Interviewed by Mindy Abovitz for Tom Tom Magazine
Provider of the beats to Bird on the Wire‘s dreamy indie folk music, drummer Nina de Jong talks to Tom Tom Magazine about touring, food, and music.
Name: Nina de Jong
Age: 25
Hometown: A small village called ‘De Kwakel’, near to Amsterdam (the Netherlands)
Lives in: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Past Bands: The Secret Love Parade, Yuri Landman Ensemble
Current Bands: Bird on the Wire and some street theatre projects
Favorite Food: Cheese, avocados, bananas, medjoul datees, and walnuts
Favorite Band: Pfff hard question! I like a lot from alternative pop to experimental jazz to brassbands t0 disco! Bands like Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, Patrick Watson, Warpaint, and Boney M.
Drum set: A really nice yellow and black vintage (1976) from ASBA (a small french drum company) which sounds amazing with Remo fiberskyn head. Also a handmade fifties Royal snaredrum (a small drum company from Amsterdam) or a vintage premier Ave snaredrums.
Cymbals: A vintage Ziljian avedis ping ride, Agean hihats, a Turkish rockcrash, and some cool cymbals I made myself out of old cymbals
Pedal: a simple Pearl pedal
You are stuck on a desert island. What three things would you bring with you?
1. My favourite foods
2. A banjo so I can finally teach myself how to play on it.
3. A toolbox so I can make a nice raft to get back to my friends and drum kit.
If you could hand select 2 artists to work with on an album who would you pick?
Matt Berninger from the National because I think his voice would match perfectly with Rosa’s (singer of my band) voice and Owen Pallett to make some beautiful string arrangements.
What’s your favorite thing about touring?
Playing, traveling, and meeting new people!
Your least favorite thing about touring?
Loading and unloading the van.
What would you recommend to a drummer touring outside of their country?
Check out the local bands, they can be awesome and try to make some new friends!