Nicole – vocals

I started singing when I was very young. For many years I sang in a choir and had different types of singing lessons. For a while black metal was one of my favourite music styles. Then I discovered symphonic metal. Inspired by bands, like Epica, Nightwish, Xandria (and others) I picked up my singing lessons again. Working in a nature area made me dream away about singing in a symphonic metal band and creating our own music. I found my own sound, which I use to create some new music with Egeria.

Stephan – keyboards

Like many musicians’, my journey began as a child – not so much by picking up an instrument for the first time, though, but on a very long weekend: My father sat me down and made me listen to Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” – complete with the libretti to read along. I am sure he has come to regret that many times since, because throughout the years to follow, I spent my time fantasizing about gods and heroes and dragons. And through all the books and games and daydreaming it took me while to realize, that the most fulfilling way for me to live out these fantasies would have to be – like Wagner did – through music.

I received classical piano lessons as a child & teenager (and looking back, I value those greatly), and since then, I have played the piano/keyboards in various bands and musical ensembles, and began also to dabble in (orchestral) composition and music production. And then, during a difficult time in my life, I was presented with the opportunity to turn my interest into a “serious” enterprise: After a year of preparation at the musicube academy in Bonn, I moved to the Netherlands to take up studies at the ArtEZ conservatory in Arnhem.

During my studies, I had the honour and pleasure to work with a great many inspired and inspiring artists, musicians and teachers, and eventually also got to fullfill my longstanding dream of playing in a symphonic metal band.

I have idolized the great names of the genre, many of them ever since they first rose to fame, as well as many that – like Egeria – followed in their footsteps. Outside of the metal scene, I consider among my musical role models Danish composer Thomas Bergersen, many of the great film music composers of our time, and still – of course – Richard Wagner.

Stephan uses for both programming and live performance virtual synthesizers and sample libraries by among others Native Instruments, Cinesamples, Cinematic Studio Series and 8dio.

Maurice – guitars

I started playing guitar around the age of 12 on my brother’s acoustic guitar, studying some of his guitar books. At 17 I bought my first electric guitar, a Rockson, a low budget Fender clone.

Played in some campus bands during my study at University and had some nice small gigs.
Also joined my brother’s band and got more experienced playing solo’s. Highlight was the one of Burning Heart by Vandenberg.
So I’m autodidact, never took any lessons and just learned myself by playing along with music.

Musical preference: growing up in the 80’s I was very much into new wave (Cure, U2, Simple Minds) and later on gradually went into heavier rock (Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Europe, Bryan Adams).
Steve Vai and Joe Satriani became my favorite guitarists.
Only quite late, around 2005, I became familiar with symphonic metal, starting with Within Temptation and Evanescence until a biker friend introduced me to Nightwish, which became one of my favorite metal bands along with Stream of Passion, Ayreon, the Gentle Storm, Devin Townsend, just to name a few.

Joined Windforce in 2011, playing symphonic metal covers and some own work. We made an EP and had a great gig in December 2012, but shortly afterwards the band was split up.
Since then I have been looking for a similar band, even considered going for more mainstream rock since there were not many vacancies, until I ran into the ad of Egeria.
Looking forward to growing our repertoire and hitting the stage.
Hope to see you there!
Gear:
Cort KX507MS
Boss GT-1/8
Palmer Macht 402
Marshall 8280

Joris – bass

Music has been an important part for most of my life. Although I play and listen to mostly harder musical genres nowadays (like metal), I learned to enjoy and appreciate a wide variety of musical styles that are quite in contrast with metal. Some of the musical styles I also really like are folk music and old-school jazz.

Originally I started playing six string electric guitar around the age of 13, but after a few years of lessons and trying some stuff out, I came to the conclusion it wasn’t really my thing and put the instrument aside. During my time in college, my fingers began to itch again for making music, so I picked up a bass guitar and started teaching myself the ways of the instrument. This time, all pieces fell into place and I haven’t stopped playing since. Among my current sources of inspiration are Jeff Walker (Carcass) and Jo Bench (Bolt Thrower).

In my career as a bass player, I previously played in two bands. The first being Killing Season, a band that made a combination of different metal genres (inspired by bands like iced earth, 3 Inches of Blood and Judas Priest) and Zapata with a take on old school hard rock with a new groovy twist (like a blend between Clutch and The Jimi Hendrix).

I joined Egeria during the summer of 2017. In my style of play, I find it important to (together with the drummer) create a foundation, on where the rest of the band can place their musical building blocks upon. Be sure to expect a lot of groove and some very nice bass riffs. See you during our next gig!

Ruben – drums

As anyone who play’s an instrument, music will have been instrumental (hah) to their lives. So it is for mine.

From a young age I’ve been listening to a variety of music. From Hard rock to smooth jazz, drum ‘n bass to ambient electronic music, even hip hop and pop music from the 80’s / 90’s.
One of my first CD I’ve bought was Extreme – III Sides To Every Story in 1991. That album changed me forever. But before that I had cassette’s from Metallica, Megadeth and… Vanilla Ice!

When at school we had drumlessons. That started my love for the drums. It was like magic. I needed to get me a drumkit. So at the age of 13 I’ve got my first drumkit and I also started getting lessons. I’ve been drumming ever since, having had lessons for around 15 years in total.

Metal has always been a big part in my life, but I never really got to play it. I’ve been in all sorts of bands, ranging from blues to fusion jazz to rock. But never metal. So at the age of 39 I started practicing metal patterns and mostly training my feet. The reason? I really wanted to join a metal band. It has been one of the hardest styles to master (yes, harder than Jazz) and i’m happy I get to play in a Symponic Metal band like Egeria!

A few of my favourite metal bands at this moment are: Meshuggah, Wintersun, Nightwish and Pyramaze

Gear:
Tama Silverstar kit: 8″, 10″ 12″ 14″ 16″ toms (because why not?), 14″ Tama snare, 20″ kickdrum with Arborea and Masterwork cymbals.
I also have a ATV electronic drumkit with a Gewa G5 drum-module.