Anneke Giersbergen

Arjen explains: Hans van Vuuren of the Transmission label is a big fan of Anneke and one day asked me to have a good listen to her voice. Indeed I was quite impressed. Anneke is a pitch-perfect singer and her voice has a wonderful deep vibrato. It took quite some time to convince Anneke (but more specifically her band) to participate

Astrid van der Veen

Arjen explains: “Someone had sent me an MP3 with Astrid singing on it. I didn’t have time to listen to it, but he kept asking me to listen to it. When I finally did listen, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that the singer was only 14

Backing vocalists

Featured on Anthony – Pools of Sorrow, Waves of Joy Ayreon – The Final Experiment Audio To the Quazar Mirjam van Doorn – vocals Arjen explains: Mirjam is the wife of Peter Vink, my favorite bass player. She has a high and bright powerful voice that blends wonderfully with the dark voice of Debby Schreuder. [...]

Barry Hay

Arjen explains:

Back in the 80s my last band Vengeance performed ‘Back Home’ live with Barry on vocals. I’ve always been a big Earring fan, so having Barry on my album was a great experience for me. It was the first time that a voice that I had listened to for all my youth sang one of my very own songs…

Bob Catley

Arjen explains: no comment yet.

Bruce Dickinson

Arjen explains: My manager at the time, Harrie, worked for the same management as Iron Maiden’s, so at some point he had given Bruce a copy of ‘Into the Electric Castle’. About 6 months later Harrie asked Bruce if he had ever listened to it, and he replied that he loved it…

Damian Wilson

Arjen Explains: His voice reminds me of one of my favorite singers; Robert Plant, although Damian sings completely different and is absolutely not a Plant fan. That’s why his voice can be considered unique. It is clear, and strong, and indestructible. I heard one of his songs (Homegrown) on a Prog collection CD and was immediately impressed.

Daniel Gildenlow

Arjen explains: No comment yet.

Dave Brock

Arjen explains: I’ve collected and listened to ‘Hawkwind’ records for my entire life. I loved the mysterious spacey music, sleeves and lyrics. I asked Dave many times if he would participate on one of my CDs, but I was never able to reach him, until Star One. He’s never been a guest on anyone else’s project either, which makes me extra proud to know he was on mine…

Devin Townsend

Arjen explains: I first heard Devin when he sang on Steve Vai’s ‘Sex and Religion’ album, and we all knew something extraordinary was happening here! Then much later I received a stack of albums and when I listened to them Devin Townsend’s album really stuck out, I believe it was ‘Terria’. Clearly something unique was happening here; this wall of sound, lots of weirdness and great melodies…

Devon Graves

Arjen explains: I once heard Psychotic Waltz about 10 years ago when a journalist played it to me and I remember I really liked the singer. The record company Inside Out regularly sends me CDs they release. Among them was Devon’s new band Dead Soul Tribe. Again I was impressed by his voice and decided to contact him…

Edward Balogh

Arjen explains: Edwin had sent me an Omega CD featuring his vocals. I wasn’t convinced, but when he visited me and sang something accompanying himself with guitar I was. Edwin has a raw voice, and sings with great passion…

Edward Reekers

Arjen explains: Edward always watches my face when he’s singing. Whenever he sees that big smile appear, he knows he’s on the right track. Edward has a bright, and yet warm voice. A lot of Dutch people will recognize his voice from the many commercials he sings. I was already a fan of his voice when I heard Kayak’s

Eric Clayton

Arjen: Some years ago a German journalist introduced me to the music of Saviour Machine, and needless to say I was really impressed by their singer Eric Clayton. His voice kinda reminded me of David Bowie, but he definitely has his own distinctive style. Then my manager Yvette played me some of their stuff and…

Esther Ladiges

Arjen explains: Esther was one of the approximately 150 singers who sent in their recordings in response to my request on my website in which I invited unknown singers to send me their material. One of them could end up on ‘The Human Equation’. Esther came very close to playing the part of the Wife, but…

Fabio Lione

Arjen explains: Fabio has a high and bright voice, with a wide vibrato. I was very impressed with Rhapsody’s ‘Symphony of Enchanted Lands’ and its great production and musicianship. My label then contacted Fabio. Members of Rhapsody really loved my music and convinced Fabio to travel to the Netherlands…

Fish

Arjen explains: I got a lot of emails from people who were so happy to hear Fish on something prog again, and that this was the best thing he had done in years. Fish has an enormous personality that is reflected in his voice. He isn’t so much a technical singer, but very emotional. I was looking for an expressive vocalist and a reporter gave me…

Floor Jansen

Arjen explains: Floor has a bright future ahead. Not only does she sing well, she has a great appearance and a lot of charisma on stage. Hans van Vuuren of the Transmission label had just signed After Forever and asked me whether I could use her voice on my CD. After listening to her demos, I wasn’t quite convinced, but decided to give her a chance. Once I had worked with her, I knew it wouldn’t be the last time…

Gary Hughes

Arjen explains: Gary has a great AOR voice like Paul Rodgers and Lou Gramm. For the version of ‘Beyond the last horizon’ on ‘Ayreonauts Only’ Gary recorded his voice in his own studio, but something was wrong with the microphone, so his voice didn’t come out well, which is too bad because he did a great job. I had to do a promo-tour in Germany together with Gary, whom I had never met at that point. We immediately hit it off…

George Oosthoek

Arjen explains: For Electric Castle I was looking for a voice who could represent ‘Death’ and what better choice than a grunter? I was about to record Sharon den Adel, and her boyfriend Robert Westerhold is the grunter of ‘Within Temptation’. And because he loves my music, he was more than willing…

Hansi Kursch

Arjen Explains: No comment yet.

Heather Findlay

Arjen: A couple of years ago I went to a Blackmore’s Night concert in Germany, and an amazing female singer was supporting them. I was really impressed, but at the time I didn’t know who she was and only found out later it was Heather when she told me she supported Blackmore’s Night. Later I got emails from fans telling me to check out Mostly Autumn…

Ian Parry

Arjen explains: Ian has a very powerful but also melodic voice with a clearly present vibrato. When we needed a replacement for our singer Leon Goewie in Vengeance, I heard a recording of the band Hammerhead with Ian on vocals. I immediately contacted him and he was instantly interested to sing for Vengeance. Unfortunately the musical transition was too great for the fans…

Irene Jansen

Arjen explains: Together with Floor we were searching for someone to be the backing vocalist next to Floor during the Star One tour. I had seen her sister Irene in the audience dancing to the music of After Forever. At some point I mentioned to Floor that it would have been great if her sister had been a singer. Much to my surprise Floor told me that Irene is a singer!…

Jacqueline Govaert

Arjen explains: I was at the RS29 Studio to pick something up when I happened to hear a recording of a nice singer. I asked who it was and behind me heard the voice of a 16-year young girl say: that’s me! I immediately asked her if she wanted to be on my new CD. Jacqueline has a raw voice, a little bit like…

James LaBrie

Arjen explains: My good friend (just in case he reads this, haha) Gary ‘Shadow Gallery’ Wehrkamp played my album ‘Into The Electric Castle’ to James, and James absolutely loved it. Gary told me about this, and obviously I sent James an email straight away asking him if he would be interested to guest on one of my projects one day…

Jan-Chris de Koeijer

Arjen explains: Oscar Holleman of studio RS29 had recorded Gorefest and convinced me to use Jan-Chris on my first Ayreon CD. I wanted to make a cd with extremes, for instance with an opera singer and a grunter. That combination may seem normal these days, but at that time it wasn’t common at all. I personally think that Jan-Chris is the best Dutch grunter…

Jasper Steverlinck

Arjen explains: What I admire about Jasper’s voice, besides its beautiful clear timbre, is the emotion and credibility he puts into his performance and his enormous range. Because the Guilt Machineproject features just one singer I needed someone versatile enough to portray all of the different moods, and Jasper didn’t disappoint. And he’s a really nice and dedicated guy as well!

Jay van Feggelen

Arjen explains: Jay was the first singer of Bodine. I thought their debut record was the best releases in the Netherlands in its genre at the time, particularly because of Jay’s vocals. When Jay left Bodine I auditioned to join the band as a singer, but of course I could not hold a candle to such a voice. I was hired as a guitarist, which secretly had been my intention from the beginning…

Johan Edlund

Arjen explains: Ever since the CD ‘Deeper Kind of Slumber’, on which Johan transitions from grunting to singing, I’ve been a big fan of Tiamat. Johan has a low, melancholic voice that I really like. We share the love for bands like Pink Floyd and Sisters of Mercy. Because I like the simple but effective melodies of Johan in Tiamat, I asked him to write…

John JayCee Cuijpers

Arjen explains: John ‘JayCee’ was another one of the singers who sent me their recordings. I was really impressed by his powerful voice, but I had already chosen Magnus Ekwall for his part ‘Pride’ on ‘The Human Equation’. I’m sure that after hearing his impressive take on this song you’ll agree with me that…

Jonas Renkse

Arjen Explain: no comment yet.

Jorn Lande

Arjen explains: no comments yet.

Lenny Wolf

Arjen explains: When Kingdom Come suddenly became successful with their first album, everyone dismissed them as a Led Zeppelin clone. Of course the comparison of Lenny’s voice with Robert Plant is obvious, but he has developed his own recognizable style. I thought they were a great band in and of itself, and continued buying all their albums. When I had a Led Zeppelin type of song (‘Eyes of Time’) and couldn’t get a hold of Robert Plant, a reporter told me to contact Lenny. Lenny at that time didn’t have…

Leon Goewie

Arjen explains: Leon was/is the singer of Vengeance, the band that I joined in 1984. He has a very powerful voice, but can also sing great ballads; and on top of that he has a great stage presence. Unfortunately our personalities clashed and we parted ways in 1989. However, we continued to respect each other’s musical talents and even worked together a number of times…

Liselotte Hegt

Arjen explains: No comments yet

Magali Luyten

Arjen explains: no comments yet.

Magnus Ekwall

Arjen explains: Arjen: I always buy magazines with a compilation CD attached in order to stay updated about what’s currently happening and of course to discover some new talent. On a Rock Hard compilation CD I heard the Swedish band ‘The Quill’ (Overlord) and I was really impressed by their extremely powerful singer, who reminded me a bit of the late and great Ray Gillen as well as Robert Plant…

Marcela Bovio

Arjen explains: Some time ago I came up with the to idea to give an unknown singer the chance to sing on Ayreon. Obviously also in the hopes that I would discover a talent like Astrid (Ambeon). So on the website we encouraged fans to send in their recordings. I received over a 100 recordings (thanks to you all!), listened to them and replied to everyone. One evening I heard a Mexican girl called Marcela Bovio and her…

Marjan Welman

Marjan Welman of the band Elister sent in a demo of her voice many years ago, and once again after her successful appearance in the Stream of Passion cover act “Team of Passion”. Arjen’s attention was drawn and he eventually invited her to sing a part on the new Ayreon…

Mark McCrite

Arjen explains: Mark is the singer for Rocket Scientist, the band in which Erik Norlander plays keyboards. When I recorded Neal Morse in LA, Mark did the backing vocals for the Beatlesque ‘The First Man on Earth’. Mark is a big Beatles fan, just like I am, and his vocals are kind of similar to that style. We regularly send each other compilations of ‘Beatle-ish’ bands we discover.

Mikael Akerfeldt

Arjen explains: I sent an email to Opeth’s management, explaining them who I was and that I would love to have Mikael sing on my album. To my surprise I got an email back from Mikael himself, saying that he really likes my music and even bought some of my albums…

Mike Baker

Arjen Explains: Mike did an amazing job on Loser, and his performance makes it one of my favourite tracks. When I told him this, he replied: “Flattery will get you everywhere…but ya can’t brown nose old Bakey so easy…at least buy me dinner & a movie first!” We also recorded an Alice Cooper cover together (How you Gonna See me Now) which ended up on a single…

Mouse

Arjen explains: I heard a song of the band Tuesday Child and couldn’t believe that it was a Dutch band. I really liked the singer, especially because of the comparison to John Lennon. I called him immediately and though he was a little reluctant at first, he ended up singing the Hippie part on ‘Into the Electric Castle’. After that, everything went wrong. Misinformed by some manager, Mouse began…

Neal Morse

Arjen explains: From the first time I heard the masterful progband Spock’s Beard I knew that at some point in time I wanted to work with the singer. I went to their show and afterwards I just walked up to Neal and gave him an Ayreon CD with a letter. Fortunately he loved my music and I recorded his voice in LA. Neal has a slightly breathy, melodic voice with a limited range but a tremendous…

Okkie Huysdens

Arjen explains: Okkie is the producer of the first Bodine album and a singer on various projects among which the ‘Stars on 45′ Beatles project. He also sang the high background vocals on the second Vengeance album. Okkie has a bright, soulful AOR voice. He can sing the strangest harmonies without much effort. He is a very talented and versatile musician and producer.

Peter Daltrey

Arjen explains: I am a big fan of the psychedelic 60s cult band Kaleidoscope. I got in touch with their singer Peter through a Japanese label and corresponded with him a while. I sent him a few of my CDs that he liked, after which I played some guitar on his new songs. When I was looking for a narrator for ‘Into the Electric Castle’ I decided to ask him because he had done something similar on…

Phideaux

Arjen explains: no comments yet.

Ralf Scheeper

Arjen explains: Over ten years ago I saw a performance of Gamma Ray and the high powerful voice of Ralf stuck with me. When a German reporter told me that Ralf had been trying to get in touch with me, I called him immediately and invited him to sing on Ayreon. I went to Germany and the song was recorded within an hour. He is a great and reliable guy.

Robby Valentine

Arjen explains: I’ve always been impressed with Robby’s abilities but never knew how good he was until I actually worked with him. I went to him for one section of a piano piece. I played it on guitar for him, and he immediately turned it into an entire symphony! When this was recorded in one take, I had him play another three piano pieces. On top of that he conjured up…

Robert Soeterboek

Arjen explains: Robert and I go back a long way, further than I can remember. When I had disbanded Vengeance, I finally had the opportunity to work with Robert. We started Planet Nine, a Whitesnake type of band, but at that time that kind of music was no longer popular, so the band never took off. Robert has a low, raw and full voice, and is often compared to David Coverdale, which doesn’t…

Robert Westerholt

Arjen explains: I was looking for a voice who could represent ‘Death’ and what better choice than a grunter? I was about to record Sharon den Adel, and her boyfriend Robert Westerhold is the grunter of ‘Within Temptation’. And because he loves my music, he was more than willing to grunt along. Robert told me that George Oosterhoek of Orphanage could release the most chilling…

Rodney Blaze

Arjen explains: I know Rodney from the glam rock outfit The Blockbusters (www.blockbusters.com) because I sang a Bowie song on their 1999 album ‘Powder to the People’. Rodney has been repairing and providing computers for me for years. One day he left his solo CD on my desk. I was very impressed by his powerful voice, so I asked him to sing a song on this album. He chose…

Russell Allen

Arjen explains: The Symphony X webmaster informed me that guitarist Michael Romeo liked my music. I started listening to Symphony X and was blown away by Russell’s voice.
I tried to get in touch with Russell, which wasn’t easy but as soon as he had heard my music he called me a few hours every week! Russell has a very powerful and versatile voice, and on top of that he…

Ruud Houweling

Arjen explains: I heard a demo recording of Ruud’s voice, and his warm, calm voice immediately won me over. Although the first CD ‘The Final Experiment’ was already finished, I wrote and recorded ‘Charm of the Seer’ especially for Ruud. I also played and sang on some of his solo tracks under the name ‘Biscuit’. He now plays in a great band called Cloudmachine.

Sharon den Adel

Arjen explains: Back in about 1997 I read in a music magazine that the new band ‘Within Temptation’ named Ayreon as one of their sources of inspiration. Of course I was honoured so I went to their concert and met with Sharon afterwards. She told me that she would love to sing on an Ayreon CD. Sharon has a beautiful, fragile voice and great charisma. At the time we recorded her part of the Indian she wasn’t very

Simone Simons

Arjen Explains: no comment yet.

Steve Lee

Arjen explains: I met Steve for the first time back in the eighties when we played in Italy with Vengeance, my band at the time. He still was a drummer and a goldsmith back then and I immediately recognized his amazing vocal talent after I heard him sing on a demo they gave me. A bit later he stayed at my house for a few days because

Timo Kotipelto

Arjen explains: I heard Stratovarius on a metal compilation and thought the singer Timo had a very pleasant voice. I got in touch with him through email and he was immediately interested in participating. We immediately hit it off, and because we have the same sense of humor, we laughed so hard and had funny pictures made of the both of us. I used Timo’s voice very differently from…

Tobias Sammet

Arjen enlisted the vocal talents of his “arch rival” Tobias Sammet (Avantasia, Edguy) to record an explosive, over-the-top version of the 1973 Alice Cooper hit, Elected. The song is featured on a 4-track EP including 3 other tracks…

Ty Tabor

Arjen Explains: no comment yet.

Wilmer Waarbroek

The talented young dutch musician Wilmer Waarbroek is featured as backing vocalist on Arjen’s 2012 solo album Lost in the New Real. Links Wilmer on Facebook Wilmer on YouTube

Wudstik

Arjen explains: no comment yet.