PineappleSaturdays and New Music with Dutch Artist/Musician...

PineappleSaturdays and New Music with Dutch Artist/Musician Young & Sick

To see more of Nick’s work, check out @youngandsick on Instagram. For more music stories, head to @music.

Rather than just tease his upcoming second album with song snippets, Dutch musician Young & Sick (@youngandsick) — aka Nick van Hofwegen — slowly built up the hype by introducing the record’s color scheme via his unique brand of abstract art. He picked the hues — black, orange-red, yellow, pink, purple — about halfway through making the still-untitled LP, letting the visuals guide the sound and vice versa. Why? Well, he’s not entirely sure himself, other than it’s his own form of synesthesia, the condition where senses are blended, and some people see or smell what they hear. “They’re very much tied, art and music,” he says from his Brooklyn apartment.

Though raised in the Netherlands, his visual inspirations come from North America. “Mexican drawings are always a big inspiration, these kind of Arizona and Native American tones, tribes that use a lot of fictitious animals. I take from that stronger than any specific artist.” It’s been a lifelong evolution in style since he started doodling on school benches, inspired in part by the cartoon Ren & Stimpy. “It was so gross. It was amazing to see that something somebody drew could make you feel so queasy. It’s a talent.”

When Nick finally tours with the new album, he hopes to combine the performances with his art. “Maybe we’ll roll into town a day early, do a gallery and an acoustic thing, and hang up a bunch of art.” If anything, he promises extra special live shows on Saturdays, in honor of his ongoing #PineappleSaturdays illustrations, which started as a joke years ago. “It’s the most random post I’ve ever done. And then I decided to do it every Saturday. It kind of grew out of hand. We’re planning to do big things with that name.”

––Dan Reilly for Instagram @music

by via Instagram Blog