What was the beginning pint for your music career? How did it all start?
(Jasper) My first sip was hearing Beastie Boys sabotage and Marilyn Manson with antichrist superstar, what a buzz, drunken from the get go I knew this was the right brew for me! My parents hated it, classical musicians and everything else inferior. But I knew Rock/Metal was the perfect way to be able to do it all. So there we go, 6 years old, deciding I wanted to be a rock star! Was only allowed to play classical piano, so you know it was a long and bumpy road from there.
Was there any bumps on the road? What kind of challenges did you have to deal with?
Ah I jumped the gun… Yeah it was a bumpy road a very bumpy one. Like I said my parents hated it, never wanted me to play that “garbage” but that was fine with me, I loved it, listened to my records over and over in secrecy so my cd’s wouldn’t get thrown out… they did, multiple times but I just saved again to buy new ones (there was (almost) no internet back then…). So yeah it wasn’t until the age of 14 when I started my first band, no one wanted to sing so I decided I would give it a try. Damn I sucked.. Multiple times I wanted to throw in the towel, cause it was horrible to listen to.. The songs we wrote we’re decent, but it was all pretty mediocre. My voice couldn’t reach the high notes, my screams sounded like a cat getting strangled, it was all pretty downhill.. But I guess perseverance and a lot of emotions kept me in the game.
What was the most fulfilling and satisfying moment so far?
Writing amazing tracks that landed multiple Spotify editorials, I remember landing New Metal Tracks for the first time and we as a band we’re like ok shit nowww we’re gonna take off. Still on the ground though, hoping to take off some day in the near future. But it was amazing, just that feeling of being alongside your favorite bands and not being considered far less, that was the most satisfying thing yet.
How would you describe the music that you typically create?
Full of emotion 😉 ! We don’t write with any particular style in mind, we just write what we love! I think it sounds like TLE, meaning that it has a heavy vibe with catchy vocals, pure heart rock!
What is your creative process like?
Depends, each song has its own tale, but mostly it’s Jan and Noah writing the instrumental parts and me writing the lyrics and vocal melodies. But it also happens that I start off with a piano chorus + vocals and Noah or Jan takes it from there. We just try a lot of different things, as long as it sounds catchy and massive we are happy! Then for the lyrics it is all based on the life that I’m leading, I write about what I see and feel but honestly I think a lot of people feel the things I feel, so if you are listening, it’s not about me it’s about you!
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
Hard to say, sometimes it feels like if you are not the “in crowd” it’s almost impossible to get noticed. We don’t really have all the friends in high places that help us reach our goal. It can be frustrating seeing others succeed with a lot less time and effort, on the other hand we believe it has to do with many things and as long as you keep on grinding someday you’ll get to the place you want.
We make friends and family along the way, more and more people are supporting us, spotify is placing a lot of our tracks and we are getting more and more opportunities, so yeah we’ll keep holding our breath!
I think the industry is getting more transparent for sure more people are able to reach the surface, time will tell.
If you were asked to give a piece of advice to upcoming bands, what would that be?
Yeah what I said, keep focusing on writing great material and working your hands to the bone, no time to be lazy, you really need to keep firing and give it your all, if you can do that and you’ve got the right qualities then I’m sure you’ll reach places.
What has been the best performance of your career so far?
It has yet to come… But we’ve had an epic show as the support of skillet, was a sold out show, amazing sound and crowd, Skillet was a blast and very kind, all in all it was one for the books!
But we’ve got a lot more up ahead, so who knows what we might say in a couple of years.
If you didn’t become a musician, what would you be doing now?
haha we’ll we can’t make a living so we all are doing things right now… I’ve got my own business, Jan is a University teacher, Robert is a team manager/engineer of medical equipment and Noah just finished university and is finding his way ! But we all reserve a lot of time for music as it’s our priority.
What is new with the band at the moment? What are you currently working on and would like to share with the world?
Do you have a minute?! A lot! We are working very hard on our new singles. One is already planned for 15 march it’s going to be our best song yet. We’re working on new bandshoots, music videos, a new logo, merch and much more. This year we really want to come out of the gate strong and keep bull rushing ahead, trampling every obstacle in the way. So watch out and keep us in mind, you’re gonna hear a lot more of us !
So thank you for your time! we got some shameless promo for you 😉
join us on spotify/youtube/facebook and everything
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7L9ieGr5a3eLcVo9fvVipB
https://www.youtube.com/c/thelastelement
https://www.facebook.com/thelastelement.net
Shout out to us on info@thelastelement we also got some cool merch you can inquire about 😉 !
But yeah it means the world to us to connect with fans so reach out to us and we’ll get right back to you!
Cheers,
Jasper
TLE
