Gert van Santen

May 2007: New Albums Moddy and TSLLOHTS

Get the albums here or at Virtual Factory Records. Official release dates will follow.

May 2007: Photoreport

Check out the Modern Management and TSLLOHTS photo-report.

May 2007: New website!

Check out the official website of Modern Management and TSLLOHTS

RAM bands

Read about other bands that were produced by Gert.

Modern Management & TSLLOHTS release mp3-albums

After some 20 years, cult-bands Modern Management and The Secret Love Life of Harry the Shark finally release their first albums. Both bands had a small, but loyal following during the eighties.
The ‘Moddy’ album will be called Cry of the Empty, after their 1983 song, while TSLLOH album is named The World is running out of Time, which seems strangely appropriate for the era we live in now.
Both albums will be released on Virtual Factory Records, a small Dutch label that is known from Wave World, Solipsist Paradise, Marek Szulen and other cult acts.

Our eighties specialist Pbalris d’Orxentin, who has personally witnessed every single Modern Management and TSLLOHTS concert, talks to Gert van Santen, Perry Winkel and Dif, respectively guitarist, vocalist and bassist of both acts.

Pbalris d’O speaks with the Mods

PdO: Why is it only now that these albums are released?
PW: Better now than never. After all, the music is just lying there. It has never been released before, except for the copies we sent to venues trying to get a gig.

PdO: Do you think these albums can compete with more… err… modern releases?
GVS: Personally, I think both albums contain great songs that have their very own style. Also the sound of the instruments is really different from what you usually hear, even today. Check out Perry’s guitar, for example.
PW: Hehe… Yeah, I was playing through an original Leslie speaker system, and I used an Oberheim Filter for weird wahwah sounds. And the blood remains from playing too enthusiastically at gigs must have influenced the sound respectably. There’s nothing like it, hehehe…
Dif: I’m sure that if you don’t tell people, they’ll probably believe the music was made in 2007. OK, back then we were technically not the best, and as far as our vocal talents were concerned, well, let’s say our voices were at least rather original. But I still stand behind all those songs.
PW and GVS: Yeahh…

PdO: How were the gigs in the eighties?
GVS: They sucked. The best thing was the drinks in Beneden – our favourite hangout – after coming home and stowing all our stuff away. We often played for 6 people and a dog. The only time we had a really big audience was sort of by accident, somewhere in 1981. One of the student unions had a huge party, and suddenly this American main act didn’t show up. They asked us – and we had just started – but we said, what the heck, let’s go for it! We had no experience at all, and only a small repertoire of some 12 or 15 songs. Man, what a gig! We were making mistake after mistake. But somehow those 500 people thought it was cool. They all stayed, and we got a huge applause. If I seem to remember correctly, we even got to do an encore. All in all a great experience.
But for the rest, I mean, I guess we were lucky that in those days it was still possible to get any gigs at all. Nowadays the whole band scene is dead; it’s only dj’s or blues. Can it get more boring? I loved the seventies and the eighties, where there were bands playing on every street corner – so to speak.

PdO: What about the sound quality of the albums? I heard you only had cassette tapes as your source material.
GVS: Actually, that didn’t prove to be a problem. It’s incredible what you can do with modern digital techniques these days. We were able to remove almost all the noise from the songs, and with a bit of multi-band compression, EQ and limiting, most tracks actually sound pretty good, and a lot more powerful than the originals. It also helped a lot that KBL’s Thei Munten had made such great recordings back in the eighties.

PdO: Why isn’t Wout den Braber here, the drummer?
GVS: Because he only exists in the real world. He has no computer, e-mail, mobile phone – you name it. But I’m sure that, if he would have had a virtual personality, and he would be here now, he would agree with it all.

PdO: How would you describe the style of your music. Let’s begin with Modern Management.
Dif: I would say it’s some sort of darkish new wave kind of stuff. Not too fast, loads of toms, depressing lyrics, like that. Actually we wanted to be the Cure, but I guess we failed. They got there first. And let’s be honest – they are The Top. Hehehe…

PdO: So no happy songs with Moddy?
PW: Of course there were happy songs, but we threw them away. They were boring.
GVS: Well, the happy songs were the songs we started out with; Cairo by Night, the Kite, that kind of stuff. No happy texts, mind you – only the music was sort of cheerful, but in a childish way. We were working on it to be more mature, though. That was around the time Jan-Bart left us and Perry was added to the band. Since Perry’s playing, and also his songs and lyrics, can be really dark, it was much easier to come up with the type of stuff we were after.

PdO: But then, after a couple of years, you changed the name of the band into The Secret Love Life of Harry the Shark. What was that all about?
PW. Yeah. Suddenly, one summer, we decided our music was real close to getting completely over the top, and we all agreed it was time for a lighter approach. The lyrics were still dark, mind you, but it was the time of nuclear threats, tear-gas, squatters being hit by the anti-riot police, you know what I mean, so we really wanted to sing about that kind of stuff.

PdO: So, could you say that TSLLOHTS was sort of back to your roots, music wise – I mean, with the lighter songs and all that?
Dif: Not really. Well, perhaps it was, but on a higher level – more mature. TSLLOHTS is very strong material, but you won’t go all depressed if it’s being played in the background. You can even dance to it. Modern Management, on the other hand, is not your regular party music. Although we did play a couple of gigs at parties. But that’s another story…

PdO: Are you guys thinking of doing concerts again; a come-back, sort of? Or perhaps even recording a new album?
GVS: Nothing is impossible…
PW: True…
Dif: I’ve heard that too, you know…

PdO: What does that mean?
Dif: I wish I knew…

PdO: OK, one last question. Some people feel your music was 20 years ahead of its time. If that is true, this might be the right time to release it after all. What do you think of that?
GVS: Very true. We have been waiting for the world to catch up with us, and now we’re finally there…
PW: Hehehe…