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Highlighting talent from the North
Hit the North is a unique collaboration between festivals, media, venues and educative institutions from the north of the Netherlands. Hit the North is established to stimulate professional talent development in Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe. Northern pop culture is unique, but often artists experience many difficulties that hold them back from really breaking through.
Over a period of one year nine participating acts are offered knowledge, facilities and network. The goal? To enhance their professional music career. Hit the North is focused on practical experience. Participants will participate in several bootcamps and get a chance to play on a stage during Eurosonic Noorderslag in January. The Hit the North-programme is necessary for new and upcoming artists, because the making it in and understanding the music industry has proven to be difficult. Especially, knowledge of the field and the artistic development need extra attention and improvement.
Mission
The goal of Hit the North is to provide nine talented pop artists from the north of the Netherlands with a project focused on coaching and professionalism. This project is meant to improve both the artistic and the business skills of the artists in order to achieve a significant development in their future career.
Hit the North 2019
Participating acts in 2019 are: Woe Blind Birds, Lester Blackfield, YVI, Daisy, Mary Confurius, Nadua, Small Town Bandits, Cirrus Minor en Meadowlake. They will perform at House of the North during ESNS in Brouwerij Martinus.
Woe Blind Birds
Woe Blind Birds makes meticulous music,
looking for beauty, peace in the daily chaos.
Think Radiohead, but also Sigur Rós and
The Flaming Lips. The band from Leeuwarden
with former members of The Future’s Dust played besides the Netherlands also in Sweden.
Lester Blackfield
This band started in 2018 by musicians who
played along for some years in the Frisian popscene. Lester Blackfield tends to look at the world around them and decides it is raw and sick, but in a packaging of perfect filters, pictures, smells and colours. Lester is happy to contribute! Expect dance-rock with cynical lyrics like De Staat or Gorillaz.
YVI
YVI, also known as Diederick Brandsma, writes storytelling, melancholic but also comforting songs about insecurity, doubt and sadness. His voice and songs reminds us of Damien Rice and Glen Hansard, while the band arrangements reminds us of Bon Iver and Elbow. After a successful Popronde season he released his first album on April 11 2019.
Daisy Bellis
Daisy is a young singer-songwriter, inspired by
the likes of Kate Bush, James Taylor and Aurora. Her own songs are influenced by jazz, classical and pop music. Each one of them has its own story to tell.
Mary Confurius
Combining light and dark in her music,
Mary Confurius creates an intimate setting with her warm guitar sounds and honest lyrics.
Straight from the heart, from vulnerable to
powerful and sometimes controversial.
Nadua
Nadua Kramer is a born singer and learned to
play the guitar through YouTube. Her music is influenced by artists like Ed Sheeran, Blanco White, Sleeping at Last and Dilana Smith. Losing her father inspired her to write songs of her own. The 19 year old songwriter from Assen writes songs about losing loved ones, global injustice and personal frustrations.
Small Town Bandits
Small Town Bandits is a four-headed pop band
from the city of Groningen. The group characterizes through their melodic pop songs with vocal harmonies. They describe their musical style as a mix between folk and pop.
Cirrus Minor
Cirrus Minor is an alternative stoner rock band from Groningen. The band started in July 2017 and played her first show at the beginning of 2018. The music is build up from a mix of up-tempo stoner rock ’n roll and pop rock. Think Kyuss meets Foo Fighters.
Meadowlake
Meadowlake is a band originated from friendship. The band from Groningen consists out of three men and two women, making music as close friends. The members know eachother since 2006 and making music since 2012. The music describes itselves as indie, dreampop, post-rock and ambient. Think Beach House and The National.
Hit the North 2018
The first edition (2017-2018) of Hit the North was a great success. The four organized bootcamps took place in Neushoorn (Friesland), Eurosonic Noorderslag (Groningen), De Muziekcoöperatie (Drenthe) and at Vlieland before Into The Great Wide Open (Friesland). All were received very well by the participants. Besides the bootcamp days there was also room for individual coaching. During ESNS18 Brouwerij Martinus in Groningen was renamed “House of the North”. It was the place were the talent of the north could meet each other. During the day there was room for workshops, discussions and presentations. In the afternoon and evening there were drinks and performances of artists from the North, including the Hit the North-participants.
Participating acts in 2017-2018 were: The Heck, Sorry John, Saint Martinez, Boyz in the Woods, FENN, Hollow Men, Katie Koss, Esther de Jong and Pendants.
