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Wende Snijders
`I'm a mongrel'
When Wende Snijders (1978) dropped her debut album in 2004, she was
instantly hailed as an outstanding talent. The polymath, schooled in music,
acting and dance, is comfortable in a wide array of styles – from chansons and
cabaret to blistering rock – and has scooped up a wealth of industry awards
for virtually every move she’s made. Success hasn’t clouded her mind, though.
“Acclaim can stifle creativity.”
By Alfred Bos
Snijders’ latest album, her fourth, is an English language singer-songwriter record;
she learned to play the guitar for No. 9, released in October last year. It arrived
after an album of French chansons (Quand Tu Dors, ‘When You Sleep’, 2004), a
collection of torch songs – both Dutch and French - in contemporary arrangements
(La Fille Noyée, ‘The Girl That Drowned’, 2005) and a compilation of live recordings
of familiar and new songs (Chante!, 2008), which featured a bonus dvd of Wende
Snijders’s one-off gig with the Metropool Orchestra that had been broadcasted
live on Dutch television. It’s a stunning run of versatility and barely controlled
assertiveness. And it begs the question: will the real Wende please stand up?
“It’s all me”, she reacts. “I like to play with ‘identity’ as a concept. None of those
stage personalities is a fraud. I don’t think any of them represents ‘the real Wende’.
I don’t believe in identity. I’m not sure there is such a thing as ‘a core’; the core is a
void. People at home are a different person from the one they are at work. That’s
what I project on stage.”
The many faces of Wende Snijders are not masks. “There all different sides of me”,
she explains. “I’m not hiding behind a fabricated persona. I’m not aiming to expose
my private life on stage. I’m a medium for communicating songs. My songs relate
about fictional characters, not about myself. I’m very grateful success has created
the opportunity to explore those different sides of me.”
Amsterdam Sinfonietta
The success of Snijders’ French-language debut album was overwhelming, she
admits. Fresh out of school (Academie voor kleinkunst, ‘Cabaret Academy’,
finished in 2002) and still wet behind the ears, she was in danger of being typecast
as a modern-day chansonnière. “Intuition told me something was off. I am more
than a ‘chansonnière’. You have to actively fight being typecast. Success is great,
just don’t accept it at face-value.”
So two year after being handed an Edison (Dutch music industry award) for her
chanson album, Wende Snijders accepted an Edison Jazz Award for her followup
album. “I’m a bit of a mongrel”, Wende says. “I like many styles of music, I
appreciate The Beatles for keeping re-inventing themselves. I think it’s important
to think out of the box and push the envelope. So awards and acclaim are great,
but they can stifle creativity.”
At Noorderslag, Snijders will perform her latest album, backed by a rockband. Earlier
that very night, she’ll sing chansons and torch songs backed by the 23-piece string
ensemble Amsterdam Sinfonietta. It’s a surreal schedule, very Wende Snijders. “If
you want two opposite sides on one night, here you have it.”
Saturday 16 January @ 3FM Zaal, 23:30 - 00:10
www.wende.nu