Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: Well, we started CMON CMON because we didn’t like what we were hearing on the radio and we missed the jangle pop we love so much. CMON CMON didn’t intend to make an album, never mind release it. We won’t appear in our own videos and shy away from being part of a scene. Why? Because the Belgian trio has been here before, two decades ago as college students. Reformed for fun rather than fame, with a new name and different aims, but as much love of harmony-soaked, melodic rock as ever, their plan to put the music first is already paying dividends. On board for CMON CMON’s first EP and yet-to-be titled debut album are legendary manager Stephen Budd (Tony Visconti, Gang Of Four, Heaven 17, The Magic Numbers) and Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling producer Alex Newport (Death Cab For Cutie, Bloc Party, Frank Turner). One listen to the band’s addictive, dreamy, storytelling songs shows why.
Q: And what other artists have you found yourself listening to lately?
A: We’re huge fans of power pop, harmony, melody, hooks all that. We love The Beths from New Zealand, The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness from Scotland, Meyru, Death Cab For Cutie and 2nd Grade from the USA, Fontaines D.C from Ireland. All great bands we love.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences, and why the name ‘CMON CMON’?
A: We like to think we’re taking a small step down the road that was paved out by Hüsker Dü, Teenage Fanclub, REM, Nada Surf, Big Star, The Lemonheads. The name CMON CMON is actually an attitude. Why can’t we take the importance of life-long play just as seriously as after hours computer coding classes? Why don’t we do what our hearts tell us to do? Why do we conform? CMON CMON is aboutgoing for it. We are naturally cautious and sometimes someone should throw caution to the wind. It is about keeping your feet on the ground but looking up as well. It is about risk taking and not being inhibited, losing your inhibitions. Our bass player Steven came up with it while we were riding on the train after a meeting with our management team in London.
Q: You have just released your new single, ‘The Summers We Missed’. Is there a story behind it?
A: Yes there is. Joyous, jangly lead single The Summers We Missed, with its sumptuous harmonies and debt to early Lemonheads and, captures both the laid-back spirit of CMON CMON and their tales of life experience as opposed to first love. “The song is a true story – one I wouldn’t have been able to write aged 20,” says singer, guitarist and main songwriter Jorrit Hermans. “The summer in question is 1995. The party was real, the backyard and the pool were real and, yeah, so was Julie. “It’s a tale of two teenagers who were very close but never romantically involved, although both felt they should have been. In the second verse, the narrative jumps 20 years ahead to another summer where they meet again and reminisce about what might have been. “For me, the song is packed with personal teenage memories and melancholy. That summer is over and it won’t come back, like the protagonists’ youth. But that’s okay because life moves on and both still have their fantasy.”
Q: Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
A: Our self-tilted debut EP CMON CMON is out now and features our singles “The Summers We Missed”, “Say What It Means” and the boisterous beauty “Waiting”. All produced by Alex Newport and written by CMON CMON, drummer Michel Becx, bassist Steven Omblets and singer and guitarist Jorrit Hermans. CMON CMON is the band’s first EP and marks a Summer and Autumn filled with powerpop and harmony soaked hooks since the band launched their debut single. We plan to release our debut album in 2023.
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: As far as songwriting goes, I only have two guiding principles: “George” and “Harrison”. I have analyzed every song by the so-called quiet Beatle and am obsessed with Harrison’s chord progressions and harmonic beauty. For lyrics, I tend to Ernest Hemingway’s Iceberg Writing Theory. Imagine your sheet of paper is the ocean. What you write on it should only be the tip of the iceberg. The biggest part of the iceberg is left to the reader/listener’s interpretation. So I write with the strict minimum of information that allows you to construct a story in your head.
As for our sound, I think we spend years crafting it to perfection with jangly guitars and grumpy bass, big drums and creamy vocal harmonies on top.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: I think when you’re expecting anything from music, you are expecting too much. I don’t expect anything from our songs except for them to be there and to touch people when we play them. That’s all.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: I am always writing new songs. When I get an idea, I record a simple home demo in my Garageband. With CMON CMON, ideas come first through me. I then present the basic songs to drummer Michel Becx and bass player Steven Omblets. The three of us then start to take these songs apart and put them back together enriched with vocal harmonies, fabulous bass lines and tasteful drumming.Steven is the bass player in the band and a true Rickenbacker bass aficionado.He usually thinks every song should be a couple of BPM faster. Steven is the gatekeeper to make sure every song has enough “air” in it. After all, what happens between the notes is much more significant than the notes themselves. Steven loves to pack melancholy feelings and sad stories with sunny melodies and uptempo beats. A great song hits you just as hard in the morning in the kitchen as in the evening when you are doing the dishes, but never in the same way. That’s what makes you listen to it more than once. That’s what we aim for.Michel is the drummer and backing vocalist in the band. The ad which he responded to some odd years ago and made him the drummer of the band, had the word “Slingerland” in it. So he’s the kind of a guy who prefers the old over the new, as far as drums go anyway. Dissecting the songs Jorrit comes up with and making them even better is his specialty. When working on new songs, Michel’s best known for his already infamous, Steve Jobs like phrase “ one more thing”, twisting a good song around and making it into an even greater one.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: I think I have been very fortunate to be able to do what I like and want. Compared to people living in Ukraine and their agony in the war, I wouldn’t call my musical setbacks “difficult”. What happens, happens and you deal with it, right? As long as you keep going, that is what is important. Never give up.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: I was very happy to see “The Summers We Missed” getting all that attention and airplay on US college radios, that’s where we belong, I think. Also when people send us messages after a show or when they discovered our music to say how much they love it, that’s a great feeling. I think that is what matters most: how your audience feels, reacts and responds to your music. With CMON CMON we have fantastic, kind, wonderful fans.
