Music seriously hit me when I was six, but it took a couple of years in biker scenes and being all about motorcycles before I realized it was time to pay my musical dues and pick up some strings, preferably the heaviest available!
I buried myself with my bass guitar in Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, The Sweet and many more… soaking up every note and chunk of music, week after week… Teaching myself how to play, learning and listening what these greats had to say.
Halfway the eighties I hit the stage with the metal bands Wolverine, Angus (promoting their album “Warrior of the World”) and Defender (one of the top Dutch metal bands at the time).
And there was Jewel… for a lot of metal heads the unparalleled ultimate in technique and fun! For me, they were my friends and I was their happy taxi driver in between my duties for Defender.
When I finally joined Jewel in 1990, we did the album “The Revolution in Heaven” and toured all over Europe for the next two wild and outrageous years. Unfortunately, Jewel reluctantly disbanded in 1992… that is: until 2014! We’re back and fuelling the fire once again! Reminiscent of the old times for those who bear the warm memories; freshening up our legacy for the growing lot of new fans with our our vocalist Rick Ambrose; making a new album and bringing the party live as much as we can with Henky Backer, being the same loose cannon string wizard as ever; and Henkie “Rammstein’ Mulder, still pumping a roaring V8! And I will smear them all together into one pumping groove and you are invited!
Rock on!
Arwin