‘Aan de Andere Kant’ means as much as ‘On the Other Side’. Fellow composer and producer Rapidi (Jan Jaap Snellen) and I made the soundtrack for this eclectic multi media children’s theatre show. It was great to work with Rapidi, but it was also great to work with theatre group Winterberg, who made a complicated and layered, yet easy to digest show with puppets, animations and actors.

Two Dreams At The Same Time

Two Dreams At The Same Time is the title of the newly released track (February 14, 2022). It features Rosie Stevens, who is known from the Dry Riverbed Trio, backed up by violin player Oene van Geel on cello, Eva Sofia (who is known for her solo project Veya) on violin, Jan Jaap Snellen and Peter Hordijk of Rumble Royale on keys and bass, Flora Dolores (the singer of Draax’ former band The Spinshots) on backing vocals and Danielle Pijpers of Comet Falls on drums. Martin Draax wrote the song and produced it, and plays guitar

Mixed by Lars Blakenburg en mastered by Kramer.

Laura A Dima did the make up for the clip, and Carola Jense-Wiede tailored the suits and dresses after Draax’ design.

‘Two Dreams’ is inspired by a quote by Martin’s partner Laura A Dima, who one day woke up asking ‘can you have two dreams at the same time?’. Dima and Draax have been working together ever since they met on a train station where Martin recognised in her the main character of his comics and animations for the past 21 years – and now they happened to be waiting for the same train. They developed the instagram soap artwork ‘Multiple Reality Disorder’ for which Martin wrote a song: Laura shines as all the characters in the videoclip that comes with the project. Draax also wrote the soundtrack ‘Music For Fingers’ to go with Dima’s installation ‘The Finger Rub Rug’, featuring 1300 replica’s of Draax’ fingers.

After writing down Dima’s question, Martin wrote the song dedicated to Dima. It combines unusual drum patterns with surf guitars and strings, and makes use of two different scales at the same time. The result is a song that refers to music from the Golden Era, but yet is something completely different. It’s up- and downtempo at the same time, it’s sharp and direct as well as dreamy and melancholic. ‘Two Dreams At The Same Time’ is the best of both worlds.

The Bass Benders

The Bass Benders is not a band, but ‘a way of working’ – to quote Robert Fripp when asked about King Crimson. As Draax writes his material, he asks befriended musicians to play parts. As draax keeps the overview of the production, musicians can focus on their contribution: they come to the studio one by one and there get the time and space they need to excel. The pool of musicians around Draax can all be considered ‘The Base Benders’.

Line of Life is the very first song i wrote for the Spinshots. Just before we quit after 9 or 11 years (i forgot what it was) this version made it to be the B side of the singe ‘Balkan Dinosaur’, and I am really happy we recorded it. It never reached it’s full potential but i still like to hear it – there are some versions on the web so give it a try 😉

I wrote ‘Balkan Dinosaur’ for the Spinshots in an attempt to mix ‘Balkan’ with ’70s ‘glam’Rock. It’s part of the EP series ‘Seven Bullets, One Gun’ in which we unfold a story about a young woman being murdered. Fans can find out who the killer is by following clues from lyrics and the graphic designs of the covers.

‘Music For Fingers’ was written as a quadrophonic soundtrack with five speakers. It had 4 ‘atmospheres’ coming from the directions where the speakers were positioned and a fifth, ‘haptic’ speaker under the artwork ‘The Finger Rub Rug’ by Laura A Dima.

The Finger Rub Rug was an art installation: A rug the size of a single bed, having 1300 replicas of my fingers was put in a white room where visitors were allowed one by one. People were instructed they could do what they wanted in the room; there were no cameras, you were truly on your own. People who dared to lie down on the mat would feel an extra heart in their chest (the fifth speaker was positioned below the mat.)

The music i wrote for The Finger Rub Rug was having four atmospheres: you could either concentrate on the scary part, the witty part, the harmonic, natural part or the erotic part. I was inspired by the look of the fingers and thought of what you can do, with fingers. We think it is our brain that made us who and where we are, but fingers pull triggers. Fingers touch to find out if something is real. Fingers can strangle and caress.

So the ‘Exotica’ style soundtrack of course is inspired by the works of Danny Martin and Les Baxter. To make it publicly available, i made a stereo version of the soundtrack and presented the different ‘islands’ (atmospheric tracks with an identity of their own within the soundtrack that emerge out of the waves of the sound ocean) s seperate songs. enjoy!

credits

‘Sugar Skulls’ is Draax’ take on New Orleans funk. It plays with lessons learned from Bo Diddley, The Dixie Cups, Betty Harris but it adds flavours of 60’s and ‘70s punk to it. The lyric is funny yet thought provoking as it says something about our need to judge others. I felt extra inspired to make this song after seeing Penny Lane’s documentary on The Satanic Temple… A must-see, by the way!

lead vox: Nikki Marina
Drums and tambourine: Danielle Pijpers
Bas: Peter Hordijk
Trompet: Ruud ‘Trompie’ Kleiss
Tuba and Trombone: Simon Glas
Orgel and Piano: Jan Jaap Snellen
Guitars: Martin Draax
Backing Vocals: Flora Dolores & Ruud Kleiss
Handclaps: Martin and Danielle

Music written Martin Draax and Jan Jaap Snellen
Lyrics by Martin Draax
Horns Arrangement by Ruud Kleiss
Produced by Martin Draax
Mixed by Lars Blakenburg
Mastered by Kramer
Artwork by Martin Draax

Omnes Tredecim Boni was Paxy Dragon’s answer to the accusation that we would be ‘pretentious’. We thought we had a perfect understanding of perspective so we gave our album this Latin title, that loosely translate to ’13 big hits’.

‘Tentacles is part of the music I wrote for Laura A Dima’s The Finger Rub Rug’.

You can hear the complete soundtrack here.

‘Qui est ‘In’, qui est ‘out’ was written by Serge Gainsbourg. I arranged this cover version and we recorded it with the Spinshots for the compilation album ‘Gainsnord’ – Ditch band playing music by Serge Gainsbourg.

‘Playful Fingers’ was made as part of a soundtrack for an artwork by Laura A Dima. Full album here.

‘Love Antenna’ was the final song I wrote for the Spinshots. I think it is one of our best productions – I really love everything about it.

‘Exotic Fingers’ was written for an artwork by Laura A Dima – as part of the soundtrack. On spotify you can find the stereo version of the -originally quadrophonic- soundtrack as a whole. just type my name and ‘Music For Fingers’

‘Don and Dave’s Sit And See It Happen Show’ was a cynical rock opera, written at the early days of ‘Opinion TV’ that is nowadays so common. The story is about two TV preachers who both have a habit: Don likes young girls, and Dave likes the drug ‘Serotonine’ a bit too much. Don and Dave was what happened to the world 20 years later: opportunistic narcissist politicians and celebrities guiding the masses, having a big mouth about moral and such, without caring for anybody else but themselves.

The story develops around a young ‘Romeo and Juliet’ kind of couple – the son of a ‘Don And Dave addict’ and an asylum seeker. Unfortunately, Paxy Dragon decided to quit in the process of making this rock opera. But here are the songs I wrote for it.

‘Cuba Libre was written by Ruud ‘Trompie’ Kleiss and me, and the lyrics are by Flora Dolores and me. At the time we called the music of the Spinshots ‘Neo Exotica’ – which meant a danceable kind of beat-music mixed with Latin, African, eastern European and Indian music.

‘Rhythm and Tunes’ is in my opinion the best name we had to describe the music of the Spinshots. I never wanted to be tied down by a genre and this was a humorous way of saying that we could not be placed in a genre. The mini album ‘Smiths of Rhythm and Tunes’ is not the best album we did but it was played more or less live in the studio, so it showed what we could do.

I like the song ‘Smiths of Rhythm & Tunes’ though. Too bad we never made a recording of it the way I fancied. And i like ‘Cleans-o-tech’ a lot still.

‘Blue for the Occasion’ is Paxy Dragon’s third CD album. (hey guys, those were the ’90s!)

We recorded the drums at Studio IJland, and the rest in my house. I lived in a squat at the time, and the band members stayed over for a week, living on coffee and pizzas. We stapled mattresses onto the walls to sort of respect the neighbours and worked for a week, perhaps two weeks in a row.

Love Antenna is one of the last songs i wrote for the Spinshots. i made it a habit on the covers for the single series ‘Seven Bullets, One Gun’, to already show a propagation for the next single. This would be ‘The Great Black Open’ – hence the space girl.

Seven Bullets, One Gun was meant as a whodunit, our fans could solve a murder with hints in the lyrics and sleeve designs. But i already knew by the time Love Antenna came out, that this was our last single. Hence the seven lost & lonely astronauts.

The Spinshots performing ‘Pride Before Fall’ live in the studio at Radio 6.

‘Tentacles’ is the name of this music and clip. It is a promotional videoclip for Laura A Dima’s ‘The Finger Rub Rug’ in which she caster 1300 replicas of my fingers and made a single bed from them. She made an installation in which The Finger Rub Rug was in the middle of a designated white room, with a heat blanket beneath it and a haptic speaker playing a heart beat.

People were left alone in the room and could do what they liked: if they would lie on the Rug, they’d hear my music coming from four sides: one side had playful sounds, an other side had scary sounds, one resembled ‘nature’ and another on seemed erotic. All music was composed on the rhythm of the heartbeat you felt pulsing in your chest. This increased the emotional effect and positioned the questions Laura wanted to provoke with her work.

To promote the exhibition, Laura had four one-minute films shot. Video is shot by Fabian Landsweerd, I edited the rushes to four trailers with excerpts of my music. Oh and I did the titles 😉

‘Skilled Fingers’ is the name of this music and clip. It is a promotional videoclip for Laura A Dima’s ‘The Finger Rub Rug’ in which she caster 1300 replicas of my fingers and made a single bed from them. She made an installation in which The Finger Rub Rug was in the middle of a designated white room, with a heat blanket beneath it and a haptic speaker playing a heart beat.

People were left alone in the room and could do what they liked: if they would lie on the Rug, they’d hear my music coming from four sides: one side had playful sounds, an other side had scary sounds, one resembled ‘nature’ and another on seemed erotic. All music was composed on the rhythm of the heartbeat you felt pulsing in your chest. This increased the emotional effect and positioned the questions Laura wanted to provoke with her work.

To promote the exhibition, Laura had four one-minute films shot. Video is shot by Fabian Landweert, I edited the rushes to four trailers with excerpts of my music. Oh and I did the titles 😉

The Soundtrack for Deep Shit is very important for the story. Not only did I try to run through pop music history from -say- the 40s to the 70’s; the music shows that we have different interpretations of what we hold for the truth. Two bands wrote the same song accidentally but their execution is very different. One is a punk rock version in English while the other one is a synth wave version in French. This concept foreshadows the idea of a Platonic ‘Ideal World’ where ideas are pure and we tap into that world to work with derivates of the original and pure ideas.

In the animated short, the animated characters travel to the world of the artist creating them, to ask him to design them as more successful. They get help from the devil, making the music even more fun: popular music and satanism always went hand in hand.

The music was written by me and performed by the Spinshots, Boyd Small, the Van Dijck Sisters and Edwin Slothouber.

Pigeons & People is my first single in the series ‘multiple Reality disorder. The idea of the album is that it is going to be an eclectic bunch of singles in which I can record and produce whatever I want with who ever I want (and wants to work with me of course).

This is a song about the dynamics of Amsterdam, the city where I live, the town that I love and learned to hate.
Edwin Slothouber: Drums
Wrecker Walley: Backings
Floor van Dijck: Backings
Janfie van Strien: Clarinet
Jan Jaap Snellen: organs
Martin Draax: Lead vox, guitars, sample editing, bass, one finger organ

Written and arranged, produced by Martin Draax
Mixed by Lars Blakenburg
Recorded at Blackbird studio Zaandam
Mastered by Kramer
Special thanks: Jan Jaap Snellen and Lars Blakenburg

see the video here

The Spinshots live at an Amsterdam Beat Club event at Paradiso Amsterdam

Just a bit of a live gig we played at Woodstock (hold your horses, it’s a venue at the beach in the Netherlands, not the famous festival)

The Spinshots were asked to bring out a cover of this song by Serge Gainsbourg. After the demo was agreed on by Charlotte Gainsbourg, we recorded it at Rob’s Berend’s studio and I finished it with extra tracks at home. It made it to a compilation with Dutch artists covering Serge Gainsbourg songs, called ‘Gainsnord’ – curated by DJ Guuzbourg.

For that album I did the graphic design by the way, I am sure you can find it somewhere on this site.

The Spinshots had quite a live reputation. However, there are hardly any live recordings around. But here are a few.

‘Kathy was the name of a song that was favourite amongst our fans. The song is not on the album, but we had a fan in the studio shouting for it, which is the final thing you hear on this record, after the last song.

Omnes Tredecim Boni is fake Latin for ‘Alle Dertien Goed’, which is Dutch for well, loose translation: ‘Thirteen Top Hits’.
This is a bit of a joke since someone once  said we were pretentious. So we thought a Latin title is exactly what we needed.

These are the EPs that the Spinshots brought out as a ‘Whodunit’ – all together the EPs were one album unfolding a story about a girl who got murdered. The audience was invited to find out who did it.

‘Gone Before He Left’ was my attempt to write a John Barry style kind of song – as if related to the James Bond franchise.
For this single, drummer Emanuel Wiemans and I did the production and we had great help by Sietse van Gorkom, who arranged the strings orchestra on this track.

The cover was drawn by Emanuel Wiemans, who is, apart from an excellent drummer also an excellent visual artist.

On the B side of the vinyl is the signature tune for my animation film ‘Deep Shit, sang by Boyd Small, and ‘Comic Sexy’, the hymn for the fashion brand I started up with André Oosterman. It is used in a videoclip and was played in venues for the models to dance the special ‘Comic Sexy’ choreography to.

Maybe there is another person in this world who likes this: some demos i made – most songs never made it to an end result on an album. Ugly sounds with fake drums and boxed horn sections. Demos made at home, drinking too much coffee, making it too late each time. But i like the compositions and the arrangements, i like the intentions. i like the potential. So who knows, if there is somebody in this world who hears the quality – it’s for you!

‘Blue for the Occasion’ is. except for the drums, recorded in my kitchen. We nailed mattresses to the walls and installed ourselves behind the computer drummer Edwin Slothouber brought over (which was then the only in our circles that was fast enough).

We had food and drinks for a week and recorded this album. We prerecorded the drums at Studio Yland. The song ‘Goodlooking Girls Are Always Right’ was considered the best song title of the year by a critic.

‘Never So Right’ was the Spinshots’ first and only album. We tried to make a variety within a range of ‘exotica’ related styles and at something of ourselves to it. All songs on the album were written by me, except ‘Qui est ‘in’, qui est ‘out’ which was written by Serge Gainsbourg and ‘If I Would Fall’ which was written by Andreas Tscholl and Hans van Grasstek.