Cécile van Wijnsberge

How are you today?

I’m alright. I just woke up, I’ve got a quiet day ahead of me and the weather’s good, which is nice.

What do you do?

I write about music for a website called 3voor12. Interviews, reviews, that sort of thing.

What brought you here?

I lived in a pretty similar type of place in Amsterdam West before this, another converted shipping container just like this one. But they’re going to tear that down soon, so everyone had to move out. I’m quite happy though, Amsterdam Noord is great!

Sun’s out – how does it affect you?

I’m like a different person when the sun’s out. I’m so much happier. Everything’s just better when you can leave the windows open.

What are you looking forward to most in spring time?

Being outside more. It always seems so much easier to meet up with your friends when everyone’s outside in the sun anyway. I really like hanging out around the city with my friends.

Any shows you’re looking forward to?

Motel Mozaique festival is coming up, I’m looking forward to that. It’s in Rotterdam, I love it there though I don’t get to go much. DIIV are playing, I’m really excited to see them.

What show do you most regret missing?

I love Fleetwood Mac, so when they came to the Netherlands last year after Christine McVie rejoined the band I was devastated that I couldn’t go. At the time I thought 75 euros was just a crazy amount of money for a concert ticket, and it is, but maybe I should have just shelled out for it.

Best music related memory?

My mum always used to listen to Dutch music when she was cleaning, like classic chansons from the ’60s and ’70s. We had these French doors to the garden that she’d leave wide open to let the fresh air in, the house smelled like lemon detergent and the jasmine bush in the garden, and we’d listen to Ramses Shaffy. Those are pretty good memories.

What are you listening to?

Right now I’m playing an episode of the Soulection radio show – they always pick out really great tunes. Good music to get you going for the day.

How do you prefer to listen to music?

I just recently got my stereo fixed, so it’s nice to be able to listen to music that’s not coming from laptop speakers for a change. I use Spotify a lot, otherwise it’s mostly records. I’ve still got a lot of cd’s from when I was a kid, I keep them around because I get nostalgic about them.

What’s been your weekend highlight this weekend?

It’s boring, but I’m kind of excited about the amount of sleep I got this weekend. I usually pack my weekends full, so I decided to go visit my mum back home and just do nothing for a bit. It was nice seeing my family again, they live pretty far away.

Best part about living in Amsterdam?

I think when you live here long enough, it kind of fuses with your personality. Anywhere you go you can meet the greatest people ever, really creative and interesting people. But if you want to you can also just move through the city completely anonymously for days on end. And when the sun comes out, the city just blossoms.

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