BIOGRAPHY
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"...and the tumblers are drained and then flooded, again and again..." (The Postal Service, ‘This place is a prison.‘)
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I was born in the beautiful month of March,
3 days after the beginning of spring in the year David Bowie released The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
By the time The Clash released London Calling, my father started to teach me music on his Wersi organ.
A year later, at about the time Joy Division's Closer was released,
I started going to music school and in my second year of music school started to study the clarinette.
I also started to play in the local drum band and after a while also started playing clarinette in the local brass band.
Since there’s no woodwind in a brass band, I had to switch over to Alto saxophone.
In the meantime, I also started studying percussion in music school (not only drums, but also timpani, vibraphone, xylophone, etc. ...).
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Although I didn't start playing the guitar until recently, I recall I was interested in buying one at around the time The Pixies released Surfer Rosa.
So my uncle took me to a guitar builder who was a friend of his. When we arrived there, him and his mates were just in the middle of a rehearsal with their band.
Their drummer wasn't able to make the rehearsal and my uncle told them I could play the drums. So they asked me to grab the sticks and join them.
I didn't know the song (it turned out to be The Who's My generation) but it went quite well.
A couple of weeks later some guy who was sitting in on the rehearsal called me asking if I wasn't interested in drumming in his cover band.
At that age, everyone wants to play in a rock band (rather than in a brass band), so I agreed. That was my very first band ever.
After that, I played in a couple more cover bands (usually with some members of the former bands), until a local singer/songwriter approached me.
For the first time (and as it turned out later, the last time), I was able to play my own parts on our own songs.
The band never released anything, although we did record a couple of demos.
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The year Jeff Buckley released Grace, we participated in a nationwide (though I must add, Belgium is just a small country) rock contest (HUMO's Rock Rally).
In the past, this contest had provided some of Belgian's finest bands, and to our surprise, we made it into the finals (we didn't win though).
A couple of months later, the band split up. I tried to play in a couple of other bands afterwards, but the chemistry just wasn't there.
My involvement in music hit an alltime low after that. I already had stopped my musical education, quit the drum and brassband and sold my drums.
I started working and soon didn't have time anymore to even think about playing music.
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After a breakdown and a long period of entering and leaving mental hospitals, I rediscovered my passion for music and started playing with software on my computer.
By that time, my father had died from lung cancer (smoking's not good for you kids!) and I inherited a modest sound installation and a Korg i3 keyboard (which I still own and use).
So I started of with the tools I had and made my own music. I found a new job that paid well, so I started buying more gear, more instruments
(I bought me an electric and an acoustic guitar, a bass guitar, a Casio VL-tone toy synth, some percussion instruments, a cheap drum set, a Melodica and a new clarinette) and better software (Cubase 4).
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Which leads me to the current date.
The songs you can hear on my site, are the result of all facts I mentioned above.
I took me a while to be confident enough to share this with the world, so I hope you'll like it.
Enjoy,
Tumbler.
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