and ... Rudy Trouvé, Stef Kamil Carlens & Tim Vanhamel + a signing session
The best dEUS biography is at I Suffer Rock (not here)
wHAT'S
iN a nAME?
tHAT wHICH wE cALL dEUS
bY aNY oTHER nAME
wOULD sOUND tHE sAME
Hypothesis
#1
THE ETYMOLOGICAL DISPUTE
The word "deus" is from Latin origin. This is a fact. Perhaps it has even older roots in the primitive Indo-European protolanguage, but nobody's mentioned it yet.
Deus means god. Not "God" since the Romans had far more than one deity, no, "deus" is just some god: the god of wine, the god of good sex all year long, the god of small things ...
Hypothesis
#2
THE ICELANDIC BORROWING
Before Björk was called Björk, she played in a great pop/punk band called the Sugarcubes. In 1988, they released their best album called Life's Too Good, and one of the singles was called deus (no capitals !). Tom loved the song ang kept the name.
Ironically, the first line sung by Björk is :
Deus does not exist ...
Antitheses
THE CAPITAL THEORY
dEUS is spelt with a small D because dEUS don't pretend to be gods. But according to my mom, the inverted capitals are a symbol of evil. I'll be damned.
dEUS is spelt with a small D because it looks cool.
dEUS is spelt with a small D because it stands out in print.
dEUS is spelt with a small D because the printer messed it up.
dEUS is spelt with a small D so we all wonder why it's spelt with a small D and keep talking about dEUS even when there's no new album.
Now, there's
an official way to SAY the word :
"dEUS - pronouced like PLAY US"
(it's printed on a yellow sticker from a promo version
of the Suds & Soda single)
Tom Barman
"A fundamental quest ? Well ... The perfect popsong ?"
[01-01-72] Tom Barman funded dEUS in 1991 together with Stef Kamil Carlens. They'd met some weeks before at a jam session at the Monty in Antwerp. He's the only remaining member of the original line-up, and is really the leader of the band. He writes most songs and plays the guitar. He studied film art, and he's the director of most videos the band has made.
He used to play with two bands: in tENERIFE along with Danny Mommens & Craig Ward and in a dance/trip-hop project called General Electrique, none of which released anything. His other collaborations include some musical work on Cinerex's I Spy single, singing on one song of Gorki's Ik Ben Aanwezig album, and singing along with Stef on a song called I'm Not Myself which can be found on Arno's Give me the Gift album. Tom Barman is now 29.
In August 1999 he worked again with Stef [MORE...]
In 2000 he started working on a full-length movie called Friday, Friday Evening, a "soft-neurotic urban comedy" set in Antwerp involving seven tangled characters' stories. His request for state funding has been approved, the basic ideas have been unveiled, and shootings will start in May 2001.
In an interview published on RTBF's website on 14 February, he said that he'd been working on two music projects: one with CJ Bolland and Peter Vermeersch (co-producer of Worst Case Scenario), the other with Steve Dub (Chemical Brothers sound engineer) - he'll sing on his forthcoming big-beat album. He also wrote 4 songs recently.
Klaas Janzoons
"It's healthy to have wide tastes."
[03-04-197?] Klaas is the second earliest member. He joined the band in 1992, some time before they won the Humo Rock Rally contest. He plays the violin and the keyboards.
He sometimes played with another Belgian band called Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung. He joined Zita Swoon during their Sunrise tour in 1997 and he wrote several songs on the soundtrack called Music inspired by Sunrise, a film by FW Murnau (see the Zita Swoon Homepage). He claims he could not stop playing music.
Danny Mommens
Julle De Borgher
"Best thing in my life ? After our Torhout gig, Radiohead came to tell us how much they like our music."
Julle also joined dEUS in 1992. He's also the oldest member of the band (39, but I wouldn't swear it). He studied painting. That's about all I know about him.
Craig Ward
Craig Ward is Scottish. He's graduated in literature. He joined dEUS in 1995 after Rudy Trouvé left the band ; hadn't it done this, he would be teaching literature by now. He plays the guitar and sings. Since his alleged departure from dEUS in early 2000, he's been producing albums for bands like The Frames from Ireland and Idlewild from Scotland.
He's involved in other bands with Rudy : Kiss My Jazz, Cynthia Appleby and Gore Slut, though he never actually plays with the latter. He also contributed to The Frames' I Am The Magic Hand EP. He played along with Tom and Danny in a band called tENERIFE before he & Danny joined dEUS, and in another one called Superalmendrado with Mark Meyers which didn't release anything.
Rudy Trouvé
"I believe that in a few years' time, we can get rid of disc companies thanks to Internet."
> check the Rudy's Great Ideas website !
[31-07-1967] Rudy Trouvé joined dEUS in 1993 and departed in August 1995, after the Lowlands gig. Reasons ? He was afraid of dEUS' growing success (his theory). He was afraid of flying because of dEUS' growing success (Danny's theory). His influence was big on Worst Case Scenario and the difference was clearly heard in In a Bar, Under the Sea.
He's a very busy man. He nowadays plays in no less than five bands : Dead Man Ray, Kiss My Jazz (with a.o. Craig and Stef), Gore Slut, Cynthia Appleby (with Craig) and Lionell Horrowitz & His Big Combo. He's also a great painter : the drawings on all dEUS CD's before The Ideal Crash were his. He's also manager of a small label called Heavenhotel he created for the bands he plays in. There is - well, it doesn't work, but there should be one - a Heavenhotel website.
Stef Kamil Carlens
Stef Kamil Carlens funded dEUS with Tom Barman. He left in 1996, a few weeks before the release of In a Bar, Under the Sea. At the time he said he left because dEUS played too loud. Approximately nobody believed him. It seems there was some problem involving his girlfriend and somebody else in dEUS' staff.
He now concentrates on the wonderful Zita Swoon (formerly known as Moondog Jr and even earlier as A Beatband), the band he funded in 1991 with drummer Aarich Jespers. He also played in Rudy's Kiss My Jazz. He's also a great painter. His dog's called Sammy - wow, this is information ;)
In August 1999 he worked again with Tom [MORE...]
Tim Vanhamel
Tim Vanhamel is very young (22). He played in Evil Superstars until they split in September 1998. I think he deserves the title of Belgium's most skilled guitar player. Incidentally, he's completely crazy. He's from Hasselt, though I doubt there's any bond between those two facts :)
It's not sure yet whether he's a new member or if he's just going to play with dEUS for some months. For the time being, he plays the guitar and the synth and does some backing vocals. He will probably replace Craig Ward if he really leaves.
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