Amsterdam - The End of The World - Einde van de Wereld

I have been playing several times on this lovely boat. The boat is called "Einde van de Wereld" and yes , it's somewhere at the end of the world... somewhere on the river (Het IJ)  in our lovely city Amsterdam.
You can eat there really good foot and... good music.

As I said, I have been playing there before, and this time I played  with Mario on bass and we played just one set, because there were also some other lovely songwriters playing that night. We did a good job together although Mario lost his head, hat I mean... it was too hot to wear a hat like that on stage :)))

Rei Satoshi is a great guitarplayer, she organized this guitarnight. She played her songs with Andries Zwart(guitar) and later on she played with  Marloes Klaasen. Marloes  is a lovely songwriter and she plays as a duo with Rei. They call themselves Cattitude.

Jim Marsdon, a very nice guy from Londen, living for many years in Amsterdam, got a great voice, and he played some covers with so much energy! Me and my friend Barbara sang with him (just as audience) and I had a great time. Of course I will tell you always how great and lovely and good my musical times are, but I am really serious about this one.

That is because I love the End of The World. This boat is a good restaurant. The people who work there are mostly volunteers and they are so relaxed, I can recommand everybody to come over.
Find out yourself!! Click here: Einde van de Wereld

Hope to meet you soon, I will come back there for sure!

Marloes en Axel

Rei en Marloes

Andries en Jim

Recording @Zozos

Last Friday-night I hardly didn't sleep so I was a little depressed when I woke up in the morning. I first thought I didn't have energy to make some recordings that night, and actually I wanted to cancel the whole thing,  but Mario was so excited and also Jannet wanted to come over so I decided to go and guess what,  I am so happy I didn't cancel!  I had a great night with my friends Mario and Jannet and Johann,the owner of the studio,  is such a nice, sweet and relaxing man! I really enjoyed being at Zozos!

I met Mario and Jannet at Central Station and we cycled to Studio Zozos, it was cold and rainy but at Zozos it was warm and cosy. Zozos is the studio of Johann Grunwald, a drummer and engineer. We asked him to record our music because he did last year when we played at Paleis Der Weemoed. I think he did a really good job that time,  so I asked him if he wanted to record us again and fortunallity he invited me to come over.

So last night we  played some of our music and recorded the music in just one track. Sometimes we had to start all over again because some trains passed by :))

We had a nice time together, very relaxing! We brought some red wine and played very concentrated our songs. The sound was very good while we were playing, in spite of the thundering trains...
So we played from 7 pm to 10 pm without taking a break and recorded 5 songs.
After that me and Jannet had fun by singing and playing with the turning chairs :)


Okay, I am singing competely out of tune on the turning chair, who cares anyway... but... I must say that I have learned already so much from Mathilde Santing her singing lessons. I have had only three lessons now and I had to think about her all the time when I was singing my song 'Those Words ' . I never sang that song so clear and in tune, I have no idea how I did it, but I was thinking about everything Mathilde told me to think about.

So, i came home a bit late but very satisfied and next week we will mix the recordings and i am gonna think about what kind of vid i will make.

Thank you Johann, Mario and Jannet! XXX

De Vorstin / Hilversum

Rocktempel De Vorstin in Hilversum heeft een heel mooi muziekcafé en daar worden maandelijks open mics gehouden. De open mics zijn er populair, de zaal zit meestal vol en de sfeer is erg goed.
Het is een heel mooi podium om te spelen, goed professioneel geluid. Er worden geluids- en filmreportages gemaakt van de optredens, dus zeer de moeite waard voor muzikanten om daar eens te komen spelen!

Het was het spannendste optreden ooit voor mij en bassist Mario. Waarom? Nou het eerste liedje liep nog wel, al had ik per ongeluk tijdens de soundcheck alle laag uit mijn gitaar gehaald ( er waren problemen met het gitaargeluid, en ik had na verwisselen van kabels mijn gitaar niet meer bijgesteld, en ik dus mijzelf niet zo goed kon horen via de monitoren omdat mijn gitaar nog te schel stond). In het filmpje hieronder kan je zien dat ik tussendoor heel snel probeer mn gitaar bij te stellen - maar, hoe dan ook, het eerste liedje verliep redelijk, maar het tweede liedje... ging perfect totdat we aangekomen waren bij de laatste vier maten. De LAATSTE vier maten, zeg ik je.... geen idee wat er gebeurde, maar ik sloeg gewoon een verkeerd akkoord aan, compleet out of de toonladder en dus wat doen je dan? Juist, het complete NU ervaren... Dus je helemaal suf improviseren totdat je de boel weer op de rails gezet hebt.... ik riep tussendoor naar Mario: laten we Blue Sky gaan spelen! Okay, knikte Mario en we gingen over naar E groot ... toen dacht ik: Maar ik wil helemaal niet dat liedje nu spelen... We moeten terug naar A mineur.... hoe dan ook, we eindigden precies gelijk en natuurlijk dacht ik dat ik totaal de boel verziekt had .... tot ik hoorde dat dus gewoon niemand het gemerkt had... pffff.... we hebben er wel om gelachen later, en ja... volgende keer dus net zoals deze keer gewoon stug doorgaan en net doen alsof het er allemaal bij hoort....
Het was een hele leuke middag, het was een gevarieerd programma. Mijn lieve collega Marloes heeft ook gespeeld met supergitariste Rei en al met al gingen we met een goed gevoel weer huiswaarts.
We komen snel terug! En wel zondag 27 maart! Nu alweer zin in!