Only 16 but with a voice much older, angel-faced singer-songwriter
Jasper Erkens will be the youngest artist ever to perform at Rock Werchter when he takes the stage on 4 July.

Werchter has been voted the best music festival in Europe several
times over, and the honour of performing usually goes to artists at the pinnacle of their career or who are part of the global pop establishment, like Placebo and Oasis, headlining this year.

Having only released his debut album The Brighter Story in March, Erkens doesn't fit that bill yet. But he's on his way. With the number-one hit "Waiting Like a Dog" and his new single "Stay Alive" steadily creeping up the Belgian charts, he sells out gigs in Flanders replete with hordes of screaming teenage girls.

"I wouldn't be a boy if I didn't like them," he tells me. "I have lots of female fans and, for them, it's not all about my music. Sometimes I think to myself, ‘do I do this for me, do I do this for the music, or do I do this to be an icon?' I don't know. But sometimes it's really fun."

Erkens is keen to show he is more than just a pretty face. "Magazine covers and posters in magazines make me a sort of youth idol, but now I want to prove that it's not only what I'm about. I want to prove I'm a real musician," he says.

Playing at Werchter is the perfect opportunity, although it has taken him by surprise. "A year ago I was nowhere," he says. "Now Werchter contacted me! Nobody says no to Werchter," he laughs. "Many bands really are jealous."

Erkens, who lives in Diest, will be opening the Marquee, the smaller of the two stages, on Saturday. The line-up, which includes Franz Ferdinand, Grace Jones and Kings of Leon, sold out last month, and an estimated crowd of 80,000 will be there. Even if a fraction of the crowd heads for the Marquee, it'll still be a staggering audience for Erkens. "It will just be me and my guitar, so I think I will be a little nervous," he notes.

But he intends to make the most of his backstage pass and will be rushing back from playing a gig in Tervuren the same day, to hang out with Kings of Leon.

Erkens has been performing since his parents gave him a guitar when he was 11. "I just took every opportunity to play," he explains. "I played in front of my family and my friends, and I played on the streets."

Fate intervened. He was discovered busking on the street and offered a gig as a support act in Peer, just east of his hometown. "Once, when I was singing, somebody came up to me and said: ‘I've got a concert for you.' It was my first concert. I was really excited. It was really nice. I was about 12 or 13."

But things really only took off when Erkens' voice broke. Hearing his new voice, friends and family encouraged him to enter music competitions. When he came in second in Humo magazine's career-making Rock Rally last year, he started considering music as a future. "That was the moment when I thought, right, I wanna be a musician."

But the juggling act with school is taxing. "It's kind of difficult and really mental," says Erkens. "Sometimes I have to study, sometimes I have to perform - the change is really difficult. But I still succeed both in school and in music. I want to make my money
with music."

Having just discovered American singer-songwriter Terence Trent D'Arby in his father's record collection, Erkens is also currently listening to Kings of Leon and Nick Drake. But his real inspiration comes from Irish rock musician Damien Rice. "He made me make music," says Erkens. "When I heard his music, I thought, oh right, I have to finish my songs, I have to write good lyrics, I have to perform them on stage in front of an audience. He's my springboard."

Erkens composes his own songs, with one eye on the audience, starting with a riff and a feeling. "I write about something that really happened or maybe I will make up a story. Suppose I got dumped by somebody - it's never happened to me, but just suppose. I'd start with a sad feeling," he says.

He keeps his other eye on the future. "I really like producing songs. Maybe I will study production," he says. "Producing is something I can really see myself doing when I'm old. When I'm 18."

www.jaspererkens.be