The days when the 18-year-old Sanne Putseys made her first stage appearance in Leuven’s Het Depot are long gone. Now known as Selah Sue, her star has risen quickly in the six years since.
Since releasing her eponymous first album nearly two years ago, she has spent studio time with internationally acclaimed soul artists such as Cee-Lo Green and Meshell Ndegeocello, opened for Prince, sold a massive 600,000 albums in Europe and signed a major US record deal, with accompanying tour.
But none of that has gone to her head. “She’s far too down-to-earth for that,” says Mike Naert, director of Het Depot, who was there from the start. “No, really – playing here, singing for a home audience, in front of her closest friends and family, is one of the only things that makes her nervous.”
It’s a sunny day not long before her American tour, and I’m taking a tour of Het Depot with the 23-year-old, praised by MTV as “the heart and soul of Belgium”. Het Depot, a former cinema near Leuven’s train station, was nearing the end of its grand makeover.
“Shit man!” the singer exclaims, seeing an elevator, still packed in plastic, lying on its side on the ground. She takes off her trademark sunglasses, still chewing her gum. Fortunately, the yellow safety helmets we pass by are not obligatory at this point.
She later recalls her first-ever gig: “I remember having kind of a medium desire to play there. I was never the ambitious type.”
That’s probably tough for those familiar with her music – a refined, genre-bending blend of soul, hip-hop, funk and reggae – and her skyrocketing career to believe. But her inner circle is quite aware of this feet-on-the-ground attitude. Better still, they support it because it is helping her survive in the music business.
But let’s go back in time to that first fateful open mike evening. “My brother’s girlfriend was working as a volunteer at Het Depot,” says Selah Sue, sipping from a Coca-Cola light. “She heard me singing once and told me I had to take part in this event for new local talent. I had written one song at the time, ‘Explanations’, and I could do Erykah Badu’s ‘Danger’. I decided to give it a go, not really knowing what to expect.”
Unlike many an open mike participant, her performance took the small audience’s breath away. “These nights are always informal,” Naert says. “People drink beer and only when an artist is really good will they all focus on the stage. But when Sanne was performing, everyone was mouse-still.”
Among them happened to be some major players in the Leuven music scene, including Jonathan “Milow” Vandenbroeck, who was hosting the event. “Afterwards, everyone came to talk to me,” Selah Sue continues. Milow even promised her the opening slot at some of his shows.
“Everyone was very nice and seemed genuinely interested,” says Selah Sue. “But they also reminded me about the record deal Universal had offered to me before.”
In fact, Selah Sue had been “discovered” four years previous. She was doing a music workshop in Dworp, where she met someone who would later record some of her singing. That recording eventually reached the desk of a Universal talent scout. “But I’m really glad I didn’t sign,” she says now. “First of all, their plan was crap: I had to record a single and a video clip almost immediately. But more importantly, I needed more time to figure out what I really wanted.”
Thanks to her maiden performance in Leuven, the singer could surround herself with people willing to focus on the long term. Manager Christoph Cocquyt and booking agent Werner Dewachter, both respected veterans of the Flemish music business, kept the pressure low. “They even allowed me to continue my psychology studies at the university until I was prepared to really choose to pursue a music career. Of course, now I know you can learn much more about psychology by travelling, meeting people and just getting older than by reading books,” she laughs.
What didn’t change was her easy-going personality. “Recently I had to take a plane to Austin, Texas, and because I missed a connection, I was travelling for 27 hours. If you are a control freak, you go crazy. But I am not. I think I have the right character to be an artist.”
She’s also putting things into perspective in a way that belies her 23 years. “I even think having a nine-to-five job is much more difficult than what I do. Or take my boyfriend: He has two kids. That’s a far bigger responsibility. Compared to that, going on tour is more like a holiday.”
Though it’s a holiday with a lot of management. “You know, shopping for groceries is hell for me, or putting the right bottle in the right garbage sack. I’m a real muddlehead, so I’m lucky I can count on a team that brings structure into my life.”
Maybe this perspective comes from “never having this big ambition to become a singer,” she says. “My world would not have fallen apart if I hadn’t made it as a musician. Probably I would have become a psychologist. If my music doesn’t appeal to a US audience, I will not shed a tear. No, I will think: ‘Yes! Now I can finally start making my second album.’ Of course, my career is important to me, but not as important as my boyfriend or my family.”
That’s the reason why these homecoming concerts mean so much to the young woman from Leefdaal, a small village she likes to describe to American journalists as “similar to the place where the hobbits live in Lord Of The Rings’’.
After more than 18 months of
renovations, Leuven’s landmark
Het Depot is finally reopening on
16 November. Vintage chairs from
an old cinema in La Louvière and
more wood in the interior recall
the atmosphere of the building’s
original purpose as a cinema.
The main concert hall now holds
800, while the enlarged foyer can
host smaller gigs. Three rehearsal
rooms, classrooms and a recording
area stress the educational
function of the music centre
that since 2006 has attracted an
average of 50,000 visitors a year.
The cost of the renovations was €5
million, of which €2.7 million was
paid by the city, €1.3 million by the
Flemish Community and €150,000
by the province of Flemish
Brabant.
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