Wannes Cappelle

• Frontman of Het Zesde Metaal
• West Flemish
• Storyteller
• Four golden records

Story versus truth

"The power of stories motivates me. A good story is often stronger and more important than the truth. It can inspire me, move me or make me question things. If it also rhymes and sounds poetic, it becomes pure magic. I can listen to such stories over and over again. I also enjoy trying to tell the same story in an ever better way. I may have sung a song a hundred times or told a story ad nauseam, but I will always look for small details that can be different or better.

West Flemish

"By choosing West Flemish as a language, the danger lurks that you revert to a vernacular, provincial theme. We try to be vigilant about that. The challenge lies in letting major themes shine through in that vernacular dialect. By entering into a relationship with the works in the KMSKA, we challenge ourselves to find less obvious angles to create new work."

Six Masters

"For the EP Meesters, we chose six works from the KMSKA collection and made a song about them. Three songs are about Holy Women. The Madonna by Fouquet, Saint Barbara of Nicomedia by Van Eyck and Mary Magdalene by Quinten Massijs. That was not intentional. The narrative character of the works appealed to us. Robin (Aerts, bass player and co-composer of Het Zesde Metaal) and I are rather storytellers by nature. What fascinated us most was the story behind the painting."

Crossing borders

"By translating works from the KMSKA collection into music, we want to introduce them to a different audience. Some people just happen to be more sensitive to the one medium than to the other. We are convinced that through this exercise, we can make people look beyond the boundaries of the various art forms."

My dream date

"I would love to have a date with my wife. But being an Artist in Residence at the KMSKA requires so much time and effort that it just never comes about."