Year Of Birth : 

• 1960

For How Long Have You been Making Music: 

• As a child my parents decided to teach me the piano. An old lady taught me to play classical music which was quite boring at the time. Looking back, I know it was quite useful although sometimes a classical musical training is very contra-productive when it comes to improvising.

Activities before Flamborough Head :  

• In my twenties I joined a rock-coverband called Miss Marple as their keyboardplayer. Miss Marple included (a.o) Margriet Boomsma, at that time my girlfriend, and Menno Boomsma on drums. Nowadays Menno plays the drums in the Dutch progband Odyssice. In 2003 Menno, Eddie Mulder and I released the album Tortoise on Cyclops. After Miss Marple I worked together with a guy who owned a small studio, although I have to admit the output of this cooperation was very limited. In the early nineties I decided to start my own progressive rock band and from this Flamborough Head evolved.

Musical Influences:

• As a keyboard player my main influences are Tony Banks from Genesis and John Tout from Renaissance. Both keyboard players are very capable but are never showing off. They try to serve a composition in the best way and if this means a modest approach,  that’s what they’ll  do. For me it’s also important that a keyboard player is  capable of playing the piano. Both Banks and Tout are excellent piano players and are a joy to listen to. Besides progmusic my main influence is classical music.

Favourite Instrument :

• My favorite instruments are the acoustic piano, the mellotron, the minimoog, pipe-organ and Hammond-organ (+leslie). (Un)fortunately I do not own a mellotron and minimoog so I am condemned to use samples to replace these instruments. In Flamborough Head I use a Hammond XB-1.  

Favourite albums :

• - Camel - Snow Goose

• - Yes - Close To The Edge

• - Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick

• - Gentle Giant - Octopus

• - Renaissance - Live At Carnegie Hall

• - Genesis - Selling England By The Pound

• - Greenslade - Bedside Manners Are Extra

• - King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

• - Caravan - In The Land Of Grey And Pink

• - England - Garden Shed

• It is very difficult to limit my choice to 10 favourite albums. Now I am forced to skip Finch, Focus, Druid, PFM, Alquin, Kayak, Gryphon, Refugee, Super-Sister and Van Der Graaf Generator and many other albums,  which is a pity because all these bands made marvelous albums.

Picture: Serge Llorente