thinking about what I can do with it. I started translating, although I’m unsure there’s a line that stayed the same as the original, but I’ve been looking at all sorts of things. I’ve now watched all kinds of interviews, the ones Matthijs did with Michiel – about him wanting to live a compelling life. I thought it would be a nice idea to incorporate that into such a song so many years later. I hope Michiel thinks it’s okay that I have squandered the text into something new.”

“I recently saw the band Johan play in a theater and Jacob de Greeuw said: ‘The perfect song doesn’t exist’. A day later I read Solo’s bio and it said: ‘We are always looking for the perfect song.’ Mathijs Peeters helped me figure out the chords and I found out how beautiful it really is. Approaching perfection. I also love Unmarried Men, from their new album a lot, it’s fantastic.”

Michiel Flamman: “My eyes aren’t dry”

Michiel Flamman: “The performance of Everything Goes by Spinvis for this project has caused quite a stir. Pieces about it appeared everywhere, even in De Volkskrant. It didn’t stop there, because I was personally approached several times, especially with the question; why don’t you sing in Dutch? Good question, but which language you sing is time-bound. Now is Dutch in. In the 80s there was of course a wave, then nothing for a while, but since Spinvis the wave has become bigger and “alternative acts” can also be singing in Dutch.”

“I was born just before and have always thought that English lends itself better to melodies and rhyme. I know that is outdated and my career has not reached abroad… Anyway. Hein Bosman proves once again that it is perfectly possible, those songs of mine in our mother tongue. He turned Better Man into Dansen In Ons Lot. He does describe parts of my life; Berlin and Berghain, that’s where I danced (not even that long ago). The quarrels and loves. The underworld (nod to Unterwelten), my doubts, my quest, my children… My eyes aren’t dry. Thank you Hein.”

Where music transcends the world of thought

Erny Green’s Ernst Grevink: “This song could have just been a REM song, also lyrically. I remembered there was a very small song on Solopeople. That turned out to be Wonderboy, Wiseman, Prophet. You don’t really know who the wonder boy is and it doesn’t matter whether that’s Michiel or me. You can also read it as that it is Jesus Christ. ‘Where you can always meet him’, that could be the cross, or a place in your heart. ‘Heaven is a place to stay’. That’s where music transcends reason. As a musician you’re always searching for that place. That’s where music transcends the world of thought. He has done that very nicely in his song. In terms of composition, I thought it was wonderful.”

“I remember the first time he joined an open mic under the name J Perkin. We had a conversation and I think the second sentence was that he had a deal with Sony, you know? I had once talked to Sony myself and that turned out to be a short disaster. Michiel was very busy with his career, and there are few people who can do both so well; the art and the business side.”

“I still remember running into him at the train station in Breukelen in the same period. He came from a meeting about the album cover, you know. He was always ‘on the move’ in my opinion. Michiel was a master in creating attention for his music. I remember his enormous drive at that time – and of course his simply wonderful songs.”

Michiel Flamman: “Erny Green was a figure to look up to.”

“Of all the singer-songwriters from Utrecht, Erny Green has had the longest career. He had been going on for a decade when I met him in De Flitz. It wasn’t the first time I met him, because that was on the street, where he performed his songs at full volume. With his height, his deep voice and stories about living on the street, he was a figure to look up to.”

“I therefore always followed him at an appropriate distance. Only later, despite the fact that I hardly spoke to him, did it feel easier to relate to him. Erny is an institute in Utrecht, but also in The Netherlands. In addition to Polgate and especially Joy Division Undercover (where that beautiful dark voice comes in handy), his scope became increasingly wider, as if he is getting more and more ground under his feet. He is the textbook example of steadily continuing with your passion, until it pays off.”

“With his version of Wonderboy, Wiseman, Prophet, he turns the song about Jozef van den Berg into a song that could be about Erny Green; someone who sticks to his own path and slowly becomes a prophet and leader from a peculiar loner.”

“Michiel has been very important in my musical life”

Mathi