Pieter (° 1993, Antwerp, Belgium) is a young composer with a basic classical background, but who can mainly be considered as a self-taught man. He always tries to tell a story throughout its tracks, and mix originality with its adoration for piano, reverbs and unusual rhythmic patterns.

In this interview, we chat with Pieter about his newest project, influences, and much more.

Full Q&A, links, and a stream of Inuit below.

Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?

I’ve always been passionate about all kind of music. When I was I teenager I was a big fan of Avril Lavigne, t.A.T.u., the Rasmus, but also of Nightwish, Jay-Z, Bonobo and Igor Stravinsky. Later I loved underground hip hop, post-rock and (post)-classical music. The ‘music genre’ was never that important to me. What mattered to me was the rhythmic patterns, the melodic phrases, the beats, the sound and the emotions that it represented.

Initially I learned playing the piano by myself and followed music classes saxophone and music theory at the local music academy. There I gained the basic composing tools, based on traditional classical music. The first music that I composed back in 2008 therefore was rather classical or instrumental pop ‘with a classical touch’. Later on I experimented with more genres, most importantly rap and electronic music.

When time passed by I discovered the music from artists like Sigur Ros, Olafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm and was fascinated by the way they really told stories through their music without using any lyrics. Also their use of reverbs and delays in their music was very inspiring. This meant the start of a long search for my own musical ‘style’ for me, a journey that still hasn’t end yet.

What attracts me at the genre of Inuit EP the most, is that it combines atypical rhythmic pattern with relaxing, emotional piano music and a build-up throughout the song. It has the atmosphere of classical music: no ‘hard’ electronic sounds can be found in the tracks. It has the structure of post-rock music: long songs with a long build-up and a satisfying climax at the end of the song. It has the complex rhythmic pattern from rap and hip hop music. And last but not least: it has the interesting sound effects from ambient and electronic music. The genre of Inuit is like my biography: a summary of all my past and current musical fascinations.

What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?

I can’t remember not being fascinated by music anymore. At the age of eight, I considered myself not dorky enough to follow music classes, but I already secretly loved playing my little organ, dancing on ‘drink me up hearties’ from Hans Zimmer and playing the drums on the kitchen table. Step by step I got more into composing and playing music myself.

I initially started pushing my music out to the public because at some point I had the feeling that I needed some feedback from other listeners in order to be able to improve my music. Later on, it became also important to me that people enjoy my creations. People tell me that they love listening to it while working, studying, relaxing, resting, … It creates a lot of motivation to improve my compositions.

Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?

Artists like Sigur Ros, Olafur Arnalds, Radiohead, Ludovico Einaudi, Igor Stravinsky, Bonobo and Damien Rice have inspired me a lot. I don’t exactly have one music taste. It depends on my mood and on my energy level, but these artists have definitely been of big influence.

Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?

Inuit EP is the first time that I did not ought to create one song, but a group of four songs simultaneously. It is also the first time that I worked with a ‘concept’. The baseline is the story that the Inuit (inhabitants of Greenland) have more than twenty different names for snow. I picked out four names, each with their own meaning. Simultaneously, all the tracks have the same atmosphere but are different in another way. It’s a metaphor and it can only be really understood by listening to the music.

What was the last song you listened to?

Bobby Womack – Please Forgive My Heart

The one before that: Sinéad O’ Connor – Paddy’s Lament

The one before these two: Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Multi-Love

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?

Personally I am a big fan of CD’s and lossless digital audio files like .FLAC, .AIFF or .ALAC. I have a more than five hundred cd’s in my personal collection and my iTunes includes more than 10.000 audio files.

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?

I prefer bandcamp because it is easy to find and stream music from unknown artists all over the world and because you can always download the tracks in lossless audio quality.

Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?

Finding a suitable and honestly interested target group.

Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?

For Inuit EP I built a website www.pietervermeyen.com. Here you can find all the links to the other places were my music can be found. I am very active on Soundcloud, Bandcamp and Facebook as well. My facebook page is a good medium to be kept on track about my activity as a music composer.

Anything else you’d like to add before signing off?

Thanks a lot for your genuine interest in me and my music!