They have the arena-ready pop anthems, the meticulously crafted image and even the celebrity keyboard player: these are downright Dutch rock stars that have landed on jamendo.

© Heidi de Grier

This Ain’t Hollywood is the second album by Utrecht-based five-piece band Silence Is Sexy. The previous one was released “the ‘normal’ way, with sales that were ok for a Dutch indie band”, explains Pim, guitar player and band manager. This time they decided to go about promoting their music differently, by putting the album up for free download. First on their website and torrent servers, and then, naturally, on jamendo, where the response has been quite positive. “I was impressed by the number of people that use jamendo to discover new music.”

Frank Boeijen, the band’s keyboardist, also plays in The Gathering, probably Holland’s biggest rock export. Silence Is Sexy was born in 2003, has played about 140 festivals and toured with The Automatic, The Dears and, of course, The Gathering. But still, “it’s hard to get our music to the average music listener”. Hence the free album download policy, with their record label’s support. “It’s been downloaded 8000 times already!” enthuses Pim. “We really wanted to reach a bigger audience with our second album.”

With musical nods to Coldplay, Radiohead, U2 and Editors, This Ain’t Hollywood has all the ingredients to make it big. And the band doesn’t lack the necessary energy either. “We hope many people will discover our music on jamendo. Then we would like to tour a lot. After that, make another killer-album. And then start all over again.”

In the meantime, check out the video to This Ain’t Hollywood here

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