daktarimusic.be

Daktari is a fivepiece rock/powerpop/indie-band born out of the ashes of bands like Silverene, cast-down, The Summer Vault and Jhonny Vegas. They recorded their first EP in november of 2008 at ACE Studio's. Methods for measuring the height of Stars contains five songs. You can check them out on this website.

In their first year they played at different veneus like the VK ( Brussels), MOD ( Hasselt) and the Genk on Stage festival. Daktari will be recording new songs the next few weeks and will be perfroming at some more shows.

Daktari

Jan Bloemen was born on the 18th of November 1979 in Maaseik near the Dutch border. Jan his musical career started at the age of 12 when he joined several choirs and toured with them through Belgium, Germany and France and even performed for our King Albert II. A few years later Jan picked up a folk guitar when he was spending most of his free time at the KSA. It was until the age of 23 when he first performed solo for a live audience as a singer-songwriter. After a short period playing in bands like 'Nous and Cazzino', he began performing solo again under the alias 'Reverend Johnny Vegas'. After an acoustic solo-tour through the main land Jan met Bert and Kristof in the early winter of 2008. From that moment on Daktari.

His set up:Blackstar Artisan 100, Duesenberg Starplayer and Double Cat, US Fender Jaguar

Bert Derhaeg first witnessed daylight on November 1979, touched his first guitar somewhere in 1995, and played his first gig in JH Beverlo in the summer of 2000 with his first band Square One, from now on referred to as SQ1. All former 'projects' leading up to SQ1 were nameless, pointless and really not worth mentioning. With SQ1 they recorded their first EP 'The Long Drive Home' in 2001, and from there and then on, they played almost every punkrockvenue in this little country. During the recording process of what would have been their first full-length album in 2004, they got picked up by a manager, which lead to a major label, which lead to a change of bandname to Silverene. The first self-titled album was released on Sony Records, and Silverene played a lot of big festivals like Pukkelpop, Marktrock, TMF Awards, � and released 3 singles with music videos that made it into the alternative charts. But as nothing good can last, the band fell apart in 2005 and the singer formed a new band under the same name. Together with the other musicians, Bert started Summervault in 2006, a female-fronted powerpop-band. Summervault was never meant to last as motivation and resources dried up somewhere in 2007. Bert and Kristof weren't ready to settle yet, found a new singer, and formed Daktari in 2008. Songs were written, adapted and composed, and their first EP 'Methods for measuring the heights of stars' is their latest accomplishment.

His set-up: Orange Rockerverb, Gretsch Brian Setzer, PRS Custom 22, and a floorboard full of stomp boxes�

David Fraters was born in Diest at the 24th of September 1977. He grew up between his dad's Orange amps, Gibson guitars and Led Zeppelin albums. At the age of 15 he picked up his father�s bass guitar and joined this band called Ebony HP, a hardcore outfit. In 1998 Ebony HP quit and he started up cast-down with former band-members of Buckshot. Cast-down was a Swedish inspired Punk-hardcore band. Over the years they released a 7 inch on rocknrollradio and two full albums on Funtime records. With cast-down David played festivals like Pukkelpop, Vort 'n Vis, Suikerrock, Rock Herk, Groezrock, and toured the UK, Italy, Germany and France. 2006 was the end for cast-down and everybody went their own way. Some members are now playing in the hardrockband we'rewolves. After a short adventure in the coverband-scene, David joined Daktari in the spring of 2008. Besides playing his strings David enjoys the family life.

His set up: Ampeg SVT 3, Fender Aerodyne Jazz bass, G&L L2000 bass and sansamp effects.
Watch a Cast-Down movie

Dennis Boonen was born on the 15th of september 1987 in Bree, at that time he was already making sounds with his voice. Inspired by the good old fifties and sixties music he tried to play a bit of drums and keyboard for fun, but his heart was lost for a guitar at age 13. He got his first guitar from - De Kijkshop - in Holland it was worth 20 euro. After a year of playing till his fingers bled, he bought his first cheap electric guitar and continued playing with other muscicians. He played in a couple of bands like coverbands, own music, beatbox etc... . Over the years he followed musicschool and did bachelor music for a year.
In 2010 he found Daktari and is now playing guitar with 4 great musicians. .

Dennis is playing true a Orange thunderverb 50, Fender blues deluxe a Telecaster custom ‘72 and alot of pedals.

Adriaan Vervoort, the drummer, is the youngest member of the band. He joined in last June 2008 and found the band he was looking for! He started drumming in a local drumming corps at the age of 7 and took a highway from there attending the music school of Hasselt, a Music program at day school followed by the conservatory of Antwerp for a jazzdrums education and after for two years he recently switched to the conservatory of Maastricht. During these studies Adriaan was involved in many short period projects and bands in all different styles, from pop to rock to mostly jazz. He gained playing-experiences at jamsessions in Ghent and Antwerp and on smaller stages with small formations making him ready for the real thing. In the beginning of 2008 he realized studying for music wasn't leading to where he wanted to go so he started looking for bands to play with and in June he joined Daktari. His first serious rockband. Here, conservatory comes to practice and already starts to show off!!