It must have been on my 3rd birthday when I got a little drum for my birthday, that tasted like more. So the next year I received a drum kit for my 4th birthday, but having that same drum kit already being destroyed by a friend on my birthday party, I did not touch the drums for years. But you cannot hold back ones destiny, so I started playing the drums when I was 12 years old and played in my first band at the age of 14. Since then I’ve played in many bands and projects and I’m very blessed to be able to make a living out of making music.
Currently I play in the band of American progressive rock artist Neal Morse and have my own two bands Affector and Dilemma.
I also have a few companies. Together with my wife Jessica Koomen we run a music school: Novae Popschool Ede, and I run Tour Support Europe, a company dedicated to everything that has to do with touring (bookings/management/crew hire/transport/backline/equipment etc) and own a studio in which I do a lot of recordings for various bands & artists around the globe.
Here is a little bit more about my bands and companies.
Neal Morse Band (USA)
Since 2005 I work as band-leader and drummer in the live band of progressive rock artist Neal Morse (USA), known from his bands Spock’s Beard & Transatlantic. In the Neal Morse band, I ‘replace’ Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater) who plays on the studio albums. At the time of writing we did 6 full band European tours, and 4 acoustic tours through Europe with Neal.
From the Question Mark tour a live-2CD: ‘Neal Morse – ? Live’ was released worldwide through Radiant Records, Metal Blade and Inside Out Records. A limited edition live DVD: Neal Morse – ‘Question Mark and Beyond’ was released early 2007.
In May 2007 the Neal Morse Band did a European tour to support Neal’s album Sola Scriptura. On guitar they had the amazing Paul Bielatowicz from the Carl Palmer band. From this tour a 2-DVD set has been released on June 24, 2008 through Radiant Records, Sony Music, Metal Blade en Inside Out Records.
Neal Morse’s latest studio CD, Lifeline, has been released on October 1st 2008. I’m prud toi be featured on this CD together with musicians like Paul Bielatowicz, Paul Gilbert, Mike Portnoy, Randy George and others. In March of 2010 the new triple live CD: So Many Roads; has been released world-wide loaded with 3,5 hours of music.
More info about Neal Morse: www.nealmorse.com
Affector
In 2010 I started Affector, a new progressive metal band consisting of German based guitar player Daniel Fries, US based bass player Mike LePond (Symphony X) and vocalist Ted Leonard (Enchant/Thought Chamber) and myself on drums. On our debute CD Harmagedon we are joined by four special guests on keyboards: Alex Argento, Neal Morse (Transatlantic/ex-‐Spock’s Beard), Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater), Derek Sherinian (PlanetX/ex-‐Dream Theater). Also featured on the album is Polish orchestra Sinfonietta Consonus.
This concept album fuses dark apocalyptic sounds with themes of hope and light and features the heavy riffs and lightning fast guitar and keyboard solos that we know from progressive metal, but also has lighter and more fragile moments where the soulful singing of Ted Leonard opens a wide spectrum of vocal harmonies.
Line-up:
Daniel Fries – guitars
Collin Leijenaar – drums
Mike LePond – bass guitars (Symphony X)
Ted Leonard – vocals (Thought Chamber/Enchant)
Guest musicians:
Alex Argento
Neal Morse (Transatlantic/ex-Spock’s Beard)
Jordan Rudess (Dreamtheater)
Derek Sherinian (PlanetX/ex-Dreamtheater)
www.affector.net
Dilemma
www.ammelid.com
Other Artist
During the years I have been blessed to have working with many artists including:
Neal Morse (USA)
Transatlantic (USA)
Steve Hackett (UK)
Duffy (UK)
Spock’s Beard (USA)
Harry Sacksioni (NL)
Andy Pratt (USA)
Novae PopSchool Ede
I founded a drum school in 1999. In January of 2006 the drum school grew into a pop music school, Novae Popschool Ede. Mainly focused at pop/rock/jazz music in all it’s forms and styles. In four years the school has grown into an institute with 15 teachers, who weekly teach drums, vocal, bass, guitar, piano, band coaching, etc., to over 350 students.
www.popschoolede.nl
Tour Support Europe
I founded Tour Support in 2006 to be able to give hands and feet to everything that had to be taken care of during touring with my bands and Neal Morse & Transatlantic.
It is a sort of one-stop-shop. Artist that want to tour in Europe can book me for their tour, and I can arrange everything, from a band, crew, management to bookings, live recordings (DVD/CD), backline rental etc.
www.toursupport.nl
DrumStudio
I am also available for session work, both studio and live, in all sorts of music. See Drumstudio for more information.
