My parents always told me that before I could even talk, I would sing. Fortunately I never stopped. But I didn’t actually start as a singer. When I was four years old, preschool taught me that boys played guitar and girls played the violin. So after convincing my parents of this fact I started taking violin lessons and I played the violin for 9 years. Instead of practicing violin all day, I sang or played something on my mother’s piano. So I quit my violin lessons to start singing (and some piano) lessons. I managed to get the highest degree in singing at the CKE (School of the arts in Eindhoven) and after achieving this I quit because I went to university.

During high school I played in a rock/blues/we actually didn’t really know band called ‘Black Fish’ with my friends. After my father started taking bass guitar lessons, our musical family was finally complete so we started to play as a band called ‘The Perforemans’. After going to a concert from the amazing band Stream Of Passion, I decided I really wanted to be in a symphonic metal band! Reaching out to the rest of the country through a musicians website, Beyond God found me.

I absolutely love to vocalize with other singers, expecially the weird second voices which are way different from the leading vocal part, they sound awesome. I really learned (to love) singing with other people while having lessons at the CKE, thanks to my wonderful teacher Dineke van der Sman! At the moment I’m practicing writing vocal lines and lyrics thanks to my previous band and Beyond God. I love to explore that creative part of myself!

Meryl