Arjen Lucassen

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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 Bijlsma

Arjen explains: Together with Oscar, Jan was the founder of the rock band Vengeance that I joined in 1984. Jan’s tight, simple but effective bass playing was the basis of Vengeance’s sound. I always (and still) got along fine with Jannemannemannemanneman, as I call him. That’s why I wanted him to be…

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…

Jens Johansson

Arjen Explains: Jens is one of the fastest, if not the fastest, keyboardplayer on this planet. The first time I heard Jens was on an Yngwie Malmsteen CD, on which he effortlessly kept up with Yngwie. One day I received an email of someone named Jens who really loved my music and my concepts. It turned out he was one and the same…

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 and Pat McManus

While in England I saw a great Celtic band perform, named… eh… Celtus. I was impressed with the warm sound of the low flute played by John and the Celtic violin melodies played by Pat (they used to play together in the hard rock band Mama’s Boys). After the show I asked them if they would be interested in playing on my new project Ambeon…

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…

Jolanda Verduijn

Arjen explains: I was working on the demos of the first Ayreon CD and needed someone who could play bass with the fingers (I always play with a guitar-pick). My (then) girlfriend had been playing bass for about a year and a half at that time, but was already quite skilled. She then played the demos at my house. She had done it so well that I asked her to play on the official CD in Oscar’s RS29 studio. I could see…

Joost van den Broek

Arjen explains: I was looking for a keyboard player for the Star One tour who was able to do the symphonic as well as the fast work, and for practical reasons it had to be someone from the Netherlands. Everyone I approached was unavailable, until I got a phone call from Joost. Without being arrogant he told me that it was no problem for him to figure out all the complicated parts and then…

Keiko Kumagai

Arjen explains: Keiko plays in an all-girl band (keys/keys/drums) from Japan called Ars Nova, and I remember being quite impressed the first time I heard them. Especially Keiko’s keyboard parts and arrangements are awesome. I contacted her via email and after having sent her a few Ayreon CDs, she let me know she liked my music a lot, and…

Ken Hensley

Needless to say I’ve always wanted to work with Ken, but I didn’t know how to get in contact with him. Then a friend of mine, Lars Ratz (bassplayer of Metallium), who works with Ken regularly, gave me his email address. I emailed Ken and luckily he agreed to do it- provided he would like the music…

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…

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…