Janez Detd

Janez Detd. (short for Janez Determined) is a Belgian pop punk band that formed in 1995.

The group saw the light of day in and about 1994, and was first baptised as "Jane's Detd." (a name they found in a short film from the DDR about a girl that gets an overdose), with from the start Nikolas - Bones - Vanderveken & Bob as the most founding members. After some fooling around in the garage (with music of the same genre), the chose one day to devote their band to playing punkrock, entitling their very first demo clearly "Punkin' Shit Snobs". This demo gave them an entry ticket to a recording for Green Leaf Records, a maxi-CD in 1996 called "Dignity & Teeth".

After a noteworthy performance on the skate-stage at the Pukkelpop-festival (later on the day Dog Eat Dog would devote their "No Fronts" to the band because they "were impressed by so much positive energy so early in the morning"). All in all, "Dignity and Teeth" became a small-scale success (2500 copies sold, of which 1000 in the first month preceded by the reputation the band already had built themselves in the underground circuit).

1998 meant the breakthrough for Jane's Detd.: the song "Beaver Fever" did become a radiohit on the alternative radio in Belgium. The first full-CD "Bleenies & Blockheads" did leave some room for variation, with tracks ranging from college rock songs to skatecore, from catchy punk to up-tempo ska and surf, and with lyrics that had sick bikini-girls en skateboards as themes. With this album, the band got a rather fanatic following, that helped the band to a place at the Beach Rock festival as "Belgian people's choice". On that day, they caused a small-scale incident by inviting their fans on the stage (a regular feature of their show). It were these weather conditions that inspired Bones to say the famous words: "Well euh, we are a band of the people, so that means that we're here thanx to you. To put it in other words: our stage is your stage so come on up and shelter and dance with us!" Security agents could not stop the hundreds (which soon became nearly a thousand) of fans that climbed up the stage. Never had a festival of that size been overwhelmed by a crowd! Police was called up, there was a big chaos and Janez Detd, they just smiled and said "Thank you, we were Janez Detd but you guys were th? b?st!". Later that summer, they also held a strange demonstration at Pukkelpop, where they tried in vain to persuade organiser Chokri to put the band on the line-up of that year's edition by putting up poster of the band all around the festival ground.

In 1999, the group parted ways with I Scream Records in a not very pleasant way (they even had to change the name to Janez Detd. to get out of the legal hassle), and signed up for major Virgin. As a guarantee to remain independent, the major established a special sublabel for Janez Detd. (Cabalero Records) that the band will also be able to use a promotion tool for other punkbands they like. Where the previous album had the approval of both the die-hard punks and the general rock-oriented audiences, the move to Virgin caused that they had to defend themselves against the accusationof "selling out" (to which band replies that the Sex Pistols were also on Virgin, and even the Kids on another major). If the plans for the label work out the way that Nikolas & Co foresee it, the old fans will probably come around.

The band's first release on Cabalero became the single "Rock On (Debbie's a Spaz)" in 1999, as a precursor to the self-titled second CD that was released in March 2000 (with the first 3000 copies accompanied by a tag template, with which you could leave the Janez Detd. logo on your favourite blind wall). The album was produced by Jo Francken, and in contained more poppy material, that didn't miss its effect: the group got to a new platform of popularity here. Especially a witty ska-version of the A-Ha torture "Take On Me" became a hit here in Belgium (even got to the lower regions of the charts) and got a fine videoclip. There was also a lot of touring going on (eg. Pukkelpop, Lokerse Feesten, Marktrock ...), in which the band stood out by going all out with all their weapons at hand