Break the seal

Greater land

Sometimes good things happen unexpectedly. In the fall of 1998 I received a call from a guy called Marcel van de Beeten. He asked me to listen to a cassette of his songs. He was planning to record the songs with a band and wanted to know if I was willing to play them. I immediately got into his singing voice, timbre, compositions, uniqueness, atmosphere, etc. When confronted with the tape Pieter Douma shared my enthusiasm and we decided, in collaboration with Marcel, to add bass and drums to his compositions. Tempos, grooves, sounds, energy, all pieces were done in a different way. Marcel himself took care of the production making it what I believe is the best sounding production I´ve ever played on. For about 10 days we concentrated on recording solid foundations. We went about playing as diversely as possible. Again Pieter and I proved to be sound musical partners. It was a terrific experience for me and I am very proud of the result. The record also features some excellent piano and organ parts by Bert van de Brink and Robert Pijnenburg. The CD has become a good piece of work which deserves to be promoted well. Hopefully the album, which is called "Break the seal", will be a success so we can play live. The quality is already there, all we need now is that extra bit of luck!

Blowbeat is the band with which René created a furore in the Dutch, German, Swiss and Austrian club circuits between 1988 and 1991. In 1989 the band made the CD called 'Blowbeat'. The CD contains vocal 'groove music'. The elegant arrangements played by two guitars, bass and drums ('no keyboards, no problems!') are ear-catching.

In 1991 René leaves the band and is replaced by Arthur Lijten with whom in 1992 the band make the CD called 'Chainsaw Melodies'.

In the middle of 1995 the band falls still and in 1997, after a two years' interruption, a restart is made. This time bass player Pieter Douma has been replaced by Eric Coenen and René re-appears as the drummer.

This is the solo CD of René Creemers and Pieter Douma (bass). For many years René and Pieter constituted the rhythm section of the group by the name of Blowbeat. In 1997 they decided to collaborate on a CD featuring bass and drums ('just 'cause we liked to do that'). The CD contains ten pieces of music written by Pieter and René, which are all strongly different in melody, groove, sound and atmosphere. As a whole, however, the compositions on the CD form a unity all right. In terms of style designation this unity is best described as world music. Music evolves, it knows of no blueprints. A sense of humor combined with a lack of self-importance, these are elements that can bring about a musical encounter. Which is exactly what happened to René Creemers and Pieter Douma. These two, apparently very different men, are able to stimulate each other both intellectually and emotionally thus evolving into a "special unit". Up until 5 years ago they were part of the legendary band Blowbeat, which frequently toured the West-European circuit. Later on René Creemers managed to make quite a name for himself by playing in all sorts of bands, projects and clinics while Pieter Douma decided to retire from playing in bands, if only for a while as he re-emerged on the scene in 1995. To the both of them the completion of this CD is quite literally "a dream come true".

Volume 1 shows René Creemers and Wim de Vries, both drummer and Dutchmen as "The Drumbassadors". Stylistically they combine European, African, and American grooves, sounds, and melodies in their own unique way. An essential requirement of their repertoire is that it must consist of 'songs'. Melody, no matter how simple, is key. Besides using different kinds of sticks René and Wim use their fingers and sing and rap words, with only one global goal in mind: to feature the drum kit as a musical instrument with unlimited possibilities. That's why this Drumbassadors DVD sounds like a global journey rather than a drum show-off. Their musical, creative and virtuoso approach to the drumset is clearly perceptible on this DVD, therefor Volume 1 is a must for all music lovers. The Drumbassadors run the gamut, from left to right, from top to bottom, from loud to soft, from think to thin, from green to yellow, from round to square, from fast to slow, and ... they do it mith confidence!!

Modern Drummer Festival 2003 featured an almost unprecedented cross-section of great drummers and percussionists! This Two-Disc-DVD set captures almost 6 hours of incredible performance footage from this amazing event. Disc One - Saturday: Mike Orris, winner Undiscovered Drummer, under 18, The Hip Pickles, The Nathaniel Townsley Trio, Matt Wilson and Band, Steve Smith and Vital Information, Mike Portnoy with Yellow Matter Custard end Dream Theater. Disc Two - Sunday Louis Santiago, Jr., winner Undiscovered Drummer, over 18, The Drumbassadors, Nick D'Virgilio, Antonio Sanchez, Airto Moreira, and Shawn Pelton with House of Diablo. The Drumbassadors run the gamut, from left to right, from top to bottom, from loud to soft, from think to thin, from green to yellow, from round to square, from fast to slow, and ... they do it mith confidence!!

"This video project was an opportunity to show my abilities, not especially as a drummer or composer but as a musician in general." In 1994 René made his solo video presentation called 'A Matter Of Pride'. The video presents René as a solo performer fully displaying his 'own' creative way of playing. René's specials such as reversed rolls, echoing rimclicks and cowbells, crescendo cymbals and melodies on tomtoms, with the groove being played simultaneously, have been excellently filmed and portrayed on this hi-fi stereo video tape which in 1994 was chosen as the best drum video of that year by the readers of the Dutch Drummagazine Slagwerkkrant. The video contains two computer arranged songs as well as a twelve-minute drum solo. Running time: 23 minutes.

By now René shows teaching experience which he has gained for over ten years as a regular lecturer at the Arnhem Music Academy (Holland) and as a visiting lecturer at the Music Academies of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Cologne as well as at the Drummers Institute (Düsseldorf) and at the LAMA (Los Angeles). Therefore it was about time to publish in book form the study concepts he developed himself and so far had only been distributed by means of copies. Together with co-writer and initiator Andy Gillmann (Germany) René wrote this book which aims at providing the advanced drummer with new inspiration to discover and develop 'own grooves'. The study concepts are based on the (further) development of co-ordination, instrumentation and interpretation. The various chapters deal with binary and ternary practice systems for Grooves and Fills. The CD supplied with the book contains a great number of listening examples as well as four play-along songs and two drum duets.

Disc 1: contains a concert of the drumbassadors (René Creemers and Wim de Vries) which was given for a wildly enthusiastic live audience in the netherlands in 2009. The drumbassadors show their great creativity and virtuosity in the beautiful drum compositions of their own. Supported by a few guest musicians the drumbassadors take you to an absolutely unique peak in the field of drumming. Disc 2: is an instruction dvd on which René and Wim explain matters such as grip, strokes, motion, sitting balance, tone, dynamics, coordination, phrasing and melodic playing. Further attention is paid to playing with brushes and hints how to study systematically are given. In addition, René and Wim demonstrate, once again, in a number of solo, duo and band performances, how hugely creative and varied their unique style of playing is.