Ma Rain

(download presskit here)

Marijn Wijnands - compositions/lyrics/vocals/acoustic guitar
Wouter Planteijdt - electric & acoustic guitars/vocals/producer
Nico Brandsen - Hammond organ/ keyboards/ vocals
Peter Wassenaar - bass/double bass/vocals
Richard Heijerman - drums & percussion

After the release of her debut cd Stills, Marijn and Wouter Planteijdt met in a studio where Wouter was recording. He asked her to do some vocals on his first solo cd, “Planteyd W” which has been released in the same year and by the same record company as “Stills”.
They decided to get together to work on home recordings from Marijn, freaky songs with samples and lots of vocals. This turned out really well and after some time (in 2000) they started their first live performances as a trio with Peter Wassenaar on bass.
The trio was called Monsoon, but later they had to change that name, because there was already another band in Belgium with that name. They did some big shows in Club Panama in Amsterdam, with dancers and a VJ.
Wouter asked Marijn  if he could make an album with her voice and her songs, and so they started on a complete new, more Band-oriented adventure.

They recorded in rehearsal rooms, in their own houses and in the KHL, a venue in Amsterdam.
During a recording session with drummer Richard Heijerman, it turned out that his subtle groovy sound perfectly connected to the quiet but swinging songs.
For the finishing touch Hammond player Nico Brandsen was invited, and from that moment on there was “True Magic”and a perfect band- sound . Ma Rain was complete.

The recordings were finally finished with money and help from a lot of friends.
In 2007 Ma Rain self-released (distribution by Bertus) their first album, Harbour.

The album was presented in Paradiso and got a lot of great reviews.
The Dutch Press was laudatory.

Marijn and band were compared to Sandy Denny, Lucinda Williams, Suzanne Vega
and Gilian Welch and the songs are told to be authenthic, pure and deep.
Americana but with a very personal touch.

Quotes:
Remarkably strong debut-album from the experienced musicians surrounding Marijn Wijnands(...) Wijnands has a very personal sound (...) delicate songs that for one time are not fake or sentimental, but are ultimately authentic in their purity(...)Ma Rain is the first of her kind in Holland.
"A bittersweet song like cruel cruel is easily one of the prettiest dutch popsongs ever made.(...) Wijnands sings pure and intense, sweet without getting naïve, poëtic and strong without getting sentimental...”
Jan Vollaard/ NRC Handelsblad

“If an American band would produce an album like Harbour, it would send a jolt through the entire roots-music scene. Let’s hope Ma Rain gets a similar treatment, for this would be well deserved.
Erwinz/ Velvet Music.nl

“Harbour proves that Dutch Rootsmusic can compete with their American counterparts. Wijnands has a beautiful, intense voice that’s often melancholic but can also intensively draw out and swing carefully.”
Volkskrant

Lyrically intelligent, well crafted melodies and a rousing voice .
Excellent mucisians shape Marijn’s poignant thoughts in a powerful yet delicate form. Of international allure.
John Oomkes/Haarlems Dagblad

Harbour is a strong album, with which the Amsterdam Singer rivals her twin Lucinda Williams with ease”
Harry de Jong. Revolver

The second cd Paper Wall was released one year later, in 2008.
It was recorded in a three day- during session in a farmhouse in Drenthe, somewhere in the dutch countryside.
The 15 tracks are all recorded live with the mobile studio of JP Exalto.

Quotes:
(... )”True Magic. Every song sounds like a perfect teamwork. (...) Only that what is needed to strengthen the emotion, is put in. This cd is magnificently pure. Brilliant!”
Music Maker/Marco Miedema

(...)”The second album is good, very good. The lyrics connect beautifully with the chosen musical styles and tell in a personal and poetic way about the blues of life.
Maybe that is thje main force of the band: the personal touch and the intense, authentic sound, compelling as a good story.”
Fret/Rosanne de Boer

“Strange enough Ma Rain is one of the best kept musical secrets of Holland.
(...)The intriguing centre of the band, Marijn Wijnands, is backed by a number of masterful musicians.(...)She does not deserve less. She has a unique voice. Such a voice that creeps up on you to never leave you. (...)Their cd presentation (...)was simply breathtaking. How come so few people know about this, flashed across my mind.
If you have to explain what kind of music Ma Rain makes and you would choose the easy way, one comes up with names as Suzanne Vega, Norah Jones and Sheryl Crow. (...)Because of the way singer/songwriter and guitarist Marijn Wijnands is being supported in adoration by her bandmembers guitarist Wouter Planteijdt, organ player Nico Brandsen en rhythm section Peter Wassenaar en Richard Heijerman . Never importunate, always subservient and with a very high degree of souplesse. (...)For which song the listener immediately falls? For the sensitive Comfort, the catchy Lust Waltz, the rocky The Edge, the swinging Bad Habits, ..Oh , for whichever song!
Aktueel.nu /Dick Bak

Although Ma Rain’s debute album Harbour Wall (2007) was self-released, with only a distribution deal, the press’s response was immense, and so was the Dutch audience’s. Marijn Wijnands’ vocals were indeed supported moodily and inventively by guitar player Wouter Planteijdt, bass player Peter Wassenaar, drummer Richard Heijerman and organ player Nico Brandsen.
Not only did these five perform regularly, they also recorded fifteen new songs in three days. That way they combine the layers in Wijnands’ lyrics with playing live on this second cd.
The once again inspired band often weaves a tight veil around Wijnands’ voice, forces her to break through thorny dissonants in other songs, but also drives her forward in a supple manner in the occasional up-tempo song.
Still Wijnands stays in control melodically and emotionally. She sounds frayed and melancholic, but purified about both the hesitations and passions of love. This way, music and lyrics coincide once again timelessly.
(three and a half stars out of five)
Ruud Heijjer

(...) Harbour is a very lovely cd. But , to catch the bull by the horns, Paper Wall is even more beautiful. (...)Paper Wall opens with a catchy uptempo tune that would not have been unbecoming on one of the first TEXAS records, not in the least because Wijnands’ voice sometimes very strongly reminds of Sharleen Spitery’s . A magnificent cd that deserves to be heard far abroad.
Plato/MvR

Marijn Wijnands
Born and raised in Amsterdam. With no musical education she started playing in a new wave band as a bass player at the age of 16. She passed the academy of arts (Gerrit Rietveld academie) in Amsterdam, sang with “ the Boulevard of Broken Dreams orchestra”, went to the conservatoire in Hilversum for a couple of years to get some singing skills, got two kids and started to write songs and learning to play guitar in open- D tuning in 1995.
Her first cd “Stills” was released in 1998.
The dutch press compared her with : Lucinda Williams, Sandy Denny, Norah Jones,
Madeleine Peyroux, Joni Mitchell, Kris Delmhorst, Suzanne Vega, Sheryl Crow, Sharleen Spiteri, Carly Simon.

Wouter Planteijdt
Producer/songwriter/guitarist/singer/bandleader, has been declared “best guitar player of the netherlands by the Dutch Press, has worked with and produced lots off well known Dutch bands and artists.(Maarten van Roozendaal, Ricky Koole, Bob Fosko) Bandleader/composer of SJAKO! for more than 25 years.

Nico Brandsen
One of the best Organ Players of Holland, played with a lot of big names /bands of the Dutch music industry, like Kane ,Ilse de Lange,Jan Akkerman, and many more.
Besides being a session musician he is a composer and a producer. He teaches at the conservatoire/amsterdam.
His band Fishpot features him and his Hammond organ.

Peter Wassenaar
Plays the bass from 1968 , in many bands (Blue Planet1969-1971; Galexi-Lin, 1972-1975), studied Double bass on the conservatoire in Den Haag,
works and worked with many ( international ) produktions and projects.
Played with Bram Vermeulen, with Arthur Ebeling, Gorelev, Pierre van Duyl,and many more.

Richard Heijermans
According to a lot of experts he is the best drummer of the netherlands.
He plays with SJAKO! and a lot of other produktions with wouter Planteijdt.
(Maarten van Roozendaal, Beatrice van der Poel, Alex Roeka, Spinvis )amongst others.
He is the main force behind Boem Boem Heijerman.