Last 13 months of work

So much stuff has happened over the last 13 months. Here's the short version:

• Mixed an album for De Geweldigheid. Some crazy shit!! :)
• We released a second Lorrainville album. Remember that special project? We won an Edison award earlier.
• Mixed an album for Dennis Kolen. In my eyes Dennis is one of the best songwriters of The Netherlands. Check out this instant classic:

 

• Mixed an EP for Diff. Nice Americana, with a powerfull vocal.
• Recorded + mixed a special demo for Anneke van Giersbergen together with Iceland band Árstíðir. They perform a broad selection of momentous classical and modern works, re-conceived and re-imagined within the Árstíðir/Anneke sound-universe.
• Mixed and mastered an EP for Magnavox Radio. With nice indie-rock-wave tunes.
• Mixed a single for 3J's. They went to LA to shoot the video.
• Mixed the new Bökkers album. This is the 3rd album I mix for these guys. They are very productive having 4 songwriters in the band. Again some great rock tracks!
• Recorded drums for Fokko; these were the first recordings I made at the new GieSound studio.
• Mixed a double-cd / triple-vinyl live box for The Gathering. Last year they celebrated their 25th anniversary with 2 special concerts where all members (past and present) participated. We recorded these shows and mixed them at GieSound for this very special release.
• Mixed an EP for brand new band The Royal Engineers. Unique band with 4 leadsingers!
• Mixed an album for Ulysses. If you are into progressive rock with some metal influences, you should really check out their album #eMotion
• Mixed a Bökkers live TV-concert at RTV Oost. Watch the whole show here: part1 / part2
• Mixed the new Fokko EP
• Recorded, mixed and produced the brand new Nemesea album. We went for a new bandsound; less metal, more rock and more catchy songs.
• Started the album production for The Road Home. We recorded 90% of the album right now, so the album will be mixed pretty soon. Expect some great & catchy rock songs. If you like Gaslight Anthem, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Alkaline Trio you will surely love The Road Home.
• Recorded, mixed and mastered a new demo for Paceshifters. High voltage rock & roll!!
• Started the album production for CC Grand. More news about this great americana album soon. (Calexico meets 16Horsepower meets John Mayer meets Ray LaMontagne)
• Mixed the 'theme song' for the 'Mannenharten 2' movie. It's a unique combination of 2 Dutch artists that you won't expect :)

 And besides all of that I also moved GieSound studio from Soest to Zwolle, wrote columns for Music Maker magazine (every month), gave workshops and I was an examiner at the Herman Brood Academie for the sound guys over there.

Cool Genius, Nou En, Jeremy's

Wow I've had some crazy weeks of hard labour. After our vacation to Thailand (I might post some pics later) I went straight back into my rollercoaster-life. I've been working my ass of, but it was very satisfying!

I just finished working on the debut album of a f@ckin' freakin' band with the illustrating name: Cool Genius. These crazy sons of bitches have been recording more songs than healthy. To make it even worse they thought that their crappy 16bit game-soundcards would be fine. ;-)
Do you get the picture? Crazy a$ hell if you ask me. And then these stupid morons asked me to retrack some vocals, guitars, basses, drums and other amazing shit for serious. And what makes things even worse; they thought it would be a good ID if I would try and mix their shit$ into hit$. (Or should I say hit€ ?). Wow, what have they been smokin' lately?

So that's basicly what we did for two weeks; recording and mixing some music created by cool geniuses. Anyone who likes acts like: Soulwax, Soul Coughin, dEUS, Gomez, Zita Swoon, Lenny Kravitz and Presidents of the USA should have a listen to their album once it's being released. Untill then; some songs we did can be found on their MySpace

Mothers get a hold on your daughters once Cool Genius is released! Don't say I did not warn you...

From their bio: Cool Genius signed up with Goomah Music, who will release the debut album "Maybe You Should Do That Too" on October 19 at Hedon Zwolle.
Their talent- status has been ratified by elections like ‘Talent of the Week’ and ‘3FM Serious Talent’, as well as ‘Demo of the Year’ of the Dutch Pop Institute. Their energetic liveshows have brought them to several stages like Melkweg Amsterdam, 013 Tilburg and Effenaar Eindhoven, with a highlight at the Liberation Festival in Amsterdam in May 2007. Cool Genius consist of Erik Neimeijer (vocals, guitar), Bauke Bakker (vocals, drums)and Sebastiaan van Olst (bas/contrabas, vocals). The band has been based on their mutual broad minds, creativity and skills, which enables them to elaborate on each other’s songs. With 3 strong vocalists and continuous delivering composers, you can call your band ‘Cool Genius’, without being arrogant or presumptuous. Being cool and ingenious, this is a very remarkable band in the Dutch scene. This band doesn’t match a major label with sales targets and restrictions.

boithuh!

Last time I told you about the fact that I started recording with Nou En again. Remember them? Those catchy punkrockers with a hit about a Gothic Girl ;-)
We have been working on some new songs. I already mixed two of the new songs, and one of them is gonna be the next single. It's a great-super-catchy-slick-rockin'-tune that won't let go. Damn this thing is catchy!

Before it can be released, a videoclip has to be made. So you all have to wait a little longer before you can hear it. Maybe it will be on their MySpace page soon. If that is the case, I will mention it on my site.

The Jeremy's story continues:

Their first single 'Saturday' is finally released. There's also a funny videoclip wich entered high-rotation on clip-station TMF. (Wich basicly means that they play it a lot!). Hollands biggest newspaper (De Telegraaf) also picked up on the hype and wrote: "World hit from Kampen". haha, finally some Dutch paper who's going for the (traditional) English hype-style ;-)
Almost to funny!

The clip has been viewed by almost 30.000 people on YouTube. Click here to see a 'making of' and the clip itself

Besides that, they signed with THE biggest booking agency in this country, and they are going to sign a record deal with a major record company! (And Vans and Converse will make sure they wear cool shoes and clothes).

Their tour-schedule is pretty full, so enough opportuniy's to check em out live.

...and the snowball is still rolling and growing ;-)
[I know I keep repeating myself with that last sentence, but it still aplies]

I also went to the studio to work (guerrilla-style) on an album with Jeremy's guitarist Fokko. He has a side-project with Dutch songs. (Well... I mean that he sings in Dutch... allright). Untill now the band was also called Fokko, but they are going to change that name to avoid confusion.
Like I said, it was guerrilla-style just like we did with the Jeremy's album.
That's going into the studio with a small group of people for a very quick recording session, and getting out before you even realise it. Same for the mixing: very quick in and out and the thing is ready and will hit you right in the face ;-)

As soon as Fokko has decided on the bandname, I will post a link to his MySpace page wich will feature some of that songs. I guarantee you!