Awake has been very busy since the arrival of Johan on vocals in April 2000. Now, after two years, the band has produced a worthy successor to Tidal Wave and even more. A new song was recorded to appear on a promotional CD, released by the Power Records International label. The song is called Don't Stop. Since the record label is located in the town of Hoorn in the west of The Netherlands, Awake was hoping that this would result in more shows in that region. However, after a while it became obvious that the 'Power CD' wasn't working for them at all. After wasting six months waiting for news from Hoorn, the band decided to take matters in their own hands again and record a brand new demo.

Work on a music video for Don't Stop began in June and July 2001 and was finished in October of that year. The live footage in the video was shot on the Vincent van Gogh High School. Former singer Egbert was asked to play the lead role in the video, together with Johan's sister in law and several of Siger's students. Images were shot in the office of Studio Van Stralen, the graphic art studio of Egbert's former landlords Jan and Sandro, and on location at a recreational lake in Groningen.

The new CD Don't Stop features four tracks: Don't Stop and three newly recorded songs.
Johan's sister in law, Tamara, who also plays a role in the video, appears in a song called End of a Star. This song is Awake's first duet and it combines beautiful melodies with some of the heaviest riffs awake has ever played (Siger listens to In Flames a lot lately).
Third song on the CD is Gone, a slower song (but very heavy in parts). You can hear Johan's love for Queensryche an Muse in this song which has the most beautiful vocal line and lyrics of the CD.
Johan's song Open Eyes, which also appeared on some versions of For a Day, has been re-recorded and is now an official Awake song. It's 80% computer driven and combines haunting vocals and computer effects with some very heavy riffs. Yes indeed, Awake also listens to Rammstein.

These four song are combined with an extensive CD-ROM section. In this section the fans can play the video for Don't Stop and browse a fully operational Awake website containing all sorts of extras.

DON'T STOP 1. End of a Star (Riddersma/Faber) 2. Don't Stop (Diderich, Fischer, Riddersma, Smit/Riddersma) 4:32 3. Gone (Diderich/Faber) 4. Open Eyes (Faber)

(1, 3 and 4) recorded at Red Light Studio, Groningen, The Netherlands; October/November 2001.
Produced and Mixed by Tiemen Smit and Awake
(2) recorded at Steelworks Studio, Purmerend, The Netherlands; October/November 2000.
Produced and mixed by Fred Mantel and Awake
Art Work by Awake

Download these songs or listen to them in Real Audio Format at the Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA).
Special rarities and live recordings can be downloaded from our Vitaminic page.