Well, I guess as we all know by know by know, the world has lost a very special musician and another icon of alternative rock.

So I recorded this song in a tribute to Tylor Hawkins and wrote some very specific lyrics

Alone in that hotel room
You were so far away from home
Away from your wife's loving arms
She couldn't follow where you roamed

A mute on that iconic laughter
It will no longer sound anymore
No longer a choice in the matter
Death was knocking on your door

Drummer for Alanis
Meeting your bro from another mom
Taking William's place behind the kit
Proving the world you were the bomb

A jagged little pill, there's nothing left to lose
Wasting light and one by one
Driving 180 on the sonic highways
Until the final Everlong

Gone too soon, we'll miss you
27 years of rock n roll gone in a flash
Gone too soon, We'll miss you
27 years of Rock N Roll gone in a flash
Gone too soon, we'll miss you
But I guess it was your time to go

Chevy Metal, the Coat tail riders
You played so many stage
All that drumming kept you young
You never looked your age

All those festivals
Meeting your heroes along the way
Singing Freddie's songs with Queen
That was such a memorable day

Gone too soon, we'll miss you
27 years of rock n roll gone in a flash
Gone too soon, We'll miss you
27 years of Rock N Roll gone in a flash
Gone too soon, we'll miss you
But I guess it was your time to go

Say hello to heaven

Gone Too soon (A tribute To Taylor Hawkins)

Last week, we lost the genius that was Henny Vrienten and I had been a lifelong fan of his music.

So in tribute I wrote this song in the style of his band Doe Maar, I initially wanted to write lyrics for it, but it simply didn't come out that way. So I decided instead to make it an instrumental in the style of Doe Maar songs such as "Bella Donna", "Winnetoe" and "De Vrolijke Padvinder"

"Vlindertuin" translates into "Butterfly garden" and I chose that title because of Vrienten mentioning the fact that he loved the butterflies in the garden of his private home in one of the very last interviews he did.

As usual, I played everything myself here.

De Vlindertuin

Continuing my Rockabilly journey. 

I bought this awesome one string tea chest bass which has that authentic slap bass upright tone and I knew I had to use it on a song.  And so I wrote one.

Hope you guys dig it.

Let's Go

Well and truly inspired by the Joe Jackson song "Nineteen forever." The first lyric came to mind after re-watching the final episode of the original 1980's series of "Knight Rider" and coming across some (as it turns out, FALSE) news that David Hasselhoff died.

I took it from there, making it a song about how pop culture will always have a lasting legacy on our lives.

The second verse is about Kurt Cobain who I heard being described as "Gen X's John Lennon." Which is why I refer to him as a Blond haired John Lennon in the lyrics. In 1994 when Cobain died, I actually became 18.

This song is also a showcase for two guitars which I recently put together, which includes the green guitar in the picture.

Always 18 In My Mind

I have a telecaster, and I'm not afraid to use it.

All joking aside, I was thinking about joining a country band but the distance to their rehearsal space was just too far to make it a workable thing.

But having listened to that Country music lit a fire in me and so I wrote and recorded this song in a couple of hours, as usual I played everything myself here. I hope you guys dig it.

When the water came over the dam

Well, how does one describe inspiration, I always loved Paul Weller and both The Jam and the Style council. He's bar none one of my favorite songwriters.

So yesterday, while watching a documentary about The Jam, I decided to see if I could write something which could have been from the "In the city" album, while also recalling songs like "Peacock suit"

The instruments used were my Yamaha PSR 1700 keyboard, my Acoustic from that same brand, my Vester Telecaster copy and my self-made bass, with a set of very dead and rubbery sounding strings.

As for the lyrics, I guess anybody who goes through a midlife crisis will recognize what they're saying.

Do as your father and grandfather did
walk in line with all the other kids
I always thought that I knew better
Escape from the mould
Break out into the big wide world
Pay no heed to what I was told

I'm just ordinary, I'm only normal
Just a man living in a miner's town
Doomed to the status quo
Of repeating what my father did
Working myself to death to support my wife and kids

And I see the man I don't want to be
I see the man I don't want to be
I see that man in my looking glass

No, I would never grow up to be one of them
I was sure I could run away and explore the land
But reality caught up with me
My destiny was so clear to see
There was no way for me to run
From what I would be from day one.

I'm just ordinary, I'm only normal
Just a man living in a miner's town
Doomed to the status quo
Of repeating what my father did
Working myself to death to support my wife and kids

And I see the man I don't want to be
I see the man I don't want to be
I see that man in my looking glass

I see the man I don't want to be
I see the man I don't want to be
I see him there in my looking glass

Destiny is a cruel mistress
She grabs you by the throat
As soon as the gray hairs appeared
I'm sure she enjoys to gloat
I hoped for better, it was impossible to achieve
As the years caught up with me
I can only sigh in grief

And I see the man I don't want to be
I see the man I don't want to be
I see that man in my looking glass

I see the man I don't want to be
I see the man I don't want to be
I see him oh so clearly...

Looking Glass

How much more personal can it get, this song is about my mother who passed away on May the 23'Rd. Today was her cremation, and it was the right time to write this song, it just came to me as I went along,  

I heard from my sister-in-law that she had a dream where my mother and father were dancing as he swept her off her feet. I liked that and so I used that in the lyrics.

See the flames in the fireplace
All the people in the hall
Everybody came to welcome you
So glad to see them all
Feel the passion as you dance with him
Inside your portrait on the wall.

Feel the gravity disappear
As he sweeps you off your feet
There is nothing left to fear
Your journey is complete
Finally, in his arms again
What more could you want?

Sunshine doesn't last all day
Evening will always fall
Feel the chill as the light fades away
And you answered his call
Your laugh will continue on
Inside your portrait on the wall.

Your Portrait

Well, what can I say about inspiration?

I was watching a special on Bruce Springsteen, and he was talking about how stifling living in a small town was. And with me having lived in the very same conditions, went "He's right" and set out to write a song about it, much like how he did so.

So to force myself to get my creative juices going, I got out a guitar I haven't played in years and straight away I got this riff. And then the rest came out organically.

Side note, I finally figured out how to get a good snare sound: by turning down the mids on the compressor. Once I did that: Presto, there was that full boom, rather than that dull plop.

The Only Life I Know

This year sees the thirtieth anniversary of my high school graduation. But as I told somebody when discussing the Bruce Springsteen classic "Glory days", my high school days weren't exactly all that glorious. Heck, I guess that goes for 98% of all people looking back at their teen years.

I got inspiration from songs like Paul Simon's "Obvious child" and it was my intention to write something a little more angry as some of my buddies from that time have turned out to be backstabbers. (They know who they are) But, as usual, it turned into something else instead, the anger replaced by despair, as so many of us are disappointed with how life turned out.

To keep myself on my toes, I used instruments I'm not really all that familiar with, including this ancient Egmond branded acoustic, which was tuned a full step down. I'm actually surprised with the resulting sound. But this riff came out straight away, and I just went with the flow.

The Yearbook

Well, the other day I made myself the owner of an early eighties bass in the exporer shape. And I figured that I'd use that instrument to record something that would see the use of an instrument of a bass like that. I mean it's "Metal" but not "Metallica" or "Slayer". 

So I figured that I'd record a spoof of a hair metal song. And lyric-wise, I decided to go for something out of a Kids' show.

So I landed upon a song called "the Fairies" from the “European adventure” series by Dutch duo Bassie and Adriaan. From the episode which takes place in Ireland. The song is about a rich guy who bought some land in order to build himself a house, but is told that that said plot of land is inhabited by Fairies, who will not take kindly to that plan. (Considering the situation in the world right now, that's actually very apt...)

So I translated the lyrics as closely as possible. And set to work. But after I already recorded around fifty percent of the track, I went "This screams for the solos from 'The boys are back in town!' " and so I deleted what I recorded and started over.

Hey, a song about Irish folklore, married to a song from a legendary Irish band?   It was too good not to use.
The drawing came together pretty easily too, here's Bassie and Adriaan together with Phil Lynnot.

The songs aren't mine and the recording was made just for fun, hope everybody likes what I did.

The Fairies are back in town.

Well, the number one thing with writing a song that conveys the most genuine emotions is to go with what you know. Ever since losing my mother, I felt so completely lost that I still don't know where I'm at in the world at the moment.

This song came to be when I was watching a documentary about the Violent Femmes and figured that I could write something in that style, a largely acoustic song with ramshackle percussion, although there IS an electric guitar on there. But I also allowed myself a reflective moment, "Am I wrong about this?" is there a turn around moment coming my way? I don't know yet, we'll find out in due time.

Midlife crisis

I always loved this song but I also felt that there could be more to it than just that. So I tried finding the vocal track on its own but had no such luck doing so, so instead I had to settle with adding tracks to the existing song in full.

I added bass using my custom Musicman style four string, drums using my Yamaha PSR 1500 keyboard and guitar using my 1989 Squier Stratocaster "The Veteran" and my self made Les Paul Junior style guitar "Betty" all tracks were recorded using Ableton live 9 and a Line UX2 interface.

I hope you guys like my remix.

Janet Jackson Runaway Rock Remix

I always thought that Kiss' "Heaven's on fire" sounds similar to "Honky Tonk Women" and that it could work really well if you were to record it in a Rolling Stones-esc version, since Paul Stanley wrote it with the five string open G tuning on his guitar, which is also Keith Richards' signature tuning.  

So to prove it I set on recording "Heaven's on fire" in the way how it would have sounded HAD the Rolling stones recorded it.

This recording was made purely for fun, I don't own the song.

The instruments used were my self made cigar box guitar with telecaster bridge pickup tuned in open G, my self made Les Paul junior, my self made Musicman style bass and my trusty Yamaha PSR-1700 for all the drum sounds.

Honky Tonk's On Fire

How does one describe inspiration? I was mucking around with this Riff in G-minor and had a lyric which went "Go on and take it away, I don't want it no more." but not much else than just that.

So when I brought in the demos for my album, my then producer said that he was really feeling that riff but also that the song was screaming for a bridge because of it being rather monotonous.

A few days later, I was watching this documentary about the Spanish Civil war and they interviewed a man who survived the Guernica Bombing and he was recounting how he was working in the fields when he saw a plane appearing which flew a rounds over the city before disappearing again. That plane turned out to be the reconnaissance plane for the bomber fleet which leveled the town a little while later. And a light went on in my head.

So I adapted the lyrics and added a bridge in which you can really hear the bombs falling and the shots of machine gun fire, but the biggest twist came with the choruses I wrote in which I added Flamenco elements, this is a song about something which happened in Spain after all.

I played all the guitars and bass tracks
Maarten Driessen played the drums
Brahim Zoubair did the vocals (only two takes and he NAILED it!)
And my cousin Jan Smeets did the trumpets.

A Plane

Without a doubt the most ambitious thing I ever did, this was supposed to be the closer of my "Return to Blueberry hill" album. 

It's basically two very different songs put together. "Journey's end" was this instrumental salute to my father who passed away while I was recording the album.

"The Birds" however was written for my previous metal band Slavantas and is about a miner who after the mine collapses pins all his hopes on survival on a the canaries the miners brought with them into the mine. We never played it since the others said it was too long and the melody resembled Gary Moore's "Out in the fields" a little too closely.

I had the idea of combining the song on a whim. I told my producer "We'll let the song fade out with birds chirping before slamming right back in with 'The Birds'"

All guitar, bass and keyboard tracks were done by me with Willy van der K doing the vocals and Maarten Driessen doing the drums, thanks a lot you guys,

So here it is.

Journey's End /The Birds

The other day I was joking around with some friend and we started talking about George Michael, seeing as how he died three years ago already.

So my buddy started jokingly singing "I want your socks" on the melody of "I want your sex" and it lit a fire in me, this was something too good to pass up.

This parody was made for fun, I have no intention of insulting George Michael or his legacy.

As usual I played everything myself here.

Wouter Jaegers

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