Little Lenny

LennyI was just 4 years old when I did my first public ‘show’ as a singer. I went with my grandmother to a bakery and started to sing a song in Dutch language ‘Zij kon het lonken niet laten’ (she couldn’t stop ogling). It was a song from a 45 vinyl record we had at home and I used to listen to it quite often. So I knew every word, although I didn’t understand the sense of the song. I had no idea what ogling was 😉.  In the quite conservative village where my grandmother lived, my singing was not really appreciated. ‘Some ‘bible belt ladies gave me an angry eye’. The song Lenny is based on this event.


Piano & Guitar

When I was about 8 years old, I got my first piano lessons.  To be honest I never really liked to spend much time studying the piano. As a young kid, I preferred to play soccer outside. I guess that’s why I never became a virtuoso on the instrument, but the 5 years of practise gave me enough skills to be able to play a rather slow version of Gymnopédie no. 1 by Erik Satie. The French composer has always been one of my favourites in classical music. His influence you can hear in my instrumental track Crepuscolo.

Later I  switched to the guitar because at the time I thought that it was much cooler than a piano and made it easier to start a band. As soon as I was able to play enough chords on the guitar, I felt eager to compose my own songs in bands like Sjek Sjek & the Vloetjes, Pilz and The Beautiful Losers.


Drum & Bass

A few years later I plunged into reggae music. With a band named High Spirits we played around the Netherlands in famous venues like The Melkweg in Amsterdam. We also made it to a few live performances on TV. I was the bass player and in that period I learned that you can either start a song with a melody and a chord sequence or with a rhythm of the drum and bass. Most of the time I work that way, starting with a rhythm of drum and bass on which melodies grow…


Talking with musicians

When you make music there comes a moment in life in which you have to choose to earn a living as a full-time musician or look for an alternative. So when High Spirits split up after six years, I changed my focus to the only other thing I’m good at: writing. I started working as a journalist and later developed myself into an article writer for a wide variety of websites.

During my time as a journalist another dream came true: interviewing musicians. I talked with artists like Michael Franti, Juanes, Noa, Mafalda Arnauth , David Hinds (Steel Pulse), Steve Chandra Savale (Asian Dub Foundation), Anjali,  Sergant Garcia,  Raul Pacheco (Ozomatli), Cibelle, Suzanna Lubrano, Tania Libertad, Kevin Coyne, Michael de Jong among others… Read some of these interviews here


123 Music Now Records

Talking with artists from different musical backgrounds, inspired me a lot to keep on making music myself. But it was not until I discovered home recording, that I thought about publishing my own songs. With the philosophy of ‘do it yourself’ in mind I created 123 Music Now Records to publish my own music and tracks recorded with musician friends.


One World


I feel blessed to share my music and I’m very grateful to see how the map of the world turned blue.  My songs & lyrics wander around the planet and have been streamed 69K+ times already…

 


Troubadour Electique Anthology

Troubadour Electrique Anthology by LenTroubadour Electrique Anthology is the culmination of my career as a songwriter. The album brings my favourite songs in one place.  I polished some dust, mixed & mastered them again or recorded a new version. ‘Songs that take you to a world where dreams and reality dance together on a groovy bed of rhythm and melodies’.

I have always been inspired by poetry that explores the subconscious, like the poems of William Blake,  W.B Yeats or Arthur Rimbaud. The same amount of inspiration I get from the poetry of the troubadours. These singer-songwriters of the middle ages give fuel to my imagination and form the foundation of my lyrics. Lots of my songs reflect the image of the ancient troubadour,  transformed in a modern 21th century electric troubadour who sings his songs of love and desire, songs that flow through the gates of mystery and wander beyond the mystic doorstep…..
123 Download Now


 

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