Ronnie Flex
For about four years Ronnie Flex was playing with the material from his new album Altijd Samen, which was released in August. In a new reality series, the artist shows how relieved he was after its release and how he sees the future as a father in front of him. “I have to sacrifice things to keep balance.”
“From the second that Altijd Samen was on Spotify, I felt relieved of the mental chains, the stress and the pressure,” says Ronnie Flex (real name Ronell Plasschaert) in conversation with NU.nl.
Plasschaert imposed those mental chains, stress and pressure on himself. He wanted to surpass, or at least equal, the success of his previous albums NORI (2018) and Rémi (2017).
“But that’s a pretty difficult task. In addition, I really wanted to be very satisfied with it myself. I just really had a lot of trouble with that over the past few years. I wanted to feel like I’m listening to the new album myself. I had to release it to get on with my life.”
‘A new energy was released’ (Ronnie Flex)
About two-thirds of the album was finished, when Plasschaert decided to stop smoking in January.
“Then new energy was released. I started making new music again, purely for fun. But with passion. Then I was able to finish what I had been doing for the last four years. In four months, I made about six songs that really came from my heart.”
In the eight-part reality series Ronnie: forever together,which can be seen on Videoland from Thursday, it becomes clear how much Plasschaert has been looking forward to the completion of his new album. During an intimate party he plays his new album for a company of friends and acquaintances. The viewer sees Plasschaert in tears, leaning on two friends standing next to him.
“That was intense, but also beautiful. It’s really been a discharge. During the completion of the album, I was emotionally quite unstable. I really had to let it go every now and then, that’s happened to me a few times. I’ve worked so hard. Not so much about the album, but mostly to myself. I think that’s that discharge that you see again.”
‘I have to buy bread for my children’
By working on himself he means not only the cessation of smoking, but also his role as a father with a second child on the way and as a partner of his girlfriend Demi de Boer.
“Keeping the balance between artist, father and partner is currently the most difficult task in my life. I think you can be looking for that balance for a lifetime. Sometimes you get close and sometimes you fall out again. Maybe something is going to change in the way I make music. Because I also see it more and more as work, because I have to buy bread for my children.”
It is quite unnatural when you suddenly have to do what you find the most fun to do, Plasschaert explains.
“But things will really change. I’ll also hang out less after a gig. Or partying. If I have Nori on Sunday, then I can’t sit in the studio until 5:00 in the morning the night before. Even if I wanted to. Those are things that you have to sacrifice to keep the other in balance.”
This article was first published on NU.nl.
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