L EAFPEOPLE

Leafpeople is a young five-headed musical monster from Antwerp, the (multi)cultural capital of Flanders, Belgium. As they have not gained huge popularity, it is quite likely that you have never heard of them. Well, they only started jamming in 2004, so that explains a lot, and maybe the fact that they're all students doesn't help a great deal either. But the things that matter most in life (besides mayonnaise and herbivorous dinosaurs) are usually unknown so we can easily conclude that it is in your best interest to embrace this new hype.

Early Career

In the summer of 2004 Andrew James Van Ostade and Johannes Genard realised that, besides a lack of sideburns, they shared another common quality: they both played musical instruments. Since Johannes played the Electrically Amplified Guitar and Andrew played the Drumkit, they thought playing Nirvana songs over and over again till the neighbors' ears bled (never mind their own) was a logical thing to do.
In this merry pastime they were quickly joined (either for the money or the free snacks) by Joris (Bass Guitar) and Jasper Willemen (Guitar), two brothers of varying size, weight, and hairdo.

They soon moved on to better (things and new)music, and eventually started to create their own songs. After finishing more or less than five instrumental tracks, they got their first gig at Andrew and Johannes' school in Antwerp, where they certainly made... an impression... After that they played several gigs amidst drunken bikers and/or family members at the local Harley Davidson Brotherhood, where they first got acquainted with the great Creedence Clearwater Revival and an 'Al Bundy For President' sticker.

About a year later Johannes had a go at songwriting, and after a creative rush the band saw the introduction of five self-penned songs (in addition to the numerous instrumentals they already played) and possibly a new microphone stand. Johannes became the band's brand new vocalist and started to fiddle around on an old Synthesizer that was lying around in the house. This wave of artistic renewal gave rise to a couple of very successful concerts (one supporting belgian alternative gods Think Of One) and started a new era for Leafpeople.

Slightly Less Early Career

In the summer of 2006 the Leafpeople boys were joined by Andrew's older brother Michael Van Ostade (Guitar, Vocal) who's arrival heralded the wave of successes to come. As they were secretly growing artistically and physically, they got selected for the Duffelse Rock Cover Contest and after an intense string of rehearsals, they played at the competition and, surprisingly, took the Main Prize home (two days of recording in a studio in Brussels). The week after that they played a very long and tiring set on the same stage that belgian superstar Sandra Kim had grafecully betrodden just before. No doubt this caused Leafpeople to become a big name in the belgian mainstream disco scene...

In december 2006 they recorded a very nice little 4-song demo at Noisegate-studios, empowering them to be able to put some actual music on their myspace (which was a nice sensation, they had to admit) and get feedback from other people. From this demo, they took the main song ('Herzeloyde') and went along with the Kunstbende-competition in the category of music (of course), in march 2007. They finished third in a list of 17 bands and so didn't get to the final round, but the experience was incredible. This third place ended up giving them a number of new gigs, and so got the train rolling a bit.

At the end of august Leafpeople recorded their new demo, 4 songs of which you can now listen to in amazement on this myspace-page. Around that time, 149 new antwerpian bands sent their demo's to a professional jury selected by Poppunt for the Frappant competition. Among the 40 bands that were selected to compete in the preselections were Leafpeople. In the preselections, the boys were awarded with a wildcard which eventually gave them a ticket to the semi-finals in which the 16 best bands would clash. That concert was a huge triumph for them, and they were selected as one of the six best new bands of Antwerp! (big words, ...we know haha)... In december the finals will take place in CC Trix, but reaching the finals was the only goal they ever pictured. With 100% Puur support, the boys may once be playing Dour or Pukkelpop =)

The boys are looking forward to the coming year as they will be playing an ungodly amount of gigs and at the same time making tons of money off the backs of the poor Belgian population.

M AKE L IKE A T REE (€5.00)
Leafpeople's 9-song Demo-collection, attainable through bandmembers!

T HE L EAFPEOPLE S LIDESHOW (now in select theatres!)