Schmutz

About

Belgian New-Wave/Synthpop band founded as The Schmutz in 1982 in Limbourg, Liège Province. After winning a local contest for young bands in 1983, producer Herwig Duchateau took them under his wing and produced multiple singles, including the hit song "Love Games" in 1984, and later the full length album "Lipservice" in 1985. The band also performed live during this era in the Benelux region and West Germany and was even considered a possible Belgian entry to the Eurovision song contest. A final single followed in 1991 before Schmutz disbanded. The band was reformed in the early 2010s and continues to tour locally and record, with "Pillow Talk" being released in 2018 as a full length album combining old works with new songs. Schmutz means dirt/mud in German, however the band claimed their inspiration for choosing it as their name was just the way it sounded when hearing it as part of a tv coverage about Swiss cyclist Godi Schmutz.