London Calling, Beirut and more!

Did a great concert recording of Beirut for VPRO 3voor12 together with (engineer & friend) Hans Bunt. I think we managed to capture this unique band and it's very personal energy. It sure is not music everybody will enjoy, but i encourage you to check out some songs on their MySpace page. The band gave a thrilling performance and we were glad that we were pressing RECORD!

Also did some sessions with singer/songwriter Bertolf Lentink. You might remember Bertolf as the frontman of The Junes. Although I have to say 'former' since The Junes split up. Bertolf still plays a lot of instruments in Ilse De Lange her band (basicly everything with strings on it, except for snare). He also writes songs for others, but this time we went into the studio to record some stuff for himself.
You can check out the 3 songs we did on his MySpace page. The first 3 songs on his profile are from the session we did. Bertolf played all instruments himself, except drums. Bauke Bakker (of Cool Genius) came in with his drumkit and did a wonderfull job. (he also did a couple of nice backing vocals)

Some pics:

Wow, and let's not forget London Calling! The second edition of 2007, and this time spreaded over 3 days! So we had to record 27 bands in 3 days!!!! If that isn't inhumane?! Well it's a hell of a job in both the good and the bad way, I tell you that.

I am not gonna write about all acts, but I will tell you my favorites:

-Reverent and the Makers
-Dragons (the press will say they are not original and they are old. But it's a great liveband and they have good songs!)
-The Dykeenies (super tight live band with an original sound)
-Video Nasties
-The Displacements (a promise! They have to grow and become much tighter than they are at the moment, but they already have the songs and performance to become really big!)
-Blood Red Shoes (young reversed White Stripes duo. Super energy)
-The Runners

also good (but not as good as last time): The Wombats

BTW: the first reviews of the debut cd from Cool Genius (wich I mixed, and did some recordings on) are in. And they are ranging from great to outstanding!

London Calling, Danko Jones, The Strokes

Latest news (releases/recordings/sessions. Not everything, just some highlights).


 Together with engineer Frank Mathijssen and assistant Fanny Vermeer we worked two long days for 3voor12 with a lot of "English" bands at the LONDON CALLING festival. It was a tough job, because it were all "live-mixes" so no multitrack or anything: straight to tape. London Calling always gives you a good view on what's going to happen in the next year, because a lot of UK talent is featuring at this festival. In the past bands like Franz Ferdinand, Blur, Kaiser Chiefs, the Editors, Snow Patrol all played there BEFORE they made their big break-throug.
We recorded 17 bands (!!) ... here are my personal highlights:
• Bromhead Jacket: Punky popmusic with a great frontman. This guy jumped of stage, broke his guitar, got a cut on his forehead, was bleeding like hell and kept playing and singing like nothing happened. Great perforrmance!
• The Futureheads: think XTC, Wire and The Fall. But also a bit of Kaiser Chiefs. Good band, great musicians. But I don't hear a hit like "oh my god", so I don't expect them to reach the "Kaiser Chiefs-status" yet...
• The Cinematics: if you ask me (well you're not)... This was THE BEST BAND of the festival. These guys from Glasgow are tight, have some great songs and create their own atmosphere. All the summer-festivals should book this band. But... I am affraid that some media think they are not original enough... LINK
• Humanzi: Black leather jackets and rockin' guitars... that sums it up. A$$-kickin' performance. LINK
• The Kooks: Everybody had high expectations of this band from Brighton that mixes indie with reggae... and they didn't live up to that. I think that they spend to much time in the Amsterdam nightlife. The singer could not reach his normal level and the band was not tight enough. Still a talented band and I think they must be able to deliver a better gig than this one. LINK
• Mystery Jets: The expectations for this band were even higher. And they also could not deliver enough. Their set was a bit to chaotic to charm. Think The Killers meets Arcade Fire (or something like that). But who knows: maybe they will make their break on a festival like Lowlands this summer. LINK

Frank Mathijssen and I did a live recording of DANKO JONES for VPRO radio. It was probably the 5th (?) time that we recorded this Canadian powerrock group. Danko just made a new a$$-kickin' album that makes you drive harder when you play it in your car. The concert was in the Milkyway (Melkweg) in Amsterdam and Danko came, saw and won the crowd. ;-)


I teamed up with the Dutch "power-punk-pop" band NOU EN again to make a new special version of their hit. I am not allowed to tell you much about it, but it's gonne be fun!
Besides that I also mixed some live-tracks for them. Some of those tracks are gonne be on their new single "Galajurk". Please surf to www.myspace.com/nouen (here you can listen to 4 of their songs, all mixed by me. My personal favorite is the title-number of their debut-cd: "Parel voor de Zwijnen")


oh yeah.... Together with Paul Schoenmakers I did some live-recordings/mixes of THE STROKES. Awesome concert with good songs and a tight band.

That's all for now... see you later!




btw: WATCH OUT!! Brand new AUDIO-plugin:  The UNsuckPLUG ;-)

Coldplay & more!

Coldplay did a secret gig in Amsterdam and we've got to record it!!! Wow, this was big; the new album is not comming out till June, and the band is getting ready for a big stadium-tour. But first they are doing some promo, and someone got the briljant idea to do a special secret concert in the Milkyway in Amsterdam. I am just out of the studio
where I spent some time on mixing the gig. I mixed some live-tracks
for Coldplay before (check my discography) and I was proud to be asked again. They played a lot of new material but, since it's not released yet, the live-recordings have to stay on the shelf for some time... (BNN is gonna broadcast 9 songs of the show on the 3rd of June on Dutch TV). I just have to tell you it's gonna be a great album (well worth the waiting), and I am sure it's gonne be huge cause they have managed to write some magnificent songs once again.

London Calling festival is a two-day festival in Paradiso Amsterdam featuring British bands (or bands that are English-sounding). It gives a nice impression of where the British stand nowadays. We recorded a lot of bands, so I am just gonne mention some highlights: Kaiser Chiefs, Thirteen Senses, Eastern Lane, New Rhodes, Nine Black Alps. (CLICK HERE for the online magazine 3voor12 about London Calling)

Rufus Wainwright (yes, he's the son of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle). He's not your everyday singer-songwriter; or as Rolling Stone magazine wrote: Filled with operatic vocals, symphonic 
arrangements, iconoclastic religiosity and Latin (the dead language, not Ricky Martin's bloodline), Want Two is unlikely to steal away any Jessica Simpson fans. Instead, Wainwright's fanciful songs about love
 and faith place him in the rarefied company of Bjork and Brian Wilson, whose audacious Med?lla and SMiLE his album most resembles. Well I could not have said it any better way myself ;-) We have recorded a live-gig he did with his band at Paradiso, Amsterdam. Rufus stunned the place with a show that extended over two hours!

Roadburn festival is a stonerrock event with bands from all over the world. We had to "do" the Space-rock-stage. My personal highlight was Brant Bjork & the Bros. ; talkin'about groove! With a warm and fat (almost HendriX-like) Fender-guitar-tone!

Is it HipHop, is it Urban??? Who cares?! Roots Manuva is not a rapper with a backing track, but a great frontman with an excellent band. They were in Paradiso to prove it, and luckily we were alowed to put this show on tape. Thumbs up!

The Arcade Fire did a show in Amsterdam and we've recorded them for the VPRO. This is not your everyday rockband but a special band with a very unique sound. David Byrne and David Bowie are big fans, so that should give you a clue!


Saybia was back in Holland, and it was probably the best concert we've recorded of them so far. The audience at Pinkpop (2 years ago?!) was way bigger and more enthousiastic, but the band played much better this time. So a great concert with some beautiful highlights and they even played three new (and unreleased) songs.


Man, I've got to tell you about an album-mix I did. I am talking about the Dutch "power-punk-pop" band NOU EN... (When I translate that in English you will get something like "So What".) The lyrics are in Dutch, so you won't see this release anywhere else in the world, but their music is pretty international: think Blink 182 meets Jimmy Eat World meets Weezer. So loud rockin' guitars and catchy popmelodies.

I had a lot of fun mixing the album, since the band really knows how to put together a good song, and they are also a nice bunch of guys to hang out with (and that's an understatement). I think the mixes
turned out real fine, and I have to admit that I'm really proud of them.


The album (title: Parel voor de Zwijnen / "Pearl for the pigs"
;-) lol) is just released. Right now the band (together with their
label IQ Music) is working on a videoclip for the first single: Gothic Meisje (Gothic Girl). The song is already a cult-hit; let's see how it's gonne perform in the charts once it's released.

CLICK HERE to check out some of their songs.

Counting Crows, Muse, etc.

Latest news (releases/recordings/sessions):

Counting Crows. The new Counting Crows single Holiday in Spain (together with Blof) is gonne be released in 3 special editions. Each version will contain 3 live-tracks that Frank Mathijssen and I recorded & mixed live at the Counting Crows concert in Ahoy Rotterdam, earlier this year.

Intwine (recorded & mixed for PURE @ The Box is now released on DVD + bonusCD!!)

MUSE... is gonne release a 3 versions of the Absolution CD-single. Two of those singles will contain live-recordings wich me and Hans Bunt mixed last year. (Maybe some recordings from the forthcoming Pinkpop festival will also appear in that Muse-box. I'll let U know.)

N*E*R*D (livemix for VPRO radio)

Frederique Spigt & Mindy Brown (21 songs recorded @ a theater in Rotterdam. Mixed @ my homestudio. It's just being released on DVD! Check out www.idolmedia.com & http://www.ruebarree.nu for more info about this special project.)

JET (livemix for KRO radio)

AIR (livemix for VPRO radio)

Belle & Sebastian (livemix for VPRO radio)

FRET Festival (livemixes for radio3FM of 8 bands. Among them Daryll-Ann + This Beautiful Mess.)

London Calling Festival (livemixes for VPRO radio of 9 bands. Among them The Stands + The Veils.)

Lost Prophets (livemix for VPRO radio)

Greendive (I'm co-producing their album, and I also mixed/produced two songs.)

I record & mix special live performances for Dutch music-TV station THE BOX. They have a program called: PURE, wich is a mixture between MTV's "Unplugged" and VH1's "StoryTellers". PURE is created and produced by a little company called IISYOU MUSIC.

We have done shows with Krezip, Beef, Brainpower, Intwine, Relax, Di-Rect, Raymzter, Jim....) Some of these shows end up being released on DVD.

CLICK HERE to view my Discography

[to be continued]