Biography
My old man used to play Iron Maiden and other rock music in his car, I really liked every song with killer guitar riffs, solo's and powerful singers (like Dio and Bruce from Maiden).
When I was twelve I got the chance to play guitar with my uncle, but the amp wasn't grounded. I got some really nasty shocks and I vowed to never play guitar again. That was until I was 19 years old and I really wanted to play again. This was because I was a huge Children of Bodom fan and a fan of their insane neoclassical guitar riffs. I wanted to be able to make guitar riffs just like Iron Maiden and Children of Bodom, so I begged my uncle again to let me play his guitar and he gave me his guitar and amp as a gift.
I started learning Iron Maiden, but my dad and uncle told me I should start with the basics. I refused, because I wanted to play metal. He made a bet: "If you can play Aces High from Iron Maiden within a month, including the solo, I will give you a thousand euro's". Ofcourse I started learning "Aces High" right of the bat and I learned it pretty fast, including the guitar solo. My dad was astonished when I played it for him and told me that he would pay up when the time was right.
After a year he bought me a Dean ML Lightning (shockingly ironic huh?) and when I joined my first band a Marshall JCM 800. He kept his word. It was these days when I teamed up with Dennis Kromhout to express our love for Iron Maiden and decided to form Piece of Maiden. I started with Maiden and now I am bringing the joy of Maiden live.
I am proud of my achievements so far and of opinion that my musical career has only just begun with Piece of Maiden. These days I have mastered the hardest Yngwie Malmsteen songs and plan to make my own virtuoso music band (Fearwell). Fearwell is in its early babysteps.
My main project is:
- Fearwell (My own melodic, thrash/death metal project)
My side projects and contributions are:
- Hellbender (Thrash metal), couple of songs
- Wrecking Crew (Thrash metal)
My influences are:
Iron Maiden, Yngwie Malmsteen, Gary Moore, Children of Bodom, Kalmah, Death and Dimmu Borgir.
Guitarists always say: "Remember, less is more". -How can that be? How can less be more? More is more!
At the end of the 60’s my hopelessly in love hippie-parents decided to have a “quicky” in the dunes and by doing so created me in 1970 (Oh come on, it was the 70’s, pretty normal back then... peace n’ love, bro). I was a peculiar baby that would cry your head off if you turned off the radio. Apparently I was born with a music addiction, who knew?
As a kid I liked to record sounds all day on my tape recorder. Yep,I was a nerdy kid back in the day when being nerdy wasn't popular at all. I was for example the first one in my hometown with a home computer. Later on in life, I became a metalhead that liked to sing along with Iron Maiden-songs in my room; striking poses with a hairbrush in my hand. Yes, metal heads with long hear own hairbrushes don’t be so surprised!
I absolutely loved the powerful voice of Bruce Dickinson and I wanted to be able to do that as well. So later on, when a musician friend started a band and asked me if I would like to record one of their songs, I said yes. It was here where I met “Steve Harald”, it was our first band. At the time they had no vocalist, they had heard me singing and asked me if I would like to join them. So my musical journey began.
Several decades and bands later (Exposure, Picture, Montany and Magenta), we ended up full circle in the same band (Piece of Maiden) again. Ready to come and get you!
My Side Projects are:
- Tools ‘R’ Us, pop/rock (vocals, guitar, co composing and production).
- Alien One, progressive rock (production, composing, guitar, bass, keyboards, drum programming and vocals)
- Fearwell, melodic thrash/death metal (vocals and production) Boreas, powermetal (studio vocals)
My influences are: Iron Maiden, Queensryche, Def Tones, Kate Bush, Pink Floyd, Steven Wilson, Camel and much more! Too much to mention. If you want to listen to a couple of Alien One songs in progress, you can listen to them here.
Growing up with many metal and death metal-bands made my music taste pretty diverse. I’ve always known that I wanted to play an instrument and become part of a band like my dad did before me (he played guitar).
After starting drum lessons back in 2008 I started playing with every band I had the possibility with. It wasn’t always my preferred genre but I didn’t care, because it gave me a lot of experience. I played songs like "Sweet about me" by Gabriella Cilmi (yeah I know, it sucked).
In 2012 I got asked for an Iron Maiden tribute, it wasn’t as good as we are right now, but it showed me the best heavy metal band in the world. Strangely enough, I never listened to Iron Maiden. I only knew like two songs. It was only a matter of time until it became my favorite band.
In 2015 Jeremy and I started looking for a more mature Iron Maiden tribute band. We got "Steve" Harald (the closest bass player to Steve Harris himself) and Marvin Erades to team up with Michel Zandbergen and us to form Piece of Maiden.
My side projects are: Hellbender (Thrash Metal) and Fearwell (Melodic, thrash metal project).
My influences are:
Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Death, Gojira, Children of Bodom, Kalmah, Sepultura, Slayer, Lynyrd Skynyrd and man so many more.
"I don't drink anymore, I don't drink any less either"
There is no background info on Joeri yet! Come back soon.
I did not grow up with the awesome music that I play nowadays. My parents always listened to awful dutch music.
I was 15 years old when I learn to play classic rock songs on my guitar. At that moment I was afraid to try too difficult songs. Like Iron Maiden for example. I thought it was too damn hard! But I liked it so much, so I listened and learned.
Then I was asked to play in an Iron Maiden tribute band and I thought: "What the hell, let's do it." I learned the songs and after a while I realized I could actually pull it off. When Piece of Maiden was formed and Michel joined us after a long wait, it was the greatest musical experience of my life.
