Krezip

Krezip began as a four-piece outfit in 1997 in Tilburg, Netherlands, consisting of Jacqueline Govaert on vocals, Anne Govaert and Annelies Kuijsters on guitar and Joost van Haaren on bass guitar. Though these four formed the core of the band, they found it difficult to find a suitable permanent drummer. During one of their early shows, Thijs Romeijn was in the audience, and was so impressed by the band's energy that he approached them after the show to commend them. During the conversation, it turned out that Romeijn was a drummer himself, and he quickly became the band's permanent drummer.

In 1998, Krezip, armed with two demo tapes, played many festivals in the Netherlands, such as Festival Mundial, Noorderslag, and Lowlands. Studies and age made obtaining commercial offers difficult. In 1999, they released an independent EP, Run Around.

The band soon received numerous offers from record companies. In 2000, they signed with Warner Music and recorded their first album, Nothing Less, with the producer Oscar Holleman. Their first single, "Won't Cry", did little to advance their career. The band gained more exposure after a show at the Dutch Pinkpop festival, with the ballad "I Would Stay" being received exceptionally well. The song was released as their second single, with a video compiled from footage of the Pinkpop show. "I Would Stay" became a #1 hit in Belgium and #2 in the Netherlands. It was the #1 song of 2000 in Belgium.[1]

Nothing Less entered the charts at #1 in both the Netherlands and Belgium, going 2x platinum in the Netherlands.[2] Despite this, the two other singles from the album, "All Unsaid" and "Everything And More", failed to chart. Among others, Krezip received a 2001 Edison Award, the Dutch equivalent of the Grammy Awards.

The band toured continuously on the album, though towards the end of the tour, problems began to arise. Govaert began to lose her voice, while Kuijsters experienced severe pains in her hand that stopped her from playing shows without painkillers. After the tour, Govaert needed an operation on her vocal cords, while Kuijsters was diagnosed as simply not being "made" to play guitar. The band moved her to keyboards and she was replaced as a guitarist by Thomas Holthuis.

Despite a delay due to writer's block, the band released Days Like This in 2002. The album was certified gold (35,000 copies) later that year, and though the album was not as successful as its predecessor, it had several successful singles ("You Can Say" (#18), "Promise" (#16) and "Mine"). Despite this success, Govaert has expressed disdain for some of the songs, implying that the album was too serious for Krezip, and criticizing her own singing.

A club tour supported the album in the Netherlands, including acoustic performances in theaters. A performance for The Box TV program Pure was recorded live and released on DVD and CD called That'll Be Unplugged. The band liked the unplugged shows at first, but over time, decided to stay with rock music. Krezip also spent time promoting the album in Germany. They did two tours there and they were the supporting act for Bon Jovi in the Netherlands and supported Sheryl Crow during her tour of Germany and France.

In 2003, guitarist Holthuis decided to leave the band to live with his girlfriend in Berlin, citing musical differences. He was replaced by Jan Peter Hoekstra.

While the band wrote new songs, Warner Music forced Warner Music Benelux to drop all of its national artists, including Krezip. The band independently released "All I'm Asking For", available on their website for 99 cents.

After leaving Warner, Krezip received many offers from other record labels. After careful deliberation, they chose to sign with Sony BMG. In a speech during the 2004 TMF Awards, Krezip thanked their old label for everything that they had done. The band flew to Los Angeles to collaborate with the American producers Wizardz of Oz, writing most of their new album there. Romeijn became demotivated and found himself unable to play the new songs through not practising. Eventually, the band replaced Thijs with Bram van den Berg; he was originally hired only to play on the album, but decided to stay.

On 9 May 2005, Krezip released What Are You Waiting For?. The album entered the Dutch Album Top 100 at #1 and stayed in the chart for 27 weeks. Three singles were released. "Out Of My Bed" was first. It peaked at #9, making it Krezip's second top 10 hit. Two other singles, "Don't Crush Me" (#22) and the ballad "I Apologize" (#30), failed to make it into the top 20.

In early 2005, Krezip traveled to Ethiopia at the request of charity foundation Novib for an education campaign. The journey was recorded and shown on the Dutch version of MTV. The band also went on toured Benelux, selling out 15 big venues.

The song "Same Mistake" was used in the Dutch movie Het Schnitzelparadijs (Schnitzel Paradise), which became a huge hit in the Netherlands. The band later noted that "Same Mistake" is the only Krezip song that has never been played live.

In 2006, Jacqueline joined several artists in the Netherlands to record the anthem for the 2006 TMF Awards. The song was performed live during the award show. The single became available for download to support the foundation Dance 4 Life - it peaked at #4 on downloads alone.

In 2007, the band teamed up with the Swedish producers Adel Dahdal and Peter Mansson to record a new album. The band deliberately chose a drastically different sound, with disco influences and more electronica, and hence teamed up with various songwriters such as Felix Rodriguez and Jesper Anderberg of The Sounds among others. The album was recorded in two weeks, and on 11 May 2007 Krezip released Plug It In. On 6 February 2007 a Dutch radio station (3FM) played a rough version of the first single, "Plug It In & Turn Me On".[3] The song was officially released in April 2007 and entered the Dutch Top 40 at the #39. While on tour, Krezip performed at Pinkpop Festival for the fourth time, replacing Amy Winehouse. The second single, "Play This Game With Me", was released after this show, with its music video using footage of the Pinkpop show. The song failed to chart. The third single, "All My Life", put the band back into the top 10, peaking at #7.

On 17 August 2007, Jacqueline announced on Giel Beelen's radio show that Krezip would give a special concert on 29 December 2007, in the Heineken Music Hall (HMH) in Amsterdam to celebrate its tenth anniversary. A documentary was also filmed, showcasing the band's entire career until that point with narration by the band members. The band recorded a cover of The Korgis' song "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime". The song was used in the film Alles is liefde. Later that year, the band re-released Plug It In with the track, a new song and a number of live tracks from the HMH concert.

The band continued to tour, eventually announcing that a best-of compilation would be released in December 2008. It included three new tracks, of which "Go To Sleep" and "Sweet Goodbyes" were released as singles. Originally, it had been implied that the band thought this a good point to release a retrospective. On 2 October, however, the band announced in Giel Beelen's radio show that they had decided to break up. On the band's Hyves account, they explained that a good time for them to quit was when they were at their peak.[4]

The band finished the tour and played two farewell concerts in the HMH. The last concert was released on CD and DVD under the title Sweet Goodbyes.

On 28 January 2019, news broke that Krezip would return to the stage for Pinkpop 2019. On January 29 2019, they premiered their new single Lost Without You on the Dutch TV show De Wereld Draait Door. On June 8, 2019, they released the follow-up single "How Would You Feel". On October 24, 2019, Krezip released their new album Sweet High.

• Thomas Holthuis – guitar (2001–2003)
• Thijs Romeijn – drums (1997–2004)

• 10 jaar Krezip documentary