RACOON

Racoon scored one of the biggest hits in Dutch chart history with their 2005 ballad “Love You More” and went on selling over 140,000 copies of their album “Another Day”. With a platinum album to their name, Racoon rose to superstardom in The Netherlands and solidified their position with the newest full-length “Before You Leave”, an album that went gold in the first week of release.

Formed in Zeeland, Holland, in 1997, Racoon began as the duo of singer Bart van der Weide and guitarist Dennis Huige, making their recorded debut via three songs contributed to the Dutch Rock & Pop Institute compilation “Characters”. With a 1998 relocation to Utrecht, bassist Stefan de Kroon and drummer Paul Bukkens joined the lineup, and the group played the Heineken X-pl'oor Festival prior to self-releasing a demo titled “It's an Ice Cream Day”.

The disc piqued the interest of a number of Dutch labels, and after an appearance at the 1999 Noorderslag Weekend, Racoon signed with Sony's S.M.A.R.T. imprint, issuing their debut album “Till Monkeys Fly” the following year. The single “Feel Like Flying” proved a radio favorite, building anticipation for the band's follow-up “Here We Go, Stereo”, issued in late 2001 and buoyed by the hit “Eric's Bar”.
Racoon then hit the international tour circuit for more than a year, culminating in 2003's all-star Europe Day Festival in Kiev.

When hit with Sony’s surprising and sudden decision to let the band go during a big “clean-up” in the Dutch music industry, Racoon took advantage of the new situation to work in all liberty on their third album.

In early 2004 Racoon signed a new deal with the larger independent Play It Again Sam. When “Another Day” finally hit retail in 2005, the album almost immediately launched the band to superstardom, generating a string of hits including the breakthrough smash "Love You More," "Laugh About It," and "Brother". Another radio hit followed with “Close Your Eyes”, used as the title track for indie flick “Kicks” by Albert ter Heerdt and later released on a 4 track homonymous EP which was offered to the public as a free download before it became available in it’s physical counterpart later in 2007.

In-between writing and recording sessions for a follow-up album, Racoon set out on their first ever US tour in the winter of 2007, supporting punk rock darling Evan Dando & his Lemonheads on a month’s worth of dates. The bands would soon be reunited for a European tour following the release of Racoon’s latest full-length “Before You Leave” in the spring of 2008.

With this album Racoon have added an extraordinary chapter and highlight to their discography in every way imaginable. While clearly maintaining the Racoon sound and feel on “Before You Leave”, they managed to do so without one single electric guitar. Asked if this was a deliberate decision, singer Bart van der Weide explains: “We just wanted to make a good album and focus on what we do best, writing beautiful pop songs that we like and that others will hopefully like to. This time around we felt that the songs benefited more from acoustic guitars than electrical ones, so that’s what we did. We like things simple, less is more... And our fans seem to be digging it, so that’s definitely a plus.”

Racoon have just finished a extensive theater tour throughout the Netherlands and are about to embark on another club tour in support of the release of new single “My Town”. The rest of the year will see more touring in Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Belgium, Canada and UK & Ireland, along with festival shows in a number of countries.