OUR OCEANS
Shred guitarist Tymon Kruidenier discovers his voice on latest project.
“ONE THING I’VE learned over the years is it’s good to go into a record not knowing too much about what you’re going to do. Just let it happen,” says Tymon Kruidenier. While Time Disappears is the second album under the banner of Our Oceans following the eponymous 2015 debut, but previously Kruidenier was known as the guitarist in instrumental fusion metal band Exivious. Our Oceans started life as a one-man side project to allow him to explore a different style of songwriting.
“I’ve always wanted to make a more ambient thing with singer-songwriter influences,” he says. “The first Our Oceans record was a chance to do that and I found out that I loved to make that type of music so much more, and also just the opportunity to sing, which was like an experiment for the first record, was so much more enjoyable than I ever imagined.”
Kruidenier invited his Exivious bandmates Robin Zielhorst and Yuma van Eekelen to join him on this new voyage, which they recorded in their hometown of Tilburg, in the Netherlands. It was there they set up a studio inside an abandoned office building.“It took some convincing of the other guys,” says Kruidenier.
“In the beginning, they were like, ‘What the hell? Are we really going to do something completely different?’” They toyed with the idea of keeping the Exivious name but decided it was time to move on from that identity. “It’s like force-feeding something down the throats of your fans, that would feel disrespectful,” he says.
A major challenge for Kruidenier has been learning to be comfortable with putting his emotions on display in his lyrics. “With the first album it was crazy scary,” he says, “but I have to say that after the response we got from that first record, it started feeling very comfortable to be in that place of vulnerability. There are some parts of the album where I was deliberately searching for places to make myself uncomfortable. I think that song The Heart’s Whisper has the most touchy-feely, sensitive lyrics. If I listen to that song and pay attention to the lyrics, I’m actually almost on the verge of it feeling cringeworthy, but I feel like that is the right thing to do, to explore that vulnerable territory.”
The themes behind While Time Disappears are inspired by the personal experiences of the trio in overcoming adversity and tough times.“Going into this record, my bandmates and I were at a place in our lives where we were feeling good, then for our own reasons we all went into a downward spiral.
For one person it was more depression, for another it was bad relationships, just the stuff life throws at you,” says Kruidenier, who didn’t want the recording to leave listeners feeling downbeat.
“The album starts out with Unravel, an overcoming song, feeling good with where you are in life, then life hits you in the face. Then With Hands Torn
Open, the last song says, ‘It’s okay, just pick up the pieces and go on.’” DW
“IT’S GOOD TO GO INTO A RECORD NOT KNOWING TOO MUCH ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO DO. JUST LET IT HAPPEN.” OUR OCEANS, L-R, ROBIN ZIELHORST, YUMA VAN EEKELEN, TYMON KRUIDENIER.