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Marc DevisscherMarc Devisscher was born in Brasschaat, Belgium. He started to play the clarinet in a brass band, but his real passion was being a drummer. His parents didn’t like the idea of a drummer at home. As a result, playing the guitar was the best option to get as close as possible to the ‘real’ rock feeling.
Once upon a time in the mid eighties, on an obscure Tiroler-holshackerbuab’n evening, a good-looking waitress told Marc that her band was looking out for a bass player. Only to impress her, he replied: “O, I love to play the bass.” This was his very first introduction in playing in a band. One problem: Marc didn’t have a bass guitar and he never saw one close enough to touch it. All that showing off led to one of the best decisions he ever made: run to the music shop, buy a (cheap) bass guitar, and start to rehearse a lot (in the beginning even without an amplifier). After this first band, Marc started to play the bass in a cover band with Jo Francken (now a well-known producer) and his brother Hans Francken (also producer and well-known keyboard player at for instance Blue Blot, Jan Leyers, Kommil Foo and a lot of other bands.) Although this band never made it to the stage, Marc learned here to play the bass guitar. The art of covering could not satisfy Marc’s need to express himself musically. Consequently he started a band ‘The Morning After Pill’ (1998-1990) with Mathias Franssens (drums) and Bert D’hooge (guitar, now known for his band ‘ZAAM’ and a lot of previous bands e.g. ‘Planet G-Force’). They played some gigs in bars like Pastel in Ekeren. After Bert D’hooge left ‘The morning After Pill’, a new band was formed with guitar player Andy Giebens (also known from ‘Oeps, wrong planet’): ‘Maja’.
‘Maja’ was a psychedelic instrumental music-band. After a few gigs, Andy left the band. Marc and Mathias were searching to form a new band and found a bunch of freaky people to restart Maya (now with a ‘y’) (Marc Devisscher (bass), Mathias Franssens (drum), Thomas Franssens (trumpet), Tom Vervoort (didgeridoo), Peter Verwimp (guitar and vocals), Patrick De Bekker (guitar), Kris van Deuren (samples), Jasper (percussion)). Maya was a well-known underground psychedelic core band. They released two albums: ‘Slow escape’ (1996) and ‘Biocide’ (1997) and played in several European country’s both as main- and support-act (e.g. support for ‘Boy’s against Girls’ in Köln). After the second album Maya split up. Again Marc and Mathias were bandless. Nevertheless, there were a lot of opportunity’s to play music with other musicians at Muziekruimte (‘Musicspace’), a rehearsal community founded by Marc in 1993. A lot of friends and musicians of the region of Antwerp used the facilities of Muziekruimte and enjoyed the philosophy and spirit of freedom that lived in this community. After a while, the new band ‘Ploink’ emerged from Muziekruimte: The very start of it was a gig at ‘Pulptuur’ in 2001. Only for this event ‘Ploïnk’ consisted of Dimitri Daggelinckx, Mathias Franssens, Rohal de Ridder (played with El Fish, Roland Van Campenhout, Oeps wrong planet, Durango…), Kris van Deuren and Marc Devisscher. After this one-off event, ‘Ploïnk’ went on with two bass players (Dimitri Daggelinckx and Marc Devisscher) and a drummer (Mathias Franssens) performing instrumental music, aiming for filmic atmospheres and emotional floatings. For a short period the band was supported by Kris van Deuren (samples). After a long period of enjoying the rehearsals and chilling on a regular basis (musical chilling was the main aim), Mathias introduced new influences by engaging Carry van Hoof with her inspiring vocals. The second rehearsal, Carry introduced guitar player Michael Taeymans. They already played together in an acoustic project in the Muziekruimte rehearsal room next to ‘Ploïk’. This collaboration transformed ‘Ploïnk’ into ‘Moïst’: a full-grown band with mutual influences of acoustic guitar, psychedelic sounds, heavy core, freaky drums, sometimes wicked and breakable vocals on a foundation of take-it-low-and-slow basses. Moïst always tends to create filmic or epic sound stories with punchy serendipity’s. This is what you can expect from the present-day ‘Moïst’. …………….. I understand that you were into music since you were very young? Yes. As a little boy, my dad forced me to follow music courses at the age of 9, only as an enforcement for his brass band. In order to suit this aim, I chose the clarinet, which was not exactly my preference. Because I already played the wooden flute, I thought it would be easy to learn the clarinet. I can tell you: this was a big miscalculation. How did you evolve to the bass guitar? In the brass band I got acquainted with the drums. I was still a little child and every time the brass band took a pause, I tried to play the drums. Because the brass band already had a drum section, there was no opportunity for me to become a drummer. Following my own intentions at the age of 10, I secretly followed drum lessons. Since these lessons took all my savings, I was forced to tell my little secret to my parents. Result: exit drum lessons. Unfortunately my eager to play rock music never silenced. The salvation came when a girl invited me to join her band as a bass player. Showing off, I firmly replied: “I am the one you are looking for!” One tiny problem: I never played bass guitar before. This was no obstacle what so ever: I, again secretly, bought a cheap bass guitar, hiding it under my bed and started to learn the bass guitar on my own. What kind of music do you like? From the very beginning, I liked music that has the magic power to abduct me from the daily practical worries. I perceive (although this is a cliché) music as a universal language of emotion that evokes an atmosphere of freedom and thinking without boundaries. When I play music, it always works therapeutically: it enables me to wander in a mental state of mindfulness and flow. When jamming and improvising with other musicians, this flow arises when all the individual sound creations melt together into one emotional expression, evoking strong visual suggestions. In my opinion, instrumental music is the best expression of this flow and the more the voice can be treated as an instrument and less as a story-teller, the more breath-taking the flow experience. |