Stripe Through America Tour Clangstaff: ‘Already On Tour Bus To Detroit’

Big downer to Klangstof. Koen van de Vaart’s band will kick off a North American tour with The Avalanches this past Sunday. The band had already landed, the back row was taken, they were already on the tour bus for the first show in Detroit, and suddenly the phone rang: the tour was canceled, Avalanche was sick. ‘We didn’t believe it at first,’ says Koen van de Ward. You’re so far on your way, and then you ask a day early?! We turned around very sad, returned our things and boarded the plane with dangling legs. Now we’re back home with double jet lag. Pffffff!’

Clangstaff released their third album in September Godspeed to the freaks from. With that record in their hands, the band headed to America. ‘The first couple of weeks on the east coast with avalanches, then a solo trip. Ten shows at venues from Seattle to San Diego with approximately 250 attendees. But due to budget, we could not wait two weeks for those shows. He calculates: ‘Every day we rented a tourist bus with snowmobiles, and in America you already spend 300 euros a day. Then you spend every day in a hotel with five people, which is very expensive. Especially if you fly with all instruments. We originally had a flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, and then we would fly home. Luckily I was able to book a flight from New York to Amsterdam the next day. It was really sad. We were still talking on the way to Detroit: What are we going to do with this tour? Let’s eat a lot of burgers. Definitely at In-N-Out. Just got a Shake Shack burger just before boarding at the airport. But yeah, that’s not all.

The band is trying to reschedule performance dates for their own tour. It’s unclear if they can pick up again with the Avalanche later. ‘I’m particularly interested in how they’re doing and whether it’s life-threatening. It’s exciting. Coachella is in April and our goal is to play there again and plan a tour around that. Any more signals from Coachella? It is going in the right direction. Luckily, we’re going to Australia in December with the Pixies, so those air miles will be fine anyway.’