Splinter is a rock band from Holland and consists of 5 ambitious musicians: Ewout Ongering on vocals, Didier Kerckhoff on guitar and vocals, Menno Broer van Dijk on Synths, Hammond and Keyboards, vocals, Berry Vink on drums and vocals and Marcel Everts on bass guitar, bass pedals and vocals.
Although they are close friends, each band member has a different musical background. Therefore the music of the group is often described in reviews as ‘a new style on its own’. Splinter started out writing material in the ‘progrock’ style. Even though magazines in this genre were very enthusiastic, the band unconsciously changed and headed for a more commercial style of writing. The music became less complicated and more sensitive, without becoming simple. The lyrics of Splinter often describe deep inner feelings we all have in daily life.
Mothers’ Finest guitarist John Hayes produced Splinters first demo ‘Reflections’ (released in 2004) which was received with extremely positive acclaim in magazines like Oor, Aardschok, Background Magazine and iOpages, to name just a few. Also, the band went on tour in the Dutch club circuit as support act for Hayes’ group Maxima.
In 2005 they recorded most of their repertoire for the unofficial release ‘The Devil’s Jigsaw’. Again, critics were extremely positive about this so called ‘collection of demo songs’. Later that year, the band played a gig as support act for the progressive ‘supergroup’ Karmakanic, featuring former Yngwie Malmsteen-vocalist Goran Edman, and did a short tour with the Swedish band The Flower Kings. As a result the band gained a solid fan base.
The most important step was taken when producer Jonas Reingold suggested to record their debut album with him.
Biography by Splinter’s Marcel Everts and edited by Eric Walker
http://www.splinteronline.com
