Project Description
Similar Artists: Ane Brun, Laura Marling, Angel Olsen
Amsterdam singer-songwriter VanWyck – alias of Christine Oele – spent her childhood moving between continents, her twenties both studying history and playing different roles in different bands, her thirties combining work as a historian with a music career, before finally focusing on one goal in her mid-forties: a solo career as a singer-songwriter. She took her grandmother’s maiden name VanWyck and embarked on an adventure that can now – three albums, numerous tours, and performances all over Europe later, only be described as an unexpected success. VanWyck is now 50 and has just signed her first record deal with iconic indie label Excelsior Recordings.
“It took me a long time to find my voice and maybe even longer to claim my space in public life. But I have now and I’m really happy that I did. What has driven me onwards these last years against better judgment and against a music industry that until very recently wasn’t very interested in the voices of women, let alone older women, are the songs. They keep calling to me and I keep having to respond. I think I have something true to share, whether it’s about an alcoholic lost in a supermarket, a goddess raging at a landscape, a whispering garbage man, or a drowning girl. I feel it’s my job, my duty, to let them out into the world, to build them homes where they can blossom, so they can search out the people who are in need of them. Like the girl in eastern Russia who did her wedding dance to ‘Lead me on’, or the American farmer who wrote to tell me that because of ‘Your Favorite Tune’ he cried over the death of his wife for the first time in years. Success is not about streaming numbers or sales figures, it’s about forging a true connection with an audience, it’s about the joy of creating. It’s about being honest and brave – even when that is sometimes painful. It’s about trying to eke out the truth and having the courage to share it. With every album I feel I’m getting better at doing just that.”
RELEASES
“Powerful but intimate’ ★★★★” – MOJO Magazine
The single is off her fourth album, The Epic Tale of the Stranded Man, due out on April 8 through Excelsior Recordings. A David Lynchian quality permeates “I Was Innocent,” reveling in isolation at the crossroads of denying responsibility and deflecting through blame. Read more
“VanWyck sings of finally casting aside her fears and being able to outrun the clouds or climb the mountain.” – Twangville
”Maybe, Maybe Not” is an anthem for the indecisive, the loiterers, the unsure, the ones that can’t seem to make up their minds: the one step forward, two-step back people; the maybe, maybe not kind.
The song’s mood is deceptively lighter. It’s a tug of war between a persistent jogging beat and skipping interludes, with VanWyck’s vocals pulling the listener back into a state of suspended indecision. The protagonist’s answer is to keep walking, even if he doesn’t know where to go. Read more
“Powerful but intimate’ ★★★★” – MOJO Magazine
Enchanting, moody, and rich, the album vividly reflects these confusing modern times through whispered tones and cavernous themes. It’s a timeless album portraying the different ways in which modern man is lost, scared, stuck in his ways, and searching for a way out of his predicament. Read more
Bio
Amsterdam singer-songwriter VanWyck – alias of Christine Oele – spent her childhood moving between continents, her twenties both studying history and playing different roles in different bands, her thirties combining work as a historian with a music career, before finally focusing on one goal in her mid-forties: a solo career as a singer-songwriter. She took her grandmother’s maiden name VanWyck and embarked on an adventure that can now – three albums, numerous tours, and performances all over Europe later, only be described as an unexpected success. VanWyck is now 50 and has just signed her first record deal with iconic indie label Excelsior Recordings.

“Powerful but intimate’ ★★★★”

“a real sense of mystery, and an intriguing confusion as to where the truth might really lie”

“one of those consistently rewarding albums”
TOUR DATES
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