Hi people. Thanx for taking the time reading this enormous amount of words. On these pages you will find all you need to know about the history of the band (and much more). It's all there, from the very beginning to the last change in line up. I've only added stuff which can be considered 'closed chapters'. It's everything I can tell you about us anyway. Hope you enjoy.
Siger
(Awake's official biographer)
Awake is a rock band from the Dutch city of Groningen, formed in August 1995 by drummer Maarten Fischer and guitarist Siger Riddersma. With the addition of fellow guitarist Guus Diderich to the line-up the core of Awake was formed.
It wasn't until 1998 that Awake became a real band. The arrival of Danny Barnhoorn on bass and Egbert Smit on vocals took the band to a new level. Awake produced two cds: Daylight (1998) and Tidal Wave (1999). The combination of Iron Maiden influenced music and Egbert's 'grungy' style vocals (he's a big fan of Pearl Jam) worked very well. Unfortunately Egbert had to leave the band early 2000.
A replacement was found in Johan Faber. With Johan Awake has shifted to a higher gear. Within a month after his arrival they played their first gig together and within three months they produced e new demo: For a Day (2000). His arrival has pushed Awake into new musical fields. Johan's a big fan of Muse and Radiohead and also likes to mess around with computers and synthesizers. The new direction can be described as: "pop with a metal edge" (and it's a sharp edge allright). A second cd was recorded at the end of 2001, called: Don't Stop (2002) and it even featured a real music video (which was actually shown on TV in March 2002).
2001 was a weird year for Awake. Drummer Maarten moved to Utrecht to start a job but he did remain amember of the band. After a while it proved to be impossible to rehearse on a regular basis and song writing almost completely stopped. For this reason the sad decision was made to look for a new drummer. It took a full year and Awake did play some gigs and even recorded a new cd in that year. But early 2002 Maarten was replaced by Ywe van der Pol. Ywe is a more metal minded drummer than Maarten so the band's style changed again a bit. 2002 and 2003 saw a lot of gigs. Work was begun on a fifth cd, called The Mirror. This time the band wanted to record everything themselves using their home recording gear. Sadly this didn't work out. Slowly some personal and musical difficulties appeared and the mood in Awake changed. At the end of 2003 Awake had come to a complete stop so Johan left to focus on his solo project Radius. Danny, Guus and Siger took a long hard look and decided that they wanted to revive the fun of the old days and call Maarten back. Strangely these decisions cleared the air a great deal within Awake and the last shows in October/November of 2003 were a lot of fun. At the end of 2003 Johan and Ywe left Awake without any hard feelings and they have remained, like Egbert did, close friends of the band.
The search for a new singer was on in January 2004. A lot of people entered the rehearsal room but there was never a spark. The search lasted until February 2005 when Siger met Michiel Bodewes. Because Maarten still lives in Utrecht rehearsing is not that easy. Danny, Guus, Michiel and Siger have started to come together every week on Mondays to rehearse acoustically and work on vocals. Every chance they get the band joins up in Utrecht or Groningen to play as a whole band. Musically this is no problem. Playing together since 1998 (or even 1995) has laid a solid foundation. For Michiel it is much more difficult to find his place, especially when playing live. However it looks like all is going to be well with Awake. The first show was played in October 2005 and went very well. The band got many compliments on Michiel's singing and the vibe on stage was also very good. Michiel fits in socially as well as musically and that's very important. There are only a couple of things that need attention and these will be worked out in the coming months.
Ten years is a long time. Far too long to fit in just one biography so we've written a whole history section. By clicking on the links below you can access all kinds of stories about Awake. The best way to get a good picture is to just start at the first page and work your way up.
Enjoy!
* 1995 - 1998 *
This is the story of the earliest line ups of Awake. You can read all about the hardships of starting up a band, finding and replacing band members, writing songs and playing live.
* 1998 - 2003 *
Here you can read all about the time when Awake became a 'real' band and also something of a family.
* Current Affairs *
The latest updates on Awake. This section will be permanently under construction as more sections will be added.
* PICTURES *
All kinds of pictures from all stages and line ups of Awake.