UK TRIP: Upbuilding tour pressure

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!

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 progress while 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"

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!

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

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!

Looking back on 2010

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!