In our latest Band Spotlight, Torre Florim of De Staat reflects on his vision for the band, the new self-titled album, success and much more!
S] Hello Torre!! Thanks for your time today, it’s very much appreciated – how are you doing?
I’m doing great. It’s an exciting time, we’re releasing our seventh album, so there’s always a lot going on: building a big new show, creating new music videos, talking to everyone who’s interested. It’s a cool, exciting time to be alive and releasing something new.
S] Young people talk about lore a lot these days, this album feels like it has a lot of lore – can you talk me through the first moments of its development, in terms of ideas and execution, obviously the state of the world is quite bleak at the moment?
What was new for me on this album was wanting to write the songs while, at the same time, already thinking about the live show, the music videos, the artwork. Normally with pop bands the process is serial: you write the music, pick singles, make videos, and only at the end start designing the live show. This time I wanted all those art forms (live show, videos, artwork, even clothing) to develop together, so they could inspire each other. An idea for the show could shape a song, and vice versa.
When I started, I thought it might become a dystopian album. But as I made it with the band and our partners, I realised it wasn’t about some dystopian future, it was about now. About power, storytelling, belief, faith, AI. It captures this moment in time. And because we built all these art forms in parallel, it created a kind of world-building rather than just songwriting, an actual universe, with symbols carrying double meanings, like the staircase as the centerpiece, symbolising power and the lust for it.
I’m proud of it, especially as our seventh album. It has one very specific voice. You can love it or hate it, and that’s fine, it’s not for everyone. And yes, the world feels bleak, but I’m an optimist at my core. This album isn’t “everything is fucked,” it’s more an investigation into how the world works, and how it could work differently. The closing track, FAITH, is about the stories we tell ourselves. If we can believe things that are negative and not even factual, surely we can believe something positive instead. I don’t think we’re fucked. I think we’re capable of real change.
S] Torre, this band has so much history – can you tell me how you’ve changed and developed as an artist (and as a person) since the beginnings of De Staat, until now in 2026?
When we started, like any young band, we were heavily inspired by other groups before finding our own voice. Our first album,Wait for Evolution, was very much me searching, going all over the place vocally, not thinking much about lyrics yet. Looking back, that’s what makes it fun.
Across our albums you can hear a clear development: musically richer, more diverse, all of us incorporating new sounds. None of our albums sound alike; you can always hear us reaching for something different. People have their favourites and that’s fine, we’re always trying to bring in something new.
As the band grew, so did the scale of what we do. We became makers of art in a broader sense: performers, composers, producers, filmmakers.
The new show,De Staat Becomes De Staat, is proof of that, the most theatrical thing we’ve ever done. We’ve also gone through phases: When we started as a band we were changing setlists constantly, then later wanting to perfect one great show, and now enjoying a bit of everything.
Personally, I’m just older. We started when I was fresh out of school; now I’m forty and a young father. My view on life has changed completely, and that inevitably ends up in the songs. That’s what keeps it interesting to make, I hope also to follow, but at the very least, I’m having fun.
S] How do you look back at the success?
I find it hard to really sit with success, enjoying the moment has never come naturally to me, though I’m getting better at it. Looking back over a long career, I can see peak moments where we made a real impact, and that’s fulfilling. But for me success is more about the artistic adventure itself, and having more knowledge now to enjoy the fruits of that.
Success is relative, some days you feel it, some days you don’t. But I do feel genuinely lucky and blessed to be able to live off the band, to pay rent doing this strange thing that is being in a band. Honestly, that’s the biggest success story: that I’m still able to do this, and there’s still an audience for it.
S] Can you tell me what’s inspiring you creatively outside of music right now, think people, places and movies, for example?
David Byrne comes up for me in almost every interview. I saw his show at Down the Rabbit Hole in 2019 and it completely floored me, the most progressive, groundbreaking show at the festival, made by the oldest artist on the bill. Musically, choreographically, visually: simple, minimal, brilliant. It opened my mind: you can be in your seventies and still be doing the most forward-thinking work on the lineup.
In film, I love many films, but a director like Denis Villeneuve is an example: epic, beautifully shot, but also working on a simple level. It’s action, it looks stunning, but there’s depth there if you want to look for it. That’s exactly what I chase with De Staat: some people just come for a song like “Witch Doctor” and have a good time without thinking about what it means, and others come for the whole experience and actually dig into it. Both are valid.
S] Anything that you’d like to say to UK supporters? You do have some dates coming up in November!!
I’ve always felt a real kinship with the UK, I don’t fully know why, but I’ve always loved it there, and the fans have been great. We always end up with a lot of UK and Ireland dates because it just works there and we love playing for those crowds. This time we’ll be in Bristol, London, Glasgow, Dublin, Nottingham, and Manchester, can’t wait to be back.
S] Talk to me about the creative vision around the live concept, and the challenges around that?
This is aboutDe Staat Becomes De Staat, the big show we built for Down the Rabbit Hole Festival, which we’ll also play at Carré in Amsterdam. We’re looking at maybe doing more of it next year, but nothing’s confirmed. It was made in collaboration with an incredible team: Boris Acket (scenography), Tarik Barri (visuals), Freek Ros (light design) and Floor Houwink ten Cate as director.
It’s the first show where the entire setlist actually means something. Every song has a specific role in the arc, and some songs even reference each other. The concept: I come up out of the crowd and slowly climb toward the stage and up a staircase that represents power. As I climb, the show gets darker, more authoritarian: louder, bleaker, colour draining away, visuals becoming more uniform. I don’t want to spoil too much, but we spent a long time building this and I’m really proud of it. It’s the first time I’ve worked with so many people, for so long, on one thing.
The challenge was that we’d built this huge set and rehearsed extensively, but never actually run it in front of an audience. The first time we performed it was the premiere at Down the Rabbit Hole. So the big question hanging over us was: does it actually work? That was nerve-wracking, but also exciting, and it worked out well. I’m happy with it.
S] Anything that I’ve missed today that you’d like to add?
I would like to add that it’s OK to miss something.
S] Thanks for your time, Torre!!