Marble Sounds: Five million YouTube hits and counting
Flemish band Marble Sounds is a social media hit
Charmingly complaintive
So instead, Van Dessel (second from right in photo) used his law degree to get a job at a publishing house specialising in fiscal and legal books. But he always kept making music on the side in projects like the electronic duo Plastic Operator.
Now, 14 years on, Van Dessel heads Marble Sounds – not Flanders’ best-selling band, but certainly one of its most internationally popular if you count views on YouTube. Having a song with nearly five million hits might not be an astonishing feat for Lady Gaga, but for a Flemish band, it’s huge.
And all this thanks to a sojourn in francophone Canada. “In 2006, my wife got the chance to work in Montreal,” Van Dessel explains. “I quit my job and followed her. I envisioned it as a sabbatical during which I could focus on music.” That’s precisely what happened, though not the music he foresaw.
In Montreal, he started working for a studio that specialises in music for commercials. He had a little experience in the field of film scoring, having helped some friends out who needed music for their short films. “Having the opportunity to do it on a professional level was a revelation," he says. "Also, I could use the studio to record the songs I was writing.”
After two years, the couple returned to Belgium. Van Dessel, who, despite his degree, was never very attracted to law, decided to fully focus on music. He took the time to turn Marble Sounds into a full-blown band.
“If we hadn’t moved to Canada, I don’t think I would have had the guts to skip my 9-to-5 and plunge blindly into the uncertain realm of music,” he confesses. He’s happy, of course, about how things worked out. “Thanks to scoring work, I can make a living from music now. It’s a varied job. I get the chance to tackle a diverse range of genres, from classical to electronic. I really love that but couldn’t do it in Marble Sounds. And I like having to work with deadlines: It forces me to be structured and disciplined.”
A productive hobby
If you have watched Flemish television in the past month, you might have heard some of Van Dessel’s music. He wrote the piano theme for Unicef’s ad encouraging people to put the organisation in their wills. He also just scored his first feature film, Labyrinthus, which is in cinemas now. “It was an adventure," he smiles. "I had to write 70 minutes of music, and it was recorded by a symphonic orchestra.”
He doesn’t mind that he has to put himself at the service of a director or producer. “With Marble Sounds, I have complete artistic freedom. And I don’t have to make concessions because I don't depend on the band to earn a living.”
He has also sold Marble Sounds songs commercially. “It’s a reality you can’t escape since record sales have plummeted dramatically the past decade. Granted, sometimes it leads to difficult discussions in the band.”
From an early age, Van Dessel went to music school, studying piano. He never had the ambition to become a classical musician. “I didn’t like to practise,” he explains. “I preferred to improvise instead of following the scores. My fingers were too short, too.”
He picked up the electric guitar when the grunge craze broke out more than 20 years ago. “I was almost 30 before I started singing,” he says. “I had to learn to accept the limitations of my voice and to create songs in function of my voice. I’m really glad I made the leap. I’ve discovered that at some moments I really need to sing. It’s a physical thing, it feels like a release.”
He also points out, with a smile: “I’m not charismatic on stage. I know it, but I don’t care.”
In good company
Marble Sounds released its debut album Nice Is Good in 2010, and Dear Me, Look up followed last year. They deal in autumnal post rock, punctuated by belligerent guitars, a stately cello and tufts of electronic impulses, though never all at the same time. At the heart lies Van Dessel’s voice, charmingly complaintive. In one word: melancholy.
“It’s a consequence, not a goal,” Van Dessel points out. “Probably the feeling is linked to my voice. One day, I remember, I let my wife listen to what I thought was a happy song. Her reaction was: ‘If you sing it, it never sounds cheerful’.”
He smiles. “It’s my fate. Though I think that, especially on the second album, all the songs have dismal arrangements. I don’t like to flirt with everlasting melancholia.”
That being said, Marble Sounds did cover Sophia, the group of American Robin Proper-Sheppard, an unrelenting dealer in exquisite melancholia. A kindred spirit? Van Dessel: “I’ve always been a big fan of theirs. But the cover, “Ship in the Sand”, happened very spontaneously. We recorded it, not with the idea to put in on Dear Me, but it was too good not to include it.”
The songs “The Time to Sleep” and “Good Occasions” have touched a tender spot with music fans around the globe. They have been watched, respectively, by 2.7 and almost 5 million people. In the latter case, that is not even accompanied by a stunning music video: it is only the music and a picture of the record sleeve.
“At its height “Good Occasions” counted 7,000 views a day,” say Van Dessel, who offers a kind of explanation for the success. “From the comments, I learned we’re part of a merry-go-round of songs. People start with a song and afterwards click one of the suggestions and, at one point, end up at "Good Occasions". Don’t ask me how we got in there, but all the artists can be called melancholy.”
Other artists in that stream of suggested videos are Icelandic singer Sóley (16 million views) and Australian fivesome The Paper Kites (4 million views). None of them are famous if you look at record sales, but the 21st century being what it is, one’s impact on social media often says more about popularity than do sales.
“Good Occasions” was uploaded by a fan called Omar Gonzalez. “I don’t care about fan-uploads as long as they don’t mess with the music,” says Van Dessel, “or include a link to an illegal download.”
And in case you’re curious if any of this social media earns them any money: “Not one penny, but the record company is looking into it,” says Van Dessel. “Apparently it’s a hell of a job to earn money from YouTube.” Luckily, parallel to the explosion of views, they saw an increase it the number of digital sales.
Marble Sounds: it might not be Van Dessel’s main source of income, but it’s certainly much more than a pastime.
Marble Sounds plays Pukkelpop on 16 August
