On March 15 Clocktopus will release their self-titled debut album. Clocktopus is a new supergroup consisting of Maarten Rischen (Shaking Godspeed, Tommy Ebben & The Small Town Villains), Wout Kemkens (Shaking Godspeed, Iron Jinn, De Niemanders), Tommy Ebben (Komodo), Thomas van den Berg (Amber Arcades, Alamo Race Track), Zac Chapman (Electric Company), Ferdy van der Singel (producer of Bløf, Ruben Hein) and producer Rutger Drenth (a.o. KRACH).
Initiator, multi-instrumentalist and producer Maarten Rischen has played at almost every venue and festival in the Netherlands. In 2016 he was ready for a radical change of scenery that lead him to China for several years, and then Thailand. With half a decade of playing with local and traveling musicians under his belt, in 2022 he saw the time fit to invite his old music buddies from the Netherlands to his new habitat. It took little persuasion for the Dutch delegation to come to Thailand. There was no preconceived musical concept, nor a plan to form an official band – the only goal was the joy of simply making music together. The music that emerged, however, and the mutual chemistry (both in the studio and on stage) begged for them to turn it into a real band.
Somewhere in the jungle a makeshift studio was erected under a palm leaf-roof over a wall-less bamboo construction. This unusual recording setting was of course pleasantly exotic, but also caused quite some practical inconveniences that asked for some inventive incentives. The instruments and equipment suffered greatly from the Thai temperatures and sea-side winds permeating the space with wafts of salty warm air. And, if you listen carefully, you can hear the echos of giant frogs and crickets in the background, wildlife traversing the studio’s direct surroundings and the calls of many a jungle bird, here and there in the final songs. The days were enveloped in scorching heat and hellish tropical storms – but the band marched on and recorded a full-length album within the span of a month.