Wende surrounds herself on her new album Star walking with young talent. Colleague S10 took her to a writing camp for the first time. Writing songs in a group seemed terrible to the singer at first.
“When Stien (den Hollander, real name of S10, ed.) asked me to a writing camp, I had no idea what she was talking about,” Wende Snijders tells NU.nl.
She was far from enthusiastic when she heard that at such a camp you create songs together with writers, producers and artists. “It seemed like the seventh ring of hell to me. Otherwise, let’s get undressed and compare our cellulite, I thought.”
Yet Wende is persuaded and, against all expectations, she finds the writing camp great. “So great in fact that I subsequently organized two.” The singer notices that she is growing from it. “In the beginning you want to sink into the ground from shame and discomfort. But it also made me realize how much criticism I have of myself. I am very strict with myself, while I like others when they just try something. It’s for me a good exercise to dare, to show frayed edges in all your nakedness.”
Wende worked extensively with her young colleagues S10 and Froukje on her new album. Photo: NL Image
‘Froukje moved me with her adaptation of the song’
In recent years, 44-year-old Wende has acted as a mentor to the 22-year-old singers S10 and Froukje. “After a career of twenty years, I have some experience to pass on. But I also want to be open to new influences. Through them I see where young people stand today. How they make music and look at themes that I find important. “
Both singers wrote, produced and sang on songs from Star walking. “I let Froukje listen to songs I was working on and let her shoot at them. She helped me with the composition of songs. She also made lyrics more specific, so I could stay away from tile wisdom.”
That’s how Froukje gave the single It is enough also a different twist. For Wende, the song, which is about realizing that being yourself is good enough, was mainly a struggle. “Froukje turned it into a celebration. I thought that was a great find. It moved me.”
Through Froukje and S10, Wende also worked with producers Sim Fane and Jens van der Meij. Partly because of their influence Star walking has become a record with many contemporary pop influences. “For me, pop music is a beautiful vehicle in which you bring people to their feelings. You combine the light with the heavy. There is depth to it. That is what I was looking for in these collaborations.”
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‘Everyone I could see at Lowlands was crying’
Bringing people to their feelings is exactly what Wende does during her performance at Lowlands. When she closes with the sensitive song Hold me the screens show that tears are flowing in the audience. Sniveling people with tissues and smeared mascara fill the screen. “I didn’t fully realize this when I was singing. But the people I could see were crying, yes. I felt a huge connection. I was moved myself.”
For Wende, performing at one of the largest festivals in the country was a crowning achievement. “It was such a release. I worked really hard for that. But it was so warm. At the end I looked like a sister of the Kiss band members,” she laughs.
During this interview, Wende is approached by someone who saw her perform at Lowlands and compliments her. “This has suddenly been happening regularly on the streets since Lowlands. That I can still experience that after twenty years.”
Wende during her performance at Lowlands last month. Photo: NL Image
‘You shouldn’t stick too much to a success formula’
Wende is not afraid that the contemporary sound and sometimes heavy beats of Star walking would be a bridge too far for the audience who got to know her through her chansons. “I’m never enough of a caterpillar. I’m too curious to commit to a genre. I don’t have to choose. People can focus on what they like and ignore what they don’t appreciate.”
For Wende himself, that variety is essential. “If I hadn’t immersed myself in Berlin’s underground electronic music in 2013, I would have Star walking could never make.”
She also tries to teach Froukje and S10 that choosing your own path. “Sometimes that path is something that everyone thinks is crazy and sometimes no one understands a thing about what you are trying. But for a sustainable career you have to do what you want and not stick too much to a success formula.”
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2023-09-10 09:02:00
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