no plaster saint

SEVEN DAY HUNT is a new band.

Sort of, but not really

SEVEN DAY HUNT is a continuation of EGDON HEATH.

Sort of, but not really

In 1999 Egdon Heath retired. This band from Friesland, The Netherlands had earned their wings in the world of prog from 1981 on. A valued group with four studio albums and a double-live album of their final gig in their hometown Leeuwarden, Friesland. Eighteen years of passion for progressive music.

Two of the founders, Valere Wittevrongel (percussion) and Wolf Rappard (keys) thought it was done. And so the curtain fell.

For there was still a lot to do, the remaining members continued. Progressive music was a way of life.

As from January 2000, Jaap Mulder (keys, vocals), Aldo Adema (guitar), Marcel Copini (bass) and Maurits Kalsbeek (vocals) worked on new material with the new drummer Erik Koning. He had played in the Police-coverband Synchronicity, but had been a Genesis fan all his life. Things did not come easily. The band struggled to find their way.

Not much later, Karlsbeek quit the band because he couldn’t combine his work with the band anymore. The four remaining members continued without a singer for a considerable time. New horizons were explored. They experimented with new influences and styles. It was in this period that the band suffered from a lot of tumult in their private lives. These events were throwing sand into the machine. Spare time became rare time. But nevertheless, slow and sure, songs were created and an own sound had been developed.

In the meantime Aldo Adema developed more and more as the band’s technician and by his guidance they started the production of the (future) album. From there on, he and Mulder worked together on the songs to bring pace to the process. Steadily they focused their attention on the arrangements, sounds and production.

Then the band came in contact with Han Uil, singer-songwriter and former singer/guitarist of Antares. He turned out to be the right man for the job. With him the band fine tuned the for the most part finished compositions. Thereupon Uil wrote the lyrics and nothing stood in the way of the quintet to put the longly desired album together.

And the name for the band was chosen: SEVEN DAY HUNT. Because it sounded nice and because it said a lot about the struggle, those long and lean seven years of the album’s completion.

It is typical for musicians in the world of prog: don’t give up, but chase your dreams.