The Van Houtens
Alan created The Van Houtens back in 2008; In the early days The Van Houtens were a fake band: he wanted to taste the emotion of being in a band without the problems that bands usually have (drunken guitarists, rehearsals...).
The first few demos attracted lots of listeners on MySpace and obtained positive reviews from music industry magazines, blogs and websites.
One particular song, “(It's a) Beautiful day, was chosen by McDonald's as the jingle for the "Chicken Gourmet" TV commercial; All major italian TV networks aired the McDonald's commercial from 2008 to 2010.
The combination between one of the biggest multinational companies in the world and an ultra-independent artist made this unusual story very popular on the internet; The magazine “XL” wanted the Van Houtens drummer for an article and a photo-shooting of the 5 coolest italian female musicians, but they didn't know that Lia19, the official Van Houtens drummer at that time, wasn't a real drummer at all - she is actually an american pornstar. Alan had to ask his sister Karen a big favor: "pretend to be Lia just for one day".
