MERAKI, 13/04/2017
HABITANTS are go!!
Dear all! Thank you so so so much for an overwhelming response to Meraki and our indieGOGO campaign! Along with all the kind messages and encouraging words we received, we also received much more donations than we would have thought. It gives us all the reason to give this album all our best and we'll keep you posted along the way. X
Dear all,
This is Meraki and we are Habitants.
Habitants are the living proof that atmosphere, talent and honest music can still prevail in an ailing music industry. With a solid rock history, Hans and René Rutten, members of the Dutch band 'the Gathering' (on hiatus since 2013), decided to start a new band in 2015. Soon they found an extra guitar player and songwriter in Gema Pérez.
When the three started rehearsing in their hometown Nijmegen, they found the proper dark atmosphere and identity in a very natural way. It soon became clear to them that they needed clear vocals to contrast with the (dark) music. Hans and René knew Anne van den Hoogen (vocalist Rosemary & Garlic) when they worked with her recording The Gathering’s ‘The West Pole’ album back in 2009. After recruiting Mirte Heutmekers on bass guitar, the band was complete and ready to go.
With a mix of atmospheric and dynamic melodies and soft and heavy electronic and organic beats, the music of Habitants can be best described as film music noir. A slow rollercoaster ride from bright colourful lights to uncomfortable pit dark caves. Habitants wants to take you to another world. To find this new habitat, both guitar players (and spouses) René and Gema, searched and rehearsed a lot to find their unique guitar sound. René even built his own guitar fx pedals to find the right sound and feeling.
Meraki is the first song by Habitants, it’s a small gift but also an invitation to you. All of us, Hans, René, Mirte, Gema and Anne are eager to make more of this music happen. Our drive is that we strongly feel we can create a mysterious and magical musical world we can all escape and wander around in. We think Meraki is the first hamlet in this scenery. We want to build on. Our plan is to release our debut album in 2017.
But we realize that we can only do this together with you. That’s why we are inviting you to become a Habitant, a part of our band. As a Habitant, you will be closely connected to us trough this process and we will invite you to give us input and inspiration. In return we will do our best to grasp and record that musical world we already feel a part of. Like Meraki all music needs to be recorded, mixed and mastered properly and this will take most of our goal money. If we reach more than our goal we will spend it live-show preparations.
Of course you can choose how to participate, that’s why we thought of what we can offer you. Maybe you just want the album digitally when it’s ready or maybe you want one of René’s self-built Habitants effects or Gema's photo book. Maybe you want to be a part of our special Winter Evenings next year or maybe you want the CD or Vinyl-edition of the album. The vinyl edition will be a limited edition of 500, all numbered and signed. Of course you can also just make a donation.
We strongly believe that we can create something special with all your help. If we reach our goal, we will finish Habitants’ debut album in December 2017. Please contact us via our FB page if you have any questions, suggestions or idea's about our campain.
We cannot wait to start.
Hans, René, Gema, Mirte, Anne
www.habitantsmusic.com
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