Fee & Rick 'Demo session', suinday September 18th 2015.

Fee & Rick (Gouda, Reeuwijk), In Session.
Recorded: Sunday September 18th 2015, ‘Gouwestad Radio Studio 2.
Tracks: Valerie (Tk 1)/Sweet Goodbyes (Tk 1-3)/The Queen Of ??? (Tk 1)/Rick’s Song (Tk 1).

Note: got a phonecall from Fee out of the blue, asking me if I wanted to record some demo tracks with her. Took a few weeks to settle a date, before she, guitarist Rick and I, went into the studio. They were a bit nervous and, unsurprisingly, a bit shy. Opening track Valerie was done in just one take, while Sweet Goodbyes took three complete attempts. Next song crashed halfway, after which Fee got Rick to play one of his own tunes. Which I liked so much, that we recorded an impromptu version of it. Talented kids, I can tell you!

Lame Art 'In Session', Thursday November 3rd 2000.

Lame Art (Gouda, Waddinxveen), 4 track recorded.
November 3rd 2000t, ‘Plug Unit’, Reeuwijk.
Tracks: Got A Ticket To Ride?/Slow Dancing/Opened Or Closed/Your Song

Note: Being hugely inspired by Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’ and singer Michiel going to Art School, the band evolved throughout the year and was ready to make another EP. This session was used as pre-production and finetuning. Some tracks appeared on a promo CDR, called ‘4 Tracks’, used for getting gigs.

Zanggroep Nieuwe Gouwe 'In Session', Monday November 21st 2011.

Zanggroep Nieuwe Gouwe (Gouda), In Session.
Recorded: November 21st 2011, ‘rehearsal hall.
Tracks: Paint It Black (TK 1-2)/ I Will Follow Him (TK 1-2)/Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These) (TK 1-3)/Gabriëlla (TK 1-2)/The Lion Sleeps Tonight (TK 1-5)

. My first ever recording of a vocal group. As this choir prefers to be named a vocal group, I decided to record them in a less conventional way, I was having in my head for years. Instead of using two overall mikes, I put 4 mikes directly in front of pairs of choir members, recording their voices more direct. This made a far more direct sound, with sharper stereo panning possible, increasing the overall impact hugely. A great sound. Several versions of songs were recorded, deeming the last versions to be the best. ‘Gabriëlla’ however didn’t work, as both the guitar was too prominent in take 1 (Becoming out of reach of the mikes in Take 2, when the guitarist moved to the back of the rehearsal space) and some essential voices were not present, to complete the sound. ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ crashed, as there were some problems with keeping the rhythm tight.
The rehearsal room was a huge hall in the industrial area, with a big spinning fan on the ceiling as climate control. As it buzzed throughout the recording, I asked wether it could be switched off. Thev attempt didn’t work, as the fan kept spinning and buzzing and at the same time cooled down the hall. As it was a rainy November night, everybode wore coats near the end of the session.

Jack - Demo (Unreleased, 1998)

Jack – Demo.
Recorded: September 28th 1998, ‘Popcollectief Gouda’, Gouda.
Unreleased.
Tracks: Heute Wie Morgen/House Of The Rising Sun/Casper/Cocaine/Dameland (Bayern), Watch The Children Play
Note: German streetsinger, roaming through Gouda center and already going down. Dragged into the studio by his then girlfriend and a radiotechnician from local radio, I was asked to record his demo. During a slightly chaotic session, in which he got slightly pressed to perform, these and more tracks were laid down. The demo never made it and after years of absence Jack returned to Gouda few years back, but got a bit too much troubles, while having deteriorated badly. Since 5 years, he’s vanished again to God knows where.

Anna, Lisa & Anna – Demo (2010)

Recorded: April 1st 2010, ‘Gouwestad Radio’ Studio 2, Gouda.
Unreleased.
Tracks: Say, Say, Say/Images/Summertime
Note: Three girls from High School, coming to my attention, as the father of one of the Anna’s is a collegue of mine. Live-takes during a slightly unrelaxed session. Which started with a major disturbance in the studio, concerning signal dropouts. Finally sort of solved by kicking the splitterbox causing the problem, after which the session took off. 13 takes were recorded, of which takes 7, 8 and 10 were deemed ‘good’. The rest got erased, as it was useless to keep them.

Lame Art - Acoustic Demo (1999)

Recorded: 23 oktober 1999. ‘Mos & Spetter’ Pianoshop, Waddinxveen.
Track: Landscape Underneath.

Note: 4-track recorded in 3 separate takes, to be used as a promo on local radio for their acoustic set later that year. And to convince the programmers of that live-show to put them on. Also used as pre-production for 2001 ‘Spanks Man’ demo. Features Michiel on vocal and piano, Mathias on guitar and vocal, Rinske on violin and Gijs on Djembe and guitar. All acoustic!

Lame Art - Unreleased Demo (2000).

Recorded: January 7th & 28th 2000. Casimir Primary School, Gouda, by Ton Dekker & myself.
Mix: 13 & 28 january 2000.
Tracks: After The Bomb/Disfiction/True Love Regardless/Catch The Sun/Las Vegas/Duco’s Waking Nights/My Sister Dead In The Sea.

Note: The songs were recorded live on 8-track Minidisc recorder, with vocals overdubbed. The first mixes were rejected, as the vocals were mixed too loud. The second mix, with a vocal-overdub by Michiel, was better balanced, but rejected later as it didn’t capture the atmosphere. A second version of ‘My Sister’ was never mixed, as it broke down.

Lame Art - '4-Tracks' (Demo, 2001).

Note: with new material written, but no recordings available, the band asked me to make 4 track recordings in their rehearsal room. The first session was rejected, so a second one was done a month later. Several CD’s were burnt and send to stages and organisations, while the band used them to prepare for proper studio recordings.

Recorded: November 3rd 2000. ‘Plug Unit’, Reeuwijk.
Tracks: Got A Ticket To Ride?/Rush (As She Walked Through The Door)/Opened Or Closed/Your Song.

Note: Recorded on 4-track: first the backing-track and then, separately, the vocals. This first session was rejected and used to improve songs and performance. An additional session was recorded December 6th.

Recorded: december 6th 2000. ‘Plug Unit’, Reeuwijk.
Tracks: Got A Ticket To Ride?/Rush (As She Walked Through The Door)/Your Song/Plans.

Note: Recorded on 4-track: first the backing-track and then, separately, the vocals. This session was done after the band decided to reject the results of a session done November 13th 2000. The tracks from this session were used as a promo to get some gigs and as pre-production for the ‘Spanks Man’ demo. Stubborn as the band was, they used a cassette-copy of these recordings to burn the promo-CD’s, rather than taking them off the digital master directly!

Angel of the Underground - Unreleased Demo (1998).

Recorded: January 26th 1998, ‘Popcollectief’ Gouda.
Unreleased.
Tracks: A Whole Lot More/Phonecall Song (A.k.a. Stormy Weather)/Happy Housewife Heroine/Riot Grrrl/Riot Amps

Note: quite relaxed session, which started by cleaning the separating window between the studio and the control room. Which took a while! ‘Stormy Weather’ was called ‘Phonecall Song’ at that time, as I managed to fuck up the vocal sound of that song during test-sessions taped October 10th 1997. During that same session ‘Riot Amps’ came to light during a jam. It was used as a showstopper for a short while. Right after this session singer Ilse was struck by Pfeiffer, giving her enough time to play the recordings and realise, the tracks needed more work. So these recordings were vaulted. Out-takes do exist, but info is currently not available.

Lame Art - 'Lame Art' (Demo, 1998)

Recorded: June 24th 1998. ‘Popcollectief’ Gouda.
Released: Oktober 21st 1998.
Copies: 100 Cassettes, 10 CD’s*.
Tracks:Oblivion/Duco’s Waking Nights/The Only Ones That Try/Released/My Sister, Dead In The Sea/Buildings On Ashes.
Extra tracks CD:Parasites/Vicious/At The Forest/The Far Indies/Vicious (Ragga Man!)/Skindeep/Parasites (Live)/Buildings On Ashes (Live)/Released (Live)/Oblivion (Live)/Vicious (Live)/Crystal Clear*/Mindwar*.

Note: The demotracks were recorded live, to catch the right vibe. From several takes, the best ones were picked for the demo. The other session-tracks on the take are ‘one-takers’: to record the song for themselves. All tracks were recorded live through a mixer, during a killing, 8 hour session, on which I got worse and worse from flu, while singer Michiel drank some kind of witch-brew, to keep his sore throath under control. The live-tracks were recorded at ‘LVC’ Leiden, June 6th 1998 by ‘Popunie’, while the last two tracks come from a rehearsal-recording, made at their school October 10th 1997.

Session-info: Oblivion (Takes 1 (Breakdown) &2)/Duco’s Waking Nights (Takes 1-3/Only Ones That Try/Released (Takes 1-3)/My Sister Dead In The Sea (Takes 1-3)/Buildings On Ashes (Takes 1-3, last Breakdown)/ Parasites/Vicious/At The Forest/The Far Indies/Vicious (Ragga Man!)/Skindeep (Take 1 (Breakdown) & 2).

Annual Women Conference - Unreleased Demo (1998)

Recorded: June 5th 1998, ‘Popcollectief’ Gouda.
Unreleased.
Tracks:Vanity/Havana/Reefer/Teen Nation.

Note: Recorded live onto Minidisc, using a very old mixing desk during an 8 hour session, of which only two hours were used. The band took lengthy breaks in parts for lunch and spent much time talking. Initial idea was to put backing vocals over ‘Havana’ (by Ilse of ‘Angel of the Underground’), by feeding the track back to the mixing desk, using a portable minidisc-player.. After recording, it was discovered, there was no way we could get the sound of the portable minidisc player back into the mixing desk, so the backing vocals were abandonned. Internal tensions caused the band to split, leaving this demo unreleased.

Session-info: Vanity (Instr)/Vanity (Takes 1-3)/Reefer (Instr)/Reefer (Takes 1-3)/Havana (Instr)/Havana (Takes 1-3)/Teen Nation (Takes 1-5).

Angel of the Underground - Pre-Production Demo (1998)

Recorded: October 13th 1998, ‘Plug Unit’ Reeuwijk.
Not released.
Tracks: Miss Understood/Sister, Sister/Happy Housewife Heroine/The 2Of U/The Muse.

Note: recorded to serve as pre-production demos for their proper demosession at ‘Excess Studios’ in Rotterdam on November 14th/15th 1998. Recorded live on cassette, using a Marantz recorder and two mikes. A copy was send to ‘Spijkers Met Koppen’ on 3FM, in an attempt to surprise the bassplayer on her birthday. This never happened.

Co-9 - Back Against The Wall (Demo, 1999).

Recorded: October 17th 1998, ‘Popcollectief’ Gouda.
Released: December 1998.
Copies: 200 tapes (Approx).
Tracks: Intro/Back Against The Wall/Disagree/It’s On Yourself/Did It To Me/Axept The Difference/Lies.

Note: recorded live onto minidisc. Initial idea was to use a splitter at the guitar and feed the sound through two different amplifiers, which, miked separately, created a bigger sound than using one guitar only. After setting the switches, a loud crackle came from the sperakers. This was the sound of the very old mixing desk breaking down, resulting in perfect mono to come from it since. As everything was set to go, the band proceeded with the session, of which no further out-takes have been saved.

Angel of the Underground – Angel of the Underground' (Demo, 1998)

Recorded November 14th & 15th 1998, ‘Excess Studios’ Rotterdam, by Dennis Leidelmeijer.
Released; December 23rd 1998.
Copies: 250 tapes.
Tracks: The 2 Of U/The Muse/Miss Understood/A Whole Lot More/Sister, Sister.

Note: recorded and mixed in two days by Dennis Leidelmeijer, Hans Pieters, the band and myself. First experiences in a professional 24 track studio. ‘Sister, Sister’ basic track was recorded, but as it needed more work than the rest of the tracks, was left unused. Afterwards the multitrack got re-used, wiping the track without being mixed.

Session-info: The 2 Of U/The Muse/Miss Understood/A Whole Lot More/Sister, Sister.

Rinske van Popta - School Audition Demo (1999)

Note: ’Lame Art’ bassplayer and singer Rinske wanted to enter a school in Hilversum, which trained people in the fields of Music, Production and Management. To get there, she needed a demo and asked me to help her making one. I agreed and we set to work between December 14th 1998 – January 11th 1999. We recorded at the radio studio, my place and her bedroom, to produce three different tracks: a studio, a sampled and an improvised one. After these sessions a live recording of ‘Smart’, a band she doubled with, was added to the demo and send in. She made it and started her education september 1999, dropping out 10 months later, as she got fed up with 4 months of producing Sinusses on a computer.

Recorded: December 14th 1998, ‘Gouwestad Radio’ Studio 1, Gouda.
Track: Catch The Sun (Acoustic).
Note: after recording the basics of the song on a reel taperecorder, this was fed through the mixing desk again, with Rinske adding a second guitarline. This was recorded onto minidisc. The undubbed version has survived as well.

Recorded: December 16th 1998 – January 8th 1999, Leo’s appartment, Gouda.
Track: Silly Mix.
Note: a simple, but effective cut’n’paste piece of work, adding various samples and rhythms to a full track. Masterminded by Rinske and engineered and produced by Leo. It wasn’t great, but enough to convince the teachers.


recorded: January 11h 1999, Home recording, Gouda.
Track: Jembé Jam.
Note: recorded live in her bedroom, with help from her friend Lenneke on Djembé. Initial idea, using flutes, was abandonned as they couldn’t stop laughing. Two takes were taped, after which a big crack was discovered in the ceiling of the livingroom.

Elysium - 'Error To Emptiness' (Demo, 2000)

Recorded: November 2nd 1999.
Released: Januari 1st 2000.
Copies: unknown amount of self produced CD’s.
Tracks: Atlantis/Sniper/Silence/Unrevealed/Stranger’s End/A Thousand ShaRves (47368).

Note: struck by the demo I recorded with ‘Lame Art’ the previous year, ‘Elysium’ was very eager to record with me. The demo was recorded live onto minidisc. As the mixing desk was mono after internal breakdowns, I found the subchannels still intact. I made the mix using these subchannels and connecting their outputs through a 4 track Tascam recorder for the stereo mix, which was then fed to a minidisc recorder. The session was intense and withdrawn at the same time. Various out-takes were recorded, but none of them ended up in my archive, unfortunately.