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History

I was born in Vlissingen (Flushing) in The Netherlands in 1988.

I started playing Bass Drum at the youth band of the Salvation Army in Treebeek. At the age of twelve I joined the drum band of fanfare "Harpe Davids" in Brunssum. The drum band was led by Hein Timmermans. There I found out that I had a good sense of rhythm and I progressed rapidly. Before I moved to Rotterdam in 2006) I was on the verge of being promoted to play with the fanfare (only the best 4 drummer of the drum band played along with the fanfare).

My mother had once bought me a snare drum, of which the snare and the snare head were missing. Through lack of knowledge and money I could not repair the snare drum yet and so it disappeared into the closet for some time. In 2008, I completely refurbished the snare drum. There was no brand on it, but judging on the lugs it was a Stagg. This was my first real drum.

And so I played in the band of the Salvation Army in Treebeek; only on the bass drum (and occasionally a stroke on a cymbal).

The first drumkit I played on In 2004 I was co-founder of Praise&Worship Band "Praise 2004" which consisted of a guitarist, a pianist and a number of singers and me on the drums. I played on the drumkit (see photo) of Frans Wigman, who himself sang in the band.

This was the first drumkit I played on, unfortunately it was not mine, but at least I could use it.

It consisted of the following components:

The Kings drumkit which was no longer complete On June 24, 2006 I got my HaFaBra A with a 10 for the theory and a 7 for practice, from fanfare "Harpe Davids" from Brunssum.

July 2006 I moved to Rotterdam.

I heard that the Salvation Army there had a drumkit, which nobody used. When I saw it I could understood (see photo). It was only half a drumkit (the brand was Kings) and a number of components no longer worked properly.

The band had already two percussionists in Rotterdam (bass and snare drum).
Initially I took turns with my fellow percussionists to play. One of my fellow percussionists had won a price and searched a drumkit for a reasonable price. That’s how the band received a drumkit as a donation from Ben van de Berg (the aforementioned fellow percussionist).
It was a Stagg Tim (see photo). He was not as complete as in the picture, most of the cymbals, were bought by me (more on this further).
The Stagg Tim of the Salvation Army in Rotterdam South The drumkit initially was like this:

In Rotterdam, I quickly came in contact with Youth Church 4Real through friends. They had two drummers, so I could join as a replacement drummer. For one of the drummers that was the reason to stop because he already had very little spare time. The other drummer and I took turns with gigs. Meanwhile, the band has grown into "The Message". Currently I am the only drummer of the band. But back to my early time there. I could us an older Tama. It was in the church building where we rehearsed with the band. The drumkit was rescued from being thrown away. It was a nice drumkit to play and I seriously considered buying it.
The Tama consisted of the following:

The Pearl Forum which I used at City Church, expanded with some of my own cymbals After some time, "The Message" started playing outside the Youth Church as well. For example we also played monthly on "City Church". With "City Church" I could use the drumkit that they had. On the photo I have expanded the drumkit with some of my own cymbals.
The drumkit I used at "City Church" consisted of the following components:

Stagg 10" Splash Stagg 8" Splash My first purchase was a 10" splash from Stagg: sh-sm10b (see photo)
Not long after that I also bought the 8" variant from Stagg: sh-sm8b (see photo)

These two splashes were my first additions to the Stagg drumkit.

Ufip Kashian 14" Hi-hat The hi-hats of the Stagg drumkit were very thin (more a thin crash than a hi-hat). So I started looking for another hi-hat; which I managed to find. It was a Ufip Kashian 2000 14" hi-hat (see photo). It sounded quite good and I still use it with the Stagg drumkit every time. After I had bought this hi-hat I started using one half of the Stagg hi-hat as a thin crash. In addition I also bought two smaller toms for the Stagg drum kit (sizes: 8" and 10").

The only thing I still missed with the Stagg kit was a ride. Fortunately I found one, a very good one even; a Paiste 2000 20" Power Ride (see photo). The only downside was that it was a bit too powerful for my (beginning) style. Later I traded it for a 14" Zildjian Paper Thin Crash (Which I still use with the Stagg drumkit).
Paiste 2000 20" Power Ride front Paiste 2000 20" Power Ride back

Complete Paiste 302 Set During the following time I kept on buying stands and cymbals. Once I owned a complete Paiste 302 set (see photo).
This set consisted of the following cymbals:

Later I sold these cymbals as a complete set.

Paiste rapidly became my favorite cymbal brand, but I also tried Sabian and Zildjian.

My first very own kit: a wine red Premier It was in 2007 when I first bought my very own drumkit. It was (and still is) a Premier which was previously owned by an older man. He still owns two other drumkits so it wasn’t too great a loss.
It was a wine red Fusion Kit (see photo):

My largest set-up was the following:

On the photo below I have 19 cymbals and 7 drums.
This set-up was also painted by Terry Vogelaar (photo to the right).
One of my larger set-ups Oilpainting made by Terry Vogelaar of one of my larger set-ups