Sleeper NellGRN + ScylerNL
Versatile folk
“If I could just take it off, what I’ve become,” sings Pieternel Teekens on her latest single (‘Skin and Bones and Cloth’). And she did just that. About a decade and a half ago, she performed as the frontwoman of Mama Homemade Dress, but then it became quiet. Until she returned with new music on the Zuidhorner Peter, Pieternel & Meindert Show. In 2024, Sleeper Nell released their first single, ‘Earth Quake’. In it, she makes a promise: “I am going to make the Earth crack.” The song combines folky guitar play with sharp, personal lyrics—sometimes wistful, sometimes light-hearted and decisive—living up to the name of Teekens’ new music project. With Gijs van Veldhuizen on guitar, Suze Commandeur on bass, and Daan Noordhoek on drums.
The dictionaries don’t lie: a ‘sleeper’ is not only ‘a person who is asleep’ but also ‘someone that becomes successful after a period of being unnoticed’. (And I finally figured out what those crusts are called that prick in the corners of your eyes after a good night’s sleep; apparently, those are also sleepers.) After hearing a few songs from her debut album Vanilla Town—recorded with Gijs van Veldhuizen, Anne van Wieren, and Julian Langeler—I can tell you: Sleeper Nell is a sleeper. Earlier this year, she performed at Grunnsonic, and now she descends to our Kelderbar with music inspired by Joni Mitchell, Björk, and “all the 1980s hits”. So wake up! Rub those sleepers out of your eyes. It’s time to go to VERA!
Before Sleeper Nell, the romantically gothic folk-rock band Scyler will perform. Fueled by books from Edgar Allan Poe and Jane Austen, Scyler Eijgermans wrote a story himself. It took the form of a collection of poems, each four and a half minutes long, listening like Jeff Buckley and Haley Heynderickx. In it, Scyler opens up about intense emotions, from pain to happiness. Sounds heavy, but it’s delightful to listen to, on a sunny May day. Or a drizzly one. And especially, I think, on a day when you decide to chill in a medieval cellar. Hey, we have one of those! And if you’re familiar with Poe’s work: don’t worry, we won’t brick you in… | Janke