BIOGRAPHY
My mother on alto balalaika with Marc de Loutchek band's
The son of a professional Musician, I always had access to musical instruments at home. When I was 13, I began to really become interested in music and play my first chords on an old classical guitar which was left in a corner, helped by my mother and a “how to book.” Interested in rock and blues, I quickly started taking guitar courses with private teachers to try and reproduce what I liked.
At that time I was influenced by: Led Zeppelin,The Police, Deep Purple, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Supertramp, Queen,
Simon and Garfunkle, Brassens and Brel. Then I discovered Reggae with Bob Marley, Peter Tosch, Alpha Blondy and the Dub movement.
One of my first jazz gig with Stéphane Ways on keyboard
You could say that this was my first real contact with the electric bass, because generally in this kind of music, the bass is strong out front and quite rich in interpretation. This was the era of small little musical groups with friends and it’s in one of these groups which was playing a few pieces of reggae in public that I played the bass for the first time, because according to the members of that group, it was more important to have a bassist than a guitarist. During that time, I also discovered the American “Black” music, in particular Funk (DeFunk, Maceo Parker, The Commodores, Rick James and the Motown artists.) At the same time, I continued taking guitar lessons, and pushed by my mother, entered the Jazz Studio of Antwerp at 17 (the youngest student at that time). I discovered Jazz and improvised music and a new world opened up!
I played Jazz guitar my first year (under the direction of Hendrick Brackemans) but my desire to play bass was already there. Taking advantage of a visit during school vacation to my brother who lives in the US, I bought my first bass which was a fretless bass. During the summer
I worked to make the transition between the two instruments and returned the second year with an electric bass. I continued my studies with the electric bass as my first instrument and finished the courses (5 years) with different professors: Maarten Weylers, Pierre Van Dermal,Frank de Ruyter, Chris Kuris,Benoir Vanderstraeten, Peter Hermans, Jeroen Van Herzeel,
Dré Pallemarts, Pierre Valana. After my musical studies, I threw myself actively into my career, which, for all musicians, has multiple facets. Besides accompanying different artists and groups
on the bass and guitar in various styles, my other musical activities are: Composer/Arranger/Beats Maker/ Transcriber and Music Professor : La boite à Zic, Brussels Music School, Music Town, Dynam’UP.
I work or I have worked for: Sony, Universal, Young & Rubicam, Mc Cann-Erickson, Hey Joe Production, Alexis Film and Ganesha (all in Belgium) Wagram and Bang (France) Cunieform Records (USA), and All Acces (Luxembourg).
Discography
