Here I am, this is who I am

"Here I am, this is who I am," Saskia explains about Somebody Hold Me by Van Orly. And Saskia van Orly is pure soul with a blues influence. The spirits of Aretha Franklin, Ann Peebles and Al Green, not to mention Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin, are a strong presence in her solo debut album.

Somebody Hold Me may be the first solo album by this singer, but the name Saskia van Orly will ring a bell to many. They will remember the band Tambourine with their hit High Under The Moon. She also did studio vocals with various national and international artists. Saskia made two albums with Tambourine, Flowers In September (1989) and Waterland (1991). Tambourine was awarded a Silver Harp as well as an Edison. And then what happened? "I stopped working with Tambourine because of incompatible musical approaches. This was followed by a period of personal growth where I developed a lot of self understanding. I also lived for a year and a half in Indonesia and Australia." Back in the Netherlands, Saskia presented a program on Talk Radio and worked as a voiceover artist for commercials. She turned down offers to make a solo album. "Since it wasn’t possible to do exactly what I had in mind and a strong motivation was missing, it wasn’t worth it."

On Somebody Hold Me all these requirements were met! The event that led to this solo album was Saskia’s meeting Pim Kilian three years ago. "A friend of mine had suggested that I should have a talk with Pim. I had heard this kind of thing so many times before. But I went to a cocktail party at the studio where he worked anyway. Even though we only talked about music, it was apparent from the start that there was chemistry between us. Most musicians express themselves with the music but cannot express these nuances verbally. And I am pretty verbal myself. With Pim it was great that he understood me and I understood him! He gave me a few grooves and one piece which he had worked on. Soon after that, I called him to say I had put something together. We got together, recorded one song and after that started to write and record demos."
The result of this unusual collaboration is the CD Somebody Hold Me by Van Orly. "I knew there was something in me that had to come out. I had to accept that no matter what I thought I wanted to be, this is who I am now. Maybe I haven’t manifested my talents that often but I haven’t done anything to be ashamed of. I’m just a late bloomer!"

The title song, in which the influence of Janis Joplin is apparent, is one of the first songs Saskia made with Pim. "The vocal that you hear on that track is from an old analogue Fostex recording using cassette tapes. This doesn’t really work anymore and even though that might be reflected in the sound of this vocal, I don’t really mind."
There are no chic recording studio credits on the CD sleeve. "I recorded the vocals in my living room. I constructed a sound baffle surrounded with a curtain, well constructed….rather, it was an old room divider with a piece of fabric over it!" The first single, the compelling Calling Out, was created in this intimate home studio as well. "I sang
"Love Can Make You Bleed very quietly because of the neighbors but the vocal mood is perfect for the luscious Latin atmosphere on this track."
Thank You has a funky feel, Wisdom sounds like real American gospel, while the blues ballad Walking Through This Fire penetrates right down into your veins. What connects all eleven songs on Somebody Hold Me is that Feeling, soul.
Saskia found inspiration for the lyrics in her own love life. "Your love life says everything about how you think and determines your whole outlook on the world. Crisis or no crisis, war or no war, in the end your state of mind is determined by your own little life.” Sarah Sugatt collaborated on seven of the ten original song lyrics. The eleventh track is Did Somebody by Tony Joe White. For the record, Saskia van Orly is Dutch. On Somebody Hold Me you can’t really tell.

Saskia and Pim produced Somebody Hold Me themselves. "There are definitely people who could have done it, but Pim and I both are very particular. We hardly used any others in this project because we wanted to stay as close as possible to our own original concept. Every choice, whether for a note or for a word, you are confronted with a question What is beautiful? What is profound? What is superficial? What is truth and what is not? You work through it because you want to share as much of yourself as you can."

Somebody Hold Me ís Van Orly. "What you hear is what you get."