Stages, Strings & Vocalchords

EUROTRIP: Last leg of the tour

2011-10-29T04:12:00.000-07:00

Day 19: Coffee with Freddie in Montreux.

As we are already in Olten, we recieved a warm welcome from Nathalie. We first conquered the routine with loading out the van, soundcheck with Jack and in the dressingroom there was nice pasta and chickensoup that Nathalie's mom made for us. It was delicious! We socialized with the crowd by hanging at the merchsection while the supportband Hot Running Blood was rocking out on stage. As I checked a few songs in front of the stage I turned around and what the... it was almost packed baby! Hot Running Blood are relatively big local band that sounds a bit like QOTSA. Our show went great. Best stagesound so far. The crowd went mental and we shot some awesome footage what will be online soon somewhere.

Here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKiDqUR--94&feature=share

We sold alot of merch that night. All of our limited tour shirts left the table that night. Keep your Ebay internet eyes open for that! After the rock-workout the cocktails and shots were flowing. Olten has treated us good! Afterparty in the bar attached to the venue we drank till lights were turned on and finally hit the sack.

Day 20: Appetite for MENTALity/I'll see you in Manchester when I'm 18

Hangovers are a bitch! Especially after not being able to drink after 3 months. The jack 'n cokes were flowing last night and I guess the lemon cocktail got me over the edge.

Today we have a 3 hour drive (with me behind the wheel this time and Ben's awesome mixtape on the stereo) so we did some sightseeing on our way to Geneva. Where have we been? Montreaux! We went to see the Freddie Mercury statue!

Enjoyed the nice seaview, grabbed a bite and continue driving to the next show. Actknowledge a beautiful city as we drove through it. The venue where we played is a youth/socialcenter funded by the goverment. Lots of kids coming to the show. Soundcheck was pretty long by the way, a bit frustrating because we were forced to keep the volumes low. Owh well. The count of attenders reached between a 100 to 120 I believe. This started to get crazy before the show as I had to sign (a kid called Yann) his Fender Telecaster. His band Last Minute Sex plays in the Blink 182 style. While smoking a fag outside we met Alice and Flora and they went mental over our beards. Joe turn up and they went mental again... and with Ben coming along they went super mental! Unbelievable!

Trying not to let the tiredness get to us we just went with it. Taking lots of pictures with “the new fans” I was pretty pumped up for the show. During our time on stage the kids went mental and lots of them were singing each and every word of the songs. Unbelievable. Off the stage there was room for pictures, chitchat with the kids and finally after years and years another BOOB signing!

Mike, the awesome dude who booked the show took us for a drink at his favourite pub. We had free shots and beer... Finishing off with kebab we headed to our sleeping place (at the bassplayer for Signs of Misfortune's house) I took a nightshower and went to sleep on a lovely couch. 4 hours of sleep. Coming up is a 6/7 hour chickenfeather drive.

Next up: Last show in Le Mans, France!

Last day: 21

Waking up dead early to conquer a 8 hour drive to Le Mans. Funny thing was that this drive was shorter than the 6 hour drive to Olten. Anyway, last show coming up. Everyone is knackered and even I who always gets pumped up for a show, has a hard time finding the last energy left in my body. Once arrived in Le Mans at the English pub “Union Jack” we got a warm welcome from Clemonts and Phil.

We ate some fine french cold food and watch the Liverpool vs. Norwich football game. We were really impressed by the supports: TotorRo, The Forks and Underfuse. Show was awesome... Not our best but we got some really got some nice shots by Anthony Favennec.
At the end I had my “Nirvana moment”
We destroyed everything and I fell flatback on the drumkit.

The Last Note...

Clemonts took us to a cool bar to have the last drink of the tour. Fucking great!

EUROTRIP: It's starting to take it's toll

2011-10-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

Day 14 - 18: Is it on?

We woke up in Emmen en outside the sun was shining!
Great day to get back on the road.

Next stop: AmsterdamThe frontman of The Drawbacks hitchiked to amsterdam on our bus.We first thought that the GPS gave us the wrong directions but as we went back for petrol and came back to that spot we drove a bit further than the gypsy camp we drove through. This big gate opened up and a different squad area we arrived in that connects to a harbor. Probably the biggest squad I ever been to. I've seen a big one in Slovenia on the Antillectual tour last year but this is quite bigger to be honest. Anyway, a warm welcome from Burke, putting up the gear, great food, weird support act (free jazz soundscapish stuff). We played a nice show... Felt more like practice. After the show there was a jamsession band which featured the old bassplayer from Daybreak, Thin Air (last period) which was a pleasant suprise. Some english sailor offered us to sleep on the boat and me and Joe slept in the van in the harbor next to the boat.

The next day we had tea on the boat and headed off the citycenter to grab a bite, coffee, do some sightseeing and ofcourse: shoppin'! Me, Joe, Ben and Andrea stranded in a nice australian restaurant and enjoyed a proper english breakfast. Joe got totally wacked because the waitress spilled his diet coke all over his pants. BAM drinks for free, that is how we roll. Later Joe and I headed off for envelopes and stamps, as the people over in Amsterdam are as fuck. Made me realise why I still don't like that city so much. So, done shopping, Andrea got on her plane and we are back in the van. Off to Chemnitz. Because it's another day off we had to camp somewhere in the middle of the journey. At the moment every penny that goes out is a penny spend and not coming back. This is the point where you realise how important every show is and if a show gets cancelled (like the one in Hamburg) it effect the finances for the rest of the tour. The camping cost more than we thought as the website said it would be cheaper. We rushed our way to get there as we arrived 10 minutes before closing. To finish this day we held a midnight BBQ. I couldn't sleep (ice cold feet was one of the reasons) so I took a walk, phoned Elcke for just a talk and getting things straight in my head... and I was off to sleep.

Waking up in a cold van but the sleep got me warmed up again, we took off for the last 3 hour drive to Chemnitz. We got there way too early and with some luck we bumped into the bartender so he showed us the bandhouse. We checked out the citycenter and got back to the venue to set up the gear and merch and sat down for the famous Subway to Peter meal. Fried mushrooms! God, how darn lovely are those fried mushrooms. Loads and loads! Tonights show was good! Nice turn up, good merch sellings and nice drinks afterwards... and ofcourse the traditional shnaps. A goodnight sleep and shower ahead.

The next morning Ben, Joe and me went out to the citycenter to do breakfast at Backhaus, some souvenirs shopping, clothes for me and get the fuck on the internet. Haven't been on for 3 or 4 days... owh what a pity haha. So coffee, internet... Bamn! On the way back we did some grosseries and chilled with eachother for the rest of the night. A big massive thank you to Subway to Peter for letting us play, the great food and letting us spent two night at the bandhouse. I wanna come back here more often if that is possible. Love for Chemnitz. Tomorrow my first Swiss gig ever and from what I heard, it's a big show. Stoked!

Texting till 4 in the morning... Got up at 9. We cleaned the bandhouse in Chemnitz, did some grosseries and we were off to Swiss! This 9 hour drive made me so darn tired. But it's worth it. At the time of writing am in the dressingroom with descent wifi. We enjoyed a very good pasta made by Nathalie's mom. The venue is very cool and it's very pleasant already.

To be continued...

EUROTRIP: Tour du Netherlands

2011-10-16T04:52:00.000-07:00

Day 13: Emmen ROCKS!

After a nice night in the mukkes and the part who carried on in De Scooters, the awakening ment we are back on the road!
Finally back in the van!

Huize spoorloos is a squad in Emmen who has a foodbank, shop with free stuff and a venue. The Drawbacks were our support and we played a very good show! Good sound, good vibe, kids danced and liked it! Thanks to Niels for the great sound. I slept in a nice bed and chilled out in the internet room, with some coffee.

Next up is Amsterdam!

EUROTRIP: Exploring LionCityHole

2011-10-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Day 10/11/12 Outta here!

The last half of our stay in holland (my house) the foreign part of the band gets the chance to explore the city overhere.With everything that is a sin in gods eyes we have been experiencing in these "off" days. But to balance that again Joe and Nick did 2x2 seminars on the uni!Extra tourmoney to fill up the loss we got from that fucking Hamburg show.

If you ask me this has been the greatest week/tour ever! They guys havin a great time in my city, I victorized some issues and on thursday we finally continued the thing we all do this shit for. SHOWS!

On Thursday we went out to my friend Dennis to get tattoos and after that we all went off to Groningen for the show in the Platform Theater.Sound was bad, songs were played too fast and the spark was't there. The extention crew made it bare-able! On our way back to Leeuwarden we had some minor problems with the van. lights & tires. Fixed it at a gasstation.

Next day (friday) Joe and Nick did 2x2 seminars about forming your product and one on how to set up a proper tour. But overall it's an D.I.Y. seminar.While Joe and Nick were earning tourcash, my mate Ben picked up Andrea (his girlfriend) from the station 'cause she flew out from the UK to see the last 3 dutch shows and then again head back home. How cool, I call that love.

Johanneke offered us to eat at her place before the mukkes show, she made lovely burrito's and we all had a good time.Ravens was so much better than last night. Joe: "that's how you do sound" hahah (you wont get it, but I do)

We played our best gig to date for this tour and I recieved the: you nailed it! We'll let get it on with this tour then!After the show we chilled a bit and I got the van, to load in, and went off home with Ben and Andrea. The rest enjoyed their last night in town.Something broke on my laptop for the internetconnection so I probably wont be on much but i'll try to give you enough update while being on tour.

Off to Emmen.

EUROTRIP: How to fill a gap...

2011-10-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

Day 7/8/9: Another thousand miles down the road...

I woke up in the bus, somewhere in belgium after a awesome night.
We geared up after a nice cup of coffee with Chris from Pushed too far and his mum.

Off to Hamburg!

While we drove 5,5 hours to Hamburg we stopped for a proper meal and a shower. The weather has been bad so far on tour but that won't kill us. We arrived at the Bar 227. It's a squad and the barlady just arrive too. We set up the gear, the supportband was there right away. So far so good. But after dinner and soundcheck they told us that the show has been cancelled. We can't force 5 people to drink themselves to death for 200 euro's... Without thinking we loaded the van, got some booze and headed home earlier than expected. Roundabout a thousand miles, a "pitstop" in Hamburg and the national anthem of The Netherlands later I'm back on my own ground. Tired as fuck but sleeping on my own couch, I love it!

The next day I set up a few seminars for Joe and Nick to earn some money to fill up the loss we made with Hamburg. The rest got busy with our first tour webisode!

That night the English section of our all time hero's team went out for a drink, so I could chill with Bernice. Be on my own a bit. After I dropped her off at home, I drove a while through the city with music on the headphones and through the rain. I loved it! Am enjoying that life is giving me new highlights, new future perspective, continueing laughters and sharing a wonderful tour with four adorable buggers!
Somewhere else in the city is something toooootally different happening. Buggers getting their groove on. Hittin' it hard. The guys got hammered and had good times, as of what I saw on the videocamera haha. Ben came in like BAMN! First thought was my room will be destroyed... I seen him on stage next to me. It's a animal! Joe's laughing over the phone while and hurting my stomach. Damn.

The next day I spend some hours at school, Nom de Plume came down to my house to meet the rest of the Helsinki crew. After that we kinda chilled with games, House and Comedy Central.

Cozy hard to hard on "The Motherfocker"

Tomorrow: Rehearsals!

EURO TRIP: That shit needs to be nailed man.

2011-10-09T01:50:00.000-07:00

Day 6: Showtime!

After what happened last night we got to bed in the bus and Joe got his tent up. It was freezing cold in the bus but at least we knew not to expect a riding relax chair aint gonna crash into us or anything. I just slept a few hours but felt pretty fucked up in the morning. Its been years since I slept in the van while being on tour!

Anyway... We practiced on stage roundabout 12:00 just to see what needs more practice and if the set is in a logical order. went pretty well even tho I feel the pressure but I dont worry. As the festival started I sometimes went to the van and practiced for a bit and that payed off! Saw a few cool bands like Pushed too far (Belgium metalcore like Mundane) and To the bone (sounded like a The Bronx/QOTSA coverband) who played for like two hours!

The fans got some sticks, skins and picks.

Chilled in the van and got to sleep.

Off to Germany!

EURO TRIP: Hitting the road!

2011-10-09T01:35:00.000-07:00

Day 5: No pressure...

My luxery sleeping days are over. This was the last night at Nick's house because starting today I will crash on floors, busbenches and all the other types of beds imaginable.

With some miscomunication here and there we kinda went from here to there which delayed us at least an hour. Also forgetting your pasport doesnt really help to get you any quicker to your first show.
We planned our last rehearsal in Belgium in the venue where we play our first show the next day.
After we picked up our merchgirl Lydia, we headed to dover to catch the channel over to Calais.

The trafficjams aren't in our advance either. The vibe in the van isn't luckily not influenced by it. The soundtrack for this tour is an uplifting one. From 80's (overall UK) classics to the modern hardcore/punk stuff we enjoyed the ride to Weelde where we are now at the time of writing.

Never thought that playing in Helsinki Seven would be such an adventure. Why? You better read on then! Nothing really spectacular has happen since we crossed the french border... What suppose to be a 7 hour drive made it to be 10/11 because of our own delay and the jams. Talking with Joe & Lydia about my fasination for UK bands I discovered over the years, I heard that some of the artists are Helsinki Seven fans. Damn! That stunned me. Anyway, literally minutes away from arriving at our destination we got pulled over by the police. One of the officers was suprised organised we were (with the papers eh!) but while the man started checking our pasports this dude approaches from the other side with high speed the cops, threw back our pasports and we were free to go went chasing the guy for a speeding ticket. What just happened? Well, let's get on... almost there. With a little search we finally found the youthcenter. It one o'clock at night so practice won't happen anymore. The lights are on, there seem to be a few folks havin' a good time... Happy that we arrived and tired as we are, we get a warm welcome. A bit too warm if you ask me. The people there were very happy to see us... and let me say this again, maybe a bit too happy. These people were WAY PASSED HAMMERED! Don't even know where to start... Even for dutch standards this is pretty extreme what we actknowledged. I thought that it kinda went too far at one point. They made this chair with wheels thing and just bumped into anything possible. Walls, the stage, the bar, tables, you name it. The weather isn't helping either. As we try to make the best of it, it was time to sleep. Respect for those belgium folks who seem to sleep through The Bronx, Ghost of a Thousand and Mastodon records on 11!

They informed us that national TV will be there tomorrow to interview us and record footage of our show. The show will be packed with at least 500 people: I still hear the Master of the Universe say: No pressure Rudy, no pressure...

Ben already went to sleep in the van. I decided to also sleep in the van because I'm deadtired and hoping for a few hours sleep. It was and still is bloody freezing in the van... At the moment of writing it's pooring outside and my feet are cold again...

So now am writing this blog with H7 on and thinking... Today I would've seen City & Colour but instead am freezing to death in a UK van on a European tour... and still convinced I made the right choice. I wouldn't want it any other way...

Save a prayer for me.

Good morning!

Sidenote: While on tour there is less internetaccess so, you can have a laugh at my writing or just wait it out till am home and read the final version.

Thanks!

UK TRIP: Shopping for a crew!

2011-10-06T18:51:00.000-07:00

Day 4: Getting skinned in Manchester.

On my day off I took the train (mixtape on the headphones and enjoying the view) to Manchester (distance Leeuwarden - Zwolle) to meet up with my friend Dani, who recently visited the AvP with Andy and Joël for a student exchange project. It was very pleasant to see her again.
But this time it's the other way around. Instead of me showing her the places to be in Leeuwarden, it was her turn to show me Manchester... What a lovely city it is!

First off we had tea and coffee at The Teacup.

Coffee at The Teacup
The English have their tea obsession as we "Dutch people"
have our bike obsession according to the "English people".
Earthlings... weird people. Lost it? Me too.

Isn't that cute... BUT IT'S WRONGGG!
I am fasinated very fast and this time it wasn't any different. This building that looked like a student flat, it has al sorts of (discount) shops in the vain of Ursula or London Mode. It's called Aflecks Palace. It is HUGE! Just when you thought you've seen it all, it keeps on going... The only "awkward" thing I saw in the building was a dentist. You can also eat, drink and chill out between the shopping and to top it all, you'll find a modeling agency in the same building. F**kin' rad mate!

Anywho, Dani & I had a wonderful time in the city as she skinned me to the bone. The record stores overhere are FAR MORE BETTER! Am gonna move the UK when am done in The Netherlands with all my stuff I have going and that's a bloody fact! I got Joe some string back-ups at Dawsons for the tour... DAMN those guitarshops! luckily I could keep my hands off some instruments and not carry them towards the counter... Manchester was sunny, rainy and half darkclouded today so I got an impression of both. I cannot mention all the big stores we went to but I know we did some good business at HMV, H&M, Fopp Records, Pulp, The Vintage Clothing Co. and last but not least... Primark!

Imagine entering in a very fancy Wibra
with the coolest close for cheap-ass!

SCORE!
...on a more personal note:
Thank you so much Dani, for the wonderful day you gave me. The talks, the laughs, the sightseeing, coffees and tea's. You are a fantastic friend to shop and hang around with.It is very much appreciated...
and totally worth the trainticket ;)

Tomorrow is the start of the tour, well, the driving starts tomorrow.
I saw the van. It's also HUGE! As I say in The Netherlands:
Ik ben fan! Trek-ut!I'd better get some rest, so i can pack my bags in the morning and finally rock across Europe!

Goodnight.

UK TRIP: Kurt Ballou, Nibbles and a hangover from hell!

2011-10-05T18:49:00.000-07:00

Day 3: Sometimes it takes a turn...

I didn't knew what to expect what would happen today. Nick woke me up laughing,,,Probably because of my snorring or my weird postioning while I sleep. Time of awakening: half past six.

Good morning!

Nick had to go to work (12,5 hours shift) and so he dropped me off at Joe and Hannah where I chilled out for a few hours, did some work and got all the chords of the songs on paper.

"that riff you probably wanna try to dance on"

Me and Joe got some quality time discussing lots of things like the upcoming tour, financials, other tours and futureplans. We pretty much got that figured out. On facebook I chatted with our merchgirl for the tour and tomorrow I get to meet her. Furthermore me & Joe had lots of talks about producers, american musicians, the fucked up people in the business (ourselves included, haha) while Joe is cleaning the oven. You could tell it was his first time.

Joe's view from his backyard

He also managed to make fried egg rice (?) so Hannah could enjoy a lovely meal when she came home from work. We saw the movie Thor. Joe had football practice so he dropped me off at the rehearsal studio so I could practice on my own first. Things started to go downhill for me here. Deadtired and a "neighbour" who came by to let us know that he could hear us from miles away, just like his kids... owh well, the friendly punkrockers we are, decided to stop rightaway and call it a day. I recieved a text from Erwin that New Killer Stars decided to split up. Pretty shitty. Well, tired as f**k, we drove home and now am here finishing my blog with eyes that can barely stay open...

Tomorrow is my personal day off...

My plans are shopping with Dani in Manchester and hopefully also catch up with my friend Rosie who I met through the Kensington Arms UK tour where she gave us a show on very short notice when there was a show cancelled during our stay.

Anyway... am hitting the sack.

Nighty-night!

UK TRIP: Upbuilding tour pressure

2011-10-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

DAY 2: Meet Tracey...

When I opened my eyes this morning, I couldn't get the smile of my face. Things are going well for me.I feel blessed to this kinda thing. Everyone is very friendly and very helpfull when needed.Finally I got to meet Nick's mum. She's indeed Sjoeke's duplicate except for the language and jobfunction.

Anyway, me & Nick uploaded some rehearsal video's and run down some things that needed to be done for the tour.Like making my laptop "tour-ready" stuff like that. Spoiled by their wonderful and delicious coffee, I had to enjoy that with a fag.

Sun, Fags & Coffee

Yesterday in the rehearsalroom we bumped into a "major" problem. With the right tuning things started to look up. Why? Because all the riffs and stuff started to make sense. We might throw in a Thrice cover from the "artist in the ambulance" record! That would be 2 covers then haha. But let's keep that a suprise for you readers who will atend a show on the tour. Anywho... Today we nailed down 7 to 8 songs for setlist that will contain 10 songs... Maybe more.

Meet my "dirty" girlfriend that I take with me on this upcoming tour...

Tracey Elliott

While driving with Nick & Joe to the rehearsalroom I recieved a phonecall from 3voor12 (biggest music platform from The Netherlands) for an interview about the new Kensington Arms record. It's weird to realise I intergrate very fast in the english language as I had trouble with finding the right dutch words sometimes, come to think of it... I also have that generally. Owh well, the english language suits me the best. So stick it maestro!

Tonight we travelled to H7's (Helsinki Seven) townpub in Northwich. A place where I have been before while touring with Kensington Arms (during our wintertour, december last year) I got the chance to meet some of Nick & Joe's friends. We are celebrating Joe's pre birthday party. I catched up with Hannah (Joe's girlfriend) again and got to meet Becca, Tom and some more lovely people (Carla?) I'm sorry...
not good at names... It needs repetition.

And that makes me come to the point where I am now,Tired but happy and between the sheets.

Let's put out the lights... Sleep well!

By the way... My tour name is established: Bergkamp.

UK TRIP: From the airport...straight into rehearsals!

2011-10-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

Hey there,

My first blog on the UK trip & European tour.

What's the idea?

Well, I thought it would be nice to put down some words and visuals here on how things progresswhile am in the UK, practicing with English rockers Helsinki Seven and ofcourse the following European tour in a few days.

DAY 1: First flight ever!

After the goodbye's at school and from Elcke, Suzy, Chiel and my other dear friend Chantal,I hopped in the train to get to the airport in Amsterdam to catch the flight to Manchester.The nervous started to get worse at one point but eventually it all managed itself.

'

Checked in, Starbucks & Fags... I'm ready!

It's the same as riding a bus or train, except the view is better...

Nick (Helsinki drummer) picked me up from the airport. It was so nice to see him again... and guess what, am not the only one who lost a few pounds.Anyway, this morning, me and Joe kinda joked about rehearsals straight from the airport. The dude wasn't kiddin' haha.As I thought (after me getting on a plane) no problems would occurre. Well, what do you do when you practiced all the songs in the wrong tuning? Right, start with the new ones first. I could see Joe's (Joe, the man, the legend, Midget Glasses) world falling apart. But I must say that I pick up things quite easy with a bassguitar in my hands. I'm not saying playing bassguitar is easy (for the outsiders, I usually play the 6 strings) but it's funny to see it from a point of few with a minus of 2 strings. Now I get the chance to lay down some heavy groove instead of melody or a light rhythm. Back to the problem... There was one second I thought: FUCK! but the next one was like: Challenge accepted!

"Groove is in the heart"

The thing that stunned me the most so far is Nick telling me he has a suprise to show me. If it's food I had to dissapoint the sweet man.But none of that. The guy is even more obsessed with touring than me. Why? Nick has my face tattooed on the side of his stomach! On the European tour we might reveal it for those who are interested...

Here's a video of the first rehearsal:From airport to rehearsal til 3am

After rehearsal, Nick took me to where he lives with his sweet mom (haven't met her yet but from the stories I heard and how Nick is, she must be a duplicate of Sjoeke from the AvP). Now I am feeling like a dead beat. So, this was the first blog of my traveladventures in the UK and Europe. Hope you enjoyed it.

Goodnight!

Kensington Arms preview 2 tracks from debut album "Geospizinae"

2011-09-16T10:20:00.001-07:00

After months of recording, mixing and arguing Kensington Arms eventually managed to finish their self-produced debut album 'Geospizinae'. The decision to record everything ourselves has made for a slow but rewarding process and the band is very proud of the outcome.

Produced and mixed by Corné Driesprong at Studio Nova Zembla.
Mastered by Mendel bij de Leij.
Artwork by Berber van den Brink at www.loft.nu

Release date: 01.10.11

Now you can listen to the new tracks here: Bandcamp

Next week we will be releasing another
2 brand new tracks from our upcoming release!

The release show will be at Vera, Groningen (Downstage) @ 23:00
With awesome supportband: Screw Houston, Start Screaming!
For more info on the show and bands go here or here

Please, feel free to join/like us on Facebook:www.facebook.com/kensingtonarms

For some of the more manly stuff we did a few years back go here!www.myspace.com/kensingtonarms

If that's not enough you'd better hook up with us here: Last.fm

A little Kensington Arms history:

Kensington Arms is a hardcorepunk band from the north of The Netherlands. Influences vary from newschool hardcore like Refused, Modern Life is War and Snapcase to punkrock from bands like Propagandhi.

The first incarnation of Kensington Arms released a demo-cd in November 2006. By summer 2007 the band had lost half of its band members. This led them to reconsider the amount of manly and moshy breakdown they put in their songs. After a new line-up was formed of (just slightly) less manly and moshy musicians, the band put all it’s effort in writing a bunch of fresh new songs. This resulted in the recording of a brand new, self-recorded, less manly and moshy ep, named ‘Songs of Separation’, in the month of december 2008.

With the release of ‘Songs of Separation’, the band went to perform their songs live in front of Dutch and German audiences from 2009 till mid 2010...

Another (let's hope) final shift in band members took place.
Kensington Arms quickly welcomed a new bassplayer into their warm, not-so muscled arms and the gods saw that it was good.

The band continued on touring through Europe and the UK.After that they finished writing and recording their Magnus Opus: Geospizinae.

Our debut album will be availabe through these fine recordlabels:

5FeetUnder Records
Dapsone Records
Predestination Records

Kensington Arms:

Joris van Montfort - drums
Rudy Land - guitars & vocals
Corné Driesprong - guitars
Aldert Bitter - bass
Hidde Zemel - vocals

Contact & Bookings: kensingtonarms@gmail.com

Records, tours and tattoos!

2011-08-17T02:59:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Time for a new blog, after like 2/3 months?

First up Kensington Arms is in the finishing stage for the album. End of august, our album will be mastered by Mendel bij de Leij (Escadron) and we set the releaseparty in Vera, Groningen on Oct the 1st! Come over and celebrate the release we put our blood, sweat and beers in... Come early because we have the almighty Screw Houston, Start Screaming to support us!

Kensington Arms shows:
01.10.11 Kensington Arms "Geospizinae" Releaseparty
(supp: Screw Houston, Start Screaming)

RE-AMP!

Brutal guest vocals from Gosse Haarsma (ex Last Days of Slavery)

The very next day I will get on a plane for the UK (Liverpool) to catch up with my buddies in Helsinki Seven and fill in for Evan for the upcoming european tour! I just bought a (secondhand) bassguitar for several reasons...

So this is a great opportunity to check that thing out.
Also It's Joe's birthday then so IT'S ALL DARN GOOD!

Check out Helsinki Seven: http://helsinkiseven.bandcamp.com/album/helsinki-seven

Helsinki Seven European Tour 2011:

Sat 08th Antwerpen @ ROGERFEST (BE)
Sun 09th Hamburg @ Bar 227 (GER)
Mon 10th DAY OFF
Tue 11th Hamburg @ St. Pauli (GER)
Wed 12th Utrecht TBA (NL)
Thu 13th Groningen @ Platform Theater (NL)
Fri 14th Leeuwarden @ Mukkes (NL)
Sat 15th Emmen @ Huize Spoorloos (NL)
Sun 16th Amsterdam @ ADM Hoornweg (NL)
Mon 17th DAY OFF
Tue 18th Chemnitz @ Subway to Peter (GER)
Wed 19th AVAIL (GER)
Thu 20th Olten @ Coq D'or (SWI)
Fri 21st Geneva @ Espace Grossain(SWI)
Sat 22nd Le Mans @ L'endurance Festival(FR)

The Forrester Soundtrack continues too...
(where the fuck do I get the time from)

We've been very busy the last months before summerbreak. We recorded some songs, shot a video, did some shows and still have 2 to go. After am back from the Helsinki tour, I am planning new recordings and see from there what to do with it. An album is up my sleeve but when it's done... I can not tell from this point. The video for the track "Draw the line" will be released soon and another video for a new song will be shot at the end of Sept. All good here too.

Find you Forrester Soundtrack music here:

Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/theforrestersoundtrack
Bandcamp: http://theforrestersoundtrack.bandcamp.com/

Shows:

21.08.11 Troubadour Treffen @ Prinsentuin, Leeuwarden (13:00)
21.08.11 Mooie mensen feest @ Froske Polle, Leeuwarden (16/17:00)

Last but not least: Nom the Plume.
The big rockband everyone wants to get to know!
Yesterday JB completed the band after a big audition for a drummer. After a decision struggle on the mix we decided to let Mendel bij de Leij (our 5th invincible bandmember) to finish our EP and we will be rehearsing our show as fast as we can. The EP release will be in November... The month we also head out to the UK to promote our EP over there.

So that's in a nutshell what I am up to...

I'll keep you posted.

P.S. New tattoo and a new one coming next month <3!

Gevangen sessies: The Forrester Soundtrack - Froeks.TV

2011-05-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

Hi there, long time no talk!
That's right... am busy.

Update:

Kensington Arms just recorded their debut full length and is now in it's mixing stage. Same thing for Nom de Plume. We recorded our EP in ten days at Jurrie Meulman with the man himself and Mendel Bij de Leij. Am really siked for both records to be finished!

As for the Forrester Soundtrack: I started the pre production of the first record with Mendel Bij de Leij. Later this year, me and the other member of TFS Rosan Vloedgraven will be recording the record somewhere in a special place. I'll keep you updated on this.

Last but not least, The Forrester Soundtrack did a 3voor12 session this week and it's now online: check it!

Gevangen sessies: The Forrester Soundtrack - Froeks.TV

Well, that's it for now.
I'll be back soon with updates and keep this blog rolling again.

Peace.

Enter the world of couchsurfing!

2011-01-05T14:19:00.000-08:00

Looking back on 2010

2010-12-30T05:44:00.000-08:00

This year has been better than I expected.
Even though there been lots of things I'd
rather not mention them all to keep the list positive.

- Toured through Europe with my friends from Antillectual and Thomas aka Kent
- I've played lots of shows this year with Kensington Arms and sKa3
- 20.000 peeps in front of me
- Still "busy" with the DEADWOOD project
- Someone kicked me when I was already down..
- Fancy hotelbeds, Pubfloors and cellarmatrasses
- Attending the Academy for Popculture
- Travel through 11 countries this year
- Heartbroken
- Along with Arjan I started a new rockband called Nom de Plume.
- Saw Alexisonfire live again
- Played a handfull of shows (and tv recordings) with The Forrester Soundtrack
- Letting people go.
- sKa3 2008 - 2010
- Toured and recorded in the UK/Denmark with my boys (Kensington Arms)
- Barbie made me a paint (I am very proud)
- My dear friend Phillip from Germany came to visit me a few days in the summer
- 29-12-2010 She had me at hello.

2011... Bring it on!

Alpha/Beta

2010-11-17T01:22:00.000-08:00

Video will be posted soon!

Still Alive

2010-10-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

Hey Peepz,

Am very busy.
So that's a good thing.

I will update more, when I feel the need to.

Later!

Still a hundred miles to go...

2010-09-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

sKa3 had it's first show in Belgium after the whole ska-gate!
The show was in Retie which is 277 km from Leeuwarden. We drove that in 3 small hours. With a little delay we still made it on time. The vibe within the band was better than ever.. and even the hamburgers were delicious there! Maybe that was the reason :P The show was great. We had Ruben to fill in for Atser and he rocked the bloody hammond! Koos stagedived again, We had almost the whole tent on their knees during "Hocus Pocus" and the drive back home was relaxed... (except when Bonne speeds across highways with bumps in the road)

The tourbus.

Backseat Princess.

Beautiful skyline on the way to Belgium.

We seems to have found our way to kill the waiting.

Showtime!

The show in Retie was packed and we had lots of fun! Thanks to the organisation and the people who showed up!

Omrop Fryslân was there to film it. This Friday (17-09-2010) it will be broadcasted on their channel. Check it out.

Fresh MEAT!

2010-09-11T05:31:00.000-07:00

Last monday 77 students started their courses at the Academy for Popculture (AvP).To start off, 2nd and 3rd grade students organized the introduction week. They came up with a few projects where everyone could choose what they liked best. Some projects were Venezuela, something with alot of B's, a mash up project, a medley project, small movie project and the one I chose: Make a bad song better.

Together with Rosan, Richard, Daan, Corné and Jack Wild we picked out a list of dead wrong songs (Vengaboys, Eiffel 65, Prince, Gordon, etc) and smothered them to reasonable versions. In the beginning it was quite tricky to make a song like "Boom Boom" by The Vengaboys sound like it's a great song to singalong to (I hate the original song to the bottom of my bones) but eventually it turned out to be a bit jazzy, bit soul and more bite at the end. Now I really like it. Especially the way how Rosan sings the song. The other song we stripped and dressed was "Truly Madly Deeply" by Savage Garden. Richard and I decided it had to be dipped in a Paramore sauce and so we did.

Here's a video of the "Boom Boom" rehearsal.

While the project progressed we saw people come and go (just like in real life huh huh) but we were really happy Daan showed up to get behind the drumkit and making it sound so much better.

We recieved good advice and help from Marjan, Maire and Arjan. Next year I wanna step in their shoes for this project.

On Thursday all the groups had to present their work what they accomplished the last 3 days. It's so great to see what all these nice people have been up to. It gives a good view on what sort of musician/artist/designers we have in the 1st years can. Le Efant Terrible (my band/project) was up first. First song (Savage Garden) was a bit of a let down. I blame it on no soundcheck and Richard not standing next to me. Or am too critical :P but Boom Boom went great. It's nice to finally stand on that stage where I've been watching lots of bands and acts for the past 7 years.

The other acts were awesome! (Sorry dont know all the names anymore) Medleyband where N.E.R.D. goes hand in hand with Nirvana and drinking coffee with The Prodigy. I've seen a cool small movie about masterbation (creators who do it raw, I like that) Mashive (mashup) Britrock meets hip hop and lady Gaga (?) An act with white curtains which was really great, something with a Mika song, Put 4 hypes of 2010 in a room, unleash Gordons greatest hit on them and there you have another hatefull song you can love. And last but not least. Brewing the old with the new. A young Janis Joplin with a voice that gave me goosebumps who later collaberated with the J.J. of 2010: Lady Gaga. Both thumbs up and high in the sky.

Overall: This is a great start of the year. Lots of new talent! Holland and the rest of Europe better be ready... The people before us paved the way, now it's our job to put on a new layer...

A thick one.

Last Days of August

2010-08-28T06:12:00.001-07:00

Hey there,

Well, I thought it would be nice to type down a few things that happened in the last few weeks.

I recieved a REALLY nice gift from Anika.

My dear freunde from Germany, Phillip & Laura
came to visit for a few days.

We hung out in Groningen (Groene Dreak?) & Leeuwarden
(Park & Mukkes).

Played awesome shows this month with sKa3.
All shows were packed, sweaty and awesome.

Last night I had to play with Kensington Arms & sKa3
at the Visserijdagen in Harlingen.

I really enjoyed it!

Next month I start with a new study (academy for popculture) SIJKT!

..A new beginning.

Stations at night

2010-08-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

What up!

I was pulling an all nighter.

Why?

Daggers and At Daggers Drawn show in the Mukkes.

and...

That's it, for now.

Best BBQ this year...

2010-07-24T05:21:00.001-07:00

...at Anika's house.

sKa3 Belgium Trip

2010-07-23T05:51:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Yesterday I came home from 3 days of Belgium.
We had to play at the Polé Polé Festival this year.

July 20th, 2010

A small 4 hour drive with a van and a car.
We arrived around six and we met Chef (our Belgium booker)
What a nice guy! He helped us check in at the Marriot Hotel

First night we got the chance to explore Polé Polé. Hanging with the (nice/awesome) locals and spreading the holy sKa3 word! (DUH!)

July 21th, 2010

After a night of beer, cocktails, pasta and a warm bath...
This is where I woke up:

After a good breakfast, we did some some sightseeing...

we did a short line and soundcheck...

18:45... SHOWTIME!

We recieved awesome footage on dvd with the whole show.
So better watch out for that!
After the show I took a nice bath, good meal backstage and laid down for a while in the hotelroom.

I got textmessaged to catch up with Maaike and Hannah. They showed me other stages of the festival and ended up in a cool place where they played relaxing jazz music live! Awe to the some!

Then... Back to the hotel to get some rest and breakfast in the morning.
To finally get to the van and drive off back to Leeuwarden.

We all wanted to stay the rest of the weekend and enjoy the rest of the festival but no can do. sKa 3 LOVED IT!

See you at Polé Polé Beach, Zeebrugge on the 8th of August 2010!

Antillectual European Tourdiary 2010

2010-06-05T04:07:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 25.05 Leaving is sometimes the hardest part... (Nijmegen)

After packing things up I headed towards the train station. Walking with all my bags clothes and other stuff for the coming 3 weeks for the european trip with my mates in Antillectual. Roundabout 20:00 I was off to nijmegen. After 3 hours traveling, I arrived at the station, walked to Riekus and Willems house for some cold beers catching' up and a good night sleep.

Wednesday 26.05 The road is our home Freiberg (GER)

Woke up around 9:00 for a nice shower, cups of coffee, having that new silent express tune in our heads and reading the paper. It's telling us the town we play in Poland is totally flooded. They have 2 weeks time to dry things up. The van (the old Malkovich tourbus) was already packed so roundabout 13:00 we were found on the german highway. Good vibe in the van but total shitty weather to nice and shiny. 8 hours and 6 or 7 trafficjams later we arrived at the club and loaded the stuff out of the while it poured. Lots of nice germans helped out so it was done in no time. Food was delicious (Pasta #1 made by Chris' mother) and the organizers Chris and Boris are sweet guys. Chris is one big Hot Water Music fan we found out when we stayed at his place. Awesome. Support band Far of the Zoo (with Chris and Boris) sounded nice and even treated us to a little musical moment. How to get rid of your cd I guess, haha. Antillectual played a good show and the evening went well. After the van was loaded we hung out at Christian and Boris's place with convo's about studies, A wilhelm scream, hot water music and other stuff. I even drank some Jameson with chris. Day after I recieved a mail from Chris that my convo with Boris was reallly inspiring. That makes me very happy.

Thursday 27.05 Checking out Innsbruck (Austria)

Thankful for a good night sleep in a normal bed I took a shower just before nine-ish. I haven't checked but I guess I forgot my shower stuff (and I did). Oh well, no showers for the coming days so I wont be needing it anyway heheh.. Good breakfast, tanking and we were off to Austria. Took us 4 hours or so. Driving and sight/sigh seeing at the same time. Beautiful mountains with clowds and stuff and countless tunnels. Rider said arrival at 17:00 and we/I owned it! 2 down, 19 to go.. The weather is very diverse.. an hour of nice sun with heavy storms now and then. We waited an hour before Traktor arrived and loaded out the van. At the moment of writing I'm alone in the van somewhere in Innsbruck. want FOOOD! But first a leak and a cig.
With quite an empty stomach we waited for the promoter to comeback and prepare us food. Guess what's on the menu? indeed.. Pasta. # 2 that is. This time pieces of bread with it made by italians. Good to do. With full bellies we victorized the half pitter litters. The show is badly promoted. The question if we could put a tourposter up outside the venue was why we got the clue. After killing time internetting and bad jokes the first band finally started 23:00 o'clock sharp. An Italian crust grind band opened up and after 30 seconds it was enough for me. Nice guys for sure but not my cup of tea. Antillectual played a decent show. We sold the most merch eventually. It was really awesome to see Traktor finally. Nice guys. I tried to do a sow for them twice but didn't work out. Well now I figured it out so watch out for these guys in the Leeuwarden area! The promoter Maurice let us to believe this party wont end until 4 o' clock in the morning. Luckely we could sleep in the backstage which was a basement/coolcellar. We have brought our own mattresses along for comfy sleeping. Me and Thomas took a last drink in the bar and then went to sleep. This was a last minute show and doorbell so at the end he told me and Thomas there was no money left. With that big bummer we went to sleep for quite some hours.

We thought...

Friday 28.05 Poirino Five days in Italy (Super Thrash Ollandese).

They tried to wake us round 8 in the morning and grumpy as we were, entering the bar we saw Tobies smile on his face and our moods turned in an instant. We need more Tobies in Holland. Discovered a cool band ala explosions in the sky named Lymbyc Systym. Thanks Toby! Breakfast was nice, we thanked the guys even without any dow. Day three: 5 unshowered sweaty boys off for 5 days Italy. Hell yea!

I drove the first half of the trip. First hold up was at the border.. Where they checked out the van. No problem at all. After ten minutes we were off to Poirino! We stopped for coffee after 3 hours. Riekus told me earlier this week the coffee is great and cheap in Italy. Dude is so right! Now am here in the back of the bus typing the update and being satisfied with where we are now.. I mean not only Italy but everything is still going great. Besides the headlight is kinda broke. Well, just smash the steeringwheel haha. Am missing my friends back home but I am having a blast with these mates! Still 3 hours to go till we are at the anti-beer fest. Hopefully we can get a sleeping place over there because the rider says there's none. So far the weather in Italy is treating us well. A small rainy moment makes the bus more sweaty than it already was.. hehe. Eventually we arrived at Poirino after 7 and a half hours. Looks awesome first hand! Open air festival in the middle of the town. 4 bands playing and Antillectual is the headliner. The townies are happy to see us and forecast is good. Setting up the gear on the stage and Riekus did drum soundcheck. Clowds are getting darker and darker. They told us it actually never rains over there and worst case scenario.. It started to pour. While enjoying the first real italian pizza it kept pouring from the sky. As dessert we had something like a pancake filled with potato, egg and alot of salt. Rain didn't stop and we kept joking but yea, the show got cancelled. We mixed with the locals a bit and they made a whole happening when me and Riekus asked for coffee. We showed them some total dutch treat with New Kids that they described as Super Thrash Ollandese. At some point after we even sold some merch we were like hey ho, so we arranged a sleeping place. The guy would be there in like 15 minutes. It turned out that the guy was there for the whole day. Italians really don't look at the time or their clocks or the stage as one of the organizers crashed with the back of his car into the stage (bam!) after he smoked pot and drank a few too much. Oh well, we ended up in a practice room chatting, drinking beer and have a good night sleep. They gave us a key thankfully. Am tired as fuck which resulted me being less convo than usual. We can sleep till twelve. Tomorrow/today we have a 3 hour drive.. first short one of the tour. Thank god. Good night.

Saturday 28.05 Milano Crustaway!

After I defeated a Latterman/Hot Water Music/Orgcore discussing I found out I fell asleep right away after that. Waking around ten I textmessaged a friend and I listened to the unmixed recordings of Deadwood. Easy on we searched for a Carre Four (big ass supermarket) where we got some food and drinks. When we looked for gas we only could find was self-service stations. Eventually we found a too expensive Q8. Next thing was the highway to Milan. But Torino is big. Victorizing the tough traffic we took the small roads towards Milano. After a good 3 hours we arrived at the club. Really shy guy helped us out with parking the van at the loadingspot. We build up the backline, soundchecked and checking our mails. It's always great to hear stuff from back home. Round about 20:30 we ate a vegan dinner. oh man it was delicious! We met Ste and Sarah from No Reason Records again. He flew over to The Netherlands to see Ivo's last show with Antillectual. The place where we play is a big squad complex and looks awesome! Lots of graffiti. Think Heineken Music Hall... even bigger I think. Roundabout 23:00 it became crowded.. mixed people but overall it was crust. First band sounded like crappy hardrock in italian. Second band sounded as a mixture of stoner and screamo, kinda cool. Third band looked and sounded like crusty motorhead. Most of the people came to see this band was our idea. Before the show we sold some merchandise and the show was good. Good crowd response. We loaded the van, had to drive the van through the big crowed and entrance gate. There was also a big hip hop show in the same venue. we stayed upstairs of the venue. Weird showers cabins, like the whole cabin is the shower but there's also a washing table and a tiolet in it. goodnight sleep, hotelish.

Sunday 29.05 Melegnano Jail-a-crust/Never shop when you are hungry

Woke up round 10ish, checked the mail and we had to leave round 11. We were waiting for the key to let the bus out but as we know italians, 5 minutes is 50 minutes. This big door with big lock kept us from going outside. Thomas found out that a screw was loose so we could get out ourselves. LUCKELY. Time to do some milano sightseeing. Went for coffee, the cathedral church Duomo, castle Sforzesco and a nice big park. Finally we had some quality time to chill out. We parked right in the middle of milan and the weather was lovely! In 20 minutes we were at the next venue. We parked somewhere and right away the sound guy spotted the van so he could take us to the venue. Venue? It's actually a library. People were studying when we unload the van and soundchecked. They didn't seem to mind. These people were very friendly. This was also a last minute show (on a sunday) but the turn up was great. Before the show started, Sarah (Ste's girlfriend) made dinner for the bands. They told me her cooking was tremendously good. Now I found out first hand. Tomatobread, cheese pizza, olive pizza and something like lasagna rolls. Oh my god it was good! You could taste the love. We hung out with Ste & Sarah after the dinner and had nice convo's and dessert! Puddingpie. The bands were awesome too! First band A Theory of Justice played heavy-ish hardcore and has a male and female fronting screamers. I liked the breakdowns a lot. Next up Antillectual. They played awesome once again. Good crowd response! Last band was Violet. Sounded like a sweet version of Thrice in their "Artist in the ambulance" period without the heavy stuff. The bassplayer was really kind and I hung out a bit with him and his friends. We sold a good amount of merchandise. Exchanged email addresses with some people, loaded the van and went off to the No Reason Records office (Antillectual's italian label) where we stayed the night. Just before sleep we did the aids game.. (aids2O, save the aids) tot in den truere.

Monday 30.05 Bologna

Another good sleep we had. It's 2 hour drive to the next show so we can take things slow. That's nice when the first 4 days were very rushy. The office is quite impressive with all the releases they do/did. The sun is shining outside and it looks like it's going to be a good day… again. No hot water, so we took a cold shower. Slowly everyone woke up and we looked around the village for some food and drinks but with the italian Siesta you never know. Well the small town didn't have a store that was open. Willem did the business in the label office and we sat on the terrace for some ice-cream. Ste arrived round 15:00 to close up. I bought a Thrice shirt JEEJ! We said goodbye to Ste and were heading off to Bologna. It took us a small 2 and a half hours. At our arrival in Bologna we were surprised by the venue. It used to be a fruit shop. The Cute Lepers (ex The Briefs) arrived as well and after a while we started to hang out with guitar player Brian and drummer Josh from Seatle. Nice to chat with some decent talking english people haha. We ate pizza again and hung around and round 21:15 The first band started. Sounded cool… mid tempo punkrock with some rock n roll. Second band was a bit poppier. The bands were on a tight schedule because everything needed to be stopped before 12. It was very hot in the venue. TCL tour manager was an awesome dude. Antillectual played an short awesome show.Venue was packed at TCL. 3 of us slept at Claudio's studio and Riekus and Tom stayed in the van because of parkingspace problems. Respect guys. I did some email checking and went to bed.

Tuesday 01.06 Vittorio Veneto

Waking up round 9 in the morning we had a good night sleep. Checking mails. Shopped for food. In the city we drank coffee with Claudio and then we went into the city for some sightseeing and to see the two towers (the Garisenda & Asinelli tower). Cause we had spare time and just a 2 hours drive. We arrived and it looks awesome. Big nice venue with a descent PA. It's once again some sort of complex but now more modern like fitness stuff and all. We received a warm welcome by Thomas and Patrizio. At the soundcheck Tom won a fan. A kid (i think) 3 years old played like tom did and a nice smile on his face. The support band Garghantha arrived during the soundcheck. Nice guys. At 20:30 they served us dinner… Holy Moly! Veggie pasta and darn good! We heard last night that this where we are now is a student region. Had a nice talk with Alice who works behind the bar. She told me a friend of hers was laying in the hospital. She worked from the early morning till we left, damn! But it's true, lots of students. What a turn up.. roundabout 150 people showed up! Even two lads who saw Antillectual on groezrock drove 200 km to see them tonight. Garghantha started and the venue was nicely crowded. AWESOME BAND. Check them out! Taking a look at the setlist they played like 15 to 17 songs. Anyway, great crowd response so things are looking good for Antillectual tonight. They played awesome. Crowd liked it a lot and we sold a good amount of merch. Loading the van afterwards was a bit tricky because of the stairs and the crowd but saying scouzzy did it's work I guess. We drove off to the hotel where we are sleeping. The guys who drove 200 km also stayed in the same hotel and drank some beers with us. They brought meat, cheese, breadsticks and Hollandia beer… siked! Talked about Down by law, Groezrock and Tom and I had a bonding (like) moment as we both dig Counting Crows a lot… (which is now playing in the van). Got into bed and doze off right away.

Wednesday 02.06 Ajdovscina (Club Baza) (SLO)

Woke up around 10 o clock and had the first good shower (warm water) in 4/5 days. Like I said touring aint that glamorous. but the things that happen are priceless. Smelling bad is just one of the necessary evils. We drove to Torza to have breakfast at Patrizio's house. Later came Thomas too and Riekus filled in a form for the songs they played last night. They gave us the leftover breakfast... and off we went. After an half an hour drive we crossed the border from Italy to Slovenia. Then one and a half to Ajdovscina. We arrived very early so we hung on a terrace in the village next to it. We had pizza, coffee and beer. The Jani from Real Life Version showed up (they do the show) and there is no promotion done for the show. They texted messaged their friends and stuff so we'll see what the turn up is. The venue is cool, it used to be a place where weird/crazy people would hang out. Antillectual is the only band of the night. The venue need to shut down at ten so we have an early show. It started raining but luckily it's an inside show. The show was awesome. Good turn up, roundabout 40 people I think. Best sound so far. Show-wise one of the better too. We are sleeping in Real Life Versions practice room. Darn, they have it all.. Bathroom, couches, internet… Nice! We drank a few beers with the guys and went to sleep. They are cool guys.

Thursday 03.06 Ljubljana (SLO)

The drummer woke us up at 9:00 sharp and ate a good breakfast. Riekus got a new ventilator cause the old one broke down last night. Some got the chance to shower. Then off to Ljubljana, capitol of Slovenia. We arrived, parked the van at the venue, another crust complex. Now we are sitting on a terrace for coffee and vegan sandwiches. Pulling it good! We did some sight seeing at the St. George's Chapel. Went into the city and bumped into a guy who's house we sleep in. He works at a bar where we sat down for coffee and beer. When we wanted to pay and go he said it was on the house. Awesome. Back into the city and then returned to the squadcomplex where Antillectual plays tonight. Dario cooked Goalash/chilli for us and when finished we build up the backline and soundchecked. The shows badly promoted and while soundchecking we heard that there's a puppet show before the band's show. Weird combo.. and it's quite boring after a while when you don't understand the slovenian language. The band played a cool show even though the sound wasn't that good. After loading in we grabbed a snack on the way where I met Karen (a Canadian girl) and talked about Alexisonfire with her. Then we got into the van with 8 people to Dario's house. Me, Thomas and Riekus smoked our last cig and went to bed. Nice house.

NOTE
This is a raw version of the first few days...
When I get back I will put the whole tourdiary online with pictures and a tourvideo

A small note...

2010-05-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

What a lovely weekend.

20.05
Thursday we had June in December (NL) and The Casting Out (USA)
playing fantastic shows in the Mukkes. Cool guys to hang out with and saw lots familliar faces. And Nathan... what a nice guy.

23.05
Last night I had the best of times with friends.
I was in the Mukkes watching some nice hardcore/metal bands
And had a really great time with Liza :)
With a afterparty in the Gloppe! One word: Awesomly drunk.
A good night out just before the tour.

Video

I made a video of me through the years as a musician.
Turned out ok for someone without any skills :P

Have a nice sun(ny)day ya'll!

The Ultimate Sjaak Afhaak Week!

2010-05-19T05:16:00.000-07:00

Hey there folks,

Finally I found a bit rest this week. After weeks of too much stuff to do I now am resting a bit. I had a show with Pro Pain last week (which was awesome, eating delicious chinese food while watching Pro Pain from the balcony tearing the place down) We played an awesome show too!

The Recording Days on 15th/16th of May..

Me, Wouter, Joris and Aldert were locked up in the studio to record some tracks. Within 3 hours the drums were down on tape! Awesome Wouter! The rest of the days were spend on guitars, bass and ofcourse my favourite.. the overdubs. It was lots of fun hanging with these guys and the people who came by for coffee or a good laugh. At the end we were all a bit tired and stuff but that's how the cookie crumbles.

The Movie

Before I go on european tour we are screening some actrices (young looking and able to dye the hair to black) this coming friday. If you are interested.. mail us: wearedeadwood@gmail.com

European Tour with Antillectual

Furthermore am siked to go on tour! One of the last shows are with Hot Water Music!!! FUCK YEA!

Here are the tourdates:

May 26 2010 Haus der Jugend GER: Freiburg, DE
May 27 2010 PMK w/ Traktor Innsbruck, AUSTRIA
May 28 2010 MT Beer Festival Poirino, ITALY
May 29 2010 Leoncavallo (Dauntaun) Milano, ITALY
May 30 2010 AVAILABLE Italy, ITALY
May 31 2010 New Lazzaretto Bologna, ITALY

Jun 01 2010 AVAILABLE Italy, ITALY
Jun 02 2010 Club Baza Ajdovščina, SLOVENIA
Jun 03 2010 Tovarna Rog Ljubljana, SLOVENIA
Jun 04 2010 EKH Wien, AUSTRIA
Jun 05 2010 EntroP’s Extended Wiener Neustadt, AUSTRIA
Jun 06 2010 Casino Rockbar St. Johann, AUSTRIA
Jun 07 2010 Sub Graz, AUSTRIA
Jun 08 2010 Jugendcafé Zwiesel, GERMANY
Jun 09 2010 La Putika Hradec Kralove, CZECH REPUBLIC
Jun 10 2010 Wagon Club Wroclaw, POLAND
Jun 11 2010 Subversiv Berlin, DE
Jun 12 2010 U-Rock Holzminden, GERMANY
Jun 13 2010 Plu Heerlen, Limburg, NETHERLANDS
Jun 14 2010 Trix w/ HWM!!! Antwerpen, BELGIUM
Jun 15 2010 Willemeen. Arnhem, NETHERLANDS
Jun 16 2010 Finally HOME! Leeuwarden, NETHERLANDS

Other things on the program

But first The Casting Out (ex BoySetsFire) in the Mukkes tomorrow, Friday screening for actrice and saturday beer, beer, beer with Miss Avalon :)

Have a nice one...

Last week in a rush...

2010-05-08T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hanging out with friends (Denise/Anne-Nynke/Chantal) on tuesday for a walk through the city, a nice cup of coffee and some fine tea. Some time to relax before the madness begins.

Liberty Day was totally awesome. A bad night sleep. Early in the morning soundcheck.
Very un-rock & roll but sKa3 had to do it. After waiting quite long we were done in an instant. Our mates from The Hûnekop payed a visit and Elske DeWall finally introduced herself to me. A good start of the day actually. The show went good but could have been much better.. but people enjoyed it as I heard. After the show I hung out with friends (names? Birthe, Liza, Chiel, Suzy, Jessica, Patrick, Jeljer, Frank, WD, Denise, Afke, Zhenya, Niels, Job and Maaike just to mention a few) in the park. Went backstage with New Killer Stars to help out Chiel with important stuff (huh-huh). At 18:00 we drove off to Dokkum to play a full sKa3 show. Very nice stage but not as much people as a few hours ago. Still there were people dancing. Even my mom and sister were watching! Talked to some old friends. I had a nice time on stage. After the show we went back to Leeuwarden. I spinned records in the Gloppe and THE DOTS played a fantastic show. Good crowd and lots of dancing! Bedtime: 5 in the morning.. You can imagine I was sleeping in no-time.

Next day up at 10:00. Shower!
Two things on the planner today. My uncle's funeral and The Forrester Soundtrack playing in Simplon, Groningen with Tommy Ebben and Achter Gordijnen van Vrijheid. The funeral was beautiful and really worthy. Too bad we see the family only at funerals lately. But there's a wedding coming up so a good enough reason to pay a visit and catch up with everyone. After coffee with our own family it was time to take off to Groningen. No soundcheck. Suprised bij Achter Gordijnen van Vrijheid and so good to see my friend Tommy Ebben again! Played the best Forrester show so far and had a great time in the venue. Catched up with Richy from Ortega. Good stuff!

Friday me and Wouter finished the Deadwood songs
for 98% in the practiceroom.
Some still need some minor adjustments
but I think we are quite there.

Saturday Kensington Arms played in Popfront, Zwolle. It was so good to see Heleen again among other friends like Gijs, Martheun, Jeff, Ton (real short), the Estate Drama guys, Geert and the Sparky's. Played a nice show and before I knew we were already heading home. Time flies by when yer having fun!

On Sunday I went to my mother for Mother's day. After that I had rehearsals with sKa3. Chantal made a lovely dinner, had some icecream in the city and walked through the park.

What a week it was!

How sudden things can change...

2010-05-01T03:42:00.000-07:00

After my blog, some things have changed.

Mostly positive.

Deadwood is going great. We found the locations. Now were looking for the right actrice. The design needs to be done and the recording has been moved a week because of difficulties. But everything is still on schedule so no worries here.

Kensington Arms quite the same. Weekly rehearsing. Planning a tour through Denmark with a danish release show of our full length record. Writing new songs, Doing shows with Gosse (who fills in for Hidde) and ofcourse planning the recording of the album. We had a nice line of shows the passing months and still 2 to go before I will go on European tour with Antillectual. Straight from tour we will be playing on CesarFest 4 so I will be having an awesome homecoming!

The Forrester Soundtrack didn't make it through the first ten for Liet 2010. so un-very-fortunately I must spam you with a request to vote. I hate these things. But as friends tell me to just do it I shall listen to them. Not that am demotivated but I realised this is not how I rool the dice with my music. Other news: Slightly making plans to record the album with Kris Vesseur (June in December / www.myspace.com/krisvesseur) in de lovely woods of Appelscha. I can tell you it will be a nice mixture of old and new songs. Songs like Embrace Spencer, To catch burdens out of sea and Calling me home will be recorded again and added to the album. Designwise I haven't made plans yet.

Yesterday sKa3 played the new set with the new sKa3 girl and it was awesome. We played near Utrecht and had an amount of 100 people standing before us. The vibe witin the band was very good. The sound was crappy. We even met the booker from Ijsselpop where we play in september. Nice guy!

For me things turn around a bit fast as I had some missed calls from the family. Still in the rush of playing a descent show, my sister told me over the phone that my uncle passed away that morning. It was like going from high to low. I was speechless. My thoughts are with the family. Thankfully I had/have a group of fine people among me. That's also a strong point within sKa3. I feel privilged to have that. The sKa3 showlist is still growing! Great shows are coming up. Check sKa3.nl for a show in your neighborhood.

And last but NOT least:

20 days, 7 countries and Antillectual. May 26th till June 12th I will be driving the awesome punkrockbandits Antillectual through Europe! Germany, Slowakia, Poland, Italy, Austria, Switserland and Tjechrepublic (or somethin') Nice way to network, getting my ass out of the mess here for a few weeks and enjoing some fine punkrock/people. Really looking forward to that.

That's it for now folks!

How things are going...

2010-04-19T10:33:00.000-07:00

Hey!

Well, in my previous blog I told you about what's up with my musical activities.
Now am about to tell you the progress in those things.

First off: Deadwood. Scenario is done, plannings are made, am rounding up the soundtrack which will be recorded on may 8th and 9th, on the 24th of april we will be checking out locations for the film. Other important thing will be screening the actrice. Which hopefully won't take too much time.

Last weekend The Forrester Soundtrack got nominated for Liet 2010 Song Festival. What a great day it was. Lots of sun, (dumb) jokes and great friends. Hopefully we will be picked out of the 15 nominees. If not, I will bug you just once to vote for me. I hate spamming people to vote... I'm sorry already. The new songs are being fine-tuned and the recording will start soon. The album will be totally Forrester... with lots of help from my friends. Looking forward to it!

Kensington Arms is back on the stages. A tour through Denmark is in the making, new contacts are made and new songs are written. Another thing worth mentioning: Our good friend Denise Hendriks made awesome pictures of the Docx show we did with June in December and The Four P.M. Station... I really enjoyed the company of lots of fine people. For pictures, check this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41795940@N07/sets/72157623764814171/

From 30th of April sKa3 will be back on the stages too! Will be lots of fun and hopefully you enjoy the new show we have produced over the last few months. Don't worry... we only added more hits instead of killing it hehe.

The coming weeks I will be busy with my personal music portfolio. FunFunFun!

And will Rudy be having any vacation? Looks like it. Hopefully i will be steering the wheel for the awesome punkrock band Antillectual. 2 weeks of fine european cities from the end of May till mid June. Fingers crossed.

I also made some choices that were hard to make. But it's for the better.

That's it for now..

Enjoy the days of the week and catch some sun if you can! I'm already burned.

What is up...

2010-03-23T02:42:00.000-07:00

Hey there people,

Alot is happening.

First of all my project Deadwood is up and running. Script is 90% done, I'm at writing the fifth song (in total of six) and hopefully it won't take long before we shoot the movie. This project is all about weird dreaming and putting a soundtrack underneath it. With a bit of luck it will be premiered at the Freeze Festival at the end of september 2010 in "De Harmonie", Leeuwarden.

sKa3 is getting ready for the summerfestivals. Practicing hard with the new sKa3 chick on the vocals and rewriting the set to make it more dancable than it already was. There are some nice festival dates already confirmed and hopefully were crossing the border to let Belgium dance their asses off too!

Last weekend Kensington Arms played it's first show in a while and it was awesome!
New bassplayer Aldert did his kickoff and Smirre going to Japan for half a year, so Gosse from Last Days of Slavery will do vocalduty for the time being.

And last but not least... The Forrester Soundtrack is quite busy with new songs and will perform on a qualifying round for Liet 2010. I can't say for sure but hopefully I will release an EP or full length this year. I have enough new songs to make one.

That's not all... I will hopefully have admission to do the academy for popculture in september. That way I can finally focus as much as I need to on how the business works, the networking, my own music and of course those of others.

Well, thats the update for now.
The sun is up, so I suggest you enjoy it as much as you can!

Word.

Welkom!

2010-03-01T07:13:00.000-08:00

Hier is dan mijn blog...

Het schijnt dat we met de tijd mee moeten
en dus ook actief aan het bloggen.
Hierzo dan mijn gedachtes, riedeltjes en ander vermaak.
Voor nu zal ik me eerst concentreren op het uiterlijk
en dan de inhoud.

Dus keep in touch!

R.