Prior to the shows in The Netherlands, Gerjan van de Kamp asked the Norwegian folk band Thinguma*jigSaw some questions.

First of all the obvious one: Who are you and how did this project come together?

We are the worlds leading splatter-folk pioneers, and this project came to us in a dream. So, that's that. Yes, that is a pretentious answer - but it is close enough to the truth to keep you interested, right?

What does your bandname mean? And how did you come up with this name? And the same question for this album: What does the title of the album mean?

Our bandname, Thinguma*jigSaw, is a portmanteau; it is a kind of word-play, a combination of several words together.
It's a friendly puzzle for you to muse upon. Obviously there`s a saw, a jig, and a jigsaw puzzle involved - so feel free to assemble the pieces the way you want to.

The album deals with the murders in Whitechapel, London, allegedly executed by Jack The Ripper (1888). But this is dealt with in a rather symbolic way, so these songs are metaphors rather than attempts to approach the matter from a historical "detective-like" perspective. We think of these songs as inhabitants of a universal "Whitechapel Within", a sort of war zone where the extremities of the human subconscious clash together in a whimsical stew of lust,insanity and everyday solipsism. The title can be understood as "a wake in whitechapel" (reffering to Finnegans Wake by James Joyce), "awake in whitechapel" or "awakin' whitechapel" - anyway, there`s a dream-like logic implied, makin the word "awake" a self-contradiction of sorts. We believe the album is perfect for rainy days when you ponder upon the borderline between carnal lunacy and romantic sincerity. Or summink.

The nicknames The Severed Headmaster and Little Myth Epiphanymph, did your come up with them yourselves? And if not, do you recognize yourself in these titles?

Yeah, we invented them ourselves. We feel they fit us nicely, but we find it very difficult to explain why. They just feel right, you know?

Your music reminds me of Neil Youngs “Harvest”, but also of Yann Tiersens soundtrack for “Amelie”. Do you recognize yourselves in these two comparisons? Who (else) can you point out as influences on your work?

The Neil Young reference is probably not all wrong, but Seth is more inspired by singers like Allan "Blind Owl" Wilson, Daniel Johnston and Martyn Jaques. And we're inspired by the minimalist composer Philip Glass, that's probably the reason why you hear Yann Tiersen in our music (they do have a somewhat similiar approach to making film-music ). People often say Tiersen when they are not familiar with Glass, we have experienced. 

In addition Mike "Sport" Murphy is of great inspiration to us, both his music and his approach to lyrics and production - although his music is quite different from what we do. We also love the music of the Irishmen Peter Delaney and Cian Nugent, and the french duo Arlt.

I get the idea that, although the music is somewhat melancholic, you yourselves seem to take it not too seriously here and there (revering to tracks like ' Walking The Cow' or ' Jumping Jock Flesh'). Is this true? And can you explain the use of the comical note?

No, there`s no real "comedy" in Thinguma*jigSaw. "Walking The Cow" is a Daniel Johnston song - and according to Daniel, it means "to carry the weight of responsibility" - that is why it follows our song "Burden Of Genius" on the album. "Jumping Jock Flesh" is a very hateful song - we don`t think there`s any comedy in that, but maybe some vicious wit. We do take ourselves seriously - but we have more than one knife in the bag, if you receive our meaning. Does that make any sense? Well -does it have to? And is anything purely funny or vicious?

Why do you choose to sing in English instead of your native tongue?

We write in English because we're primarily influenced by writers who use the English language. And we like to refer to the classicism and modernism of poetry and prose - the only way to do that, and simultaneuosly keep in touch with the everchanging expressions of the popular culture is to write in English, we feel. You know, we love Joyce, Beckett, Poe, Gorey and so on - so English is quite natural to us. Besides, to sing in Norwegian may work for death metal, but not for splatter-folk, we think. Or maybe it would? Anyway, we are sticking to English for now.

Most of the songs on (awakeinwhitechapel) are obviously quite literary, in the sense that they benefit from having lyrics neatly and subtly composed within a strict literary tradition as well as being downwright iconoclastic - we hope. The one track exceeding this approach is the odd number "My Blood Giggles", who is mostly sung in a constructed non-language and only contains one line in eloquent English. The slightly ironic thing is that this little number seems to be the ultimate test for those who encounter (awakeinwhitechapel). And rightly so, cause to understand this track you have to embrace and grasp the whole "universe" of (awakeinwhitechapel) - this is the one track where the narrator certainly isn`t "Jack", but rather one of his victims (possibly sung from a state post-mortality). So, you can say we write in English to be understood, and somethimes we leave language alltogether to be understood on another level.
A track like "redlightcockfight", on the other hand, is a fitting example of a song where modernist techniques as "stream of consciousness"(from Joyce) and "imagism"(from Pound) are employed. We feel that tracks like "blood" and "fight" explains why we couldn`t achieve the same lyrical span in any other language than English.

You are going to play a few shows in The Netherlands, what kind of show can we expect? And is this the first time you are playing for a Dutch audience?

Yes, this is indeed the first time Thinguma*jigSaw play in the Netherlands, and we are wildly extatic about these gigs! And what kind of shows... that's for us to know and you to find out,obviously... but yes - come along and experience splatter-folk live. We will play three gigs with three very different approaches, and they will all be unique in their own right. No Thinguma*jigSaw shows are ever similar, as we always mould our performances to fit the acoustics of the room and the atmosphere present.

What can we expect from you in the near future?

We're currently recording a new album, and are planning to do tons of gigs around the world to meet our lovely audience everywhere. In a way, that`s sort of a cliched answer -we know. But it feels right and truthful, and that`s sufficient, we think.

Thank you a lot, hope to see you soon in The Netherlands!

Thank you for your interest!