What on earth is “De Ontpopping”?
“De Ontpopping” is a counterculture perspective. I would describe it as a complex but fun coping mechanism driven by creativity, music and writing. Free forms that help me reflect on a strange world in which I find myself to be the stranger.
Here on substack I give my view on music, songwriting, literature and philosophy, but I want to see where this writing will take me the coming period. So don’t be surprised to see me write an article about how selfies are a contemporary sacrament of penance, ha!
So who is this I writing to your I anyway? This I here is Frank Bond. And I’m a songwriter, producer and writer from the Amsterdam-area in the Netherlands.
To give you a little more background so you can understand what angles I come from: I studied English Literature and graduated with an MA Thesis on Bob Dylan in 2009. In the period after that I dedicated my life to my independent band AlascA and started an independent record label called King Forward Records. Many international adventures followed from 2009 until 2019.
Currently, however, I am mainly active as a producer and solo artist, launching ambitious, risky and quirky projects that focus on an offline, analog, microculture presence. If you are interested in this, check out De Ontpopping or one of my music projects:
Alasca | Francis Alban Blake |Grapefruit Airbag | Goya Van Gogh |Alain Fournier
Oh, you mean what does the word “de Ontpopping” mean?
So it is a Dutch wordplay that does not translate well unfortunately. But let me explain, so you can be in on the pun.
The Dutch word Ontpopping refers to a butterfly’s process of shedding off the pupa.
A pupa (from Latin pupa 'doll'; pl.: pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages.
It’s the final stage of a transformation. Pretty cool in itself, but the word Pop in there holds the key. The word goes back way to before when Pop, or pop culture, came about, but with pop culture in mind the word suddenly means to “un-pop”.
In other words, to actively anti-pop yourself as you develop. That is what it is to me. De Ontpopping is a transformation through shedding off pop culture. It is my most positive and kind contribution to culture.
My hope is that my unpopping perspective will not just form an alternative to me, but also to you. In this way it could become more than just a newsletter and turn into a community of people who care about culture.
For some subjects, such as the divine origin of music I would like to invite guests, but that will be something for later. For now I hope you will enjoy my writing and subscribe to get full access to my newsletter and publication archives.
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