Horror Movie EP

Best song I've ever written—or so people keep telling me.

1999. Cosmicart reaches the finals of a music contest on Belgian TV. From that moment on, things go skyrocketing: gigs, rehearsals, studio sessions, more gigs, interviews, you name it. Then, out of the blue, the record company decides not to release our recordings! Why? We're devastated. Soon after that, the band implodes: end of story.

Well, not quite. By 2001, my following band, Denmark, had already started playing Horror Movie live. I'd also recorded a new version of it, for demo purposes. Budget: zero! I played the necessary cello part on a synthesizer.

Months later, in 2002, I asked my teenage daughter—a cello student—if she would be willing to have a go. She was, and she did! (Thank you, sweetie. I love you.)

The recording has been sitting in my archives until now, 20 years later. It's ready for you to stream.

The bonus track is called Spook. It's the same song, basically, in Dutch. A simple guitar-and-vocal demo version that I recorded at home, in 2011. That was one of the first times I did my own singing.

Sweet Amnesia EP

The noughties have barely begun. and suddenly this really promising band I'm in breaks up. Now what? I'm sitting on all these songs I've written, not yet confident enough to sing them myself. Wait! There's a young guy in my hometown—a former finalist of a popular singing contest on Flemish television. Danny Marin and I hit it off. We start a long-lasting friendship and collaboration.

The song I'm presenting to you today, Sweet Amnesia, remains one of my favorites of that period. Years later, I also wrote a Dutch lyric to it. Both versions were never released until now.
I'm still very in love with the song's long instrumental introduction, but for those of you lacking patience, I included radio edits without it. Dutch/English, long/short: which will become your favorite version?