My Bio
Who am I? I am somebody who really likes music with great expression in almost any kind of way.
My passion for music started with listening to (you’ll never guess!!) Michael Jackson, when I was about 9 years young. After going through my “Jackson” phase, my next stage was the band “Toto”. I never stopped listening to this band. David Paich was my influence for really starting to study hard on my keys!!! So thanks for being a great inspiration to me and got me going on the keys!! In 1991 I started getting into really heavy music. The more extreme, the better!!! I hated school and everything that was standard or commercial in anyway. My interests started changing again in 1996 and I started the Conservatory in 1997. 2,5 years later, after a lot of troubles and losing the reason for making music (having fun and enjoying music) I quitted the conservatory and re-invented my musical interests again. Nowadays, I listen to many kinds of music. Mainly symphonic rock / prog, but also a lot of other stuff. Some examples: Sting, Genesis, Porcupine tree, On the Virge, Steve Vai, Devin Townsend, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, King Krimson,Tears for Fears, Spock’s Beard, Mats & Morgan, Depeche Mode, The Ploctones,…………..
In 1994, I joined my first full membered Death Metal band “Save Thy Souls”, but we changed the name in “Stigmatheist”. When I was in this band, I joined “The Barstool Philosophers” in 1996 (I think, I don’t remember the exact year anymore). I quit “Stigmatheist” somewhere around 1999, because it just didn’t work for me anymore. After that I joined “Lack of Hope”. This was a band that combined Doom metal, Electro, gothic and wave influences. Too bad we couldn’t keep our heads in the same direction, so this ended in about 2002. While I was in this band “The Barstool Philosphers” fell apart, but came back again too!!! In 2004 I did an audition for the prog metal band “Sun Caged“. Guess what, they choose me to be their new keyboard player! So from that day nothing changed band-wise for me anymore……
Besides all this music making, I work full time in a music store (selling the stuff I use on stage and in the studio) and I also record, mix and produce other bands, when there’s still some time left. This means I’m not only making music, but that I am music! This probably explanes my weirdness sometimes….. 
This is the stuff I use to explore and expose my musical inspiration:
- Korg M3-73 + Radias expansion
- Access Virus KC
– Yamaha MO-6
– Korg Triton Pro-76 (until I manage to get all I need into my new M3)
– Roland RD-500
– General Music WX-2 (send me an e-mail if you like to buy it)
– E-MU Proteus 2000 + Ensoniq ZR-76 board
For recording, mixing and mastering, I use:
- Sonar 8.5 Producer (thanks to Roland Benelux)
– Sony Soundforge 10
– Guitar Rig 4 Pro
– 2x Focusrite Saffire Pro-10
- ART-DPSII tube pre-amp
- Any good mic I can find
So, see you on stage and have a good musical life!!!!
Cheers, René Kroon