Gijs Koopman
Bass and Taurus
After 8 years with Cliffhanger and various auditions with other bands, I met Gerben during a Re-Genesis concert in De Boerderij Zoetermeer. I heard he played in a band called Sangamo and they were looking for a bass-player. I thought "that's a nice job for me". During this period I had a lot of fun playing with Gerben. He was working (together with his brother Joop) on a solo project called Knight Area. When I listened to some of their songs I was very enthusiastic. I offered Gerben to play some of the bass parts. He agreed and our cooperation started.
On the album 'The Sun Also Rises' I played the bass guitar on four tracks. On the next album I will play the whole thing! With Sangamo we could not find a vocalist. That was one of the reasons for me to leave this band and continue the work with Knight Area. Gerben asked me to play with him in the live incarnation of Knight Area. To play the music of Knight Area on stage we require two guitar players. I wanted Rinie Huigen (also ex-Cliffhanger) to join as one of them. We needed a second one as well. I also was engaged in the NovoX project the last three years. The four members of the former Cliffhanger worked on this album including a guitarist called Mark Vermeule. Gerben remembered this guy because he heard his playing on the NovoX demo. I asked Mark to join Knight Area and he agreed straight away. The original Knight Area band consists of seven (!) guys. We did gigs in the USA (NEARfest) France, Belgium and Germany. In 2006 we recorded the second album "Under a new Sign" and I was co-producer. The album did very well.
Due to personal circumstances, the band reduced in 2007 to 5 members. Although it came as a shock, we're still Knight Area and the spirit is still there. Maybe we're even stronger and more coherent than before. Now we've recorded 2 albums in this line-up. On the new Album "Nine Paths" I'll debut as a song writer for Knight Area. The song "The River" is coming from the depths of my brain. Although I did on the previous album a song called "Momentum" but that was more an arrangement. I used Gerben's chord sequence from "Dark Souls" and transferred it into a 5/8.
I'm also active with my former Cliffhanger band members. We'll release an audio DVD in 2011 with over 9,5 hrs of music. It contains various live concerts, demo's and outtakes and even a bonus concert film from 1994. Interesting is that I looked older back then (with beard etc), than I look now!
See also the pages of the other members.
Latest album
Nine Paths
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