Kregel interview: ‘The unifying power of music should not be underestimated’

Kregel is a Belgian band from Limburg that formed in 2016. Looking for a short, punchy name, they settled on Kregel—a word that suggests stubbornness, contrariness, and, above all, a refusal to submit. While they describe themselves as a Rock band, that label feels somewhat too broad, as their influences clearly lean towards Post-Punk and New-Wave. One of Kregel’s defining characteristics is that they sing in their native language, Dutch. Their lyrics are personal yet compelling, tackling serious subjects with a touch of humor and a rich sense of imagery. Influences such as Aroma Di Amore are never far away, and listeners will inevitably notice the connection with this important touchstone of the Belgian underground scene. However, Kregel is certainly no cheap imitation; they have developed a distinctive sound and personality of their own. Kregel is an idiosyncratic trio with a strong DIY ethos, a mindset that has resulted in a remarkable discography comprising seven EPs to date. Simply numbered “#1” through “#7”, each release features four exclusive tracks. Their latest EP, “#7”, released on Wagonmaniac Music, is another triumph and the direct inspiration for this interview with Bart Timmermans, Sven Derwa, and Jeroen De Smet. Kregel: a musical treasure from Belgium that has so far remained largely hidden from the rest of the world… (Picture credits by BV Fotografisch Atelier Paul Delaet / Interview courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: If I’m not mistaken, Kregel was founded 10 years ago and has released around seven EPs to date. You are gradually making a name for yourselves in the Flemish underground scene, but to an international audience, you still remain somewhat like ‘aliens’. How would you best introduce Kregel to a wider international audience through your key achievements, influences, and future prospects?

Sven: Kregel has been around for about 10 years now. We are a Rock trio consisting of Bart (also frontman of both Vandal X and Flipo Mancini) on vocals, drum and bass programming, and occasional keyboards, while Jeroen and I play guitar.

Jeroen: We have been playing together since 2008. At first, we were a quintet (Feetfetish), with Bart playing bass. After the departure of the last/10^th drummer, we became a quartet (‘Salk). In 2016, our singer had had enough, Bart took over on vocals, and Kregel was born in its current form.

Bart: The best introduction to Kregel can be found on the streaming services, where our tracks are available. What you hear there is Kregel. Presenting ourselves to an international audience is a little more difficult because our lyrics are written in Dutch, and they are just as much a defining part of a Kregel song as the music itself. We would not call ourselves ‘aliens’: we are three friends who have been meeting in a rehearsal basement more or less every week for about 15 years, working on our songs and getting a lot of happiness out of it.

Sven: That does not mean our music is necessarily a celebration of happiness and joy, because we write songs about our personal concerns and social issues, and unfortunately, it is not all sunshine and roses…

Bart: Apart from the seven EPs we have released so far, there are not many other achievements that would make a huge impression on an international audience. Two notable exceptions are the two support slots we played for P.I.L. in May this year (Mr. Lydon is, after all, the godfather of us all; so we guess all of your readers know him), which received a lot of positive reactions.

Jeroen: We should also mention our two ‘international tours’. In 2023, we were invited by the John Peel Centre for Creative Arts in England to play a concert, and we added a pub show in London to the trip. Last autumn, we were invited by Mekanic Bird, a kindred-spirit band from Saint-Omer in northern France, to spend a weekend there playing two bar shows of the kind we usually do: for a very small, but always enthusiastic audience.

Sven: What are Kregel’s plans for the future? We hope to make music together for many more years, release EPs, and regularly be invited to play that music live. We like to let things happen naturally, without too much planning.

Q: You do not hide the fact that the Post-Punk of the ’80s and ’90s has had a strong influence on your compositions. What exactly made those years and that musical style so magical, and what elements of it still remain today in Kregel’s sound?

Bart: The three of us grew up in the 1980s, and that was when our musical tastes were formed. Although we did not know each other at the time, we were apparently all particularly drawn to (Post-)Punk and New-Wave, and to anything that leaned in that direction. It seems obvious to us that those influences resonate in the sound we produce in 2026, but we cannot pinpoint exactly which elements they are.

Sven: In any case, it is not as though we had a very specific idea of the sound we wanted to pursue when Kregel was formed. We never even explicitly discussed it. The only starting points we had when we decided to continue as a trio were that the lyrics would be in Dutch, and that we would use a computer as our rhythm section. The ‘Kregel sound’ — insofar as such a thing can be said to exist, because our sound is evolving too — is therefore not the result of extensive prior discussion, but of playing together. The only criterion we use is that all three of us are happy with a song.

Q: Internationally, choosing to sing in your native language, Dutch, can be seen as a challenge, but at the same time it highlights your originality—combined with lyrics that are sometimes humorous yet, in my opinion, still carry a certain depth. That raises the question: why singing in Dutch, what is this depths of the lyrical content and is it an option for you to ever sing in another language?

Jeroen: As mentioned, choosing to write in Dutch was a conscious decision from the very beginning. We do not want to write throwaway songs, but at the same time, we do not want to put overly explicit ‘messages’ into our lyrics. We want to make songs about subjects and feelings that matter to us and occupy our minds, without wanting to impose anything on our audience. With Kregel, there is no finger-wagging; rather, we use down-to-earth and original ways of expressing our feelings about certain subjects, wrapped up in compact, almost slogan-like lyrics with a large dose of (dark) humour.

Bart: All of that would not work for us in a language other than our mother tongue, even if this can be a barrier to our ‘international career’. Moreover, Dutch is a very evocative language, with lots of double meanings and idiomatic expressions, so it can occasionally make a perceptive listener raise an eyebrow. We briefly considered translating the lyrics when we were invited to England, but precisely because of those double meanings and idioms, we could not arrive at an acceptable result, so we decided against it.

Sven: On the other hand, the ‘disadvantage’ of making music in a small language should not be overstated: we regularly play in the French-speaking part of Belgium, and the audience reactions are no different from those of Dutch-speaking audiences. We noticed the same thing in England when we were there: the unifying power of music should not be underestimated.

Q: Another characteristic of Kregel is that, so far, you have only released EPs, each containing different, exclusive tracks. You are now at seven in total. Why this choice, and what is your stance on releasing a full-length album? Do albums still make sense in a world where most listeners rely on streaming platforms and curated playlists?

Bart: The fact that we release our tracks in groups of four on EPs is actually purely coincidental, as is the case with many things involving Kregel. In 2016, we independently released a self-titled debut EP with four tracks, pressed onto 300 CDs. In 2019, we had 12 tracks ready that we wanted to release as an album, but once everything had been recorded in our home studio, the COVID crisis broke out… With the entire live sector shut down, we came up with a completely different strategy from quarantine: between June and September 2020, we released a new EP online on the 4^th of every month. The first was the 2016 debut EP, which was remixed, remastered and released as “#1”. The next three were logically called “#2”, “#3” and “#4”. These were released online only, and each was accompanied by a video clip, in the hope of generating as much online attention as possible.

Sven: We did not think the EP formula was such a bad idea, and when we had another eight  tracks ready in 2022, we released “#5” and “#6” online, one month apart. We did physically release both EPs on a vinyl album, with a “#5” side and a “#6” side. In the meantime, we have almost come to regard the idea of four-track EPs as self-evident, and so “#7” followed in March of this year. We are currently working on “#8”…

Jeroen: It is not that we do not want to release an album, but our productivity is rather low, so it would take us two or three years to write and record enough material for one… For now, we are aiming for one EP a year (although we have to admit that even that is probably a little too ambitious for “#8”…), and that also keeps things a little exciting for us.

Q: Speaking of those EPs, especially the latest “#7,” which took a while to arrive—by the way—to what extent is this new release different from, or innovative compared to, the previous ones? How did it come about? What were the different stages you went through, and what were the biggest challenges you had to overcome?

Sven: The big difference between “#7” and its predecessors was that this latest EP was not recorded in our own home studio with Bart behind the controls. For this EP, we called on a good friend, Alessio Di Turi, who has a professional recording studio, and we spent three days there working on the recordings. By then, we knew what it was like to do everything ourselves, and we were particularly curious about the added value of a ‘real recording studio’, and we have to say that it pleasantly surprised us.

Jeroen: Moreover, this way of working had the advantage of taking some of the pressure off Bart during the recording sessions, allowing him to concentrate fully on his musical contributions and leave the technical concerns to Alessio.

Q: How does collaboration within Kregel work, and what creates the chemistry between you? By the way, what is your musical background?

Bart: Our collaboration can be summed up briefly and concisely as ‘plug in and play’. We get together (almost) once a week at around 9 p.m. and play until about 11 p.m. After more than 15 years, we know each other inside out and know what to expect from one another. We create our songs together during these more or less weekly gatherings. Starting from a simple idea, we puzzle over the lyrics and music until that one magical moment when everything falls into place and we exchange a satisfied look of understanding: ‘OK, another song done!’ That process can go quickly, but sometimes it can be painfully slow: anywhere from a few rehearsals to ten or so. It has also happened that we spent five or six rehearsals tweaking a song before concluding at some point: ‘This isn’t going anywhere’… Without many words, we stop and move on to another idea… Different and better, no drama.

Jeroen: We are not formally trained musicians and learned everything in the finest DIY Punk tradition. Bart has been the frontman of Vandal X and Flipo Mancini since his teens. I started a band when I was 16, in which I was the singer, but that role did not suit me. I stopped when I was 18 and bought a second-hand guitar. In the years that followed, I made a few half-hearted attempts to start new bands. It took many years before I happened to meet Sven and arranged to jam with him. That led to Feetfetish, and the rest is Kregel history.

Sven: Before Feetfetish, I had never committed to a permanent band. I did have a guitar, which I learned to play without much of a plan, sometimes with friends, but it was only with Feetfetish that it became a regular thing.

Jeroen: Those weekly rehearsals have by now become almost a physical necessity: putting the daily hassles aside and creating ‘Something Beautiful’ together with a few good friends — that is what it is all about for us!

Sven: But there is also the romance of being ‘on the road’ together: the rituals of coffee breaks at motorway service stations, loading our gear, soundchecks, the concerts themselves, of course (and the kick they give!), packing everything up, and driving home at night…

Bart: Not to forget the wonderful encounters! With organizers, promoters, venue volunteers, other bands, but above all with the audience, who are invariably enthusiastic. We seem to be part of a small but very welcoming scene of free-spirited people, connected by the magic of the underground.

Q: You already mentioned it, but recently, you had the honor of opening for none other than P.I.L. here in Belgium. How was that experience, and what was the encounter like with the one and only Johnny ‘Rotten’ Lydon?

Sven: Indeed, it was a great honor, even though we were filling in for the tour’s regular support act! We had been briefed beforehand that Mr. Lydon was rather ‘a man unto himself’ and did not like to be ‘bothered’ before or after a concert. Naturally, we respected that (the man had already been touring for months), and we were more than happy simply to be there at all and do our thing.

Bart: Afterwards, we again received nothing but positive reactions to our gigs, along with excellent merch sales!

Jeroen: Those two support slots were genuine milestones in Kregel’s existence! It was the first time we had played in such large, highly professional venues (Botanique in Brussels and TRIX in Antwerp), which were also almost sold out. What a luxury: perfect stage sound, and even a few stagehands at our disposal (as we discovered after we had already set up our gear…). All those circumstances, combined with the great reactions from the audience, made us feel as though we had risen above ourselves… Moreover, the very strong P.I.L. shows gave us, as ‘older youngsters’, hope for the future.

Q: What else is written in the stars for Kregel?

Sven: We have no idea. The only thing we do know is that we still get together every week with an enormous amount of pleasure, as we have been doing for more than 15 years, and that this has become an essential part of our existence. We hope that can continue for a long time, with the occasional concert (although we would like to play more shows than we actually do…), the release of new songs, and everything that comes with ‘being in a band together’, but above all the great pleasure we get from knowing that other people also enjoy what we do.

Jeroen: After our two nights in the shadow of John Lydon, we agreed that we would at least keep going until we are 80…

Bart: And now we can only hope that the stars won’t write a different story…