About the album

KAZZ tells you all about B.LOOSE here.

“This album is about me. It’s been ten years since I wrote lyrics. I had this thing with electronic music, which was alright. In the meantime I discovered this great bluesclub in my hometown, The NIX, where I took part in these awesome monthly jamsessions. Having no blues songs in my pocket, it meant I had to improvise, which went really well. Erik, the sound engineer, records all the jams and makes them available to the musicians to listen and learn. Somewhere early 2006 I did an improvisation in a jam with a line that went: the day I met you was a good day for the blues. I got many positive reactions to that one, so I sat down and wrote the full lyrics to the tune the other day. I did the same with some other jams and from there slowly the idea rose to record a full blues album.”

The original idea was to record a real solo album, with KAZZ playing all the instruments on his electronic devices like he did on his electronic albums before. But a hard disk crash in August 2006 made an abrupt end to the idea.
“I remember discussing the idea of a full electronic blues album with Sean Costello after one of his gigs in my hometown in the summer of 2006. He encouraged me to do it as it would have been an unique way of recording a blues album. He really liked the idea. But the crash, just a couple of days later, really depressed me. I had ten songs completed and all of a sudden everything was gone.”

For about six months nothing happened.
“I just didn’t know how to get on with it. But I kept on writing more songs. At one point I thought it would be a great idea to invite all the great musicians I knew from the jam sessions. So I listened to all the jam recordings, trying to find out who would fit in. I had the idea of featuring all the local blues musicians. But that was a hopeless idea. It would have meant that over 30 musicians would be involved in the project. Impossible! It was a nightmare.”

Apart from the nightmares, KAZZ kept on writing new songs.
“I got back the feeling of songwriting after ten years. And it wasn’t just 12 bar bluessongs. I slowly moved away from that into a new direction, still keeping the blues in mind. So I found myself having over 40 songs. But what to do with it.”

KAZZ then decided to make a major decision.
“I was thinking about it and, instead of having all those bluesfreaks around, it might be great of working together again with AndrĂ© Romita (guitar) and Robert Buitink (drums). We had great times long time ago with our band Eternal Flame. And more, they have kept playing together all these years. And since a couple of years they have their own recording studio and recorded two CDs as Mandrake Root. So it seemed a terrific opportunity to have them as a backing band, making it a cohesive unity instead of having 30 musicians running around. But, even before I asked them, they offered themselves to do it. I was thrilled by the idea of going to record with two of the best musicians I’ve ever worked with, and most of all, my best friends.”

Just that happened.
Added with Mandrake Root bassplayer Brian they started rehearsing in June 2009. It soon turned out that the chemistry of old days was back again in full flight.
“On this album Mandrake Root are more than just a backing band. They fully cooperated and helped developing the songs from the demos I recorded at home. It was a great feeling being part of a band again afer ten years.”

Another addition are The Kazzettes.
“I felt some songs needed some backing vocals. I needed some female backing here and there, And that is where The Kazzettes came in. Following the analogy of The Raylettes or The Ikettes. But not the young girls this time. Never ask a woman for her age, but The Kazzettes have an average age of over 50, haha. My age indeed! Sadly they only had one night of serious rehearsal and a few hours of recording. So some ideas could not be fully realized.”

Isn’t it strange to start a new career in a new range of music being 53?
“Not at all, It seems to be the right time. My voice has changed a lot. It is deeper, warmer than in the old metal days. Those were hectic days. Now it is much more relaxed, but the emotion is still there, not to say even more in the front. It is less physical now. I don’t have to jump around like a crazy clown anymore. It is more intense now. Most of the material is very autobiographical.”

“Blues just came on my way. I’ve never been into blues in the past. In fact, the blues has found me. Discovering the Nix BBBlues Club changed my life. With joining the monthly clubsessions I had to learn a completely new approach of singing. First I never thought of doing anything serious in singing blues, but finally, it got me back into songwriting again. And very important, I learned how blues can be a mighty fine way to express what you feel.”

With the result of having very personal lyrics.
“Yes, it’s a strange cycle. In the very beginning, back in the early seventies, I tried to be a protest singer, shouting at all bad things happening in the world but it was never about my own deepest feelings. Somewhere in the early nineties it changed, due to personal circumstances. Still with Eternal Flame I wrote a sort of rock opera called Psycho Patch. Parts of it were recorded on our last demo. Above all it was about my personal circumstances. For the first time I wrote songs about myself. But sadly the band split up. So the whole idea never really got off. Other parts then were realized with my next band, The pH Factor, but that band never got off the ground. Great songs, but it went into wrong directions.”
“With this album I was fully able and willing to express my feelings. As I wrote in the liner notes: this is the most autobiographical material I ever wrote.”