history of segunda

Coming soon...

BJ Hobbeling Drums, backing vocals

BJ is short for Bert-Jan. I've been with Segunda since 2003, taking up the drum-chair and performing backing vocals where required. Somewhere in the early nineties I took up drumming after hearing Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater. I got my first lessons from a drumming neighbour. After a while I wanted something more challenging and I started taking lessons at Rhythm & Music in Zwolle. There, I studied, amongst others with jazz drummer Henk Zomer.

My band life began back in 1996 when I started playing in "Virtually Fake". We started out as a cover band playing Metallica but after some changes in line-up we got more interested in composing our own material. In 2003 the telephone rang. It was Mark, guitarist of Segunda, who had seen me playing some "Dream Theater" material at a local venue. He sent me a copy of the "Y2K" EP and some practice tracks. I immediately felt this was the sort of challenge I was looking for and after auditioning I found myself in the drummer seat of Segunda.

Menno Thomas Bass guitar

The latest, the oldest, and arguably most handsome addition to Segunda.

I have been playing bass since age 18. Was kicked out of the house since my playing ability far outstretched the tolerance level of parents and neighbours. My skills were honed by playing in all sorts of cover bands in a wide array of different styles and later on by taking up lessons with Tom Janssen. As my own musical interest turned towards symphonic and progressive rock, I was looking for a more challenging gig. In 2003, I was invited to audition for Segunda and landed the position as bass-player (and o yes, challenging it is....)
My influences over the years have been many. Iron Maiden's Steve Harris was one of the first, but also Metallica's Cliff Burton and Jaco Pastorius have been among my early influences. Currently, I get inspired by the likes of Dream Theater, Dimmu Borgir, Opeth, Symphony X and Rush. Outside of the rock genre my wanna-be list includes players like Victor Wooten, Jonas Hellborg and Stuart Hamm. Getting better, faster, harder and meaner (bass-wise spoken of course) is something that I aspire for the future. (That and Segunda World Domination of course...)

Joost Schrijver Keyboards, piano

At age 14, I started to develop an interest in rock/metal which was fuelled by seeing an Anthrax concert. That interest turned towards progressive metal after seeing Dream Theater on MTV. The decision to start playing keyboards was taken at one of the practice sessions of a band that some of my friends were playing in (that band would eventually become Segunda). After a short experiment I found out I was not cut out to be a singer and, since there was no keyboard player in the band, I decided that this was going to be my job. Up until this very day I still think that this was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Besides playing in Segunda, I am working with a female vocalist on acoustic material. In the future I hope to be able to start teaching young aspiring musicians.

Mark Visser Guitars

Bestowed upon me is the duty of axe-slinger. I picked up guitar when I was about 10. After 10 years of study at the music school in Deventer with teachers Pablo van Moorst and Peter van Leeuwen, I went to the conservatory in Zwolle and graduated after 4 1/2 years with a smashing concert at Hedon in Zwolle. Currently, I am a guitar teacher at different music schools and teaching privately in Deventer.
Somewhere in the nineties, on a Friday market in Deventer, my band life started when I met two vague acquaintances and we discovered that we shared a mutual interest - music-: there my first band 'Phalanx' was born, first with three guitarists and no bass player (Sorry Menno). We did covers of 'Metallica' and later on we experimented with covers from more sinister bands as 'Obituary', 'Sepultura', 'Pestilence' and other corners of the dark death metal universe. After exchanging the third guitarist for a bass-player and adding a keyboardist/singer we started to write our own material and evolved into a full-blown and full-grown metal-band. This culminated in the birth of our first demo-tape 'Mystic Intimacy' somewhere early '97. This led to a whole bunch of gigs (of which some of you might remember the notorious gigs in Vlissingen and 'Jejocema' in Apeldoorn...) But, as with all first bands there is an end to all, and as the opener for 'Within Temptation' in the Burgerweeshuis in Deventer, Phalanx had a worthy last gig.
In the mean time my band experience was drastically increased by playing in a vast array of styles ranging from big bands to Satriani, from jazz trio's to musicals. In Zwolle, I also came into contact with Roy Kieftenbeld, a drummer in a band called Segunda, he offered me the vacant position of lead guitarist in the band, and the rest is, as we say..... history.

Mark Volmer Vocals

I am the other Mark in Segunda and have been the vocalist in the band since it's first conception some 15 years ago. Me and my cousin Roy (former drummer of Segunda and classmate of Mark Visser at the conservatory. The best of luck and success in the future to him) started to give rise to our teenage year frustrations and anxiety to stress parents and frustrate the nations with yet another deafening metal band. I have matured to a nice 30+ years of age now. I do no longer feel the need to frustrate the nations, yet I am still in a metal band. I have a day job as a programmer and in addition to Segunda I have some other weird hobbies including: mountain-biking and crashing computers....

My intention for the upcoming years is no longer World frustration but World-domination. in a most peaceful and ear-deafening sense, of course.... I hope to CU around at one of our upcoming gigs (watch the website for news on our peaceful progress towards World domination...)