We Speak Music

TEEN CREEPS start again on third album ‘TODAY IS THE DAY’, out now!

Published

7 months ago

September 30, 2025

Don Reed

TEEN CREEPS have just released their third album ‘TODAY IS THE DAY’. The record marks a new start for the Belgian indie rock trio as singer Bert Vliegen processes a breakup and rediscovers love — including for his bandmates.

Four years after the sophomore album ‘FOREVER’, Belgian indie rockers TEEN CREEPS are back with a new album. Bert Vliegen (vocals and bass): “We actually started working on new songs during the first lockdown back in 2020. But we weren’t really finishing anything. I was going through a breakup at the time and I found it hard to write words. Seeing that I can only be truthful and sincere in my lyrics for TEEN CREEPS, I suffered from something of a writer’s block. That changed when we celebrated our 10 year anniversary as a band in 2023. We played a show in our hometown of Ghent, a lot of people came out and we simply had a blast. It made me realize how special our band is and how much I still love playing with these guys, even after all those years. I wrote the lyrics for ‘ANYWHERE about what the band means to me. It was the starting point for the new record.”

Getting back up
Bert’s breakup is the subject of several tracks on ‘TODAY IS THE DAY’. Yet he would not call this a break up record. “‘AUTOMATICALLY’ and ‘NO-SHOW’ are definitely about growing apart. But just as many songs deal with what comes after: standing tall and learning to be happy again. There’s light at the other side of the tunnel, no matter how hard it gets. That’s the message of ‘STAY HERE’ and the album title ‘TODAY IS THE DAY’. And yes, that’s also a little nod to Neil Young.”

Nod to the 90s
Musically, TEEN CREEPS exude confidence on ‘TODAY IS THE DAY’. The band has been breathing new life into 90s indie rock for over a decade now. Their sound is a marriage of energy and melancholy, reminiscent of DINOSAUR JR, SUPERCHUNK, SONIC YOUTH and other greats from the 1990s. “Those influences are part of our DNA. But we are not a retro band. We want to carry the torch of this kind of music, or at least keep the fire burning,” says guitarist Joram De Bock.

Less Is More
TEEN CREEPS don’t shy away from experiments on ‘TODAY IS THE DAY’. The sober and restrained playing in ‘AUTOMATICALLY’ makes for the most beautiful and sad song the band has ever put out. You can hear the subtle influence of lofi hero SPARKLEHORSE on ‘NO-SHOW’, while ‘STAY HERE’ is probably the most poppy and upbeat song in the band’s catalogue. Closer ‘SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS’ starts off with a nod to sludge rock and later shifts into folky territory.

The band’s willingness to explore new grounds is related to their extracurricular activities. Since the last album, Bert Vliegen joined WHISPERING SONS, Ramses Van den Eede started drumming in MOONEYE, and Joram De Bock also plays in FEVERCHILD. “That extra experience benefits TEEN CREEPS,” says Ramses (drums). “We play more in service of the song now. If that means holding back sometimes, that’s okay. The intensity is still there — we’ve just learned to pace ourselves.”

From Belgium to America
TEEN CREEPS is excited to play live again, both in Belgium and abroad. Back when ‘FOREVER’ came out, touring wasn’t possible due to the pandemic. Still, the album caught the attention of international music blogs like Clash Music and BrooklynVegan. The singles even made it onto American station KEXP and college radio. Joram: “We hope to get back on their radar. America is the birthplace of the type of music we play. Getting recognition over there is something special. But it’s not a goal in itself. The most important thing is that the three of us keep making music together. Or, as Bert puts it in ‘ANYWHERE’: ‘we’re not going anywhere.’”

‘TODAY IS THE DAY’ is out now through PIAS Recordings.

We Speak Music

Michele Ducci teases new album with uplifting indie single ‘Woman Like You’

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2026

Don Reed

Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.

‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.

The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.

The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:

Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.”

About the track, Michele says, “I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.

We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.”

The album and full-length film will be released on the 5^th of June on Monotreme Records.

Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.