Jelle Denturck is the frontman of Belgian indie band DIRK., making a fair amount of noise and scoring numerous alternative hits in their home country and The Netherlands. Dressed Like Boys is his first solo project, and the result of a time when Denturck felt a bit stuck in life. From his time of self-reflection, and his self-acceptance of being a gay man, Denturck has made an intimate and beautiful self-titled debut album, which is out on August 29. 

Looking for the answer to questions like “Why do I exist?”, former philosophy student Denturck suddenly realized: “By asking myself why I exist, I was ignoring the simple fact THAT I exist. Being alive is a miracle and to fully realize that every day is magic.” In those days, a lot of new music bubbled up and Denturck discovered a whole new musical palette of his. “Ironically, most people will associate me with DIRK., but that is in fact the exception, the spin-off. In the democracy of the band, I refrain myself from writing lyrics that are too personal. Dressed Like Boys is the music that is closest to me, and it liberated me as a songwriter. I had all the time in the world to find the perfect melody. Only when everything sounds right in my head, I will turn to an instrument and record a demo. And I think that the artists I look up to work in the same way: Bowie, Lennon, Nina Simone, Sufjan Stevens, Tobias Jesso Jr: they all write songs that feel as if they’ve existed forever. That is my goal as a songwriter, to write songs that make you think: how has no one ever released this yet?”

Drawing on his self-reflection, Denturck created personal songs like Healing, Pinnacles and Gregor Samsa: from memories of his warm and safe native village (“but also a golden cage”) to his depression after the passing of his mother 7 years ago. “I am one of those people that only realize much later how low they felt. I only realized 2 years ago, when the sun was starting to shine in my life again.” The album’s inevitable main theme is homosexuality, and Denturck’s coming to terms with being gay. “It is one thing to accept yourself, it is another to realize that you don’t need the acceptance of the world.” A very personal song is Pride, about Denturck and his boyfriend reacting differently to being physically assaulted. Other songs are about queer history in general, like Stonewall Riots Forever (where he also got the name ‘Dressed Like Boys’ from) and Agony Street, about the stormy relationship of French writers Rimbaud and Verlaine. “I don’t consider myself an activist, but if I can do my bit for the queer struggle through my music, then by all means. But I will always be a musician in the first place. I want to make things. Beautiful things. That is my purpose in life.”

When recording demos, Denturck always feels that he is just messing about. Ironically, this time the record label thought they sounded better than the recordings in ‘an expensive studio with extremely talented musicians’. Looking for what it was that made the demos so special, Denturck established it was the quirkiness and the special character of the recordings and songs. They decided to record the whole album again, based on the demos and with the intention of giving each song its specific character in the recording. Denturck searched the whole of Belgium for the right buffet piano, sang the lyrics of Our Part of Town on his iPhone while walking in his hometown, birds in the background, and a snare drum was recorded using headphones instead of a microphone. “The more we worked like that, the more fun it became. And I am incredibly happy with the result, especially because I feel this is a sound I haven’t heard in Belgium yet. Now everyone can tell me: dude, this is the shittiest record I’ve ever heard – I am happy, I am content.”