Check out my new video for 'Haha'!

Next on the list was the bass guitar! I asked my friend Hinne (Only Seven Left) to play bass on some of the tracks. I was very happy he said 'yes!' and so we practised a few times and he picked it up really fast and within no time we were ready to record!


Not only is Hinne a nice person with great hair, he is also is one of the best bass players I know, and he totally understands where I'm going with the songs and even comes up with stuff only bassplayers can come up with.


Obviously my songs are pretty simple, and so is the one you're looking at right here: Cum. The problem with this song is, halfway it transposes from C to Cis which makes it absolutely impossible for ME to remember the chords. But Hinne had no trouble with it.


Hinne made up funny short titles for all the songs, like Subwaytje for 'The Stockholm Subway'. This one may become the favorite song of the album for me, simply because it rocks so hard.


In my tiny home studio, which is still under construction.


Gotta have candy while recording. Preferably with lots of added sugar, flavourings and colors.


The Harry Potter poster has a story... I actually won it in an contest on the night of the release of the last book. I was the only contestant over 14 years old. I didn't feel ashamed. At all.


Hinne actually gets away with my ridiculous keytar.




Even the 23 inches of monitor aren't enough for me. I need bigger!! 1000" at least!


My studio-room after a day of hard work. Hinne did a really nice job, the real bass makes the songs even more 'alive', with a genuine rough edge.

Next is the vocals and some acoustic guitar!

One year later, and you probably didn't expect me to still be working on the same album... Well, I am! The same 12 songs, but in a slightly new arrangement. I suddenly got all fed up with the beats and electronics and how fake and flat it all sounds. I want it to be organic! Alive! Let's do the human thing!

So we started out by recording some drums, for seven of the songs on the album. Sander and I built a diy-studio in the Only Seven Left-rehearsal room. Let's get to the pics!


The producer.


The control room.


The drumkit on duty.


Sander doing his engineering stuff with microphones and cables and mostly a lot of tape.


Me getting ready to rock with my brand new sweat band (back then it still smelled nice and fresh).


The fun part about recording the songs was I obviously already knew them by heart, but I had never ever played them before, on drums, because it was all programmed. So. That was interesting.


There we go! We recorded it all with Logic on my Macbook, using some nice vintage Sennheiser microphones, Shure 57's for the snare, and Rode overheads. The sound we were going for was (as always) the sleazy, garage, non-slick kind of rocksound. Think we did a pretty good job, it sounds as if two kids recorded it in a bedroom with some old mics. Hmmm...


Time for some dinner, from the Wokkiewok.


And back to work! Playing discobeats all day at 35 °C.


I don't like to brag, but even after all those months (years) I still think the songs are awesome, and I enjoyed playing drums for them so much, because it really sort of made them come to life.


Yep, my external hard disk is called 'Oude Schaterhand'. Ten points for the one who guesses his (blood)brothers' name.


Sander working his way trough the mess I created, cleaning up my tracks. I'm just not a one-taker kinda guy.


Still life with red bull and chopsticks.


So two days and seven songs later, the drums are done. Guitars were already done. Next is the bass guitar, and the vocals. And I'm not giving you a release date, but I promise you it will happen in 2009. I can't wait.

Hee Marco van Basten
Met je mooie bruine haar
Ja, je speelt het mooi weer klaar

Ik kijk naar elke wedstrijd
Want we worden kampioen
Dus kom hier geef me een zoen

Ja een zoen, zoen, zoen
Ja een zoen, zoen, zoen

Laat dat veld voor wat het is
En kom maar met me mee
Schiet naar links en schiet naar rechts
Schiet maar recht door zee, hee

Pak pak pak pak pak die bal
En geef 'm een knal

Hee daar kleine Rafael
Met die slet van TMF
Doe eens even niet zo klef

Hee daar Ruud van Nistelrooi
Met je benen, oh zo lang
Gooi die maar en ik vang

Ja, ik vang, vang, vang
Want ik ben niet bang

Laat dat veld voor wat het is
En kom maar met me mee
Schiet naar links en schiet naar rechts
Schiet maar recht door zee, hee

Pak pak pak pak pak die bal
En geef 'm een knal

Hey! There are some new songs on my profile. In Dutch. Yes. That's the language I use for talking blah blah all day and it goes a little something like this: "Zwarte Piet ging uit fietsen toen klapte zijn band". It's weird and it certainly wasn't invented for singing. But in the past few years I recorded some Dutch songs and I wanted to share them with you.

These aren't the new songs for the new album, but they'll make the waiting a little bit nicer, I hope!

Rotterdam
That's my latest single, it's been downloaded over 25.000 times so you probably already know it. It's about the beautiful city and its most beautiful inhabitant...

Hoe Jij Naast Mij
I wrote this song as a Christmas song for a friend who didn't call me as much as I wanted him to. He still doesn't call me so the song didn't help, but nowadays I'm ok with it.

Kom
It's the translation of my evergreen Cum! Translated by Remco Geraerts and me, just for fun. And funny it is, ey?

Verder Zonder Jou
That's a 'new' song about the (possible) end of a relationship. We have played it live a few times, but due to its ballad-ness the crowd kind of fell asleep every time. It's not finished yet, but I thought it would be nice for you to hear it.

Dikkertje Dap
I guess it's a gabber-version of the song by Annie M.G.

Mamamama's
I wrote this for Kinderen voor Kinderen last year. Its supposed to be sung by a girl, obviously. But I think it's funnier this way. The real Anna I wrote the song about really liked it, which makes me happy.

The recordings for my debut album are almost done! We need some more vocals and synths but all the guitars have been recorded this week. Sander did an amazing job playing nice arrangements that actually contributed to the vibe of the songs. Check out the pics!


There he is! We recorded five songs in one week in my bedroom, also known as the Rbbknl Studios.


The setup. We totally went for the noiserock-britpop-eurohouse-postpunk-sound. You know. We used Sanders H&K, Remco's Marshall and Dirkjan's H&K. And for mics: Shure SM57 and MXL 990.


The heroes of the week.


We recorded using Sander's pc and Adobe Audition 1.5. I know, it's kidssoftware, but I taught myself the entire recordingthing with it, so it was the easiest for now.


The sessions involved a lot of coffee, bacon&eggs and soup. Not all at once.


This guy can actually be heared on the album. Despite the lack of enthusiasm about it of certain band members.


Headphones. What else can I say? They do the job. For monitoring I used my Pioneer-speakers. Someone else is going to master the cd, in a real studio with fancypancy speakers.


Making a nice guitarsound goes together well with tea & honey.


Bass and synths were played by hand in Reason to get that live-feel.


Standing in the shoes of Sander...


Some songs just sound better when dressed up a little.


Energy drink may receive a thank you in our liner notes.


Just for inspiration.


The beats were made in Fruity Loops, with samples I actually drummed myself.


Jochem (Only Seven Left) came by to have listen and Sander took a well-deserved nap.


Sander's magic green box.


So then I bought my MacBook. And Tim bought his laptop.


And now the recordings have been transferred from Sander's pc to my MacBook and I will mix the whole thing with Logic. And you will get to hear that... later this year!

Op de nieuwe verzamel-cd van Stuck In A Day is een nieuw liedje te horen van Impossible Situations! Nouja, nieuw... Spider-Man Kiss ligt al een tijdje op de plank, maar nu is het helemaal opgefrist met nieuwe zang, nieuwe beats en nieuwe synths... Ga dus snel naar www.stuckinaday.com en bestel die cd voor maar 4 euro! Je kunt het lied ook eerst even luisteren op de MySpace.

Even voor de duidelijkheid dan maar. Spider-Man Kiss gaat natuurlijk niet echt over de vliegende spinneman. Ik heb het wel geschreven toen ik die ene mooie scene zag (maart 2005), maar het is natuurlijk een metafooooor. Zo van: 'ik zweef hier maar een beetje rond en jij staat met beide voeten op de grond, mijn hele leven staat op z'n kop en vraag me af of we hier nu niet een beetje te oud voor zijn, dit kinderachtige spelletje'. Snappie.           

Mocht je je afrvagen waarom er even geen optredens zijn... Check even www.keihardindekeistad.nl, dat is mijn afstudeerproject, en ik ben bijjjjjjjjjjjjjjjna klaar! Echt. Dit keer. Zerieuz.

Sander is trouwens ook megadruk met zijn band Snatchin' Jenny, ze hebben net een nieuwe cd uit, die ook te koop is via  Stuck In A Day!           

Maar deze zomer gaan we mijn cd afmaken/ga ik onze cd afmaken, hoe dan ook: die komt af. En uit. En dan gaan we een hele dikke vette set inelkaar draaien, iets heel anders dan je tot nu toe van ons gewend bent. Met meer live instrumenten, meer danseressen en meer vuurwerk. En we plannen een tourtje door het mooiste land van Europa! Godkväll!

Zaterdag mocht ik met Sander en Thomas in Arnhem optreden tijdens Luft07. Het was een luxe feest met uberhippe dj's, en ons dus. We moesten om 21.00 soundchecken en om 00.30 uur spelen. En nog een keer om 02.30 uur... veel vervelingsfoto's dus! :)


Remco, Sander, Thomas. In de kleedkamer vermaakten we ons met eh.. ja met foto's maken eigenlijk.

Remco (links) was de chauffeur.

Ventilatoren genoeg in ieder geval!

Kroonluchterman redt de wereld!

Uit onze rider: "Nutricia Chocomel (fles of pak)". En jawel!

Remco en Sander voeren een abstract toneelstukje op.

Vanaf nu ook op onze rider: EEN SOFA! WE WILLEN EEN SOFA!


Ook aan de details was gedacht.

Even een kijkje nemen in de zaal.

Whoeee spannend.

IJsbeer-VJ's.

Daar gaan wij straks staan, zie mijn roze koffertje! :P

Shakira was er ook.

Die muurversiering leek verdacht veel op de tattoo die ik ooit nog ging/ga zetten.

Nog meer fijne muurversieringen.

Het bier was gearriveerd!

Als je je verveelt, lijkt alles ineens fotowaardig.

Ehh.

Sander had z'n hele collectie maar meegenomen.

En daar gaan we dan! Aaaah!

Ik speel tegenwoordig ook keytar.

Maar ik moet er zelf ook nog een beetje om lachen.

En toen was het een paar uur pauze. Veel Red Bull en suuupergore kerstkransjes later...

Mochten we nog een kwartiertje! Inmiddels werd er lekker gedanst.

Sandeeer!

Thomaaas!

Daar sta je dan (inmiddels in het rood-zwart inderdaad.)

Wraaaaagh!

We rampeneren op die beat!

En toen was het weer tijd om naar huis te gaan.

En om half vijf waren we thuis.

Weeeltrustene.

* I did a cover for Grote Prijs-winners Silence Is Sexy! Their new single 'This Is Our Start' will be out soon, and the b-side contains my cover of the song. Listen to the songs on the SIS website and here on MySpace! www.myspace.com/impossible

* Go pick up the new FRET Magazine (it's free!), there's a nice interview wiht me, plus a huge photo that has my unrecognizable face in it. www.popinstituut.nl

* The Ongekend Talent contest winners are:

Cd shirt:
Margretha Smit
Rimca Buijs
Cd:
Michael Meijer
Femke van Veen
Juliette van Kampen

* The 3voor12 winners are:
Cd's shirt:
Mieke Bruggeman
Charissa van der Vlies
Cd:Lisanne Janssen
Esteban Serrano Salgueiro
Eelke Feenstra