Music

At the age of four I received a toy drumkit which was destroyed within about two months.

At the age of eight I assembled a drumkit from pans and pan lids, while playing it with pencils. Mom put me on drum lessons and at age twelve there was the first live gig with a band. From that moment on I got hooked on playing live. To play a blistering gig with a great band that interconnects with a willing audience is an electrifying experience.

I grew up listening to, and later on playing, pop and rock music. During my years in music I had the pleasure of working with a number of class A musicians, with whom I either recorded or toured through Europe.

Though my musical taste broadened while growing up, it wasn’t until a few years ago before I got a taste of playing a totally different style: Eastern European oriented Gypsy music: with the band Scheepskameel I played very upbeat, danceable music with mostly Dutch lyrics. Great fun and it was a treat to be working with these musicians.

Besides playing, I also loved writing lyrics and songs. The next selection houses songs where I perform drums and percussion. Songs I wrote entirely are marked with an “$” - songs with an “#” I co-wrote (mostly lyrics).

Moreover I divided the songs in four categories: gypsy, pop, rock and hard rock/heavy metal.

Last but not least, on the bottom of this page you’ll find some video material of bands and artists I worked with. Enjoy!

Gypsy

Pop

Rock

Hard Rock/Metal

With Vengeance

Vengeance is a Dutch hard rock band, formed in 1983. Arjan Lucassen, head of Ayreon and other progressive metal projects, played in the band from its formation until 1992.

I joined the band in 2008 during their Same Same, but Different tour and played on the Soul Collector album and subsequent tour in 2009. 
*Fun fact: The cover drawing for this album was made by guitarist Jan Somers and the Sleeve & Booklet design and concept was created by yours truly :-)

In the video we play the Vengeance classic Rock 'n Roll Shower.

With Daize Shayne

Daize Shayne-Goodwin is a two time world champion longboard surfing who recorded her first album Live Your Dreams in 2006. That year she hired me to perform drums during her European Tour, in which we played a lot of big festivals in The Netherlands and Switzerland.

The video for the song Why Can't You Understand Me, which you can find below, contains live footage from the 2006 Live Your Dreams European Tour.
*Fun fact: The video was edited and produced by Manni Kusters and yours truly.

With Iron Mask

Iron Mask is a Belgian based power metal band. 

From early on I enjoyed power metal as played for instance by Iron Maiden and Helloween. Dushan Petrossi, founder of Iron Mask, saw me perform with Joe Stump and asked me if I would be interested to record the drums for his new album Shadow of the Red Baron. Of course I was happy to oblige.

The title track is by far one of the Metallest songs I've ever recorded :-) Underneath the videoclip for the song “Forever In The Dark.”

With Joe Stump

Joe Stump (born September 18, 1960) is an American guitarist and composer. He's a guitar professor at the famous Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA. He's heavily influenced by Ritchie Blackmore, which meant that during the tours we'd perform a lot of Deep Purple and Rainbow classics (awesome for drummers to play!). We did three European tours together.

In the video we play the Deep Purple classic Stormbringer.