In the artist's words:

iedereen - "Neue Mitte" - Release 17.10.25

written by Ingo Neumaier

Their debut album, which iedereen released in 2024, was one of those typical "Hello, here we are!" moments where the question of how many exclamation marks had to be attached to this sentence was the main source of suspense. Because the loud Cologne duo, consisting of Tom Sinke (guitar, vocals) and Ron Huefnagels (drums), were bound to cause a stir in the German indie pop noise rock bubble, which was clear to anyone who had let themselves be blown away by songs like "GKO", "Chauvi" or "Niki". But how much attention would they get in the end? And how long would it last? After a few dozen gigs, alone or as a support band, at established festivals and in dedicated youth centers, all of which turned out to be more than convincing, one can say: iedereen have their foot in the door.

So now comes album number two, and with it comes the question: What's next for Ron and Tom and the door? Do they take a surprise run-up and kick the fucking thing in with a shout? Put your shoulder to it, gather your strength and slowly but inevitably push it open? Use the open gap and throw in something nasty, like rabid rats, poisonous gas or photos of Elon Musk's fucked-up Botox face? Or isn't this thinking that we have to confirm or even surpass what we have achieved a stupid, useless and perhaps even dangerous reflex that the catastrophic system of capitalism has always instilled in us?

I'm sure some of you have thought about all this, only to end up with a few counter-questions on a more existential level: What do we actually want to say? Who wants to hear it? And how does it work to be in a band when you also lead a completely normal (not to say bourgeois) life? In the beginning, iedereen were nothing more (and nothing less) than two friends making music together. Free from expectations, free from pressure, free from the feeling of having to deliver something. That's a bit different now, and that's what this record is about.

It is doubt and despair, not certainty and conscience, that take the reins here. Can you open an album in 2025 with an accelerated Keith Richards memorial riff (see "Rewe") and at the same time pay homage to stylish 90s icons like Jon Spencer? Is it really permissible to use trumpeting saxophones again (see "Klosterfrau Melissengeist") that oscillate somewhere between Bowie glam and X-Ray-Spex nihilism? And what about "Zehntausend Mal" and its intro, which first brings to mind the Prinzen and then the Beach Boys? Whether all of this is clear is somehow a hip noisepop context is a question that Ron and Tom answer with a loud "We don't give a shit".

iedereen let themselves go on their new album. They go further than before and look at what can and must be done with music and art and influences when playing rock in the broadest sense today. The angularity of the debut is increasingly being joined by the round, the hectic by harmony, and iedereen now like to take a turn towards the catchy. While the band mainly showed what they could do on their debut album, now it's more about what they could do.

For example in "Neue Mitte", the title track of the album, where they play through the youth movement in the best Tocotronic style. After all, it doesn't really matter whether you want to be alone in Freiburg or Oberhausen and feed your self-hatred, which is not just directed at yourself, but at your entire generation. iedereen pack this feeling into a highly rousing anthem that, at least live, elegantly counteracts the feeling of being alone and lost. Here you can sing along, shake your fists and conjure up a sweaty community: We scream, we celebrate, we don't know why.

A feeling that also arises with "Panik": It's always nice to see that Ton Steine Scherben really grabs every new generation of musicians in Germany, appeals to them and drives them to confrontation. "The dream is over and I can't think of anything else", they say. The first may be true, but the second is a little flirtatious. Because on the one hand, looking for an infight with "Christians, men and fascists" and wanting to see the country in flames, and on the other, packing the whole thing into a happy-go-lucky upbeat arrangement in which the vocals conjure up exactly the half hour in German rock history in which Marius Müller-Westernhagen was a really cool sock, is a trick that you have to come up with first. A lesson in German music history that lasts just two and a half minutes.

The "Offer", which is hard to refuse, is also outstanding, with iedereen once again going in search of meaning and truth. The verses revive the glorious 80s New Wave á la Blondie, while the chorus veers towards the alternative rock of the mid-nineties. A song that gets stuck in your head for as long as "Glaube nicht", albeit by different means. Because this one is more melodically distant, the desperate iedereen ignorance is bluntly hit in the flank with classic noise rock motifs.

"Alarm", on the other hand, deals with sex, porn and overconsumption with B-52s twang and airy, driving riff rock. And the slacker anthem "Geht's nur gut?" has a nice touch of Lemonheads and could almost pass for a power ballad. "Who still has wire for a tightrope walk?" A very good question from a very good band, who simply follow their intuition on this record and do whatever comes to mind.

The heaviness is followed by lightness, the despair by defiance, the verse is sometimes followed by the chorus - and sometimes just the sinister grinning demolition squad with the dynamite under their arm. "Our songs are like a house of cards: airy, infantile, sometimes on the verge of collapse," says Ron. A description that can apply not only to art, but to life itself.

iedereen manage to do all this, and - it cannot be emphasized often enough - with limited means and very small tools. The fewer musicians you have at your disposal, the more ideas you need, and anyone listening to this album can often only marvel at all the musical trails the band follows with verve, wit and skill. iedereen, you have to keep reminding yourself, are really just the two of them. A goddamn duo. Ron and Tom, that's it. That's as good as it gets. And somehow no more either.