Ro Halfhide - what is he up to?

Playing for FC Twente, getting on national TV

2012-01-18T21:57:00.001+01:00

Great Wide Open 2011

2012-01-04T12:02:00.001+01:00

Great Wide Open 2011, a set on Flickr.

My photo reportage of the festival.

My debut album 'Louise' came out today

2011-10-25T04:03:00.001+02:00

I had a great album release party that sold out. If you havent listened to the record yet, here it is online. You can buy the record there too...
<p>&amp;lt;a href="http://rohalfhide.com/album/louise"&amp;gt;Louise by Ro Halfhide&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;</p>

I produced this album of Case Mayfield

2011-08-01T12:18:00.002+02:00

Muchacho by Case Mayfield

Some songs under a tree in front of his parent's house in Volendam, the rest in the bathroom. All done live, in just a couple of takes.

Lucky Fonz & De Felle Kleuren on tour - Vlieland en Alkmaar

2011-07-31T23:15:00.001+02:00

Lucky Fonz & De Felle Kleuren on tour - Vlieland en Alkmaar, a set on Flickr.

I made some photos of 2 shows we did this weekend. Enjoy...

#MalaysiaStyle EP: single gets publishing deal

2011-07-25T15:39:00.002+02:00

Let's see if the advertizing industry is as enthusiastic about my single Rise Up & Start Singing as are my fans: I landed a publishing deal for this song. Plus another one I wrote in the past. This makes three in total. Hopefully in a commercial near you ;)

This is the article of the publisher...

Listen to the track below...

Rise Up & Start Singing by Ro Halfhide

My first album is out now on Bandcamp!

2011-06-18T00:09:00.000+02:00

#MalaysiaStyle by Ro Halfhide

Writing songs in Port Dickson, Malaysia

2011-05-02T11:55:00.002+02:00

To keep myself occupied in between several gigs in South-East Asia, I decided to stay in the beach appartment of Discoqueen Ze! to write a song a day. It's going very well I can say. Listen to them here

Port Dickson Demos by rohalfhide

Article on 3VOOR12/Amsterdam about me

2011-04-01T00:28:00.002+02:00

You can check the article here.

I made some pics of trip in Kennemer Duinen National Park

2010-09-06T13:51:00.002+02:00

Here you can watch the set of pics I shot. To the right there's an example.

I play at the Westcord Art Hotel in Amsterdam

2010-08-26T12:06:00.003+02:00

Sep 3, at 9 PM at the Westcord Art Hotel.

Impression of my gig for Radio Mortale

2010-05-26T11:37:00.000+02:00

Ik Heb Een Meisje enters top-5 of Dutch Singles Chart

2010-05-26T00:43:00.002+02:00

I'm playing drums here. I also produced the single itself, which entered the Dutch Singles Chart at a stunning nr 5!

Spread the Love is hit of the week

2010-05-18T13:32:00.003+02:00

On Radio Mortale
And oh yeah the track I produced for Lucky Fonz III is now number 7 on the iTunes downloads chart :)
It's called Ik Heb Een Meisje.

Song for Henk

2010-01-21T21:41:00.003+01:00

My good friend Henk Langeveld passed away a week ago. This was a song he ordered me to write for squatter venue 't Blijvertje. It was one of his favourites. Here I play it for the crowd of 't Blijvertje, one week after Henk died in the neighbouring squat.

Tribute to Gloria Song

2009-12-29T16:52:00.001+01:00

Gloria Song is the sweetest songwriter that I know. This is for her

Me playing a cover of Bruce Springsteen

2009-12-24T03:07:00.001+01:00

I play it in the way The Boss would do it if he would have had the song arranged by the E Street Band...

I recorded drums for this song

2009-12-07T13:27:00.003+01:00

Plus recorded drums for the rest of the forthcoming EP of Cosmic Carnival

Will I be the next Michael Jackson?

2009-08-06T01:30:00.003+02:00

I hope not, to be honest. But I'm gonna try for it on Dutch national radio station Radio 2. They have a special program you can watch it here.
Thursday evening from 8 till 11 PM.

Concert in Vondelpark was superb

2009-07-22T12:29:00.003+02:00

I had a great show, it was packed, nice weather, good friends were there... Thanx everybody for showing up!

StadsSpelen finale 2009

2009-07-21T15:27:00.002+02:00

StadsSpelen finale 2009
Originally uploaded by StadsSpelen 2009

I was playing with Noam Vazana in the finals of the Amsterdam Stadsspelen.

Live video of me playing at 'skek

2009-07-18T19:02:00.000+02:00

I did some covers

2009-04-02T17:43:00.003+02:00

Love Is Strange

Wonderful World

My Funny Valentine

Right now in Glasgow for recording local artists

2009-03-21T18:27:00.002+01:00

I'm in Glasgow, for recording the undergroud music scene there. So far it's going great. Check it out here.

Pic of me by Carlijn

2009-01-10T15:06:00.001+01:00

Ro Halfhide
Originally uploaded by Carlijn G.

At my last gig I also did a photoshoot. This was the best pic of the session. I really like it.

I played Club Canapé

2008-12-18T22:47:00.001+01:00

Plus I helped organize it. This is the video of me playing with Yuchi Cordoba, the percussionist of Lake Montgomery.

3VOOR12/Amsterdam Clubavond

2008-10-10T01:09:00.001+02:00

3VOOR12/Amsterdam Clubavond
Originally uploaded by martijneerens

Awww I was hungry here...

Got a column

2008-09-12T13:26:00.000+02:00

It's something I wrote for 3VOOR12/Amsterdam, read it here

My album photo elected 'Cover of the year'

2008-09-05T19:46:00.001+02:00

I shot the picture. The idea came from Lucky Fonz himself.

clipped from 3voor12.vpro.nl

ZILVER
Dit is volgens Hotel de Cover van het Jaar. Hij wint niet omdat de materiële waarde echt niet meer kan. Thijs: “Het is eigenlijk schandalig dat je dit zo in de schappen legt. Alsof het je eigenlijk niet uitmaakt wat mensen in hun handen krijgen. In karton, op lp-formaat is dit prachtig.”

So proud of this live video

2008-09-01T00:51:00.001+02:00

Me on stage with some friends

2008-08-19T11:52:00.001+02:00

I was at the festival to help out Lake Montgomery, and Lucky Fonz III was there as well to play. So we helped him out singing in the choir.

Davie Lawson playing in my garden

2008-07-14T22:58:00.001+02:00

This is the session where he plays his own songs.

clipped from matthijsvanderven.nl

Davie Lawson - The Backyard Session

Davie is a talented singer from Glasgow, Scotland. Earlier this year he opened for Dutch singersongwriter Lucky Fonz III on his clubtour. In the beginning of sunny June, he recorded an Onder Invloed-session, together with Ro Halfhide; founder of the Amsterdam Songwriters Guild. Ro played percussion and recorded the audio in his backyard in the Dutch capital.

Today, all five songs can be watched here, called ‘The Backyard Session’. Was it really magic, in between the statue, snails and plants? See for yourself and place your judgement in a comment.

Also check out the photos of this session, made by Ro Halfhide, here.

Davie Lawson - The Black River - The Backyard Session

Davie Lawson - Annie - The Backyard Session

Davie Lawson - Mama - The Backyard Session

Davie Lawson - Belle’s Home Made Dress - The Backyard Session

Davie Lawson - A Balladeer - The Backyard Session

Brian Jonestown Massacre

2008-07-10T20:19:00.001+02:00

I was only allowed to take pics the first 3 songs. Read the full article.

clipped from 3voor12lokaal.vpro.nl

Onder Invloed session online

2008-07-02T12:16:00.002+02:00

I recorded the sound, and played percussion of course ;)
For the rest of the vids go here.

Hardcore vid of me making money :)

2008-06-29T13:00:00.000+02:00

Wrote a song for the squatters in Amsterdam East

2008-06-26T01:43:00.002+02:00

The squatters in Amsterdam East have recently been in trouble with the police. A few days before that happened, they asked me to write a song about their situation and sing it during the citycouncil meeting.
When I wrote the song, the shit had already hit the fan so I added that to the song. There's two clips, one of the demonstration and the townhall meeting, and one of me performing the song later on at the open mic session at Sappho.

Ro Halfhide live at Sappho open mic session

2008-05-23T10:38:00.001+02:00

My videos on the web

2008-05-16T02:27:00.001+02:00

Article I wrote for 3VOOR12

2008-04-20T14:55:00.001+02:00

I wrote the text and shot the pics...

clipped from 3voor12lokaal.vpro.nl

De jazz/soul diva Lizz Wright speelde op 16 april in een goedgevulde Tivoli. Lizz Wright brengt haar platen uit op het jazz label Verve Records.

De band staat dichter bij het publiek dan de zangeres zelf, wat goed past bij haar bezonken uitstraling.

Met haar warme stem weet ze het publiek te betoveren. Haar stem doet denken aan Tracy Chapman en Anita Baker.

Lizz Wright komt uit het zuiden van de V.S. (Georgia), en is opgegroeid met black gospel en blues. Met haar show geeft ze een mooie introductie in wat de Afro-Amerikaanse muziek heeft bereikt, met een nadruk op de stijlen uit de jaren 60.

In het geval van Led Zeppelin kun je zelfs stellen dat waar LZ 'jatte' van de zwarte R&B, Lizz Wright het resultaat daarvan weer 'terugpikt' en haar voordeel ermee doet.

Op deze manier weet ze zowel een blank als zwart publiek te omarmen, en timmert ze mee aan de toekomst van de popmuziek - R&B en soul in het bijzonder.

Gig Tomorrow

2008-04-02T22:37:00.001+02:00

OTV Cribs

2008-03-08T11:35:00.001+01:00

Check it out!

This is what I'm working on

2008-02-27T15:09:00.002+01:00

Lucky Fonz III video review

2007-10-20T15:12:00.000+02:00

The excellent reviews for the record I produced for Lucky Fonz III, Life Is Short, keep pouring in. This is a raving Dutch video review by one of the leading critics of the Netherlands, Gijsbert Kamer.

Project Wildeman recording in Volkspand

2007-07-31T12:16:00.001+02:00

Yesterday we have recorded our first album with Project Wildeman. We did it in Volkspand, a new artists community in Amsterdam, located in the former hangout of the Volkskrant.

See me through uStream

2007-07-02T13:05:00.000+02:00

It's new, and I hope it's fun too... live streaming through uStream!
You can watch the live show on the top-right of this webpage. Probably never use it, but oh the possibilities...

Me live on webTV station interned1.tv

2007-06-26T11:20:00.000+02:00

The original footage is at interned1.tv, a Dutch digital TV station.

The production team behind this TV program asked me if they could film the open mic session for singer-songwriters I organize every Tuesday at Sappho. Of course! I was to be the first featured artist to air. So here it is...
As it is now, they still have some 6 artists on film. Every week they will release another clip. After a month or so, they will return to Sappho to do another round of shootings.

New productions I'm doing

2007-05-25T23:15:00.000+02:00

I've been real busy producing other people's music. I'm busy with Lucky Fonz III, Davie Lawson, Charles Frail, and last but not least Jerry Spurlock.

This is a video of one of the songs I produced for Davie Lawson. I also played percussion on it.

In Africa

2007-04-03T21:22:00.000+02:00

For the last 2 weeks I've been in The Gambia with my girl Nicci. I've been training some young local artists in guitar and songwriting. I also took extensive Kora training. Right now I'm in Senegal. Tomorrow Mali. Beginning of May I'll be back home again. West-Africa is a great region. It's dusty, hot, chaotic, very friendly and overall impressive.

You can see pix of my journey through West Africa right here. This is one of them...

The beach is calling

2007-03-19T00:07:00.000+01:00

The first warm day of the year! Me and my then flatmate Dave immediately took our chance to play on the beach. After all, it's only a half hour drive...

Going out

2007-02-26T21:22:00.000+01:00

What happens when your girl is gone off? You drink with your friends, come home late at night... The good life. This is what we found when we came home from town: a deserted stripped motorbike. Looked like a futuristic dead machine, and I was ready to ride it...

You wanna know where my girl is off to? Check out her blog...

Wow!

2007-02-15T18:39:00.000+01:00

It's... a boy! And it's called Project Wildeman.

My first video

2007-01-26T17:44:00.000+01:00

After playing with Reaganesk in the Slotervaart Library, we chatted with some children. I love playing for children... Anyways, I shot some of that fun with my camphone and later that night we made our first videoclip out of it! I love my MacBook...

Check it out:

Moon About in the limo

2007-01-26T17:39:00.000+01:00

My band Moon About is moving up with her prices, so we need to blingify our image some...

Behind the scenes

2006-12-11T17:41:00.000+01:00

Barbara and my girl Nicci are good friends. This is during the GPvNL singer-songwriters contest, where Bar unfortunately didn't win anything. But she has a 35-gig tour coming up, completely organized by herself so she's in no panic.

Joey Goebel photoshoot was fun

2006-10-25T21:18:00.000+02:00

Up and coming writer Joey Goebel hails from Kentucky, and you can hear it in every word he says. He even started to treat my name the Kentucky way, by repeating it: "Say, Ro-Ro... don't write songs in your sleep. You should get more rest...".
So I told him I should call him Joey-Joey. Not good. It's Jo-Jo :)

All my pix of Joey you can find here.

Producing Lucky Fonz III, and others

2006-09-29T18:54:00.000+02:00

It's official: I'll produce the next Lucky Fonz III album. I also produced his debut album, and it got great reviews. He's ready for another one, and we talked about it today. The first album we recorded mostly at his home. This time we're using some studio time he won, so we'll have some more possibilities. And pitfalls of course :)
Another songwriters you'll be hearing from is called Jerry Spurlock. He's one of the very few Zither players left around, and his songs are brilliant. I did one session of four songs, still mixing it. More sessions will follow. The people I gave his songs to listen to all needed to hear more. Well, patience people. If it's up to me, there's an album coming up.

My photo used for Amsterdam Travel Guide

2006-08-26T22:38:00.000+02:00

You can now get the Amsterdam travel Guide for free! The company Schmap used one of my pics in their guide. Go check it out...

Free, downloadable Amsterdam travel guide with dynamic Amsterdam maps, useful links, playable tours, top picks, plus photos and reviews for hundreds of Amsterdam hotels, sights and attractions, restaurants, theaters, museums…

Damoclash was a bit fun

2006-08-02T19:57:00.000+02:00

My girl swinging on the Damoclash X festival: a squatters gathering for the subculturally minded.

Susan needs a helping hand

2006-07-18T20:48:00.000+02:00

If anybody feels like helping out... mail susan

Song 16 Again rocked up

2006-07-18T04:24:00.000+02:00

I put some straightforward drum pattern under the song '16 Again'. You can listen to it on Soundclick. First click on 'music', then the hi-fi button next to the song. Have fun!

M-Jo playo

2006-07-17T16:27:00.000+02:00

I will play there with M-Jo, as well as with Project Wildeman. It's either in, or very close to Kaap Kot.

Wasted and barely awake

2006-07-10T04:27:00.000+02:00

I already had worked from noon the day before, involving hard labour. It had something to do with building a PA system for a local rock festival, and mixing the bands. So when the next morning - without sleep - I had to present intense poetry during a sun celebration, I wasn't feeling too bright. Hence the photo...
Here I am chilling with the Wildeman boys.

I was awake - and working - for more than 30 hours when that picture was shot. So no wonder I was wearing sunglasses. This was the last gig I had that day, and lucky for me it was on a sailing boat in the sun.

Sing a new song

2006-04-16T16:46:00.000+02:00

I started recording again, as of today... There are so many songs waiting to be recorded, but here's already one I put on the web! It's called No Catching Up...

Added on April 24: please check out my songs again, I added another 4 songs, and they'll be coming on a regular basis - I hope :)

Added on May 20: I've updated 'Be Here Now' on Soundclick, I like this version better... plus I added a song that I had been working on for so long, I even forgot I recorded it. It's called '(Not) My Lost Love'

A simple take on life

2006-02-16T04:12:00.000+01:00

Tired of all the bad news out there? Try Google.cn. It will change your life :)

Poetry in motion

2006-01-20T14:34:00.000+01:00

I started rehearsing again with Robin - the poet - and Mark - of M-Jo fame - to show the world some kick-ass poetry. The project is called Wildeman, go check us out at the Amsterdam Central Library on January 26. The festival starts at 7 PM, you need to pay about 5 euros to get in.

The pic is made my Mark - that's why he's not on the photo - and shows us doing our laughing warm-up at the beginning of the session...

I got a new band

2006-01-05T16:38:00.000+01:00

Have I told you about my new band, M-Jo? It's a collab between me and Mary Joe, one of the best songwriters in town I think. We've done two shows up to now, and already got more than two hours worth of music to entertain you with. You can read a review of our second show in Dutch on the 3VOOR12 website!

Results of shooting interviews

2005-12-29T06:09:00.000+01:00

I shot pics for the interview of both Philippe Claudel and Amy Tan. I'm happier with the ones of Philippe, because I had better lighting there. I'm surprised how little people know about these writers. I thought they were quite famous, but then again my mother has them on her bookshelf. And that's what it's all about, isn't it?
The pics of Amy Tan are here, and the pics of Philippe Claudel are here.

Shooting Amy Tan

2005-12-06T05:27:00.000+01:00

Amy Tan has published a new novel, Saving Fish from Drowning. On Wednesday, she'll be giving an interview in Amsterdam for webzine 8weekly. Since I'm now photographer for 8weekly, I'm appointed to shoot pics of her during the interview. Have I told anyone that I have no experience at all in this field? Right now I only got experience with shooting live shows... I'm so excited! I'll be posting some pics later on.

Oh, and one week later I'll be shooting Philippe Claudel. He's a succesfull French writer, who has written the bestseller Grey Souls. By then I'll be over my nerves...

Coincidence on the web

2005-11-16T22:50:00.000+01:00

This is ridiculous... I stayed in just the same small pension in Vernazza when I was there! Still want to go back there actually... More pics can be found here.

Being a pro musician

2005-11-04T01:58:00.000+01:00

This last month, I've been playing every weekend at the All-In Parties of Go Planet. It seems I can make a living that way. That's cool, because otherwise I'd have to weigh my options... and I hate doing that. Until the end of this year, I'll be playing there every week. Sometimes twice a week. Starting 2006, we'll switch back to twice a month. Let's hope I'll be having other paying gigs by that time...

This is me in the foreground doing that crowd pleasing thing...

Backstage at Go Planet.

Me with the best and baddest keyboard player I know: Spo Elman!

Forgot to put up a song!

2005-10-06T15:17:00.000+02:00

That's stupid, this song was lingering on my hard-disk for a few months now. But it's online now. It's called 16 Again. You can listen to it on my Soundclick site, as always.

Producing slam poetry

2005-10-02T08:00:00.000+02:00

Robin Block is one of my best friends, and a great slam poet. He appears on a cd-sampler I produced together with him. Other poets are Sander Koolwijk, Pom and Tom. This is the latest production I've done, and it's quite successful. Tracks have already been played on 3FM radio at Dolf Jansen, and today between 12 and 2 PM they'll do some poems on
KinkFM. So have a listen!

In the afternoon today I'll play some djembé on Robin's poetry at Cafe Helmers.

Setting up lectures for Thorne Anderson in the Netherlands

2005-09-28T01:55:00.000+02:00

My friend Thorne Anderson, solo-journalist covering mainly the Iraqi insurgency, will co-publish the book called Unembedded. It's about war-journalists like him who are operating outside the embedded program the US military has to offer. Thorne has published articles in papers like the New York Times and Newsweek, if these media are willing to accept his side of the story. Unembedded will likely cause a stir in the States, since that country is ready for a more unbiased approach to the conflict.

Thorne will be very busy promoting the book, going the rounds in the lecture circuit in the US. However, he would love to visit the Netherlands to talk about the book, the Iraq insurgency and unembedded war journalism in general. It will be the only opportunity for me to see him again. Plus I'd love to hear him talk about this subject. He seems to know so much about it, and he's so happy to share it. Since he's used to teaching at universities, it would be perfect to make him do some lectures on Dutch universities that teach studies like anthropology, journalism or religion studies.
I offered him to set up a small lecture tour in the Netherlands. Three dates would be great, as long as we can cover his travel expenses. I'll contact some universities soon. I'm thinking about anthropology at Leiden, religion studies at Amsterdam, and journalism in Ede or Leiden. Any suggestions? Let me know...

Back into Poetry

2005-08-17T04:26:00.000+02:00

Together with Robin Block and Marc de Jonge, I'm doing poetry again. Robin is the poet, Marc and I are backing him up with music and words. Last Saturday we performed on the Poetry Night at Fort de Hel (Fort Hell) in Willemstad.

More poetry rehearsal pics you can find here.

Edit of August 17, 3:23 PM
These just in: live pics of the poetry gig in Willemstad! Photos were taken by journalist Peter Roek.

Picturing me

2005-08-15T01:33:00.000+02:00

There are so few pics of me. I should lend out my camera more often to my friends, so they can shoot me. Barbara gave it her best, and this is what she came up with. More pics you can find here.

The coming week I'll be doing sound for student introduction parties in Rotterdam and Leiden, the week after that I'll go to Barcelona with my friends Robin Block and Dion. I'll be needing that, once I'm done playing sound engineer...

U2 & me too

2005-07-23T16:12:00.000+02:00

After a busy week working for U2, I finally got some time for myself. Instead of doing that all important admin stuff I need to do, I used it to record a song that was long overdue. At the end of the day, what do you want to be remembered by? The clean administration or the songs you wrote? But I need to do admin though and I hope recording songs will pave the way for it. Dream on... ;)
The song 'Poisoning Of My Heart' you can find at my musicdump.

Edit: I also uploaded another song from years ago, but I think it's still cool. It's another era - I'm using loops and my voice is not so strong - but the guitar intermezzo is excellent... :)
It's called 'Deep Inside'

Edit (July 24): remixed Poisoning Of My Heart. Sometimes you need some distance to make it better...

Illicit is for all ages

2005-07-11T03:31:00.000+02:00

Don't say that you haven't been warned: hiphop band Illicit will conquer Holland this year! Plus they have fans of all ages and all backgrounds, as this pic shows. I'm proud to be their soundengineer.

I'm singing my songs a lot lately

2005-06-08T18:29:00.000+02:00

Although this is already an older pic, I still would like to share it with you. Because there aren't that many pics of me singing live that I can take hold of. This is me singing at the Karthuizer Hof in Amsterdam.

Relaxing At The Beach

2005-06-07T00:49:00.000+02:00

This is on an ASG event in Zandvoort. I'm on the right, of course. My singing and songwriting friend Colin Black is smack in the middle, surrounded by his colleague lawyers of the Yugoslav Tribunal.

I been quite busy playing live, both for money and for the Amsterdam Songwriters Guild. I will catch up later on. I should really get some rest...

African Footprint

2005-05-02T03:45:00.000+02:00

I worked for the African Footprint theater show in the Pepsi Stage. The show has been on the road for about 5 years now. Working for such a production, you come to realize how badly they are treated. There's no catering, they have to pay their own drinks. I bet the pay is lousy too. So why do they do it? I think because of the strong bond you create when you're together for a long time. It was their last show for some time. When the show was over, they cheered and hugged eachother as only good friends do.
The loadout was hard. We were understaffed with only ten stagehands. With musical productions like this, you have a lot of set-pieces and stage props that need to be handled. This time they didn't have any carts to put the stuff in, so we had to load it in the trucks piece by piece. It took us until half past 2 in the morning to get everything out of the venue. That's one hour over time. But I'm not complaining. I work with great colleagues and the road crew turned out to be very friendly as well.

5 more weeks for EKKO?

2005-04-24T14:06:00.000+02:00

The venue I work for, EKKO has troubles with emergency exits and can now only accomodate 135 people. It means that the successful concerts have to take place elsewhere and EKKO misses the revenue from drinks. This could mean EKKO is heading for bankruptcy within a short period of time. Any guesses? Mine is 5 weeks.

Update (April 29): EKKO has solved its problems with the Fire Department! We can now have full capacity again :)

Patrick Wolf in EKKO

2005-04-24T13:49:00.000+02:00

Patrick Wolf is going to be as big as Bright Eyes, mark my words. Pairing acoustic singer-songwriter stuff with dance arrangements, revering nature like William Blake but in the same time looking like he's from the city with his self-made clothes and his dandy moves.
The cheers of the girls were uncontrolled, the boys looked in awe. Is this a new myth in the making?

Want to see more pics of the Patrick Wolf show in EKKO?

Egoist me

2005-04-24T05:46:00.000+02:00

I've been a bit egoistic lately. So much interesting stuff to do, but not finding the time to post about it. O well, I'm sorry. So what's been going on? I did a tour with King Me and Timesbold, as the sound engineer for King Me. That was fun. I got to see Timesbold and the solo project of Jason, Whip. I prefer Whip, although I think the dB's concert was the best Timesbold gig I saw. That was because they decided to play different songs, and they were aggressive. As Timesbold's genius Max said: "The dB's gig was more of an adventure". And I like adventures.

Another adventure I'm hurling myself into: engineering the sound for live hiphop band Illicit. I done two shows by now, seemingly to the satisfaction of both me and the band. We'll see where that ends. I'm opting for the Heineken Music Hall. They got it in them to become big.

Been writing songs like hell as well. Well, I am in hell right now since my heart is very much broken. But it gives me good songs... The Amsterdam Songwriters Guild is growing stronger. We now have our own monthly show in our own theater in the center of Amsterdam. We are asked to organize 4 ASG shows in Café Soundgarden, and we took the bold move to organize a weekly evening in bi/gay/multisex café Sappho, also Amsterdam Center. That means we have 9 shows in May alone! Next thing we have to do is fill it up with artists who want to play their own shit for free. And they have to be good. I consider myself lucky we already have some great contributors to the ASG...

Timesbold live in Utrecht again

2005-03-31T15:25:00.000+02:00

I knew for quite a while, but was not allowed to say it. Timesbold will do another show in Utrecht, supporting King Me and Julia P. Or is that the other way around? Who cares, in this world of honest artists there are no egos...
They will play on April 8, in dB's. Maybe see you there, I'll be mixing the sound for King Me.

Alone with Easter

2005-03-28T01:21:00.000+02:00

But writing and recording a song nonetheless! It's called Happy Easter and can be used as an Easter-song. But wait, there are no Easter-songs, are there? Just Easter-eggs... Anyways, just mail it to a friend if you want to give a song for Easter.
You can listen and download here. I also wrote another song and put that on the web a few days ago. that one is called I come to my senses. So if you want to keep up with my music production, you better start listening...

Recorded a new song

2005-03-24T00:42:00.000+01:00

I'm writing songs all the time, but sometimes I find the time to record one. Together with my pal Reaganesk I recorded "I come to my senses". I also discovered a new recording technique: one mic, one room and shout! This is the first production since I moved to my new rooms. Listen to it here.

Whip (Timesbold singer) and King Me live in a livingroom!

2005-03-21T20:30:00.000+01:00

This is not official yet. But! Keep checking out the Live in the Living website, because the singer of Timesbold might perform an acoustic set in someone's livingroom in Haarlem! His act is called Whip. So the music is new, as well... I'll be there if it happens, of course. But will you be?
O yeah, if it happens, it will be on the 10th of April.

I wrote this a while ago, but wasn't allowed to put it on yet. Now I hear it's almost sold out... When wil I learn to just post it even though they ask you not to? ;)

Illicit live at USVA in Groningen

2005-03-18T12:58:00.000+01:00

I had to do a photoshoot for them in Utrecht. Then they asked me if I wanted to join them for their gig that night in the USVA at Groningen. Groningen is a 3 hours drive.
"Shure", I replied... I had never seen them before, and I was blown away by their sound, and their 'realness' as a hiphop collective. The audience ate out of their hand. If they keep up like this, they're going to make it far. You can find a story on the band's upcoming album here, together with some other pics of me.

Phantom Frank of the Treble Spankers is back

2005-03-14T02:17:00.000+01:00

With the Treble Spankers, he founded one of the most important bands of the nineties. When Phantom Frank had to quit playing guitar because of RSI, no one thought he would be playing surf again. But he's back. All the magic is still there. The name is different now, his band is called The Phantom Four. The kids in Paradiso didn't know The Treble Spankers, but they wanted to know more about The Phantom Four and asked for a cd. The band is so fresh, there's nothing out yet. Any record label worth it's salt should try to make a deal with this band, because they are still relevant to the audience today.

Will Christina be ASG's latest addition?

2005-03-14T01:43:00.000+01:00

I can't wait to hear her play. Christina by the way, is the girl on the left. Hester is her friend. Hester comes from the same godforsaken town as me. She knows Ottoboy very well, so we have mutual friends :)
Hopefully Chris will play some songs after the ASG show in Dwaze Zaken, next Sunday.
I will play there too, together with some other singer/songwriters of the Guild. More info on the gig you can find on the Amsterdam Songwriters Guild website.

Song found on my computer

2005-02-28T11:56:00.000+01:00

It's been a while. At the time I thought it was corny. Now the song really speaks to me. It's called The Thorned Crown. I wrote it when I listened to the Sun recordings of Johnny Cash. Any resemblance with the master is of course no coincidence at all...

You can play it here.

Desperately waiting for that LiveXS magazine...

2005-02-27T14:36:00.000+01:00

The three Dutch musketeers are on the lookout for the March issue of LiveXS, containing an exclusice interview with Peter Pan Speedrock. They are living for a while in Jönköping, Sweden so they can't pick it up from every venue or record store like the Dutch can do!
I made the pics for the interview, and Rianne - she's on that pic somewhere - interviewed the band. And producer Tomas Skogsberg, of course. That famous inventor of the deathmetal sound who turned out to be such a kind wizard...

More pics to follow soon. And o yeah, be sure to pic up a copy of LiveXS, will you?

Preparing for mantra concert

2005-02-27T14:01:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I played on a mantra sing-along concert with Yoga master Mata Mandir Singh. This pic of violinist Richard Wagner was taken just before the show.
At that time I just returned from my trip to Sweden, where I made pics of heavy rock group Peter Pan Speedrock. I don't think the twain shall ever meet... :)

I'll be recording mantras with Mata Mandir once he gets back from his European tour. The whole experience gave me the boost to find a yoga teacher again. I practice every day, but since I know I'm a lazy bastard I always keep it very simple...

I love Sunset Vertigo

2005-02-27T12:35:00.000+01:00

They're young. And they're full of brazen pride. So naturally they were very angry, when the jury left the bands of the contest in the dark about who had won the semifinals. Read more here.

SlamSphere: Chinese Whispers poetry on the web

2005-02-25T17:59:00.000+01:00

My fellow papi Robin Block gave me a link, it's a poetry project instigated by Simon Vinkenoog. He started a stanza, and other poets are elaborating on that with their own rhymes. Every item is supported by a movie clip. The good thing: Robin is participating as well, and it's intriguing stuff! Well done, Robin.
You can find Robin's input in the right bottom of the screen. He's done two items.

Amsterdam Songwriters Guild has its own weblog now

2005-02-22T10:48:00.000+01:00

The new grassroots initiative Amsterdam Songwriters Guild has its own website. You'll find news and new concerts of every artist involved in the ASG, in a weblog style. It's still in development, so not all artists are contributing yet.

New gig coming up

2005-02-05T02:10:00.000+01:00

We have a new gig coming up. Wils Cafe was a success, so we decided to do it again. This time in Soundgarden, also with Selma but this time with Arthur ten Cate as well... We decided to give this initiative a name: the Amsterdam Songwriters Guild. So if we organize a gig with our songwriting friends, it will be under that name.
It's on Feb 10, and the show starts at around 10 PM.

Farewell To Arms festival coming up, after that to Sweden

2005-02-01T02:28:00.000+01:00

I'm busy organizing a festival on February 11 in Enschede. I'm quite proud of the lineup: Prank Aggressor, Ottoboy, Machinefabriek, Jimmy Barock and Scientific (Live). Go check it out, it will be on one of those AKI-parties, they are growing in popularity fast.

Straight after the festival I have to go to Sweden to shoot pics for LiveXS magazine. It's my first assignment for a printed magazine... exciting!

First Roadies gig coming up

2005-01-29T02:34:00.000+01:00

Reaganesk, Robin Block and me. Selma will also play, as well as our friend Gavin from Dublin. Feel invited to come!" alt="Our first ever gig will be next Sunday, in Will's Place - Jordaan, Amsterdam. The Roadies consist of three singer/songwriters: Reaganesk, Robin Block and me. Selma will also play, as well as our friend Gavin from Dublin. Feel invited to come!" />Our first ever gig will be next Sunday, in Will's Place - Jordaan, Amsterdam. The Roadies consist of three singer/songwriters: Reaganesk, Robin Block and me. Selma will also play, as well as our friend Gavin from Dublin. Feel invited to come! We start from 9 PM and of course there's no entrance fee in Will's Place.

Gem & Friends in dB's

2005-01-24T19:41:00.000+01:00

"How much Rock&Roll do you want?", Maurits exclaims. Well, we got enough of that on his birthday party in dB's. With his band Gem, Spider Rico, Low Point Drains and Bobby Kingsize, Maurits had a party of his dreams. Backstage, Maurits got some of that Rock & Roll himself as well, as the pic shows...