Klaartje

Utrecht, March 23 2008
Hey there,
I've been changing my profile again. Lately I'm worried about the internet. I feel a bit unsafe around here, because you never know who's watching. But then I thought I might be paranoid, so I decided to come back and enjoy MySpace a bit more.
I still don't want to elaborate on my personal life on here as some people do, but there are some music related things that I would like to share (and I figured this place is perfect for that).
So I will tell you something about myself in a musical fashion ;)
When I was six, my brother and I used to stand on the table with caps on. We would dance to Madness and sing along to French chansons. Music was always in me, but I never took it seriously. I went through a bit of a boy band phase (Backstreet Boys and 5ive), but soon realised that this was not my thing. It happened at a Backstreet Boys' concert I attended when I was 12. That evening I was looking around at the girls standing beside me. They were screaming so loud that I couldn't hear the music. I felt a bit embarrassed and decided I would never go to such an event again.
For four years I was searching. Then a crush got me into The Offspring. I decided rock was going to be my thing and started listening to a Dutch band called Kane. After about half a year I was sick of them. I realised the singer couldn't actually sing and their concerts were a bit similar to the Backstreet Boys experience I had. So I got out of them again. Then one morning in September 2000, I turned on a music channel and saw four Dutch guys driving a car, singing about Blue Days. I fell in love and bought their album. I started the sixteenth year of my life off with Racoon and I never let them go any more. I joined their message board which turned out to be full of lovely people. Some of them were somewhat older than me and they adopted me and took me to concerts. That's when the alienation from my high school friends started. I never used to go out with them, but I would travel around the country to see Racoon play (“And I will drive across the land, just to see your band”).
The Racoon message board got me into a lot of other bands. And at their concerts I got to know the Dutch music scene. There was this band called Mill that I loved. Unfortunately they split up. Most importantly, Racoon got me into Ben Folds and Motorpsycho. And they taught me about MUSIC. I realised that rock actually was not my thing, but that I could listen to anything that would make me feel good.
In August 2001, I attended my first festival. It was going to be my Lowlands #1 and it made a great impression. By now I've been to this festival six times and I can't remember which bands I saw which years. What I do remember is falling in love with live music. It started off with Muse and Live. Later on I moved on to singer-songwriters and indie bands. That's where I am still stuck right now.
In March 2006, a friend convinced me to go to a radio show called That's Live. Snow Patrol was going to play there. I had seen Snow Patrol play once before and I thought they were pretty cool. Moreover, That's Live is a lot of fun and it's for free. It feels like the rest of my life started that day. Not only did I fall head over heels in love with Snow Patrol, I also decided to join their message board. I got to know most of the bands and singer-songwriters I'm listening to now through this forum. In the ten years since my first real concert, I found the music that I love. I'm pretty confident that in ten years I will still be listening to the songs I'm listening to now.
I've found my musical roots and now is the time to explore and enjoy them. And to share.. because music is all about sharing.
Klaartje xx