If you’re interested in music and based in Utrecht like I am, Robin Kester isn’t a new name. She still only has one ep and a handful of singles out, ...
Bart Hoevenaars
Bart Hoevenaars isn’t a stranger in the Dutch music indie scene. In the early zeroes he released two record with postpunk bank MONO and toured Europe multiple times. After, he became known ...
Awkward I
Awkward I is one of The Netherlands’ finest songwriters around. He recorded this new session, including a mind-blowing cover of Judee Sill: ‘What I particularly love about her compositions is ...
Judy Blank
‘When I see The Wood Brothers play, I know: this is it. Seeing them makes it easier for me to not care about things. Fuck that shit, I’m doing what ...
Courtney Marie Andrews
I’ve been fascinated by Courtney Marie Andrews’ talent as a songwriter and a singer since the instant classic ‘Honest Life’. Now, with her equally daring and striking new record ‘May ...
Jasper Schalks
‘John Prine is the finest lyricist I know, up there with Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt. Every sentence he writes hits the spot and it’s admirable how much Prine ...
Tenfold
Tenfold is the moniker of Dutch singer songwriter Tineke Hussaarts. Last year she released her second EP ‘Before We Go Somewhere’, which she recorded at Alamo Race Track’s studio. The ...
Christof van der Ven
Christof van der Ven originates from a small town in The Netherlands, but now resides in London. He toured as the support of the likes of The Staves and Bear’s ...
Brooke Sharkey
Last month Brooke Sharkey and I met in Amsterdam and filmed a couple of songs at the Backstage Hotel. She treated us to beautiful covers of Tom Waits and Lhasa ...
Helge
Helge Slikker has been pretty busy over the past few years, composing for theater and film. I still have fond memories of the session we filmed in the early days ...
Elephant Stone
I went to Glasgow for a couple of days in November. The morning after I flew back, I managed to get myself out of my bed and on a train ...
Tangarine
I remember seeing Tangarine play in the finals of the Grote Prijs van Nederland in 2010, along with Case Mayfield. I remember thinking the wrong person won, but most of ...
Onder Invloed sessions in 2016
As almost every year since the start of Onder Invloed (The Influences) in 2008, last year has often managed to surprise me. After many sessions I found myself listening to ...
Robert Ellis
In June of this year, Robert Ellis released his latest, self-titled record on New West Records and I found myself listening to it over and over. The singer from Texas ...
Jenny Berkel
Jenny Berkel’s got one of these voices that you’ll end up recognizing instantly and there’s a timeless quality to her songs that often have poetic lyrics and original instrumentation. Listening ...
Three Blind Wolves
Earlier this year Three Blind Wolves’ singer Ross Clark jumped on a train to Utrecht on a day off from touring with a play in Luxembourg. In the short time ...
Cale Tyson
Born and raised in Texas, but now a resident of Nashville, it is no surprise Cale Tyson sings country songs. But, he does it very very well.
Son Little
Aaron Livingston can hear the different places he’s lived in his songs and he doesn’t shy away from political topics, although written from his personal perspective. The LP has very ...
Yori Swart
About four or five years ago I was a judge for one of The Netherland’s biggest alternative music competition ‘De Grote Prijs van Nederland’, in the singer songwriter category. One ...
Lori Lieberman
Back in 2010 I met Lori Lieberman for the first time, in Amsterdam where we filmed her first session for this site. Five years later I invited her back for ...
A New International – Sammy (Ramses Shaffy)
It was a rainy night in Glasgow when I hijacked Biff Smith’s computer to play him some Dutch songs. Knowing the A New International singer’s love for French music, I ...
Three Blind Wolves – The Bridge
Song premieres do not happen often at Onder Invloed (The Influences). But, after hearing the upcoming EP by my Scottish friends Three Blind Wolves, I couldn’t help myself. The EP ...
Eerie Wanda
There used to be a time when certain Dutch people would look down on Dutch bands, and considered any band from abroad to be automatically better and more interesting. Obviously ...
Oh Thunder
Almost a year ago, there was a big harp in the water tower that had to be carried down some stairs before one of our sessions at the Grasnapolsky festival. ...
The Young Folk
Early in 2015 I met The Young Folk from Dublin and filmed a session with them in Amsterdam. Later in the year we got to hang out a couple more ...
Demi Knight
Although still only 19 years old, Demi Knight says she has discovered her own style and sound. The country singer from Tiel – who in everyday life listens to the ...
Steve Wynn
This session was set up rather last minute, and early on a weekend morning, but nonetheless very nice to film. Steve Wynn didn’t really seem to mind the early hours, ...
Yorick van Norden
Yorick van Norden is the kind of guy who can tell you in which key McCartney played a certain song during a certain show decades ago, or who was the ...
Bertolf
In November it’ll be four years since I joined Bertolf Lentink in Carpentras in the south of France where he recorded his third, self-titled record. Filming and witnessing that process ...
GFJF
I remember seeing Tenement Kids perform live on Dutch television some years ago and playing their self-titled record the morning after. I remember liking it and listening to it a ...
Small Houses
Ever since Jeremy Quentin, aka Small Houses, recorded his session for Onder Invloed two years ago, I’ve become a frequent listener of his music. Just about anything he’s released is ...
Anne Soldaat
It was over six years ago when Anne Soldaat recorded his first session and although he’s performed at several of our live shows and was featured in the book Onder ...
The Young Folk
The first person to introduce me to the Irish band The Young Folk was Davie Lawson, who you might know of one of his hundred sessions for Onder Invloed. Not ...
Love Like Birds
When Elke De Mey confirmed to record a session for Onder Invloed at Grasnapolsky, I was really pleased. The Love Like Birds’ EP from 2011 had impressed me a lot, ...
No Ninja Am I
Back in 2010 Onder Invloed hosted a stage at the first ever edition of the Grasnapolsky festival in Bunnik. Since then, the festival has exploded into a way bigger version ...
Peter Broderick
It’s hard to keep up with the productivity of Peter Broderick, who’s released over fifteen records, EP’s and cassettes in about seven years, one of them being a website that’s ...
Daniel Romano
The first time I heard a Daniel Romano song? I can’t remember exactly, but I do recall that by the time the last note was played, I had made up ...
Biff blogs #2: Utrecht
Biff Smith is the lead singer and songwriter of the Scottish band A New International, formerly known as The Starlets. He’s one of my favourite songwriters and currently preparing to ...
Biff blogs #1: ‘Vrijgezellenfest’
Biff Smith is the lead singer and songwriter of the Scottish band A New International, formerly known as The Starlets. He’s one of my favourite songwriters and currently preparing to ...
William Tyler
If you don’t know the Dutch booking agency Belmont Bookings, you should check their roster, because it’s an overload of great acts to go and discover. One of them is ...
Port Of Call – Aoide Pt. II
Last year I published a session with the Dutch songwriter Port Of Call which has been watched very well and got a lot of good comments. I never published the ...
Clean Pete
Next week the debut album of Clean Pete will be released on Excelsior Recordings. The twin sisters Renee and Loes Wijnhoven have teamed up with Anne Soldaat, who’s also produced ...
Small Houses
If I’m honest, I didn’t know anything about Jeremy Quentin, a.k.a. Small Houses, until I received an email and started listening to his songs. Usually I’ll have been following musicians ...
Into The Great Wide Open, Live, Sessions
Meindert Talma
The first time I heard Meindert Talma‘s music, was when his album ‘Nu Geloof Ik Wat Er In De Bijbel Staat’ (trans: ‘I Now Believe What’s Written In The Bible’) ...
Into The Great Wide Open, Live, Sessions
Broeder Dieleman
During the Onder Invloed shows at festival Into The Great Wide Open in September, Broeder Dieleman made a surprise appearance. At the end of the interview with Meindert Talma – ...
Color Reporters
He hoped to escape for a while without creating too much of a fuss, but although he had already made the decision in the summer of 2012 – a couple ...
Basia Bulat
On the promotion tour for her third record Tall Tall Shadow, out now on Secret City Records, Canadian songwriter Basia Bulat made some time to record a session in Amsterdam. ...
Three Blind Wolves
Last Thursday, Three Blind Wolves played a truly great show at Tivoli in Utrecht. It was their first show in Utrecht that I had nothing to do with, which was ...
Port Of Call
A couple of years ago I saw Port Of Call play as support act with Paulusma at EKKO in Utrecht. I couldn’t help but think of Neil Young somehow, even ...
Ryan Joseph Burns on the boat and in the sea
Aside from the shows on the stage in the woods, we filmed a couple of extra songs on different locations on the isle of Vlieland during Into The Great Wide ...
Ryan Joseph Burns
It would seem you don’t need an introduction to Ryan Joseph Burns anymore on this website. He’s been featured a lot of times, not without reason though. In March this ...
Three Blind Wolves
Here’s the second episode of the series we’ve named The Mailmen Sessions. First up were The Seventeenth Century, on that same day in May 2010, we filmed Three Blind Wolves ...
Saint Jude
Earlier this year we had the honour of having Lynne Jackaman and Adam Green of Saint Jude play an acoustic showcase during the Onder Invloed night at UROCK Cafe in ...
Awkward I (Festival aan de Werf)
This May, Onder Invloed had a live showcase at the wonderful Festival aan de Werf at De Neude in Utrecht. With hundreds of people in the crowd, The Cosmic Carnival, ...
Nat Jenkins, The Cosmic Carnival & Ro Halfhide – ‘The Weight’
In December, all the musicians who’d performed at the Onder Invloed live show in Amsterdam joined forces at the end of Nat Jenkins‘ set and played ‘The Weight’ by The ...
Best of Onder Invloed in 2009
It’s been an incredible year for OnderInvloed.com. The second year of our existence, we recorded sessions with wonderful and talented musicians. Live shows in Utrecht and Amsterdam, OI-recordings on the ...