Anyone who sees the Dawn Brothers play, inevitably gets sucked into the musical whirlwind soaring across the stage. It’s a clash of sounds and styles, with rock, folk, blues and soul being mixed and stirred into an irresistible cocktail. It’s this feeling of ‘what’s going on here’ that makes Rotterdam-based Dawn Brothers a band you want to be part of yourself. A band with perfect musical chemistry, one that oozes the joy of playing and has the love for music racing through each and every vein.
With their no-nonse mentality, the Dawn Brothers seamlessly fit into the modest community of the famous port city. But don’t be fooled by their nonchalance: their contemporary interpretation of roots music shows that here stands a group of musicians who know damn well what they’re doing. This is also apparent on their new record ‘Alpine Gold’, which will be released later this year through Excelsior Recordings and on which the band casts a wide array of spells upon their audience.
2017 saw the release of their début album, ‘Stayin’ Out Late’, which became an unexpected success and also received rave reviews. ‘Vampire’ was a hit in the Dutch and German indie charts and landed the band a kickstart: they toured the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, France and Hungary and played more than 200 shows in two years. They impressed many with their performance at the WDR Rockpalast Crossroads festival in Germany and received the honorable title of ‘OORtalent’ during their own country’s Popronde event. They also played the Oppikoppi festival in South-Africa and flew across the Atlantic to perform at the legendary Americanafest in Nashville, USA – the first Dutch band to do so.
The second album, ‘Classic’, appeared a year later, followed by headline tours through the Netherlands and Germany and two tours supporting fellow Dutchmen DeWolff. It was DeWolff with whom they would work together once again in 2019 for ‘Next Of Kin’, a project friend and singer-songwriter Tim Knol was also involved with. The results of this collaborative effort were a six song EP and a tour through the Netherlands with the newly formed collective.
They would follow this up with ‘Dusk’ (2021) and ‘Double Cream’ (2022). The latter, again a collaboration with DeWolff, received, beside favorable reviews, a nomination for an Edison award, one of the Netherland’s most prestigious music awards. It was also the first appearance of new bass player Tammo Deuling.
If the basis of the dish is good, you really only need a couple of quality ingredients. Everything else is just noise and distraction. This also goes for the Dawn Brothers, for whom their new album ‘Alpine Gold’ marks a return to the energy of their first record. No frills, no bullshit, they just wanted to make a good album. The songs that ended up on ‘Alpine Gold’ were written and recorded within the span of two months. This happened in the Electric Monkey studio in Zaandam, where the band, together with producer Paul Willemsen, set out to record a slab of musical magic and mystique.
They may be modest by nature, on ‘Alpine Gold’, the Dawn Brothers are not afraid to open Pandora’s Box and flood their listeners with a wave of exciting, original and creative music that will leave them mystified.
‘Alpine Gold’, the new album by Dawn Brothers, will be released on October 27th through Excelsior Recordings.
Rafael Schwiddessen: drums
Bas van Holt: guitar and vocals
Rowan de Vos: keys and vocals
Tammo Deuling: bass and vocals