VI.BE

Stoop Kid is the jangly indie-rock project of Jens Rubens. The band was named after a character of the 90’s Nickelodeon cartoon Hey Arnold. In the show Stoop Kid’s an anxious teenager who’s afraid to leave the stoop in front of his house. Childhood memories of getting lost in these cartoons combined with Jens’ own struggles with social anxiety made the name seem like a perfect fit for the project.

After years of playing guitar in numerous punk, hardcore and indie-bands in and around his hometown of Diest, Belgium he felt it was time to share his personal story. Heavily rooted in the local DIY-scene, it only felt natural to do as much as possible on his own at the start of the new project.

A spare room became a basic home studio and many hours of youtube tutorials later the first four recordings as Stoop Kid were a fact. They were released as the Uhm Yeah Sure EP (2019) and were quickly followed by four more songs for the Nothing At All EP (2020). Both got a cassette release on DIY-label Gazer Tapes. Eight songs plus a cover makes a set so by this time Jens summoned four kindred spirits to help him play the songs live.

Then the pandemic hit and all shows came to a crashing halt. The extra time on his hands allowed Jens to dig a little deeper inward, both musically and lyrically. The result: Camp Careful, a 10-track album that covers themes of depression, social anxiety and generally feeling out of place. It was released early 2021.

Several lockdowns and a few awkward masked/seated shows later, Stoop Kid was noticed by the production company of the Muziekgieterij, just across the border in Maastricht, The Netherlands. Quickly after Stoop Kid became artist in residence at the live venue, allowing Jens to work on his second album in a professional studio environment for the first time. Ten home-demos were caringly re-recorded and mixed at the Muziekgieterij studio with the help of producer Rob Driessen. Loops became live drums, lo-fi became wide scope and Mount Cope, Stoop Kid’s second full album, was a fact. The album was mastered by Laurens Grossen at Motormusic and found a home at V2 Records for its release.

Mount Cope deals with life after depression and the fear of relapsing, with the grief of losing a mother at 27 and with simply turning 30 and the existential shitshow that comes with it. With this album Stoop Kid celebrates doing a little better than the day before, not always reaching for the top, and setting simply getting by as the end goal. Musical influences range from The Clean’s jangle pop and Pavement’s slacker rock to more contemporary indie, emo and punk acts like Day Wave, The Hotelier and Toys That Kill.