Think of what makes music great. Originality, vision, passion, and a distinct voice, the ability and power to move you, to stir up emotions in the listener. Judging by those standards, already Hooverphonic emerges as a great band.

A lot of bands from smaller countries don't have a unique sound. At worst, they are carbon copies of the big bands from England and America. Thus, you might hear a second rate German Radiohead, or a third rate Bolivian U2. On the other hand, it is very hard to compare the Belgian Hooverphonic to anything--always a good sign. An initial "trip-hop" label quickly proved limiting. From the word go, the celestial Hooverphonic sound seemed beamed down from a different universe. It was unique, different, and subtly exotic. Undoubtedly that explains why their intriguing music is so popular with movie directors looking to enrich crucial scenes from their movies with a distinct, remarkable, haunting sound.

At first, Hooverphonic was called simply 'Hoover', a name that had to be changed after protest from the manufacturer of the same name, and because the band found out there were other bands by the same moniker anyway. Hooverphonic's first efforts bore influences of their then musical heroes: soundtrack composers such as Angelo Badalamenti, and atmospheric pop bands like Portishead and Massive Attack. The first breakthrough came when Alex and Raymond realized that female vocals seemed a better conductor for their enchanting music than male vocals. "Inhaler" was the first song they recorded that made them realize they had found their niche. Consequent demos aroused interest from at least five major record companies. Sony Music won the band's trust and A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular was released in 1997, with Liesje Sadonius on vocals. Roland Harrington (Björk, Simply Red, Soul II Soul) mixed the album. And "2Wicky" became a radio hit in many countries.

The next breakthrough came courtesy of Bernardo Bertolucci's music supervisor who insisted on using "2Wicky" in the movie Stealing Beauty, starring Liv Tyler. "2Wicky" contained a guitar sample from Isaac Hayes' classic "Walk On By". Around that time, the hectic touring schedule became too much for singer Liesje and she left the band. They remained friends and Liesje even contributed on later tracks such as "Club Montepulciano". Later that year, Hooverphonic toured North America for seven weeks supporting Fiona Apple with new singer Geike Arnaert. To their amazement, the band found that a segment of the audience had showed up for them. There were more accolades to follow, like the glowing review Greil Marcus wrote in Interview magazine:

"a coolly brilliant record...it beckons you to play it again and again"

and hip British mag The Face, which declared the album:

"perfectly made for those rain swept autumn days. Hooverphonic manage to embrace pan-global influences from trip-hop to salsa".

All of this gave Hooverphonic and Sony Music enough confidence to hire Mark Plati, who had previously worked on albums by David Bowie and The Cure, to produce their second offering, Blue Wonder Power Milk (no hidden meaning--Alex just liked the sound of those words). The album was then mastered by Bob Ludwig (Bruce Springsteen) in Portland, Maine. According to both band and critics, Blue Wonder Power Milk was A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular with less samples and better songs. The band also expanded the range of instruments, adding crucial detail all over, and employing violins, French horns, lutes, mandolins and spectral drums. Blue Wonder Power Milk was recorded in Belgium, New York (Battery Studios and Philip Glass Studios), and Paris (XXX Studios). In between recordings and album release, the band toured Europe supporting their kindred spirits Massive Attack. They also recorded a cover of "Shake the Disease" for the Depeche Mode tribute album Various Artists For the Masses. And following that up was a triple bill tour with the UK band Moloko and French DJ Kid Loco. Hooverphonic also toured with Grammy nominated artist Duncan Sheik, and played their second gig at the CMJ Conference. Accolades came in the form of a Best Video award nomination for "Eden" at the Utah No Dance Film & Multimedia Festival. All that hard work earned them their first American tour as headliners, making waves in each town they played. In Europe they supported the Divine Comedy in Spain, and headlined in most other countries. Hooverphonic also played many big summer festivals, such as Roskilde, Paleo and Werchter. Shortly after December 1998, founding band member Frank Duchêne decided to part with the band.

Alex Callier is the band's programmer, bass player and chief songwriter. More importantly, he is also a visionary who realized early-on the international potential of producing the original, haunting music he heard in his head; an ambition which could be deduced from little acts such as spending his food money on purchasing a sampler and a computer, while still a penniless student.

When asked what his primary musical influences were, Alex used to say, simply, "my father's record collection". Apparently, Callier senior had music about the house at all times, acquainting his offspring with talents as diverse as Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, Sly & the Family Stone, Brazilian bossa nova, French chansonniers like Serge Gainsbourg, and classic pop from bands such as The Beatles. In addition, Alex went on to discover the moods and inspirations of eighties alternative acts such as The Smiths, New Order, Cocteau Twins, David Sylvian and The Pixies. He also feels painting is an influence, often describing song moods in terms of colors. He is oblivious to trends, and both that attitude and his favored combination of old-fashioned melodies and almost futuristic samples and rhythms, lends Hooverphonic a timeless quality. His aim is, at all times,

"...to make great pop songs that have a prominent, distinctive atmosphere. The combination of accessible melodies and wistful moods is one I hear too rarely in contemporary pop music."

On his own, Alex composed the film score to the Belgian-American movie Shades, starring Mickey Rourke. Both Geike and Raymond contributed to the soundtrack, which included a cover version of the Dave Berry classic "This Strange Effect". In the end, the soundtrack was better received than the movie.

Alex continues to live in Belgium, in a house that is partly caught in a 1930's time warp, with a 1950's inspired interior, which is guaranteed to provide the casual visitor with a splitting headache.

Geike Arnaert is Hooverphonic's secret weapon. Like Liz Fraser in the Cocteau Twins or Tracey Thorn in Massive Attack, Geike's frail but intense singing is perfectly fitted to Hooverphonic's unorthodox, mesmerizing songs. Her haunting, almost otherworldly voice is like that of a siren, luring the listener to uncharted shores. She is the kind of muse a painter or writer would kill for, and the mystery and sense of occasion oozing from her vocal chords lifts the music to a higher plane. In contrast with her frail voice and looks, she's also a trooper, who was already touring and recording with the band within a month of their first joint rehearsal.

Geike's sensual, romantic, midnight hour voice is not a pose or an affectation. In the flesh, too, she's an incurable romantic, often described in words like: dreamer, sentimental, old-fashioned and sensitive. Key components to her life are "beauty, trust, and warmth". She loves the oral history her grandparents taught her; she adores nature, traveling, learning and "simple, old-fashioned things". On the music front, she loves Joni Mitchell, Massive Attack, Sneaker Pimps and Jeff Buckley, and was impressed by David Bowie's charisma when she saw him in concert. On a culinary level, she adores "the smell of a good Italian restaurant".

Guitarist and founding band member Raymond Geerts started his musical career as the key member of various cover bands, as any musician knows a great way to learn pop music. He's a modern guitarist in the sense that his inventive, layered riffs always support the songs. It's never about solos with Raymond. Raymond's presence is also proof of the fact that Hooverphonic have always preferred real instruments and old-fashioned craftsmanship to electronics.

"Even in the early days, we never constructed our songs around samples, only the other way around".

Together with Alex, Raymond spends a lot of attention to detail. The duo use a number of special effects of their own design, varying from amplified breathing and sound bites sampled from everyday life, to microphones being banged on wood. Raymond also contributed an instrumental to the soundtrack of Shades, which he recorded with Alex under the alias "Dan and the Electro's".

It's not a coincidence that, in a relatively brief career, Hooverphonic have chalked up such an impressive list of film and TV credits. Like movies, almost all Hooverphonic songs are rich in visuals and atmosphere. It's as if their songs are on the lookout for the right drama; as if they demand an event to bloom in--a solar eclipse, fireworks, the Olympics--anything bigger than life. Each Hooverphonic track seems a miniature soundtrack to an imaginary movie, yet to be made, or existing in a parallel universe. Perhaps it's Hooverphonic's biggest feat that they manage to combine this "bigger than life" quality with the subtlety and understatement also found in these songs. Even at full symphonic, a Hooverphonic song never crosses the line into bombastic or spectacle. It comes as no surprise then, that Alex is an alumni of the Brussels film school RITCS, who at first embarked on a career as a sound engineer for Belgian national television.