Shovels, The
The Phoenix Project
The Shovels have existed for about 25 years in varying line-ups (including Dave Schroyen and Bart Vandebroek from Evil Superstars, Nele Janssen from Peuk, Tim Brown from Starfighter, and currently also Jonathan Frederix from HEISA and Tom Vienne from Tonsils and the inevitable Niels Hendrix (duh). But the brain behind the band is and remains Erik Debny, a songwriter from Hasselt who has since grown into a cult figure. Averse to all commercial trends, he continues to serve traditionally prepared pop songs. The recordings are usually flat after writing the songs, in Erik's Hidden Hit Laboratpry studio (at a completely secret location) on one of the classics among the tape recorders, the great Tascam 388 (also part of older work by The Black Keys and Dr Dog, among others).