Hello there
imagine this with Obi-Wan Kenobi’s voice
I am an artist at heart, I make music for a living, and there is nothing in the entire universe that I enjoy more than making music. One reason for this is stories. I believe stories are incredibly powerful, and the way music can tell a story is absolutely wonderful.
The other big reason is that music can portray emotions unlike anything else. The way sound can bring a feeling to live absolutely fascinates me. And I think it’s very special that when I struggle with the difficult stuff in life, music is always there for me.
By the way, I am not gonna list all my achievements and millions of streams or whatever in here. The point of this website is to show you ME, and all the things that shaped me into who I am. How I feel about music, about art. Because ultimately, none of the stats matter. All that matters is that we get to live this magic. And maybe I can share with you that feeling. Maybe I can give you a glimpse of the world I see.
The Core Of My Being
THE THINGS THAT MAKE ME WHO I AM
MY HOBBIES
I love video games (The Legends Of Zelda, Hollow Knight, Ori, The Last Of Us, Super Mario, Pokémon, Minecraft, Terraria, and more!!)
I especially love exploring in games. Getting to explore a vast world, and save it from evil. There is something truly beautiful about that. I do like a variety of games, whether it’s solving puzzles, 1v1 fighting your best friend, playing Mario Kart and getting hit by red shells until you’re in the final place (skill issue, I know), anyways, I love games!! :D
VIDEO GAMES
There’s some films and series that really changed me as a person. I am a really big fan of Arcane, like, I don’t know how something so amazing can exist in this world, it’s absolutely perfect!!!! I also love Breaking Bad, Star Wars (especially Andor and Rogue One), Lord Of The Rings, The Good Place, Arrow, The Bear, Interstellar, Inception, Tenet, South Park, Modern Family, Better Call Saul, ahhhh so many good movies and series, I could continue this list for a while but I won’t for the sake of keeping this website of reasonable size :)
FILMS & TELEVISION
LISTENING TO MUSIC (DUH!)
My favourite and most important hobby in my life will always be listening to music. I love music, I love lots of different music, and I think this is where my love for making music comes from.
I could name a million different artists that I absolutely love, but I am too afraid I will forget someone, and that will leave me wanting to edit this page every day when I think of another artist I love. So instead, I would encourage you to hack my Tidal account, and find out what I am listening to!
FOOD
Food is a beautiful way human being connect and relate, no matter where they come from. And I think that is awesome! It also helps that I love eating food, especially Indian food, Indonesian food, and oh, ummm… Hamburgers… Too many friends call me Ben Burgerbosch already, so please try not to mention it too often!!
I love reading, just the act of reading is very peaceful to me. I love reading psychology books, poetry, productivity books, a good novel. But I also love reading wiki’s and lore about my favourite games/movies/series.
READING/BOOKS
Some of you might be interested in what instruments I play. So let’s start from the beginning. When I was a still a baby, I was a drummer, dedicated to hit and drum solo on every object I was able to find.
Then in school I learned to play the most amazing instrument of all time: THE RECORDER. But then when I was 12 I started to seriously practice the piano, which is what really shaped me into who I am today. I started wanting to play Megalovania as a part of a bet with a friend (a bet that I won :D), but on a deeper level, I really loved to play all the music from my favourite soundtracks. I got suspended from music classes about four months into High School, so I really did have to learn it all by myself through YouTube.
So basically piano really is my main instrument. But I am getting guitar lessons, and this is an instrument that I also really love, and I still want to get better at it. Apart from that, I have studied the orchestra a lot, but I don’t really play any orchestral instruments, except for piano.
PLAYING INSTRUMENTS
I also love hiking and taking walks. Not that I hike much or anything anymore lately, but I once hiked the Mont Ventoux, France. And this is something I am very proud of. It was a very beautiful sight!!!
WALKING/HIKING
Recently I got into writing as a hobby, just for myself. But I also always loved writing down fantasy stories! This is when the music in my head just starts to magically come alive, it’s wild!!! Anyways, writing does wonders against feeling overwhelmed I discovered, so I definitely consider the act of writing a good friend at this point.
WRITING STORIES
MY ALBUMS
The Music That Tells My Story
The Way I Live My Life
LIFE PHILOSOPHY
You may have noticed a lot of space images on my website. And while I do think space stuff is super cool, it’s mostly there as a metaphor. A metaphor for endless possibilities.
The fact that I am able to create music from my bedroom in The Netherlands and people all over the world are able to hear this. Isn’t that absolutely insane?!?! I mean HOW COOL is that?!?!?!?!?!
I generally really like to think big. This doesn’t mean I am not grateful for the small things either, I think both these things can co-exist.
The idea of having to stick to one style of music feels limiting to me, the idea of keeping a website just purely professional feels limiting to me. I like to explore and learn every day, and the most amazing thing of all is: the better I become, the more I feel like I don’t know what I am doing. And that’s something so incredibly freeing!
ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES
I 100% consider myself to be a night-owl. I go to bed every day at 3am, and I wake up every day at 11am (this may look odd at first, but I am able to maintain an amazing level of consistent 8 hours of sleep, every day).
One of the reasons I like doing this is because I always felt tired in the mornings, so why not skip them altogether! And another reason is that it's pretty cool to be living alongside a similar time as my international friends and clients!
But the main reason for me is just the magic of the night. At the hours between midnight and 3am, I really feel like I have my own space in time. I also just really find midnight very calming overall.
I LOVE THE NIGHT
WELL, WELL, WELL… I wanted to put this here, because a lot of my music is really sad, or dark even. And as a person I am generally very happy and cheerful. I guess I just like to put my sad emotions into the music.
For me, humour is the way I like to connect with people. And of course, being sincere and funny both have their places, depending on the context. I just think humour is sometimes underrated. I think it’s hard for me to be genuine if I am serious about everything. And I mean, I am sincere in what I do, and I deeply care. It’s just that humour can take the edge of stuff, and help us human people connect.
I also think it can just make life much more enjoyable. One little joke can turn the mood of a tense meeting, and make life more fun!!
HUMOUR IS ESSENTIAL
When we grow up, we risk getting caught up in the idea of being mature. Losing our child-like curiosity and enthusiasm, just to become a “responsible” adult, or to fit in. And I deeply reject this idea.
In fact, the person who came up with the idea that fun is child-like, and work is not supposed to be fun can lick the bottom of my shoe!
Fun and genuine enthusiasm is the motor behind everything I do, and I would have not been where I am today if it wasn't for this. For instance, I sometimes take a few days off, just to play a new game that is out. And once I come back, I am filled with inspiration and enthusiasm. In fact, that inspiration and enthusiasm is often a result of just having fun! So yes, fun is a non-negotiable.
FUN IS A NON-NEGOTIABLE
Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese philosophy that’s all about finding the beauty in imperfections (or something along those lines). And I find this life philosophy absolutely AMAZING.
In my music, not everything is perfect, I also don’t try to make it perfect. And I genuinely believe that my music is better because of this. It releases a lot of pressure to be perfect. I mean I even think trying to be perfect is kind of lame, because nothing ever is (except Arcane).
In addition to this, my good friend Ron came up with a concept called: “Wabi-Salami”, and the idea behind this is that while it doesn’t have to be perfect, Wabi-Salami is the level where things just feel sloppy, messy, or straight-up uncared for. We don’t want Wabi-Salami, we want Wabi-Sabi!!
WABI-SABI
Working hard to me means that you take the time to rest well, to recharge. And I would consider myself a productive, hard working person. But I also care about rest. In fact, I am absolutely obsessed with sleeping. Not in a lazy kind of way, but in a way of wonder. It’s kind of magic how the act of sleeping recharges and helps us reset. It’s kind of like ground hog day, except it’s a new day!!!
Resting for me also means taking the time to do the things you enjoy, celebrating the small wins, setting boundaries. All this ultimately helps me to maintain the relationship I have with music, even 10000 years from now (hypothetically..)
WORK HARD, REST HARD
“It takes a village to raise a person”
…and it took a world to turn me into the artist who I am today
I want to dedicate this part to all the people in my life who supported me through my music journey.
Thank you to Lorenzo Ferrara, Ron Snijders, Ruben Camacho, Pawel Morytko, Zach Heyde, Sami J Laine, Ali, Michael Yang, Oliver, Kevin Kuschel, Zuhaib Shazada, Patrick Hickey, Sianna, Ben Whitfield, LukeMans, Joonas Tyni, Gabriel Saban, Simon, Max Cameron, Ray, Kai, Kevin, Pablo Tovar, Carl Hausman, Sami Takieddin, Jonas Bock, Daniel Keating, Yannick, Otter, Joe Sugrue, Waltee, Brian Delgado, Gus, Nikhil, Nihar, Joe, Stan, Garrett Weyenberg, Audun Moseng, Paul-Edouart, Ian Temple, Brian Smith, Dianne, Timothy Shortell, Christian Riemer, Jason Chaffee, Árni, Hildur, Ólafur Arnalds, Sayed, Godmode, SLANKS, Luka Ilic, FLOORA, Manit, Mitchell Broom, Westheart, Jayden Lawrence, Jameson Dunphey, Kronusferrus, Lawson, Jasper Blunk, Andres H Sarmiento, Mufaya, Heikki, Jessie Yun, Grant Steller, Robert Rodriguez, Sofi Paez, Nordic Dunn, Tossler, Diego, Jon, Ehab, Marvin, Liam Carney, Sean Crone, Fabian Shock, Daric Shire, Alonso, Steven McDonald, Taylor, Victor, Alex Rosskopf, Dave Tregoning, Alex Moukala, Cheska Navarro, Jesús Abalo, Arn Andersson, Dion, Nazar, Phong, George, Colin, Emmanuel, Zynoa, Emma, Jonas, Hannah, Evan Dingman, Alex, and every single one of my listeners, fans, and awesome people that I met throughout this journey.
I couldn't have done this without you, and I wanted to put all your names down here, because all of you have helped me becoming a better a composer, producer, artist, and musician.
And I also want to give a huge thanks to all the other people in my life. Thank you mom, dad, bonus mom, and bonus for letting me pursue music and trusting my gut. Thanks to all my 4 sisters, my brother, my three brother-in-laws, my grandparents, uncles, aunts, nephews, and nieces for keeping up with me and my many, many, many words. Thank you to my teachers in college for believing in my music journey (you had no need to do this, but did it anyways!!), thank you to all the people who I've worked with before I went full-time with music, and a huge thanks to all my friends, family of friends, and friends of family!!