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Vol 4
Black Sabbath
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Eric Dolphy
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King Crimson

 

NEWS

GOTTA KEEP MOVING...
posted 31-07-2009

Sometimes you need to make some hard disicions to keep things rolin' the way you want. I figured it was not very realistic to keep playing with Betonfraktion due to my heavy duty time schedule. Frank and Nick figured out the same thing when they decided to get things back on track for the band and to really put their energy into the project. Betonfraktion will start playing out with a new drummer anytime soon! I also decided not to drum for the Odessa project. Although I really wanted to make a brutal record, again time is the major issue here as well.

This means I will totally focus on Hooghwater and Gingerpig for now. I always have plans for new projects and stuff... but that's future talk. I probably do some more Stooges Tribute shows because there are some clubs interested in booking this project.

More big news on this website up soon!

STOOGES TRIBUTE
posted 23-07-2009

This sunday I play a one off Ron Asheton and the Stooges tribute at the Zwarte Cross Festival. We will perform at 13:00h on the Undercoverstage. Band line-up will be myself on drums, Wout Kemkens from the Bloody Honky's on guitar, Bartman from Peter Pan Speedrock on electric bass. The guest vocalists are Janneke Riplet, Denvis, Laurence Mul from the Bloody Honky's and Rudeboy from Urban Dance Squad fame! Plus we have Edgar Francken on sax for that Funhouse madness and Vee laying down some extra guitar riffage.
We will play some serious classics like 1970, TV Eye, Dirt, Loose, I wanna be your Dog etc.... BE THERE!!

GINGERPIG DEMO ONLINE!!!
posted 05-06-2009

The (unmasterd) gingerpig demo is up on myspace, click HERE!

SLUGTRAILS
posted on 20-05-2009

My partner in crime Tony Slug does a blog and posted some live stuff from the hydromatics tour online and also a MC5 song I once recorded with him.
Go and listen it HERE!

STUDIO HOOGHWATER
posted on 20-05-2009

Okay, this saturday we will kick off the Hooghwater sessions at Bunt studio, Utrecht, the Netherlands. We're planning to record 11 new songs for an upcoming full length album. Not sure which label will release it, but first it's the music that matters!
We play tonight and next friday live with most of the new songs in our setlist!

STRAIGHT EDGE
posted on 22-04-2009

I will record a 7 inch for dutch straight edge group/project Strip the Threads. We will record this early may at the legendary Bunt Studio's. I might not be active in the hardcore scene that often, but I sure still support and live by the straight edge philosophy!

RON ASHETON TRIBUTE
posted on 22-04-2009

I will do a one time only tribute to Ron Asheton and the Stooges at this years Zwarte Cross festival. Bloody Honkies guitarist Wout Kemkens came up with this idea and formed a basic group who will be joined by well known guests. More info will follow...

ODESSA
posted on 22-04-2009

I will drum for a brand new doom project called Odessa featuring members of Shining, Bunkur and Hjarnidaudi. Record will be recorded in September.

GINGERPIG
posted on 26-02-2009

Yes yes, a new band on the roster for me. The project founded by Boudewijn Bonebakker is getting somewhere. We found Tilburg jazzplayer Jarno van Es to play Fender Rhodes/Moog/Hammond for us. At this point we are working under the name Gingerpig and are working out some fine tunes, which will be recorded early may for a demo. This all to get us on stage during the fall of 2009! I keep you posted!

BETONFRAKTION
posted on 26-02-2009

Betonfraktion will get back to jam upcoming March and April to get some gig going in May and June. Writing new material is an essential process for the next few weeks. Main goal is to have a set containing the best of the old material and some new stuff.
For bookings info get in touch with Paulus Tops from Backdrop.

YOUTUBE
posted on 01-02-2009

There is a brand new Hydromatics clip on youtube, we play the Sonic's Rendezvous Band classic "city slang" at the Debaser in Stockholm during our last european tour. Watch it here!


NEW YEAR, NEW PROJECT (LOOKING FOR HAMMOND PLAYER!)
posted on 30-12-2008

I started a new project with Boudewijn Bonebakker, known as the guitarplayer of Gorefest. We had our first rehearsal last weekend and it's looking promising enough to continiou this. What we need is a hammond player to complete the line-up. Musically it will have some sort of Deep Purple vibe, so we are looking for the new John Lord!!

Hooghwater is writing new material for an up coming record. We're not sure who will put it out, but we probably start recording next spring. Some of the new tunes are already on our setlist. So if you wanna hear em, come see us at this sunday's matinee at the 013 club Tilburg with our friends from the Devil's Blood and Vanderbuyst.

And last but not least, I wish you all the best for 2009!

CRASH
posted 29-10-2008

About four weeks ago I fell with my racebike and broke my collarbone during a downhill in the Belgian hills. This meant that I can't play drums for a few weeks and unfortunately I had to cancel a few gigs for hooghwater. We'll be back on stage from december 1st to support Witchcraft in Belgium. Check the shows section for new gigs. Hooghwater will do some shows in Germany with our friends the Bloody Honkies next spring and there are more Dutch clubshows coming up for the wintertime.
We did an update on the Hooghwater website, new shirts are up for sale and we have some special offers up! Also a interview in the Dutch free musicmagazine FRET an interview with me about Hooghwater.


ZXZW 2008
posted 16-09-2008

Hooghwater will perform at the ZXZW festival this sunday. ZXZW is an art festival co-founded 4 years ago by me together with Vincent Korenman, Frank Kimenai and Alex van Wijk. All of us were booking/promoting DIY shows around town. One day it looked like we booked several shows on the same day, instead of making this a problem, the solution was easy. Let's build a festival around these shows. First edition was a two day fest with about 50 (national and international) bands playing around the Tilburg city center venues. The next year was also a two day edition with about 90 (national and international) bands on the bill. After the 2nd edition I decided to quit the daily work on the festival. This because of a lack of time and the dedication for my bands at that time. At that point Joost Heijthuijzen came in and he decided with Frank and Vince to start NEST and to make the festival a full time job. The festival made a move towards a more arty festival. Basic idea is the "independent culture" slogan used by ZXZW to make clear that it isn't mainstream what you get, but underground gems for the masses. A festival to discover new music and see all sorts of other arts etc.
The good thing of stepping out of the daily organisation is that I can actually play the festival. Last year I was there with the Hydromatics and this year with Hooghwater. Sun Ra's Arkestra is playing a full week in town and I have the one and only John Sinclair as a guest in my house. As a member of the board of directors I'm very proud of what the guys lined up for this year. It's now a 8 day festival with over 250 national and mostly international artists and groups coming to Tilburg to perform their arts. Come and hang out, you won't regret it!!!

LAST MINUTE BETONFRAKTION SHOW
posted 28-08-2008

Betonfraktion will play the KKC&K festival in Tilburg next saturday. Showtime is around 22:00h and you can find the venue at the Lange Nieuwstraat 174 in Tilburg.
We also uploaded a few tunes on our website, so check them out here! The tunes were recorded live at our Paradox gig a few weeks ago. Credits go out to Tom Sikkers for mixing and mastering it.

AARDSCHOK INTERVIEW
posted 16-08-2008

This months issue of dutch metal magazine Aardschok features an interview with me about Hooghwater and also a few lines about the Powervice studio breakup.
 
Another great Hooghwater review appeared in major dutch music magazine OOR. There are more shows comin'up for September and we're about to play some new jams on those dates!

INTERVIEW AND REVIEWS
posted on 04-07-2008

Bjorn Dossche, the singer for Rise and Fall, has put up a piece on drummers on his weblog. He interviewed some drummers, and I was also one of chosen few. You can read it here.

Betonfraktion played it's first gig at the paradox club in Tilburg. It turned out pretty decent in my opinion. Reaction from the attending people were a little more divided, but afterall it was a show for us to ducument the tunes we play and make some sort of demo to continiou the project after the summer. VPRO's 3voor12 Tilburg put up a live review on their website and pretty much what it is. Read it here, unfortunately in dutch only!

Frank Crijns and me with betonfraktion live @ paradox, Tilburg

The hooghwater record hit the stores and there a reviews popping up every now and then. First big thing is a great review in the dutch metal magazine Aardschok. They baptised the release as "sweety of the month" with a 80+ score out of a 100 points. The popular metal website Lords of Metal had a positive review on our record. The review can be read here, in dutch only!
It's pretty funny that the metal magazine come up with the first reviews and are even raving about it. Because we simple don't play metal. But the mail thing is that they like what we're doing.
You can mailorder the record through the hooghwater website. You just need paypal or drop us an e-mail and ask for banktranfer information.

GONG
posted on 09-06-2008

Today I bought myself a 34" gong to complete my set-up. You can imagine that I'm as happy as a dog with seven dicks!!!
 

HOOGHWATER DEBUT RECORD
poster on 23-05-2008

The Hooghwater debut record is scheduled to hit the stores on June 26th. It will be distributed in the Benelux by Suburban. Ofcourse the record will also be available through the band at shows and through their website.

Hooghwater coverart pic by: Marieke Duijsters

BETONFRAKTION.COM
posted on 13-05-2008

Nick put a website together for the Betonfraktion project. You can visit it here!

Hooghwater played it's first show earlier this month. The show sold out and the attending peoples reviews have been great on the internet messageboards. There are some more shows coming up in the next few weeks. We will release the debut record withing a matter of weeks on CD and we're still sorting out how to release a special edition LP of these recordings.

ALL THINGS LOUD
posted on 13-05-2008

My friend Jon Cohan from Drumheaven is doing some blogging these days. I met Jon about three years ago when he worked for me as a drumtech at the Outpost studio near Boston. He definately gave me a two day workshop on "how to tune your drums realy fucking good" and I learned alot from him. Maybe it even helped me to develop my "own" drumsound over the last few recordings I did. Cool blog for people who are into drums, check it out here!

NEW "AUSSIE" PROJECT
posted on 15-03-2008

Early this week I got an invitation to do a new project with my partner in crime Tony Slug. He also invited a full australian line up in the names of Spencer P Jones from the Beasts of Bourbon, John Nolan from the Powder Monkeys and Chris Masuak from Radio Birdman.

HOOGHWATER.COM
posted on 13-03-2008

Last night we uploaded the hooghwater website. There's a short movie feature with us weaseling around in the studio and you can listen to two of the tracks which will be featured on our debut EP.

BETONFRAKTION
posted on 09-03-2008

The project with Nick J Swarth and Frank Crijns has been baptised into Betonfraktion. The rehearsals are going pretty well. We're aiming to perform a first concert around the early summer. Paulus Tops from Backdrop will take the management duties upon him. For info and bookings you can contact him here.

HOOGHWATER EP
posted on 09-03-2008

Highwater is changed to Hooghwater because there are about 15 other groups around with that name. So we translated it to old dutch language and figured it sounded kinda cool. So from now on we're talking about the Hooghwater EP. Wemixed it last weekend at the Void and it turned out very powerful and loud. More info can be found on www.hooghwater.com within' a few days. Joseph made a little docu on how we recorded the EP and there will be one or two songs up to preview.

HYDROMATICS TOUR POSTPONED
posted on 07-02-2008

The Hydromatics scheduled tourplans for the spring are being postponed towards the late summer of 2008. We want to concentrate on more territories and get the most out of this string of dates. At this point Scott Morgan is doing really well in Sweden with his band the Solution and he's even hitting the charts with his soul group, the band is also featuring Nicke Royale from Hellacopters fame.

Rehearsals for the Nick J Swart / Frank Crijns project are starting this month. More info on this will be posted asap. 

HIGHWATER RECORD
posted on 06-02-2008

The five songs we recorded during the "running blue" sessions turned out pretty well. It took us little more time than expected. But after five "16 hour" workdays all the tracks were done. We skipped the mixing process and focussed on the tracking stage. I was positively suprised about Paul Grace's new studio, and with some minor changes to the recording room, we were able to set up a very warm sound. I tuned the drumset more like a 70's prog rock kit, and my plan seems to turn out right. On March 1st and 2nd we will mix this gem at The Void Studio in Eindhoven with Pieter Kloos. I can asure you that it will sound powerful.
We changed our bandname from "Runing Blue" to "Highwater", a name we all kinda like and probably keep.... but we're still keeping our options open. 
 
My setup during the sessions. 10",12", 14", 16" maple toms and my studio secred: a 26" 1969 Rogers bassdrum.

BLOGGING IT UP IN 2008
posted on 11-01-2008

Since I had multiple effords in the past to do a weblog or podcast, I now added an extra blog page to this site. In this little private space I will write about concerts, books or just to review a record that I like. Just general stuff i have on my mind on a daily basis.
I will also post a studio diary there from the "Running Blue" sessions. Rehearsals are getting better and better and I think this recording will more be a debut record then a demo. Hope it turn's out the way I hope it will.
On the other hand, Union Town is doing well in the studio right now. Due to an overloaded schedule from me personally, I wasn't able to be in the studio everyday. But I helped them to get a good basis to work from, mainly to get a good sound and judge the takes with Pieter. In my opinion, all the songs have pretty energetic takes and there wasn't much editting needed to get a steady basis. Pieter told me yesterday that also the vocals are turning out well. It's good to see that this very talented group is about to put out a very well recorded and sounding album, which will definately help them in their furture carreer.

BACK INTO THE STUDIO
posted on 13-12-2007

My new band, which is currently going by the name "Running Blue", will be hitting the studio by the end of januari 2008 to record a debut release. Me, Chris and Joseph have chosen five brand new tunes, which will fill about 30 minutes with heavy riffage. We've chosen to go the  "Burning Ear Studios" in Wuppertal, Germany. Engineer will be the one and only Paul Grace, who also recorded the latest Hydromatics album. I really like working with him, and his new studio location made me even more psyched to make a trip to the country of sourkraut and heavy metal and go expirimenting for a week to see what happens.I will probably do some bloggage while we're there, so check back later on...

HYDROMATICS SCANDINAVIAN TOUR
posted on 4-12-2007

The Hydromatics are heading out for a spring tour between March 26th and April 6th. The core of this tour will be the Scandinavian territory, plus some shows in the Netherlands and Germany. Gearbox will be responsible for the Scandinavian leg of the tour and Rock n Roll Highschool responsible for the Dutch shows. Dates will be up soon!
Suburban records is currently working on a licence deal for the vinyl version of 'The Earth is Shaking'.

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