Spleen : A Short Biography

Spleen is the artist name of Lennart Vanstaen. Born in Belgium, Antwerp (1987) he was raised with good music in his direct environment. While playing in several rockbands (most important: Timer) over the years he realised he wanted to play the music that suited his soul. He adored bands like Radiohead, Eels, Sigur Ros, Björk, Mum and The Album Leaf, which form his main influences. It must be said Lennart has a special connection with the band Radiohead, the love goes very deep. He started experimenting with software, guitar and a midi-keyboard. After a while came 'Sun Salution', the first song of Spleen, a name specifically chosen because it embodied what Lennart considered himself to be devoted to, that is melancholy. After a sort of aha-erlebnis he came up with the genre 'Melantronica', derived from melancholy and electronica, of which Lennart thought it fitted with his music and atmosphere perfectly.

After a while, the songs came faster and got better and more complex. Spleen's music has been called 'film music' a lot of times, and on myspace he became friends with Sophie Vanhomwegen, a talented girl active in photography and even more in video's. She fell in love with his music, as he fell in love with her vision on art. So they worked together and the clip from Whatever Floats Your Boat was the result. It was chosen for HDFEST filmfestival. Sophie won several other prizes at filmfestivals using Spleen's music (e.g. Bermuda Triangle). Then Lennart got an offer from a starting well-promising English label, called Summer Rain Recordings. He loved just the name alone, and after some questions and answers he signed with them. First release was '6 Moons Ago', including 'Whatever Floats Your Boat' and 'Eluding Hedgehog'. His second release was 'Where We All Fit In' including 'Flowerdrops' (top 10 Ourstage) and 'Sun Salution' (a new edited version of the all-time first song of Spleen).