From 2018 to 2022, songwriters Rocco Ostermann and Wout Kemkens embarked on a musical journey behind prison walls: they visited Dutch prisons in search of talented musicians/storytellers and tried to tell their stories 'behind bars' through songs. This resulted in an album (Volkskrant: ‘De Niemanders is one of the most impressive Dutch rock albums of recent years’ ★★★★☆), a podcast series, and theatrical live shows.
Rocco Ostermann: "What drives us is to tell the personal story of people who are in distress. Our goal is to show, hear, and feel that we are dealing with people here, not just numbers. What further motivates us is the admiration for people who, despite all adversity, are also resilient and can develop a very strong will to make the best of it. Something from which you can learn a lot.” These motivations led the collective De Niemanders towards a completely new world for album number two.
De Niemanders II
Between December 2022 and January 2024, the collective De Niemanders (with producer Rick Wiegerinck joining the team) visited asylum seekers' centers in the Netherlands with a mobile studio in search of singers, musicians, and their music and stories. The music sessions were filled with pure joy, while the conversations were heavy, hopeless, hopeful, cheerful, and everything in between. The collective came into contact with creative individuals from all over the world, who in turn introduced them to even more artists, writers, and storytellers. Rocco, Wout, and Rick soon realized they needed to offer more than just the music album as a platform, so an entirely unique Niemanders newspaper was born and journalist Christianne Alvarado joined for a six-part podcast series.
Following their instincts, they created a new Niemanders album that became a genuine collaboration between the people they met and themselves. A significant difference from the prisons was that this time the singers and musicians were allowed to be recorded in a mobile studio. As a result, the album is a mix of many singers and languages, telling the stories of their journeys, dreams, families, past lives 'at home,' and their current situation as refugees. There are songs inspired by the stories that residents of asylum seekers' centers told or wrote down, sung by Rocco, while other tracks stem from writing sessions with singers Isma IP, Guy-El Mabiala, Q-Mars, and Hamid Reza Behzadian and are also sung by them. The song material is a creative stew of multicolored music that navigates between swinging afrobeat, high life, desert rock, rootsy psychedelica, but also the alternative rock that Ostermann and Kemkens are known for seeps through. You could say that, except for a single song, each track is a film soundtrack for the text.
Unfortunately, the harsh reality of the asylum procedures also infiltrated some of the flourishing musical friendships. Due to a negative decision by the IND, one of the great singers was forced to leave the Netherlands. This is just one example of the lack of control over – and the nerve-wracking waiting for – an IND decision that unfortunately seems to be an experience every person in an asylum procedure must endure. The asylum process can bring years and years of uncertainty and waiting or sudden deportation.
Rocco Ostermann: "Have you ever scratched your head and wondered: What would have happened to me if I had been born in a war zone, dictatorship, or a country where famine exists? Which turning points, key moments, would I have seized to flee? People have been fleeing from all sorts of things for centuries, wars, dictators, gods, and potentates, who are cheating with their fate cards. Taking matters into your own hands is something that is very understandable because for those who, by pure chance, saw the light of day on the wrong side of luck, there is often no other option. Also, think of America, how it was built by so-called 'fortune seekers.' It is of all times."