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Kurt Vereecke, founder of the “Frozen Rain” project was born on November 22, 1963 in Belgium. “Music has always fascinated me”, Kurt says. He wrote his first song when he was only 10 years old. In the local school of music Kurt formed his musical basics and learned to play guitar. At the age of 17 he formed his first band called “No Problems”. Kurt was the lead singer and guitar player and his brother Hans became the drummer of the band. No Problems mostly played covers and a few of their own songs.
After seeing a concert of the Canadian band Loverboy on television at the beginning of the 80’s Kurt got interested in A.O.R. and when a friend made him listen to the “Escape”-album by Journey Kurt knew this was the kind of music he wanted to play.
In 1988 Kurt began to write new material and formed a real A.O.R. band, the band he had always dreamed about. After countless auditions Kurt finally found the musicians for that project. Brother Hans Vereecke played drums and Marc Cnudde played the bass guitar. The line-up also had a Dutch guitar player, Erik Van Bers, and a Swedish vocalist, Timo Hara. They called the band “Rhyana” and went into the studio. There they recorded 6 songs. People liked their music and Rhyana did a few big concerts with bands like Clouseau, Golden Earring and Mud.
In 1990, record companies were not really interested in A.O.R. Still, CNR records told Rhyana they wanted to work with the band. The people of CNR saw things big and even promised the band that an album would be recorded in the famous Wisseloord Studio’s in Holland. When the negotiations with the record company broke down at last, this disillusion made the original line-up fall apart. Timo received a nice offer from another band and guitar player Erik Van Bers lost the courage to go on.
The band had a full agenda when Philippe decided to stop playing music. He wanted more time to spend with his family. Rhyana organized many auditions, but they couldn’t find a suitable new lead singer immediately. They even tried a female singer for a while but the band wasn’t the same anymore. For that reason the band members decided to stop.
In 1994 Kurt worked out twelve of his best songs, went to the home studio of a friend and recorded the songs with the help of guitarist Luc Van Thuyne. In fact the little home studio where they recorded was installed in a loft and there was not much space. Because of the lack of a good rock singer Kurt sang all the songs himself. It was on the basis of these demo songs “Long Island Records” got interested and offered Kurt a record deal. But… he never had the chance to make some decent recordings. The record company had to deal with a lot of financial problems and even soon afterwards Sondi (the boss of the label) died.
After this new set-back, Kurt decided to do something totally different and started writing songs for children. Kurt is a teacher in professional life. “I always felt there was a great need for new songs for children” Kurt tells us. And he was right. Immediately different publishers showed to be interested in the song material. Between 1996 and 2001 Kurt has written about hundred songs for kids. Most of these songs appeared on cd. In 2001 the third (and last) double-cd was released in Belgium. Kurt has also written 3 musicbooks for use in schools. A great part of the Belgian primary schools is working with Kurts music now.
On www.melodicrock.com Kurt learned to know the Swedish lyricist Andy Flash. Kurt was impressed by the lyrics Andy wrote and they decided to start writing songs together.
After all the setbacks in the past Kurt is determined to make his dream come true this time. First of all Kurt wanted to record the album in his own studio so he would be able to work without any pressure. It took some time but now the studio is ready and the recordings can start. “My goal is to make a great A.O.R. album and I feel lucky that so many great musicians and singers will help me with the album” Kurt tells. Kurt has always been a fan of Tommy Denander (Radioactive, Prisoner, Tykoon,…) so you can imagine Kurt was in
Musicians/singers on the album will be:
Guitarist Luc Van Thuyne: Luc was also a member of Rhyana and has been a friend for a long time. Luc now plays in the cover band Goe Bezig.
Guitarist Sven Bauwens: Sven is a young and very talented guitar player. He has opened his own guitar shop "Sonnor Music" very recently.
Guitarist Tommy Denander: Tommy doesn’t need any introduction. The man is a genius and has worked with people like Toto, David Foster, Richard Marx, etc… Above all he’s a very nice guy too. Take a look at his website http://www.tommy-denander.com/
Guitarist & vocalist Dirk Cauwels: Dirk is the lead singer of the cover band D.H.E.W.
Guitarist Frank Deroubaix (ex- Runaway)
Guitarist Dan Palladino: All info at http://www.riddleworks.com/
Guitarist & producer Ward Snauwaert: All info at http://wardsnauwaert.tripod.com
Bassplayer Vincent De Laat
Vocalist Johan Waem: Known from the pop idol contest in Belgium.
Vocalist Ollie Oldenburg: ex-Tightrope, ex-Zinatra, now singer of Oliver.
More info at http://www.oliver.nl
Vocalist Peter De Zutter (ex-Reno)
Vocalist Jo De Boeck: Jo is the lead singer of the Belgian A.O.R. band King of Hearts.
Vocalist Philippe Beauprez: Philippe sings in a cover band. Vocalist Guido Priori: Guido has just recorded a very nice "Journey Tribute" album. Info about Guido at: http://www.geocities.com/almoststeveperry/index.html Vocalist Willem Verwoert: Willem is the singer of the Dutch band Silent Edgehttp://www.silentedge.com/ Vocalist Leon Beelen Vocalist Chris Swinney: At the moment Chris is
