FORMED: 1991
Sister and brother Sarah and Gert Bettens were active in the music scene when they were very young. Sarah was singing along with ABBA and Donna Summer in front of the mirror. Later she became addicted to Annie Lennox, 'because she masters so many styles as a singer'. Gert, a few years older, listened to The Police, The Smiths and Lloyd Cole and was playing with a band (The Basement Plugs) yet. When Sarah asked whether she once could sing with this band, her voice turned out to be better than the whole band itself. After that it became a little more serious.
Their cover of Melissa Etheridge's Like the Way I Do, taped at a party, fetched up in the just started record company Double T, and they offered Sarah a solo-contract. Sarah hesitated, but Gert insisted that she accepted it. The first single, a cover of Hank Williams' I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, recorded for the Belgian film Vrouwen Willen Trouwen, reached the Top-5 in Belgium. A duet with Scottish singer Frankie Miller, Ry Cooder-composition Why Don't You Try Me this time, became a hit. A golden future as a solo-artist lied ahead, but it went way too fast for Sarah; She wanted to make music together with Gert. Initially the record company was very sceptical, but when Sarah and Gert played something acoustic, they were convinced.
K's Choice was born, although the duo called themselves The Choice at first. With this name they recorded their debut album The Great Subconscious Club, together with producer Jean Blaute. A folky pop record, which became a success in Belgium and which led to a worldwide contract at Epic/Sony. The record was released also in the United States and became such a success that not one, but even two American bands called The Choice claimed the rights on the name. This fact didn't keep them from touring in the United States together with the Indigo Girls, in the meantime Sarah's favourite singers. During that tour The Choice plays in front of a 10,000 people audience.
After this, The Choice changed their name into K's Choice. The K stands for Josef K, a character from Franz Kafka's book The Trial. An ironic joke, because Josef K, as a victim of the political system, wasn't able to make his own choices, while Sarah and Gert are.
In 1995 they recorded, together with producer Jean Blaute again, their second album Paradise in Me. This album sounds harder, more modern and more guitar oriented than The Great Subconscious Club. The single Not an Addict became a huge hit almost everywhere in Europe, and the sales of the album are rising and rising because of that. Nevertheless K's Choice had to get over a disappointment recently when Epic told them that Paradise in Me won't be released in America because there are too much guitars on it. Epic's marketing strategy was completely focused on another album for the Suzanne Vega- audience, so their changed course surprised Epic unpleasantly. K's Choice will still try to release their second album at an other record company in the United States though...
In February 1996 Philippe left the band, and the bass guitar was then played by Dave Foster from London who before that played at The Style Council, The Psychedelic Furs and Belgian band The Radios. After the success of K's Choice at the Pinkpop Festival in Holland, where Alanis Morissette also performed, Alanis, at that time really popular with her Jagged Little Pill album, asked the band to be her support act during her American tour. Sarah first kicked Dave out of the band because he didn't speak very well Dutch and she tought that was the reason that there wasn't a good 'communication'. Of course K's Choice took the opportunity, and they were very successful during this US tour with the first part of the tour Ronny Mosuse on the bass and the second leg of the tour it was Bart 'Fretje' Delacourt who played the bass. This resulted in the long expected release of Paradise in Me in the United States.
After K's Choice returned to Europe, they toured across France almost always in sold out venues. On a US-winter-tour by the end of 1996 it was Karl Zosel who played the bass. Then again it was Ronny Mosuse who toured in Australia and later in America, he was replaced by American Eric Grossman. After this US-tour K's Choice played at some festivals in Europe, with the huge Roskilde Festival in Danmark as the highlight. In July the band started the second leg of their tour in the USA, as the support act for The Verve Pipe, together with the second support act Tonic.
In April 1998, the band's new album Cocoon Crash was released, which was recorded together with topproducer Gil Norton, who worked with bands like the Pixies, Foo Fighters and Counting Crows earlier.
