About my music
To overview all albums.
At 16 I bought my first guitar. And ended up playing keyboards for over 20 years in several bands - because they had always better guitar players than I was. I wrote about 120 songs between 1980 and 2023, when I started recording them properly. My voice is however not really suitable to sing lead. AI-developments have provided me with new possibilities: to filter my voice (e.g. on Album 5, some songs are sung by ‘Tyler’ - that’s me but with a raspy dark country AI-voice). And recently (2026): Suno kicked in... read below.
About my songs
Most hits nowadays I call Formula songs: following simple rules and babyfood for the ears. They are more about production than about lyrics or composition: a few chords, repeated over and over with minor changes in beat and melody, and a few soundbites and hooks, also repeated - sometimes even up to over a hundred times in one song. I promise you songs with surprises in melodies - often because of the use of not too standard chord progressions (except in the country songs, obviously :-).
More a lyricist than a composer
I see myself more as a lyricist than as a composer. I try to tell a story from A to Z and while doing so, I apply some old-school rules in rhyming that hardly seem important any more in contemporary songs. A half-alike sounding syllable is not a genuine rhyme. And emphasis should be on the right syllables. If that makes me a grumpy old man - so be it :-).
That doesn’t mean that I always succeed. But I put in the effort in trying to get there as close as I can. Hope you like my lyrics!
What style? Well, eh...
I like bands who vary in styles: Queen, the Beatles, 10cc, the Eagles... they all had multiple songwriters and different styles. Also versatile artists, like Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Sting and David Bowie - all who explored many directions. My songs go from pop and rock to bossa nova and country. On album 3 I even tried African and Asian styles to support the lyrics. Added to the albums are short descriptions of each song and style. Just choose a few to get an idea.
About the recordings
All songs are just demo’s, meant to give an impression of what they could sound like. The tracks are not mastered - and my voice is not really suitable to sing the lead. But it will have to do, to get my songs out there.
You want to make it your own?
If you are a singer, performer, solo or in a band, and like some of the lyrics or the whole song, please feel free to make it your own. And let me know what you made it sound like!
About Suno and AI
All lyrics are written by me. I have tried Chat GPT to help with the lyrics. And I am happy to conclude: it didn’t. It provides platitudes, open doors, stuff that has been done multiple times. Original lyrics still need a creative human mind. That was a relief...
I also tried Suno to create music - and the same conclusion arises. When you leave it to Suno, you get what has been done already. Simple structures, easy songs, formula stuff, algorhythmic music. But: when I upload my own songs, Suno usually produces them better than I ever could... The music on my albums is created in three different ways:
1. The old-fashioned way
I play all the instruments and record them in Logic: guitars, bass, blues harmonica, mouth harp, some percussion (such as tambourine, handclaps, and finger snaps), and keyboards (including strings, brass, flutes, and synths). Only the drums are not played live; they are based on Logic loops - with accents and breaks added by me. In these songs, I also sing. My voice is sometimes original, but mostly enhanced with an AI filter to make me sound better. It doesn’t always work well (for example, when a sob or yodel comes in, or too low registers), so sometimes my own voice has to do the job.
2. I write lyrics ánd music
And then I record a demo version, which I upload to Suno. It then turns it into a song that sounds better than I can record myself. Some of my older songs (the oldest dating from 1980, originally poorly recorded on a 4-track Amstrad deck, visual below) now sound as I once hoped - and even better.
3. I feed my lyrics to Suno
And then add a prompt with the style I would like and let Suno create the song. Sometimes that works fine, for example in country or narrative songs that are supposed to have simple chord progressions and predictable melodies.
Apologies to all artists...
I have been reluctant for a long time before trying AI. And am still feeling very ambivalent about it. I want to apologize to all artists whose songs are scavenged for their creativity and craft to feed the databases that Suno gets the ‘new songs’ from. Having played myself in bands and having talented daughters who try to make a living in the music performance arts, I know how hard it is to get work that also pays enough. Too many gifted musicians - who actually put in the work to master their instruments! - can’t make a living. Suno and other developments will further diminish the demand for recording sessions, for demo’s and albums. Let’s hope there will always be performances that people are willing to pay for, because they get a unique experience. Give them a piece of you that they wil never forget!
Why do I use it then?
Well... even if a demo sounds quite crappy, Suno can turn it into a song, better than I can record it myself - and foremost: faster. In the same time I record a song, I write one or two new ones. So I will never reach my goal to record my songs...
Arranging and recording a song takes me 2-5 days, and Suno 2-5 minutes... In various styles, while maintaining melody, chords and structure. Suno not always follows the chords or measure if the song has multiple modulations and unusual chord changes, but usually it’s acceptable. It gets my songs out there. Hope you enjoy them.
The Amstrad Studio 100 that I had in the 80’s - 4 tracks cassette, then move those to 1 track, 3 left etc - so max 10 takes. Only the simple recordings (guitar and 1-2 voices) were okay, all complexer stuff sucked ;-).