It all started when I was a kid like maybe 5 or 6 years old. That was the time I discovered my passion for music. My mother used to have some sandwiches in the fridge for me, because she knew I'd be outta bed real damn early, and listen records from my parents for -maybe sometimes- a couple of hours. Few years later I got my own record player and I bought-and became- records that were more the stuff I could relate to.
Queen was one of the bands I listened to and that was the foundation to get into AC/DC when I was 12 years old.
Then things got really fast. This hardrock/heavy metal thing kicked ass! No more music from the radio, but stick with stuff like Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Black Sabbath etc. At the very same time my cousin, who is 5 years older than I am, swapped AC/DC for the Hardcore Punk scene that seemed to engulf the country in the early 80's.
I already used to hang around a lot with my cousin and ofcourse he and his punk friends listened to GBH and Discharge etc. which meant me too!
As a 13 year old I really got into this heavy metal thing and the hardcore punk music. I surely kissed the music from the radio goodbye! That bloody Disco was way too soft!
Anywayz, just before I got into this metal/punk stuff I had some drumclasses for a while. Not that much but a start in some technique and basics.That turned out to be very nice in the future as I practiced and got more skilled by doing so.
Somewhere around 1985 me and some friends started something that should be- or become- a band called "The Numbskulls"
But I wasn't on drums there actually, because Robert Brinksma still took serious drumclasses at the time, so he'd automatically be the drummer. I took the vocal part as a lead singer, Although it was a lot of fun we were absolute numbskulls because we did not have a fuckin' idea from what we're doing or what the actual goal was. It was like a half Jimi Hendrix song and some intro like stuff from Metallica's For whom the Bell Tolls.
Later around '86 I guess, I picked up drumming again after 4 years not playing drums at all. ( I did not drum @ the Numbskulls thing so 1982 was the last drumming I did) So in 1986 I was about to play in a sort of thrash metal band. I told 'em it was a while ago since I played drums so I need to pick up a bit, but that was OK with them. But after a few sessions with these total fucking dickheads, they kicked me out and blamed me for not playing well on the bad public (!) gear (the drumkit just collapsed almost every time played on) So that wasn't the luckiest shot! How can one pick up and train their skills on that piece of garbage? Crashing & trashing all the time? Hahaha! Shit happens! It was about 4 years later I got into drumming again. (but not because of these stupid cunts)
In the meantime I was doing what every normal 16-17 year old would do. Party!! Boozing, girls, dropping out of school, getting laid, smoking pot. And it was also a time different styles of music caught my ear. It was the roaring eighties! As the heavy metal evolved into speed,thrash, crossover, grindcore and early Death Metal, at the same time other styles got my interest. I don't know if it was the pot talking, but things like Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Beastie Boys and Eek a Mouse were added to the brutal thrashmetal like Slayer and the Hardcore- Anarcho punkband Conflict.
Now in 1986/87 the mainstream radio and television stations started to broadcast alternative music. Next to MTV's Headbangersball and PowerHour, the Dutch TV broadcasted Fa.Onrust (VPRO) and they had several radioshows too!! And here I listened to stuff from John Peel's kitchen. Such bands like Front 242, Nick Cave, Frontline Assembly, The Fall, Scratch Acid, Big Black etc. It was one big explosion of punk, punkrock, post-punk, no wave and industrial.Some already took the first carefull steps towards EBM. But it wasn't the postpunk which would smother Europe with electronic music. It was Acid House. Although I liked both styles back then- the Acid and Industrial postpunk- it would take many years before I got back to electronic music.
In 1989 it was time to leave the parents house.
So things started really cooking back in 1990/1991. First thing that somehow happened was that I bought myself a cheap drumkit. Next we 'build' a rehearsal room in the squat where I lived. Just grabbing a hammer, some long nails and a mattress taken from a bed was put at the window. But it didn't really reduce our noise... It was more like a social gesture to our neighbours :) This 'home rehearsal room' actually resulted in a HardcorePunk Noise band called 'Moron Terror' (1990). Within a year I had a better drumkit and also another band!! We kicked off in the early 90's. Back then Death-Metal bands were poppin' up all around with this new brutal sound. With this band 'Requested Sufferings' we recorded an 4 track demo tape, which was reviewed in the AMH (dutch metal music 'zine) as absolute cadaverous bloody gore and noisy Metal. Few years later I joined 'Cerebral Death' and we did quite some gigs. Even one with Demolition Hammer and Massacre as support-act (because Grave had left the tour or something.)
Because Cerebral Death's 4-track demo sucked due to the fuckin lazy "I dont wanna be here" sound-engineer, we started to sell a nice live- recording along with the Cerebral Death T-shirt.
When the Death Metal band Cerebral Death also died, I eventually sold my drumkit out of boredom and bought myself some weird old skool synthesizer/keyboard kinda thing. I managed to make some Sisters of Mercy/Nick Cave kinda stuff with this apparatus. Sometimes being amazed it was already 5 in the morning, while my job started at 7 a.m.
Then due to circumstances and another job at sea and cargo through Europe I didn't play in bands for many many years because I barely was home. Just some short projects now and then. Much later after a long history of sailing, the 2008 crisis put a lot out of work, but I still managed to do some shipping. When the crisis hit real hard, it put me out of work too. So the life continues ashore now. I already moved to the the town I wanted to live in and after a while the music bussiness started rollin' again. We;re talking 2011 now.
So I played drums in a metal/rockband 'Int Nauw' an Industrial Noise project called 'Mahlstrom' (which sadly never seemed to find a guitarist) and an acoustic band called 'Driuwhout' in which I used to do drums and percussion, but also became leadsinger at part of the songs.
Meanwhile I had some fun with short projects like: a crustpunk project named "Borremieg" and a D-beat punk project 'Korst" with Bert and Leroy.
At the same time I was busy in Driuwhout, I also joined a Doom Metal band called "Tarre" for a short while and an acoustic project with former Driuwhout and Mahlstrom (bass) guitarist;
"Totaal Verwoest" or "Duo Verotti"... actually the same shit...eeeh...I mean songs and members. :)
After all this Kosmonoxcide was born. More of that in another blog! :)
