Wearyland is a father and his daughter who write and record songs in a basement in a small Belgian town. Their delightful debut album “Wearyland” was released in 2015 by the Barcelona based label Son Canciones. Radio 1 described the album as “a long whisper that gets stuck in your soul”, and specialized blogs such as Hi54lofi and L’Attimo Fuggente included the songs in their lists of favorites. The album was supposed to be the beginning and the end of the band, but COVID-19 lockdowns got them writing songs again. Social distancing and solitude dragged them both into the darkest of holes. In a desperate attempt to pull each other out, they came up with the idea to start writing letters, but instead songs popped out. After weeks of sending them back and forth, they were finally allowed to see each other again. They headed straight into the father’s basement in Haaltert to record them, and the result is “Letters”, Wearyland’s second album and an ode to nearness in times of distance.

Wearyland is a family business. The band consists of Alain Quateau, his daughter Maaike Quateau and her boyfriend Ward Dhoore.

In the nineties, Alain Quateau played in The Paranoid Polaroids, later called The Laroids after being threatened to get sued by the company Polaroid. After a few very successful singles and showcases at some of the biggest festivals in Belgium in the early nineties, the band split up and Alain decided to focus on his career as a cameraman, director, screenwriter and film school teacher.

Maaike Quateau never wanted to be in a band. All she wants to do is to play the piano and sing songs when she’s alone. But her farther convinced her to join him for one show in Barcelona, and minutes after walking off the stage, they were offered a record deal. Maaike now happily teaches in secondary school in Aalst, and sometimes she lets her father convince her to be the beating heart of Wearyland.

Ward Dhoore plays in successful folk bands Trio Dhoore, Spilar and Snaar Maar Waar, amongst many others. He is also the co-founder and CEO of the record label Studio Trad.