Joost van den Broek Appreciation Thread

Mon May 26, 2008 8:37 pm by Franneke

It lacks a thread for talking about the keyplayer Juicy
I think he does a great work in the band, he brings a new sound and music to the band, and also he colaborates alot in the production of the new albums since Remagine, I think he's a really good element in the band ( even if sometimes I dont like his new intros to some old songs but well, tastes are tastes )


Just read this old interview ( 2005, I guess) where Sander and Floor are talking about him, quite interesting


Indeed - "Remagine" is the first After Forever's album in a new line-up. The first one with the keyboard-player Joost van den Broek. During our conversation, and also while listening to the new compositions, it becomes clear that Joost's influence has been extremely important. Both Sander and Floor speak with lots of pride and admiration about him:

Sander: "When you listen to the album, you can hear that we have now a real keyboard player. Not just someone who just plays things, in a classical way only. We have now someone who brings a different sound to a cd. He does many different things. And he has also co-written the music. So he brought his influence to the songs when it comes to the composition, the form and the sound"

Floor adds: "He creates his own sounds. You won't hear him playing any standard Casio-things, or some stuff from a sampler. Joost has also his own typical style of creating melodies. He has more of a progressive background, and you might think that the cd would contain many keyboard solos, but that's not the case. He knows how to write in a functional way. And you can hear it well. The collaboration of Sander and Joost is really something fantastic. They went into the rehearsal room and there was some kind of fire, some chemistry. They were writing one song after another"

Sander adds: "I have never experienced it with anyone else. I never could write songs so smoothly together with someone. I have never had this sort of chemistry with someone before."

Floor continues: "Actually together they created the basis of every composition. The rest was only the matter of filling things in: 'Look guys, this is the verse, this is the chorus, and here comes the mid-piece, etc. It's gonna be like this. Could you maybe play here something like this? Could you do this and that here?' And in this way others gave their contributions. That's how it went. Not that their role was not important, since without them you don't have the After Forever-sound. But Joost's influence is really huge."

Sander: "For the first time there was someone who was also thinking in the terms of production. I am myself pretty much busy with such things, but there was earlier no one who would think in the same way. 'If we play it like this, then it's gonna sound like that on the cd.' And that's important. Joost knew already beforehand how he wanted songs to sound. He had a big influence. And then Floor's vocals completed in all perfectly. I couldn't have wished for a better process than the way it all went now. Really fantastic!"

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