Amsterdam 5-piece, The Klittens, are releasing their long-awaited debut album, Have a Heart, combining their love of pop music with a dark sensibility and their own unique punk ethos. Drawing inspiration from a range of artists including The Ronettes, MF Doom, Dry Cleaning and Kate Bush – the band have successfully crafted a sound that is truly and twistedly their own.
What initially started as a creative and political outlet, mutated into a life mission. Their DIY approach – from songwriting to releasing music and tour management – is what drives this ragtag bunch of misfits, Yaël Dekker (vocals), Winnie Conradi (guitar), Katja Kahana (guitar), Marrit Meinema (bass guitar), and Laurie Zantinge (drums), to be who they are today.
As with their previous EPs, The Klittens succeed in blending their individual and often divergent styles into a solitary all-round experience. Their imagination only being limited by their instrumentation, the band have made an album that takes influences from country to pop to (post-) punk, but with a Klittens’ twist. With only four instruments and five vocals, each of the ten tracks is a separate lyrical story in its own right.
Have A Heart paints a heavy picture with pastels. Both an accusation and a plea, the title speaks to the core of the album; feelings of powerlessness which we all experience in our lifetime and the way we fight against them. No matter the scale of your sense of helplessness, and however you react to it, whether its resistance or surrender, there’s a good chance there’s a track on this album you can relate to.
Have A Heart follows their EP’s Citrus (2022) and Butter (2024). The Klittens have toured extensively across Europe and the UK, and shared stages with Otoboke Beaver and BODEGA. They also organise their own annual festival, Klitfest, in the Netherlands.
