"I am Not Familiar With Progressive Rock Music. It's Not Really My Musical Taste".

(Text and Pictures By Henri Strik)

A lot of albums made by certain bands are recognized by their covers. It certainly gives a band an identity of its own. Good examples are the albums made by Flamborough Head. All of them feature fantastic artwork made by Theo Spaay. I have always wanted to know more about those paintings and the man behind them. On a sunny Saturday afternoon in the autumn of 2006, I made a trip to his atelier in the town of Deurne. I was welcomed by a friendly person who certainly loves his work.  

How did you get in touch with the musicians of Flamborough Head?

The band’s drummer, Koen Roozen, is my brother in law. I am married to his sister Rita. He asked me if I could make a painting for their debut album "Unspoken Whisper". They gave me complete freedom. I just had to listen to the music and the lyrics of the title track. The feeling of the music and the story behind the song inspired me to paint this female person with an owl in the background. The lyrics are about a man who has left his wife. So this owl that flies away, represents this man. He is the one who is leaving. The woman is left alone in pain and sorrow and she draws into herself, not facing anyone anymore. That's why her eyes are downcast. At the back of the album booklet you see the same man walking out of the door totally naked, walking away from the woman's life.

It reminded me of the album cover done for the Yes album "Going For The One". Here we  also see a naked male person with his back turned to us.

Interesting. I didn't know that. I am not very familiar with progressive rock music. It's not really my musical taste. That is also why I liked the third album of Flamborough Head more than their first two releases. This album has a more acoustic feeling to it. There’s more folk music on "One For The Crow".

Did you make more paintings for their debut album?

No. This was the only one I made and they liked it from the start. I always paint something which has something to do with the subject of a certain song or album concept. For example the second album "Defining The Legacy" which is about the father and son conflict.

It seems that Siebe-Rein Schaaf, the lead singer at the time, had a difficult childhood and a hate-love relationship with his father.

Yes, the concept is about his childhood.

Do we have two different persons on this album cover or does one person split into two?

Yes that's what happens. He splits into two personalities. I painted two persons and put them together in one painting. The whole album is about one person with two personalities. One of them wants to fight with his father and the other one is a dreamer who tries to talk with his old man.

We can see one man with a short hair cut and the other one has long hair.

That's true. People with a short haircut always look more aggressive and people with long hair have softer faces. The aggressive person also shows his fist and the other one is praying. Inside the booklet you can see those praying hands in close up. I really liked that! The colours inside the booklet, taken from the original painting. are also done very well. I made the painting from three different pictures and  put them together as one whole piece. It really worked and the album concept really comes alive in the painting.

Did Siebe-Rein tell you the whole concept?

Yes, I spoke with him about his personal story. He even wrote me a letter about his difficult relationship with his father. I very much understood the whole concept. I had a difficult childhood myself. He thought that the whole concept might be a shock to me but it wasn't. It certainly helped me to make the painting.

Did you already make a painting about this subject in the past?

No!

On the cover we also see aggressive colours and soft colours. Was it done on purpose?

Yes indeed! Red is an aggressive and hard colour and blue is very soft and friendly.

In an interview with Margriet Boomsma, the female lead singer, she told me that you made the cover for their third album "One For The Crow" on request.

Every album cover was made on request. The music and the lyrics always come first. The album cover was again inspired by the title track. I think you know the song?

Certainly! But to me the music is more important than the lyrics.

Lyrics have always been important to me. Even when I was a young boy who bought his first records. I always listened to the lyrics. A lot of pop songs just have no message. It's just bla bla bla but the lyrics made by Flamborough Head are very good and do mean something.

Are the children on the album cover your own children?

The largest child is my eldest daughter Lieke and the other one is a friend. I painted them from a picture which I took at my daughter’s school. The cover tells the story of your childhood dreams and the hard reality when you get older in the real world. It also tells you that you must be careful in what you do when you are young because it might affect you when you get older.

Did you talk to Margriet about the lyrics?

Actually I never met Margriet. Most of the time I was in touch with Koen and also with Edo Spanninga but most of the time with my brother in law. He also tells me what the other band members think of my work but most of the time they are very positive.

You were also very satisfied with the painting for "One For The Crow"?

Most certainly. I am not a commercial painter who delivers a painting and gets paid when the job is done, whether he likes it or not. I have to like it myself otherwise it's not good enough. Koen and Edo always told me that they liked my work and I think that everybody in the band likes my paintings.

Using the same painter for every new album cover certainly gives the band a face of its own.

A lot of album covers in the music business, most of all in rock music, use metallic-like, science-fiction-like covers. Most of them look very much the same.

Your eldest daughter is on the cover of their third album. Do you often use your children as models for your paintings?

Yes! I used Lieke several times and I also used my youngest daughter Eva and my son Jasper but I use them the same way as other models.

How do your children react when you paint them?

They love it. They really like it. I once made a three-piece painting for the Kempenland museum. It was a mix of earthly and heavenly things. The right and left painting both included paintings of my daughter Lieke. On one of them she was on a swing. But most of the time I remove several things from my paintings to make it a better composition. So I removed Lieke from the painting which included the swing. When she saw that she wasn't on it anymore she said that she had fallen off the swing.

Can you explain the cover of the band's latest album "Tales Of Imperfection"?

It tells the story of a woman who is not satisfied with her own body. She is the one in the front. In the background you can see three women who look perfect. I was inspired by the lyrics of the track "Maureen". It is about a girl who dislikes her own face and body. It really makes her unhappy. But she starts to think about how people think about women in this world. You can buy beauty. With a lot of money you can get bigger breasts etc. But in the end she realizes that only the beauty inside yourself matters. People should take her for what she is. That's also the reason why she looks straight into your eyes. Yet, she still is a little bit afraid to show her body.

Did you use pictures from magazines for the models in the background?

Yes indeed!

The girl on the right reminded me of Marilyn Monroe.

No, that's one of the coloured female tennis players from America but I have forgotten her name.

Oh you mean those twin sisters. Venus and Serena Williams

Yes, they’re the ones that sigh a lot when they play a game.

Did you make more album covers in the past?

I once made a painting for a person who played an accordion. I gave this woman a lot of hands so that she looked very talented. I also used to work for a puppet theatre. I made several posters and puppets for them. I have always had a thing about music and theatre.

I already noticed your string instrument in the corner of the room. Is it a bouzouki or a lute?

No, it was just a cheap guitar which I had. It was red originally but I changed the body myself but it works and I used to play on it.

So you have more talents besides painting?

Yes that's true. I also made cards for people who just had a baby. I made it for my own children but also for Koen's son. I also made drawings for poets. I never painted what you read in such poems. I always kept it a mystery. People have to find out themselves what they see in a drawing or painting.

I believe you also made a painting of the Dutch politician Frits Bolkenstein.

Yes that's true.

Did you paint him from a picture in a magazine?

No! It was a job. They asked me if I could make a portrait of him. It was for his 70th birthday. I made it from pictures that they gave me and I took some things from the internet. I had already made several portraits for the person who gave me the job.

Do you make portraits on a regular basis?

I used to do it a lot but lately not so often. The last one was for a woman who had cancer. She is in this painting three times.

Did it happen that people did not like the portraits you made?

They always liked what I made. Sometimes they gave me pictures of the people I had to paint which had too much light on them. This makes it very difficult to give a person the right expression. I never really meet the persons I paint but still they tell me that the resemblance is striking.

Did you paint more famous people?

No, Frits was the only one I did but I had expected to do more after this job. By the way, he never  thanked me for the painting. However, I was mentioned in an article about this portrait. They also wrote that it took me a month to make it but in fact it only took me three days to do the job.  

Were you always artistic as a child and where do you come from?

Originally I come from the eastern part of the Netherlands, from a city called Enschede. As a child I was always drawing and painting. I moved to the south of Holland because I became a student in Tilburg. I had enough of the part of the Netherlands that I come from. I just wanted to spread my wings. In those days I also had an American girlfriend who worked in Eindhoven in a factory owned by Phillips. Together we studied in the evening.

Did you also make drawings and paintings for school papers?

No, I never did those things. I was a very introvert person who was very much on his own. My childhood is probably the main reason. I saw a lot of things as a child. I saw violence and incest. I came from a family with nine children and had a father who liked to beat his kids.

What was your first professional job?

Oh! That's a long time ago. I have a newspaper article somewhere but I made a different kind of art in those days. Everything had to do with Picasso. It was probably somewhere between the seventies and eighties. I had an exhibition in a small theatre in Enschede  and an exhibition in a small restaurant.

Can you make a living with your paintings?

No, unfortunately I can’t. At the moment I am making some wall paintings for a living but I have to be a jack-of-all-trades, otherwise it would be very difficult.

I already noticed that you did all kinds of things in the past. You made puppets, you were a lighting engineer and you worked in the offset industry. You probably played with your own puppets?

Yes that's true but it was a complete disaster. It's totally different from painting.

What kind of music do you like yourself and which musicians inspired you?

I have albums of people like Ilse DeLange, Harry Sacksioni, Leo Kotke, Bob Dylan and most of all Herman van Veen. He very much inspired me with his lyrics. He still does today.

You also have albums of Flairck. Do you like their artwork?

It's not bad but this painter uses too many tricks.

Do you pay attention to album covers?

Sometimes. Some covers I hate, especially the covers of the albums made by Stef Bos. He uses all those flames which I really hate but as far as the music is concerned I really like Bob Dylan. I even have albums which he made when he was not famous at all. Blues is also a style which I like very much. It's the heart of the American music.

That's all. Thanks for your time and for showing me your paintings.

It was a pleasure!

For more info on Theo Spaaij please visit his website at: http://www.theospaaij.nl/