Writersday – Desert Songs

producer, mixer, engineer

Where as the previous album 'Picking Flowers On The Moon' each song had its own sonic world, for this second album we wanted to create a more coherent band sound. For this reason we invited drummer Tim Brink, bassist Auke Haaksma and keyboard player Coen Molenaar, who had all played live for Writersday, for this album. On the first album I played most of the electric guitar parts, but we wanted to capture the whole band live on tape. Producing, engineering and playing at the same time seemed like a bad idea. We wanted a raw and unconventional guitarist, so the first player that sprang to mind was Robin Berlijn. He really struck me at a session for Martin van der Starre I engineered in 2014. I wasn't aware that Robin had already played with the likes of Kane and Ellen ten Damme. He turned out to be a great match and had a large impact on most of the songs. Sjoerd and I had prepared the songs in such a way that the structure, lyrics, chords and basic sound direction were finished, but nothing was set in stone. That way each musician could put in their own musical ideas and react to each other. I really like this approach for it steers you towards a clear and uncompromising direction.

White Dove Studio. Sometimes I like to get into the same room with the musicians and talk about the songs without their instruments (although Auke can't keeps his hands of the wurlitzer). This picture was shot by Robin Berlijn, so that's why he is not in it.