After their great performance at Noorderslag things became a bit quiet around Seedling. But the three girls and one boy are back on track. Time for an interview...

>> With a John Peel Session and the debutalbum "Elevator tourist" Seedling is back in business. After a period of hard work it seems that everything is going superb. Are you satisfied at this point?

Very, very satisfied. (Besides, where have you been the couple of months between Noorderslag and the Peel session? We played about every toilet in Holland twice in the meantime! Not to mention the ones in Germany too).
(Euhhh) The reason why we're very satisfied at the moment is not only because of the great time we just had, but I know that there are even more exciting things coming up in the next few months... "The future's so bright I gotta wear shades".

>> In 1997 there was sort of a Seedling hype, but after this period the attention faded away, until the beginning of this year. How did you survive that period?

I dunno actually. The thing is, if you really want to make music you don't have a choice. You can be bummed for a few days, but then always a new song will come up and you have no option but to do what the song dictates you to do. And of course it helps if every few months some new project comes up, like going to England for the first time (2 years ago already!) or working on a tribute album. That's a bit how it's been the last few years. And lets not forget that we already put out an EP a year and a half ago...

>> What's the story behind the ten songs on Elevator Tourist?

The album title refers to the feeling of 'going up and down, but not really getting anywhere'. A lot of the songs are about how people these days are just running around, being busy with a whole lot of superficial things: going up and down for kicks, but never getting ahead. The other half of the songs are about the old boy-girl issue (also something which can make you feel like going up and down). Some of these songs turned out to be prophecies for things that only happened after the album was released. Pretty scary when you come to think of it...

>> This question has probably never been asked to you: how was the John Peel session on BBC?

One of the best nights of my little life so far. The 20 minutes we were on air I can still remember every second of. Everything went really well, the people at the BBC we're really nice.. hm, I'm starting to sound like a hippie here, but fortunately: it's all true.

>> Where does Seedling get their inspiration from?

Well, 'the old boy-girl' issue I guess, as mentioned in an earlier question. That's the sort of inspiration you can't really escape. On the other hand I get a lot of 'inspiration' (terrible term) from what I see on TV, in commercials etcetera: the issue of 'popular culture'. I'm a huge fan of Andy Warhol and his whole pop art idea. I draw a lot on his ideas as well.

>> You don't have a Dutch accent at all in your songs. HOW DO YOU DO PULL THAT OFF?

When I was young, my parents always talked english when me and my brother weren't allowed to understand their conversation, so I guess that's how I picked it up. And of course Susanne (our violin player and other singer) lived in the US for a couple of years. For the album we really had to check our accents: she sings with an american accent, mine is really british. But hey! thanx for the compliment.

>> I'm Jealous!! ;-) ...Do you work together with other bands?

Yes, a lot. All Transformed Dreams bands help each other in practical ways and often play with each other (some times even on each others records). But three out of the four Seedling members also play in other bands/ have their own 'solo projects'. It's good to fool around like that, you learn a lot from it. But in the end: we're 'married' to seedling and there lies our priority.

>> Marg, to which band should we pay more attention to?

I defnitely like Zea a lot (droooool, it's a Transformed Dreams band) and also the new Zoppo album is gonna be great. I don't like many other Dutch bands... ehm.. how about the Delgados? Scotland, that is.

>>Which concert(s) will never leave your mind?

You mean considering our own concerts?

>>Yep

Noorderslag 2001 was our ultimate revenge for Noorderslag 1997. In 1997 we had just been together for a few months and didn't know what the hell we were doing there. This time around we just burnt the place! ha ha, true!