News & Stuff we just wanna share
New Year's Greetings Jan. '24
Wishing you all a fabulous 2024! As we often say in the Netherlands when it comes to NYE, "We still got all of our fingers". And boy do we need 'em in tact this upcoming year.
As said, there's loads in the pipe line now the tunes for the new album are taking shape. Last week we had our first listening session to check out the pre mixes, but there's still a lot to do. Like said before, the new songs are a tad more complex and, in our own humble opinion, "more matured".
Also somewhere in the shadows we're working with a special guest to make it all more interesting and complete. Get back to you later on that.
Album update Sept. '23
Through the past years we've learned that airing any date on a new album release wasn't working out that well. So let's talk about the process for a bit. Yep, we got something new stewing in the pot and to lift a corner of the veil, the upcoming album will be all about going back to our prog and (even more) classic symfo roots. Now we're all up and running when it comes to our home studios a lot of great ideas are coming up. Seems that Martijn got some great new tunes coming out of his sleeve as well.
So Steef is no longer the only song writer in the band. Having that said, we're all in it together to tweak, fine tune and come up with new ideas.
As said we're moving into a more classical approach of prog for the new album. Inspired by bands like Genesis, Rush, UK, Saga, Yes (and more) the new tunes will blend quite well with the Gathering Stones songs.
It's great stuff to continue our concept story with and later on, having enough meat on the plate for live gigs.
Keeping you posted!
Video shoots & Thank you's
It has become a tradition when it comes to the single releases: the video clips that comes with it. Whether it's large projects as The North is Burning and the latest Vertigo or the home made clips, there's a lot of team work involved. Most of the time we're working on a low or even non budget basis so we are quite lucky to have great creative friends around like Bébé van der Vlis. She signed for the camera work, directing and editing of two of our larger projects. Back in 2018 she shot the clip for The North is Burning while we were performing in front of the Tata Steel plant in The Netherlands. The Vertigo video is also done by her. Bébé got a perfect eye for capturing both the story as well as the band from an artistic point of view. It would have been easy to just put a camera in front of us while performing the song in a stage setting, but she's always up to the challenge to tell the song's story through images. Maybe not the common music video but something unique for sure. We're very pleased with the result. So thanks a ton Bébé for your outstanding work!
Along side Bébé there's always another great guy present: Jan-Remt Mellema. It's funny to hear him say that he is so "not" into our music but having such a great time hanging with us. Operating his drone cam on different locations it seems he never get tired of it. Even when there's several drone crashes with rotor damage he is keepig his cool! Steef worked with Jan-Remt before LSOE became a band with the 2017 single Tower. Shooting his drone cam straight up to the sky like a 100 (and even more) meters during the final outtakes of Tower while Steef was standing on a steel tower!
So thank you so much Jan-Remt for making us fly!
For the Vertigo shoot we we're also working with two additional actors: Anouk van Doorn and Sarah Lisa Broekhof (Serreh) carrying the lantern. Fun fact is that Steef worked with Anouk before in a Dutch movie directed by (yes) Bébé van der Vlis more than a decade ago. To keep things in the family, Sarah (who is also a singer/songwriter and goes by her artist name Serreh) is Steef's youngest daughter. Both were playing the same role as carriers of the light into an almost seamless blend of characters. In short it's hard to tell there were two different people playing the same part. Why? Well.. let's say there was a lot of planning involved. We love you both! So Anouk and Serreh thank you so much for shining that light!
Another face that is always around (mostly in the back ground) is Erik's brother and hubby of Bébé: Gert Jan van der Vlis. Besides support and just making things possible he's often around with his camera to shoot pictures. Let's call him the silent force. We're greatfull buddy!
Last but not least we wanna thank Werner Prost for editing our quarantine video of Oguani's Hope back in 2020!
There's so many others involved behind the scenes we wanna thank. Let us mention a few to top it off: Hans Sprenger of Maatwerk in Drums (providing the 1 million dollar hand made drum kit for the Vertigo shoot) and everyone who owns the locations we were able to use for the video's.
Anywhere in the future we will post a "making of" video somewhere on here. We had a real blast!
New single! June 28
Yes! It took awhile since the release of Gathering Stones (2021) before we were able to get something new out. Besides the pandemic thingy, better known as the "non stage era" for a lot of fellow musicians, we also had to deal with the departure of Erik Besselsen (bass) and find our new bees. We already welcomed Martijn Versluis (keyboards) and Gerard van der Geer (bass) as full patched members awhile ago but consider the Vertigo release as the new line up presentation. It's great to have these guys aboard! Again we opted the single as a video release to get the story out. Vertigo kicks off as part of the concept story we started on Gathering Stones and can be seen as the herald of part two of the book (Bodec series). The song reflects the urge of getting "ready" for the big final and the return of The King. "In a blink of an eye" may sound familiar to you and that is exactly what the song is about (those who have ears..)
Vertigo was partly recorded at the Gadart Studio (drums/keys) and at our separate home studio's (guitars and bass). The vocals were recorded at Mailmen Studio by Martijn Groeneveld who also signed for the mix and master. We had a lot of banter shooting the video and like to thank Bébé van der Vlis for (again) outstanding effort on both shooting and editing the clip. Also thanks to: Jan-Remt (drone cam), Sarah (Serreh) & Anouk as actors and Gert-Jan van der Vlis for additional pictures.
Vertigo will be a streaming release only.