Arne Van Petegem of Styrofoam finished a North American tour last November, returned to his native Belgium and finished a collaborative album in February, and started work on his own new album last month. He played with Death Cab for Cutie in Amsterdam on June 25th and will play with Low in Antwerp on July 29th. On his last album, Nothings Lost, released in 2004, he worked together with artists Valerie Trabeljhar (Lali Puna), Andrew Kenny (The American Analog Set), Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service), Bent Van Looy (Das Pop), and Alias. In addition, he creates remixes prolifically. He is one of the many strong artists on the Berlin-based Morr Music label whose passion and commitment to his craft shine through. Glitch-pop impresario Arne spoke with us recently.
“lately it seems more as if the music making itself turns into an inspiration”
PE: How did you get into music?
ARNE: I went to music school starting age six and then when I was twelve I moved on to playing guitar. I had my first band when I was fifteen, playing mostly cover versions and a couple years later I got into more noisy pop stuff like sonic youth, dinosaur jr and hüsker dü and that’s when things became more serious and putting out a record of my own seemed possible all of a sudden. After a while I got sort of tired of playing in bands, so i bought myself a four track tape recorder and started experimenting on my own, gradually adding more electronic instruments and computer production to the mix.
PE: What instruments do you play?
ARNE: I play the guitar (electric + aocustic), I sing and I play some keyboards - I guess like most “electronic” producers in that aspect I’m mainly restricted to one fingered melodies. I’d love to be able to really play keyboards, maybe I should take a course or something. :)
PE: What do you like best about what you do?
ARNE: I think the most fascinating thing is the constant search you seem to be on, which can be very frustrating on the one hand, but very rewarding as well when things end up working out. There’s nothing that beats firing up a just finished new song on the ipod and walking through town.
