Doing a Global Stretch this Friday afternoon. Dutch nu-punk/neo-pop/neo-Indie band Indian Askin, recorded during the Best Kept Secret 2019 festival from June 2nd of that year.
The brain behind the self-proclaimed “nu-punk band” is Amsterdam multi-instrumentalist and producer Nelson ‘Chino’ Ayala. In 2016, Indian Askin came into the Dutch indie rock scene with the punky debut ‘Sea of Ethanol’, which entered the album charts at #8 and earned an Edison award in the Best Newcomer category in 2017. Successor ‘Another Round’ from 2019 showed that the band had more sonic assets up their sleeve. At the end of 2023, the third studio album ‘Lonely Citizen’ was released, which continues where Another Round left off: eclectic and three-dimensional. The band’s sound continues to grow, but the common thread remains individuality. After years of developing in the lee, he was introduced to producers Peter Kriek and Ariaan Olieroock (16BL/Cubicolor) in 2011 and thus sharpened his songwriting and production skills. Nelson draws inspiration from his Paraguayan (Guaraní) roots, as well as the obsession with punk rock and grunge from the 90s. A tour is planned for February 2025 around the release of new music. Because there is more to come. Much more. Live the band is reinforced by Marc van Dongen on drums, bassist Jasja Offermans, Berend Konink on guitar/keyboards and singer Funda Sevis.
This appearance at Best Kept Secret is what you might consider a “previous incarnation”, since everyone but Chino Ayala left. The result has been carrying on as a solo and supplementing his music with a band during live gigs – that seems to be a thing that’s been popular for a while and it’s worked for several; Tame Impala comes to mind.
Chino Ayala’s Bandcamp page offers a few insights:
Indian Askin is multi-instrumentalist and producer Nelson “Chino” Ayala. In 2020, the previous band formation announced its breakup, leaving Nelson at a pivotal turning point musically, and more broadly, in life, to determine what came next. Over the next couple of years, Ayala grappled with issues of loss, addiction, coping with pain, relationships gone awry, and relationships anew. He also experimented more sonically, spending countless hours in the studio jamming with friends and using (Covid) boredom as an incubator for creativity. The result of this time period is Lonely Citizen, Indian Askin’s third album.
Lonely Citizen finds Nelson exploring his own personal story in perhaps the band’s most intimate work to date. Musically, he nods to his Latin roots, with a focus on percussion and groove being a thread through both the A- and B-sides of the record. Simultaneously, the lyrics find Ayala taking a magnifying glass to his personal reflections on his hometown, Amsterdam. He says on the album, “It’s about feeling sick and tired, and maybe even ashamed, of the place I grew up in and what it’s become. And especially what I’ve become while living my life here. I was born in this machine and I will forever be a part of it, yes. I just can’t shake the feeling that I need to leave this noise behind.”
Lonely Citizen was released in September of 2023.
But to get an idea of the earlier incarnation, there’s this Best Kept Secret performance to dive in and sample.
Get ready for the weekend.
