Students write corona song: ‘Every day felt like a Sunday’

‘Zo’ndag’ (a play on words in Dutch meaning both Sunday and a day like this), the song by the TU Delft student band On y va is already available on YouTube and will soon be available on Spotify. So why did the students write the song? Band member and Architecture and the Built Environment student Jorrit Treffers (21) explains.

How did you get the idea for this song?
“It started when Prime Minister Rutte said ‘good evening’ on TV to then go on to announce the first lockdown. Our lead singer, Sipke, immediately came up with the first draft song. We all liked it, but we were delaying to finish it. We finally recorded it during the Christmas holidays. It was then put on the back burner till three weeks ago when it was announced that many of the restrictions were going to be lifted. We then thought ‘Shit! We still need to release that song!’ We started to brainstorm about a short storyline for the music video and we could use a friends’ roof for the filming. A friend from Drop, the student board sports association, helped with the filming.”

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What is ‘Zo’ndag’ about?
“It’s about the feeling that during lockdown every day feels like a Sunday. You get up, turn on your laptop and have lectures. Loosely translated, the lyrics are: ‘I drink coffee in my dressing gown, do the wash again in my slippers’. Hopefully we can meet up again now. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but it was a hard period.”

Is this song a way for you to process this?
“I think it indeed is a way to process this collectively, and that’s why we wanted to release the song. As students we may have had few health risks, but we missed a lot of things. We wanted to talk about it, but do so without being heavy and we did this by treating the whole period as one long, lazy Sunday. ‘Zo’ndag’ expresses how we felt during this period. I hope that people will understand were we come from.”

‘As a band we wondered how we could help’

I also hear some melancholy in the song. How did you experience the corona time?
“All five of us live in large student houses. I have 18 housemates. We were lucky as at least we had people around us. Other people were more affected by loneliness.
But at the beginning of corona, we too fell into a black hole. We suddenly had nothing to do. As a band we wondered how we could help. Sipke worked at a care home and we saw the loneliness among senior citizens and that was not good. We performed outside the care home and at two other places. At the end of summer we practiced outdoors every week, even when it was really cold! We then took the decision to not only perform together but also practice together.”

How did the band On y va come about?
“Up to three weeks ago we were called the Delftsche Troubadours, but found out that that name was already taken. We were also looking for a more international name. That is because, since the beginning in 2018, we have always gone hitch-hiking together. We hitch-hike to a city somewhere in Europe, book a hostel, play on the street and try to cover the costs with the money that we make. A great way to travel. We went to cities all over the Netherlands and Belgium, often went to Paris, and even went further afield to Budapest and Barcelona for example. We mostly play covers such as Wicked Game or Lovely Day, songs that do well on the street.”

What is it like to busk?
“I recommend it to anyone who plays music. The feedback is immediate – if you play well, people stop and give money. I was on my own the first time and that was weird, but with five of us it’s a lot of fun and that’s the main thing.”

What are your plans for the near future?
“We hope that a lot of people listen to ‘Zo’ndag’ as we’re really proud of it. We also have five other songs that we’ve written that we want to work on. And this summer we want to give a cover concert and film it. And we’ll go hitch-hiking again as that’s a part of who we are.”

On y va consists of five band members:

• Integrated Product Design master’s student Bart Leeuwenburg (25)
• Engineering & Policy Analysis prospective master’s student Micha Arnoldus (23)
• Architecture and the Built Environment bachelor’s student Merijn Vonk (23)
• Architecture and the Built Environment bachelor’s student Jorrit Treffers (21)
• Architecture and the Built Environment bachelor’s student Sipke Hager (22)