Biographies
 Mr. Moodlex
aka Frank Bongers
Taking a look at the career of Frank Bongers, you'll probably raise your eyebrows. He's like a fish feeling at home everywhere yet nowhere, that's how many different styles he combines in his music. He started out as a nine year old musical prodigy child on the piano and violin, playing in orchestras in his own country and abroad. He was well on his way of becoming a promising solist, when suddenly he broke off his education at the Antwerp Conservatory, and instantly started to build on a career as electronic artist. His first cd was on a famous deep house label in Antwerp - WGW. It put him on the world map as a new deep house & jazzy grooves maestro. With the popular latin-bossa-world-single "Original", he found a listening ear with producers as Mr. Scruff and Buscemi.
The sequel "24" makes a lot of people stagger, because it's no longer about palmtrees and warm rhodes sounds. With the chainsaw at hand, Frank cuts room for a new, British and particularly greasy and raw club sound, to which he adds the voices of 4 talented singers. The first single "Just One Look" creates havoc for weeks on end as hotshot-single on Studio Brussels' playlist. Laurent Garnier himself reports to him that the single secured a permanent spot in his record collection and Derrick Carter adds the Jacob London remix to his compilation with Mark Farina for the Om Records label.
It comes to no surprise that Moodlex was going in another opposite direction for the new album "Monkey Music". Putting together a team of excellent and crazy artists makes this collection of songs the most chaotic and disturbing Moodlex album to date. With razor-sharp editing, Frank selected the craziest bits of recordings and pasted them together as a Frankenstein's monster of hilarious moments. Frank admits: "It's new for me, and exciting. Some will love it, others will hate it.".
As a live-band, Moodlex has grown from a one-man-project to a full band and that reflects in the way Moodlex works: the live version is a complete different experience from the cd recordings, and Frank sets a step aside as a full-time keyboard player. His new challenge is to help the band members transform the cd recordings to a real live show and act as a "live producer" of the band. Watch out for this crazy roadshow as it hits your town! | | |  Mr. Ebony
Frederik Schnieders - MC/Vocals
The mad lyrical word juggler, MC Ebony is the driving force for spitting out rhymes at a speed never seen before. Being a trained hiphop and drum 'n bass MC, he has no problem putting his words on the right spot. Since his youth his dream job evolved from being a "top gun" pilot to pornstar. And while playing air guitar on the music of Claude François, his musical taste grew from Death metal, Electro & Gothic, Hip Hop, Jungle to Roots, Reggae, Drum & Bass, Rock, dubstep, Broken Beats.
100% self-taught, his talent was developed in a true entrepreneurial fashion, with lots of falls and resurrections - in Moodlex his skills gets even more extended by switching between rapping and singing! Asking him about what drives him to do music, you get this deep, but simple answer: "Simply making music for the people, creating an understandable space between the sound and the listener. " But mind you, this guy is a true artist - making paintings is his second most loved activity aside from using his vocal chords! Having done shows with a lot of drum 'n bass groups like Motion Theory, Teddy Machinegun, plus the pre-show for the Full cycle crew and MC'd for Dom & Roland, J Majik, Kemal, Sketch & Code, Skinny, Pyro - this guy is no stranger to doing mad stuff!
But life ain't always that easy - as he remembers the most embarrasing moment of his career: "During a massive hip-hop showcase, I started getting drunk while waiting to get up for the freestyle battle. When it was my turn, I was so wasted that I completely lost my flow, my rythm and my freakin text! I didn't leave my house for three weeks after that." The best shows he did? "Oh, definitely summer 2005 with Moodlex - first time, no rehearsals and no idea on what we were gonna play - just like that!". | | |  Ms. Ivory
Chantal Boes - Vocals
With a sexy voice that cuts through heart and soul, Chantal is a perfect counterpart for the rhymes of MC Ebony and mister bjorn…. She started singing in a local town choir and gave herself so much that she passed out during live concerts! After falling out of a tree and ending up in bed weeks on end, she started to play guitar out of boredom. She did play guitar and bass in a couple of bands, but it were her vocal talents that turned heads mostly.
Growing up listening to Sade, Donovan, Yes, Beatles and Stones, Deep Purple, Madonna, Prince, Björk and many more - her dream job was formed: being a pharmacist. But after receiving 8 C-minuses for chemical class, she found out it was not her calling after all.
Did she get any vocal traing? "Yes, a little bit. I did attend the Jazz Studio in Antwerp for 1 year as a free student, and attended a couple workshops at the Til Rock School. But the instrument part is completely self-taught." During her years in the music scene she enjoyed playing with bands such as Exit, Covalent Seasons, Ocean Sneakers, Confituur All Stars and doing backing vocals for the famous Jimi Tenor band.
But production-wise she seems to be a cracker as well, since she did the production for the highly acclaimed children project "Captain Winokio". Why she makes music? "The general wellness of the body and soul - and it just gives me a kick!" she laughs. She clearly loves music, her cd collection shows a great amount of diversity: a lot of Jazz (Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Mingus..), Goldfrapp, Fantomas and other Patton projects, Sigur Ros, Moodlex (because she has to :), Beck, Monochrome, Millionaire, Maxon Blewitt, 27 ... | | |  Mr. Mute
Stefan Wellens - Guitar
Cutting the most wicked riffs on his guitar, Stefan "Stef" Wellens brings a new roughness to Moodlex as never heard before. Born in 1974 - he still remembers the chilling time he fell through ice on a river - he started making music by going through an array of instruments: flute, violin, cello, guitar and then viola. Besides listening to INXS, OMD, The Confetti's and Mozart, he also developed a talent as singer: "The opinions about my vocal excellence are quite diverse, I think I'm a genius at it, the rest doesn't seem to share that opinion. A pity.".
Although he wanted to become a boxer or professional cyclist (he seems to have that partly nailed, you should see this guy racing through Belgium), he attented the Conservatory and pursuid a career in classical music. Today his love goes to the guitar and music theater and found a solid place in Moodlex - he loves the concept, describing it as being "cross-over, balls and challenging as a guitarist". Stating his motto "Only the best is good enough, always avoid mediocracy", it's clear that this guy is aiming high. That's probably why he's been part in recording the film score of Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator".
But don't be fooled, this guy is not always about seriousness - making a fool of himself by putting on a funny hat and playing the banjo seems to be part of an obscure history. While listening to the Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails, Bartok and Ligeti these days, he's currently designing his own tattoo and remembers his best concert: "My own final music theater exam in Antwerp - The Golden Gate". Wondering if he ever takes drugs, his answer is plain and simple: "No, I'm naturally high". Take that. | | |  Mr. Manic
Peter Van Tichelen - Drums
With drumwork as rythmic as his thoughts and words are arrhythmic, Peter is definitely at the right place within Moodlex. Born in 1979 and being part of a musical family, his first musical love was and still is percussion and drums. While growing up, he started listening to the late Miles Davis, Prince, James Brown, Zapa, Michael Jackson, Stravinsky and is currently keeping his heart close to Aka Moon & Nils Petter Molvaer .
Being a trained musician, his motto is: "If you do something, do it right or leave it alone" - so this guy is definitely a perfectionist (imagine, even when he goes to sleep he wants to do *that* right). Aside from drumming his heart out in Moodlex, he has a lot of other things on his plate: his solo project LiuMinthVoe, Vibeman(vibraphone) in the BriskeyBigBand, Solo-projects with Celloplayer Sebastien Walnier and other musicians..., freelance percussionist in numerous ensembles like for example with the Ictus ensemble(ROSAS Ann Theresa de keersmaeker) and a lot of belgian symphonic orchestras ,teacher in the academy of music and word(Tongeren) and first soloist percussion in the Philharmonic Orchestra of Luik (and those i forgot,it is not on purpose). Dividing his time between these numerous projects and his lovely girlfriend, it's almost impossible to add a career as an aspiring painter to his live - so he wisely keeps that dream in the closet for now.
The best musical experiences he had until now? "Playing with the Ictus Ensemble in New York, right after the 9/11 terror - having doubted if they even would travel at the moment, we had a couple of amazing evening concerts. And not to forget my first performance with Moodlex in Rivierenhof - too short unfortunately, but so rewarding!". And of course his trip to China ,Beijing .. on invitation of the Symphonic orchestra of China as a soloist timpani player.
And what would be the most embarrasing moment of his career? Getting a nose bleed while performing dressed in white during a high-level orchestra performance in Berlin. Hyper-active as he is (you better come see one of our concerts), it's sometimes unbelievable that he doesn't take any drugs: "Aside from alcohol and cigarettes, I won't touch any form of drugs - Music is my hard drug". Take that! | | |  Mr. Popular
aka Bjorn Rotthier
Born on a snowy day in december in Lier (Belgium), Bjorn definitely tasted from one of the bad sides of growing up. His first big act was falling of his bike and breaking his two front teeth. Although things must have been quite difficult singing like this in the children's choir, he persisted and found out that he loved being on stage. So with lots of courage he started to experiment with traditional music school but abruptly ended it after only 2 years - it seemed playing guitar on his own was more 'his way' of expressing feelings. As he grows up listening to Jon Bon Jovie, Jeff Buckley , Tool and Pearl Jam his true manifesto for music unfolds: "love to do it, live to live it".
As for the most embarrasing moment in his career? "Well, the time I went on stage and completely forgot my lyrics and started to talking gibberish. Oh, wait ... there is a worse one: I've actually been kicked of stage as I was too stoned to do anything good ... yea, you know ... being young (laughs)". Today Bjorn loves to listen to music from the 80ties and up (Muse and Moodlex being his favorites) and works on a couple of his own projects like Tripple Nipple, Blend and Black Board Cinema. With Blend he had his best concert at Aalst Rock 2004.
If he likes working with Moodlex? Bjorn firmly states: "Definitely. Great people, great music, great professionality and great 'go for' attitude. You couldn't wish for more!". Bjorn loves to take a drink after concerts or rehearsals, but drugs are not his cup of tea - "... apart from a small spliff from time to time", he laughs. | | |
|
Menu
|
