At
the age of eight, my father inspired me to play the guitar. I decided I
wanted to take classical guitar lessons. Therefore I went to a well
known teacher named, Dick van der Kaaden. After four years of playing
the classical instrument, I wanted to do more challenging stuff. Because
of that I bought an electric guitar!
At the age of eleven, I started to play in my first cover band called:
“Undercover” at a later stage I played with yet another cover band
called Frantic. We did a couple of gigs, which was a good experience for
me, but as my technical skills grew I quitted the band to search for yet
another challenge.
So I went to high school; the “HAVO voor muziek en dans”. At this
school I was given the opportunity to get a lot of musical training and
guitar lessons from Erik ball. Who is an excellent teacher! I became
very interested in great players such as: Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Brian
May, Stevie ray Vaughan, Richie blackmore and Ace Frehley and some of
the early metal guitarist like Paul Gilbert and Yngwie Malmsteen. Later
on I discovered guitarist like, Michael Romeo and John Petrucci. I
discovered that the style I liked most was Contemporary rock music or
progressive metal stuff.
I really dug myself into this stuff and at the age of sixteen I did an
audition for the Rotterdam conservatory. I passed with an.8.5. On the
Conservatory I got lessons from the following teachers: Menno Gootjes
(Focus), Age Kat (the Frog), Leendert Haaksma (Anouk, Trijntje
Oosterhuis and Soulvation), Martijn van Agt (Anouk, Ilse de Lange) and
Rogier Wagenaar (Claudia de Breij). During my college time I got the
opportunity to play with many talented players, I played with people
like Isaac Delahaye (God Dethroned), Coen Janssen (Epica) and many more
great guys! After four years of studying I graduated on the 22th of june
2005 with an eight!
In my college time I did an audition with the band Xystus. And I
passed! With Xystus we did a whole bunch of shows with bands like Epica,
After Forever, Kamelot, Trail of Tears and other great bands. One of the
highlights was the European tour we did with Epica in 2005. We also
released 3 studio albums and we did a massive show in 2008 with a big
orchestra called Equilibrio.
As time progresses, I felt the need to search for another band where I
can expand my musical abilities! With B.O.D. I found what I was looking
for! We did a couple of rehearsals and there was this magic chemistry,
so I hope we can rock the stage in the near future!!