Clockwise from bottom left: Tim, Jop, Torre, Vedran and Rocco
De Staat ("The State") are a Dutch Alternative Rock band from Nijmegen. On their first album, almost all the instruments and vocals were done by frontman Torre Florim. The band was expanded for live shows and the following albums. Their music is inspired by Queens of the Stone Age (Torre has said that he's a huge Josh Homme fan).
At the end of 2015 the band started gaining some international notoriety when they released the official clip for the song "Witch Doctor" off their third album I_CON. The clip features Florim standing in the middle of a circle pit consisting of hundred motion-captured men. It went viral as soon as it was released and even got a shout out from Tommey Lee, the drummer of Mötley Crüe, on his Facebook-page. The band quickly followed that up with the release of their fourth full length album O. The album gave them more international attention, including that of Muse, who let the band be their supporting act for fourteen arena shows in Europe.
Studio Albums
- Wait For Evolution (2009)
- Machinery (2011)
- I_CON (2013)
- Vinticious Versions EP (2014)note
- O (2016)
Band Members
- Torre Florim (Lead singer and guitar)
- Vedran Mircetic (Lead guitar)
- Jop van Summeren (Bass and vocals)
- Rocco Hueting (Synths, samples and vocals)
- Tim van Delft (Drums)
The band and their music contains examples of:
- Big Rock Ending: "Make Way For The Passenger" has one.
- Cover Version: They have covered Talk Dirty by Jason Derulo for a Dutch radio show. It's currently a staple of their live shows, usually introduced by Torre saying something among the lines of this song sucks, but not when we play it.
- Chroma Key: How superimposing Torre and Rocco into the footage used in Who's Gonna Be The GOAT? was achieved, as well as how the AI-graphics version of Torre (for Running Backwards Into The Future) was made; he was filmed walking in front of a green-screen first.
- Discriminate and Switch: From "Down Town":I'll tell you what, you won't get in.But it's the tennis shoes, not the colour of your skin.
- Dream Sequence: From the making-of video
, one of the reasons why Torre chose to use AI-generated imagery (specifically, AI recreations of composites consisting of himself on green-screen, superimposed onto/Photoshopped into stock footage) for the video to Running Backwards Into The Future.Torre Florim: ...I was very much interested in all these new developments in AI imagery. I saw a connection because the AI video was very jittery, y'know? 'Cause every frame was generated and every frame was different from the frame before, so it gets this really "all over the place" vibe. A lot of people don't like it. Sometimes, I don't like it either but I thought it was-... I liked it for this, because it feels like, when you look at that kind of material, like you're dreaming. The things I see when I'm dreaming; it's very similar to me. When you look at a face in a dream and, suddenly, the face changes into something else. - Everything Is an Instrument: "Ah I See" has Rocco playing a vehicle horn.
- Fading into the Next Song: On Wait For Evolution "Taste It" fades into "Love It", which is basically a 3 minute long outro for the former.
- I Am the Band: Torre does almost all the instruments on Wait For Evolution.
- Last Note Nightmare: "Devil's Blood" is one of their more laidback and poppy songs, but ends with some heavily throbbing synths.
- Miniscule Rocking: "My Bad", the first song on I_CON, lasts only 8 seconds. Somewhat subverted because "My Bad" isn't really a song. Something went wrong during the recording of the intro of "All Is Dull" and they decided to keep it on the album.
- New Sound Album: I_CON sounds a lot more varied than the previous two albums. Synthesizers are more heavily used, and the whole album has a somewhat more upbeat feel.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Torre usually sings with a good English voice, but he sings the line 'serial killer on the loose' in "Serial Killer" with a very heavy Dutch accent ('Siriel killuh on the loosuh').
- Orbital Shot: The video for Mona Lisa consists entirely of one, capturing the band performing the song in a circle within the dolly track.
- Self-Deprecation: Who's Gonna Be The GOAT? is full of this; effectively saying that someone else can take up the mantle of "the best in the world" at everything because Torre literally can't be bothered; far more content to live the life he wants at his own pace.You have a dream? I get sleep!I guess the best of the best ain't me!
- Shout-Out:
- "Rooster-Man" contains the line 'I have been sleeping with that horse's head'.
- A live video for The Vinticious Version (Already in a similar style to that of Beastie Boys) of "Input Source Select" was performed in the same way as the video for "Three MCs and One DJ" by Beastie Boys, complete with the three singers holding the same pose at the beginning and end of the performance.
- Siamese Twin Songs: "Taste It" and "Love It".
- Signature Move: Torre creates - or at least emulates - a vocal killswitch effect by wagging the head of the microphone in front of his mouth.So you do you; I be me! I be me so carelessly-y-y-y-y-y-y-y!
- Surprisingly Gentle Song: "I'll Take You", "Time Will Get Us Too" and "She's With Me".
- Title Track: Wait For Evolution has one.
- Villain Song: "Serial Killer"I'm the king with the darkest crown.If you fear the reaper, you don't know about me.
