Something Completely Different

Hi there,

“Something Completely Different” is Boele Gerkes from Zutphen, the Netherlands. That’s me! :-)

Born on February 2nd 1964, I grew up in a family of eight. Music has been part of my life as long as I can remember. Being almost the youngest I was “forced” to listen to the music of my older brothers and sisters. And they all played different styles in their bedrooms: the Stones, the Beatles, Vangelis, Deep Purple, the Who, Simon and Garfunkel, Klaus Schulze, Pink Floyd... they all came along and I liked all really.

But one kind of music jumped out: the mysterieus sounds of the now so-called old school synthesizer music by artists like Klaus Schulze,Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk and Vangelis. Specially the sounds of the Mellotron brought goose bumps on my arms and back, although I did not know at that time what a Mellotron was or how it even looked like. And the haunting sequences heard in many of their tunes still makes me smile.

In my early teenager years I got piano lessons and I loved to improvise on the piano at home. Tried to capture the sequencer lines of Tangerine Dream songs on it. At high school I played in a schoolband and became close friends with Martijn Haaijer and Johann Cats. The three of us sort of naturally got together and we started to record our own compositions. On cheap cassette recorders, tape recorders and ditto instruments. We continued to do so until our early twenties. The name “Something Completely Different” dates back those days.

My first synthesizer was a Synthetone Jen SX-1000, bought by money I earned cleaning the school during the summer holidays. That synthesizer actually started the love for making my own synthesizer music which I continued to do through the years until this very day.

Another thing I have always been doing is recording these compositions. The list has become quite extensive. I hope you can find a tune you like!

Boele Gerkes

Something Completely Different



Email address: scd @ synthmusic dot info





	Hi there, “Something Completely Different” is Boele Gerkes from Zutphen, the Netherlands. That’s me! :-) Born on February 2nd 1964, I grew up in a family of eight. Music has been part of my life as long as I can remember. Being almost the youngest I was “forced” to listen to the music of my older brothers and sisters. And they all played different styles in their bedrooms: the Stones, the Beatles, Vangelis, Deep Purple, the Who, Simon and Garfunkel, Klaus Schulze, Pink Floyd... they all came along and I liked all really. But one kind of music jumped out: the mysterieus sounds of the now so-called old school synthesizer music by artists like Klaus Schulze,Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk and Vangelis. Specially the sounds of the Mellotron brought goose bumps on my arms and back, although I did not know at that time what a Mellotron was or how it even looked like. And the haunting sequences heard in many of their tunes still makes me smile. In my early teenager years I got piano lessons and I loved to improvise on the piano at home. Tried to capture the sequencer lines of Tangerine Dream songs on it. At high school I played in a schoolband and became close friends with Martijn Haaijer and Johann Cats. The three of us sort of naturally got together and we started to record our own compositions. On cheap cassette recorders, tape recorders and ditto instruments. We continued to do so until our early twenties. The name “Something Completely Different” dates back those days. My first synthesizer was a Synthetone Jen SX-1000, bought by money I earned cleaning the school during the summer holidays. That synthesizer actually started the love for making my own synthesizer music which I continued to do through the years until this very day. Another thing I have always been doing is recording these compositions. The list has become quite extensive. I hope you can find a tune you like! Boele Gerkes