was born on 23 january 1987 (when it was freezing -18°C outside) in the city of Tilburg, which lies in Europe, The Netherlands, in the mystical, mysterious, legendary province called Noord-Brabant (some pictures of this area are in the pictures page). When he was 0 years old, he already listened to jazz and classical music (thanks to his father who is guitar teacher and his mother who is pianoteacher), and it has been said that his first word as a baby was Pat Metheny (great guitarist/composer). From day 1 it's been music.
When he was 6 years old his father started a long and intensive period of teaching him to play the guitar, until he was 14. In this time he got 2 classical guitar awards at the age of 8 and 9, plus performing experience at a young age.
At the age of 11 he got his first electric guitar, with which he played in a rockband called Grab. With members of his age at that time, they played in important venues and festivals (like the biggest stage on Festival Mundial), and there were a few documentaries and tv-shows about them, and some videoclips, and they were in the local newspapers quite often... They played some own tracks and covers. It was fun to see, too... During that time, Bram also played with Noel Redding, the bassist of Jimi Hendrix, at the National Guitar Awards.
At 12 he totally got into jazz after seeing a video from the Pat Metheny Group. He started exploiting his dads jazz vinyl and cd collection, and started a jazzband called Solar, with which he played a lot of gigs, jazzfestivals, in the Heinken Music Hall, Jazz in Duketown, opening gig before Jan Akkerman and Russel Malone, the winning on the Prinses Christina Concours. at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2002 and much more.
At 17, when the jazzband stopped, he played a lot on jam sessions and gigs with great dutch jazz musicians like Harmen Fraanje and Hein van de Geyn. He had a lot of great experiences in the jam sessions in Tilburg, where there were always progressive musicians who were feeling the need to go further than standard jazz. In these times he recorded a soundscape-like record and a trio-record with improvisations, all hearable in the sounds section.
He's also always been into electronics, recording his own music since he was 14, and seeking for other ways of playing his guitar. Now he's 20, studying at the Utrecht School of Music and Technology (music production/composition/performance) in Hilversum, but he's living in Amsterdam. He's playing a lot with his new personal set of guitar and guitarsynthesizer connected to his laptop, which provides a totally new galaxy of sounds. He has just finished a new recording full of electronic sounding improvisations.
--Sample of concert of Bram Stadhouders Tonelist Trio in Zaal 100, Amsterdam, 7 feb 2007-- More Videos
Andreas Ervik (Hissig!) quote about the Tonelist music:
"If you do not understand the music, then listen to it again. And again. After a while the improvised pieces will open up, like the flowers on the back of the album cover. Because, this is music that demands a lot of the listener. If one does not focus it will become a undifferentiated mass, just as a clouded sky might seem, when you just let it float over your head without looking at it. But it is possible to discover fantastic formations and incredible colours in the music, just like you can in clouds, by paying attention and being observant.
The structures and timbres that Bram Stadhouders’ trio use have few cultural associations attached to them, which means that it is easy for the listener to create his or her own pictures. This trio is going to reach far; _Tonelist_ is merely the beginning, but they have already created an album of indescribable beauty, which calms the listener by moving him or her."
