I learned about music because I was curious about where certain sounds came from, about similarities and differences in musical structures. I am still learning today!
My mother tells me that I was ‘experimenting’ with making sounds and focussing on Sonics from a very early age. My early musical understanding was formed foremost by the musical surroundings that I grew up with, the music that was played at home, soul, classical, pop, rock and jazz.
I also remember being intrigued by concerts, both in special concert halls and bands playing in open air pop festivals, my parents brought me along to pop festivals.
When I was seven, my parents took me to the local music school and I chose to learn the violin. One thing I remember from that time is that when a piece was played by the teacher I more or less played it back from memory. I also remember secretly humming improvised counterpoint during school choir rehearsals.
After some time I began to outgrow the violin. I did however keep an interest in music; and I started to research where sound comes from. I listened to a lot of music, trying to find out how it worked, and as there was no Internet I went to the library to conduct my research.
A family friend was a music producer, I can remember being really excited when I was in his studio for the first time, where I played my first Dx7. In the meantime I was also influenced by one of my friends, Martijn ten Velden, who was the Dj and beat-creator of my other local rap friends the ‘Mad scientists’ Michael ‘Shyrock’ Parkinson (nowadays aka MaikalX) and other guys like Kid crash (aka Niconutt) Brother RCazmo and Rockattack Ten.
Martijn had a sampler, which was very impressive. You could play little recordings back making our own new collage of music. So of course I wanted one, but my parents instead bought me a workstation, plus they wanted me to get piano and theory lessons. Since I was not doing very well at school (I was in the clubs from about age 15, this is how I met DJ Zki from Chocolat Puma he was a club DJ of our local clubs Stalker and Dwiezels in Haarlem), I signed up for those lessons. This is how I met my piano and theory teacher Tony Nahar. He was an experienced jazz drummer that later became a piano teacher and arranger.
After some time at the music school Tony invited me to take private lessons at his home. I learned a lot from him and after two years he asked me if I would be interested in applying for admission exams on a conservatory. Since I didn’t have much of an idea what to do with my life, I was glad he thought I was capable of doing that.
By this point I had, finally, bought a sampler (Akai S950). So I was learning about sampling and at the same time about the basics of music a lot. I was hanging out with friends like Rockattack Ten (The lead singer from the legendary dutch funk group ‘Gotcha!’ that was adopted in the George Clinton family movement) and Shyrock (aka Rollarock aka MaikalX) and Brother RCazmo. The project was called Poodlenaked. Together we made our first record, it was called ‘Old skool HipHop makes the new school Hiphop’. This can still be listened to on http://www.playmeloud.com/?grpid=77. I also met irepeat and Big boy caprice and Senna in those days (some of whom have later contributed to Randomatik tracks) and I also made some music with Pooperman from Gotcha!
I formed a live Hip-Hop band with Marc Sokpoli, Tnuz and Phil Philippi, called GUTT. Vocals were by Michael ‘Rollarock’ Parkinson, Murth the Manuscript and Llewy is Sel. In an effort to get the sound right, I bought a lot of vintage keyboards; rhodes, hammond and some analog synths, I also used the sampler when we played live. We won the 1996 Dutch Grand Prize for the Hip-Hop category and also did some international touring with Swedish rapper Absent Minded.
At some point we split up, since all the members had their own thing going on. I wanted to pay attention my study as I had been admitted to the Institute for Sonology. Whilst I was checking for conservatories during was preparation for the piano admission exams I discovered the Institute and this was far more interesting to me than studying piano. So I learned about analog synthesis, electronic music history, music sociology and aesthetics, computer programming, creative DSP and most importantly electronic tape composition and electronic live performance. I had very inspiring teachers like Kees Tazelaar, Paul Berg, Konrad Boehmer, Richard Barrett, Clarence Barlow, Joel Ryan and Jan Boerman. In this environment I learned about modern music structure thinking in the best possible way. Some of my later pieces were rewarded and assigned by the Dutch fund for creating tone art.
I took extra lessons in history, theory, analysis and counterpoint at the Jazz and Classical departments of the conservatory. At the same time some of the remaining members of GUTT, including me, were asked to play as a backing band for POSTMEN, a very successful Dutch Hip-Hop/Reggae act at the time. I also started doing my first co-production work for Stephen Emmer and other Dutch artists.
Being into Hip-Hop, Funk and Pop, I always felt some connection to House music as well, although I was quite late coming to that scene. I did some experiments with friends like Georgio Schultz and Dave Hemingway in the early days making tunes, really getting into it when I heard Mongoloid sounds like Armand van Helden and Daft punk. I started to experiment with demos in the same direction with ‘best kept secret’ DJ Precise. These demos got me a deal with EMI publishing.
I also did experiments with Wouter Snoei, one of my classmates at Sonology. EMI sent us to a label called Combined Forces where I met Denis Doeland, who was A&R for the label and asked him if he could give me some tips for getting around in the electronic dance music field. I also remember a guy coming in and reacting very enthusiastically to my demo, this was Dan Sanders but I only got to know him a couple of years later. Denis and I later began to develop my ideas. He told me about different things in the business and invited me out with his friends who threw parties like Mysteryland and Sensation.
Dj Zki was already a big producer with his partner Dobre (they now work under the name Chocolate Puma) and they made a huge number of records and world-wide club hits. I knew Zki from back in the club days and asked if I could come and play my demo at their studio. They advised me to work on it some more and that I should talk to Laidback Luke. I met him at Mysteryland and shared his knowledge, teaching me about his production style , and i taught him about certain electronic composition procedures.
At the same time, I met Maarten Bousie, he was running the label of House music superstar Sander Kleinenberg and they really liked my demo. After some time Maarten and I developed the movement we now call Randomatik. My first solo record was then released on an upcoming talent compilation by DJ Dave Seaman under the name Sonic Sorcery called ‘All that I’m wishing’ with help from Dobre and Jamez. I also did a Sonic sorcery remix for BartBMore’s ‘Hyped up’ and he would later remix a track for Randomatik in return (Comet BartBMore mix)
I was also working more and more for Stephen Emmer, a very interesting and successful media and art composer who has his roots in the early British New Wave movement. I assisted in the Recitement Project and with many other works.
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