Amsterdam 5-piece The Klittens release their 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.
Title track ‘Have A Heart’, is about how we distance ourselves from a difficult time over which we have no control and how we confront it. Switching between the perspectives of the passionately disaffected and cheerfully unbothered, ‘Have A Heart’ is about using apathy as a form of self-defence.
The second single ‘Taxi’ speaks to our sense of restraint, both in its sound and story. A dusky tension-filled track about sliding back into familiar patterns, where choosing to act becomes a choice in itself.
‘Nothing To Teach’ tries to convey a simple message through deadpan humour and jangly guitars; we appreciate that you think you know it all, but we don’t think so, and ‘Triple Threat’ speaks to a more intimate sense of lacking power which makes it all the more fragile. The track, ‘Their House‘ refers to the housing crisis and is based on experiences of eviction, unaffordable rents and always feeling cramped in another person’s space.
Have A Heart Tracklist
1. Have A Heart
2. Taxi
3. Interlude I
4. Zelda
5. Nothing To Teach
6. Triple Threat
7. Bank Account
8. Interlude II
9. Blue Hue: A Short Plea
10. Badlands
11. Their House
12. Fool Me Once
13. The Frame: A Short Complaint
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.
The Klittens Live Dates
October
24 – Edinburgh – Cowgate Block Party
25 – Glasgow, Nice N Sleazy
26 – Gateshead – Central Bar
29 – York, Fulford Arms
30 – Leeds, Wharf Chambers
31 – Nottingham, JT Soar Fest
November
1 – Coventry, Just Dropped In
2 – London,The George Tavern
For more information on The Klittens please check their instagram and tiktok.