Sven Figee
keyboard player / producer / arranger
Musical Biography
Sven Figee was born on the 27th of May 1975 in a musical family. Both of his parents played the Piano; his grandfather was a recording jazz-pianist and his grandmother a trained classical pianist. It was pretty inevitable that Sven was going to play the piano. He got his first music lesson on the age of 8 and started piano-lessons when he was 9. After a short while he got his first gig, playing for the school inspection (he was 10 years at the time). Thats when he really got the taste of performing for an audience. He didn`t stop taking lessons and started his first own band when he was 12. When Sven was 16, he started doing his first professional gigs. He played with a lot of local bands and sessions.
After finishing his school diploma when he was 18, he went to the Rotterdam Academy of Music to study Jazz Piano with Rob van Kreeveld; an acclaimed Dutch jazz-piano player.
Five years later Sven is so busy playing everywhere, that he stops his study and fully concentrates on his career as a session and recording musician.
The Facts
From 1992 till 1997: various local acts, such as Prats The Whoblem (funk), De Kern (Dutch pop) and Topaz (Rock). With the latter Sven records a full pop album, playing organ and synths, released in 1994 by Alabianca Records. This is Svens first major studio experience.
From 1997 till 1999: Marcel de Groot (Dutch pop). With this talented singer/songwriter (son of Dutch 60`s legend Boudewijn de Groot) Sven toured the Dutch theaters. They recorded a live record that was released in 1998 by HKM records. As a group they accompanied acclaimed artists like Paul Carrack, Boudewijn de Groot and George Kooijmans (golden earring).
From 1998 till 2000: Anouk (pop). This famous Dutch female pop-rock singer scored an international European hit with her debut single “Nobody`s Wife” in 1998 and has been on top of the charts since then. With her, Sven traveled a lot: Benelux, Scandinavia, Germany, Portugal and North America. They played most big festivals out there, like: Pinkpop, Parkpop, TMF & MTV Awards, Imola (it.), Rock Werchter (be.), Rock am Ring (ger.), Sven also cooperated as a studio musician on her second (hit)album; “urban solitude”, released in 1999, by Dino Music. Sven also appears on her 3rd album, “Lost Tracks” on some live-recordings.
In 2000: Keith Caputo (Life of Agony, NY), (pop/rock). Sven played the Hammond organ on a couple of occasions for Keith Caputo: WDR Rockpalast (the famous German music TV show) and the famous Roskilde festival in Denmark.
From 2000 till today: Mieke Giga (Gigantjes), jazz, Latin and rock! With this `rock and roll` diva Sven tours the Dutch theaters on Hammond organ for quite some time now. In 2003 Giga Records released their first live CD with this band, produced and mixed by Sven in the VG-Music/Liquid lab studio.
From 2000 till today: Rose (soul, pop, jazz). With this Dutch soul diva, Sven is proud to be her bandleader and arranger as well as producer. He is responsible for half of the production of her first, by press and public highly acknowledged album. After the release in 2002 by United Recordings, they tour the Dutch clubs. They also appear on many national Dutch TV shows, such as Barend & van Dorp, Raymann is Laat etc etc. They are currently working on rose`s second album that is almost ready. Soon some examples will be available on this site!
From 2001 till 2002: Floris (Jazzy Lounge funk); Sven is mainly involved in the startup for the “Floris” band: he helps putting the `live` concept together. United Recordings released Floris debut album in 2002.
2002: Di-Rect: Sven appears as a recording musician on the song “Free”, where he plays the piano. This song, as well as many songs after this one, becomes a huge hit and can be found on their debut album. 2004: Sven joins them for a big concert especially for T-Mobile, with only Motown Classics. New plans for 2006 lay on the table.
From 2001 till 2002: DJ Roog (club house). With this acclaimed Dutch DJ Sven writes a couple of house hits; Passion de Gozar and others become good club hits!
Since 2002: Liquinova (Lounge, Jazz, Breakbeat vibes); Together with house DJ Sean McCaff, Sven forms a production duo under the name of Liquinova. 2005 was a super year for them; they released on more than six compilations (Music for Cocktails, Kilometro5 etc etc) and are currently highly productive and working on their solo-album as well as licensing out their tracks to many different parties. Check out their site on: http://www.liquinova.com.
Autumn 2003: Blues Brothers the Musical; Sven tours the Dutch theaters with this successful show, playing the Hammond organ.
Beginning 2004 till today: DJMaestro: Sven features live on Hammond organ during the Blue Note Trip Tour. Playing along the jazzy/funky records that Maestro spins. After selling more than 300.000 compilations Maestro is well acclaimed and the tour is a big success. Sven and Maestro also work together in the studio: they make a remix of “You and I” a Floris track, which appeared in 2005 on quite some compilations. Currently they are working on new material for maestro`s new album.
September-December 2004: Sven is bandleader/arranger for Dutch-Idols winner “Boris”, a very talented soul singer.
Mid 2005: Sven Produces new recordings for the popular Dutch ska/hip hop/soul band Splendid, which will be released soon!
May 2005: Sven plays keyboards for the legendary “Daughters of Soul” at Paradiso, Amsterdam. He was extremely proud to play with international stars, such as: Sandra St. Victor (Family Stand), Joyce Kennedy (Mothers Finest), Nona Hendrix (Voulez Vous Coucher.), Indira Khan (daughter of Shaka Khan), Simone (daughter of jazz legend Nina Simone) and Layla Hathaway (daughter of the legendary soul singer Donny Hathaway).
Not to forget: many free-lance and guest performances with artists like: Berget Lewis, Lilian Jackson (Spargo), Lillian Vieira (Zuco103), Tim & Spike (Di-rect), Jacqueline Govaerts (Krezip), Lois Lane, Trijntje Oosterhuis, Relax, Xander de Buisonje, Danny de Munk, Jan Rietman and many others.
2006: new theater-tour with the Blues Brothers from Jan. till april, whole 2006: recording/mixing new album of the acclaimed dutch soul singer ‘Rose’.
May 2006 Splendid (The Hague based raggae/soul band) released their debut album. Sven produced some of the tracks on this succesfull album.
June 2006: release of new DJ maestro album (Mesmerize) with 2 tracks produced by Sven and DJ maestro. One of them (Rainy Day, with features of Tineke Postma and Peter beets), is allready becoming a classic on Arrow Jazz radio. The album has reached the album top 100 and is due to be released abroad in the near future.
July 2006: release of the new Harry Kimani album (Tuishi Mi nawe). Sven arranged/played on this album.
September 2006: Sven starts as a teacher on the Rotterdam Jazz Academy. He teaches keyboards and production.
Januari 2007: VG-Music releases Sven Figee’s first ‘solo’ album, called Sven Hammond soul Live @ Cafe De Zwarte Ruiter. recorded live on the 5th of october 2006. The album get’s some great reviews (Fret and Jazz magazine). Sven is currently touring with his band Sven Hammond Soul.
March/April 2007: On tour with the legendary ‘Alessi Brothers’. Performing in various theaters in holland, belgium and france.
May 2007: release of the long awaited album of dutch soul-singer ‘Rose’, called Livin’ It. Sven is the executive producer of this album and plays all the keyboards. The production team that Sven pulled together for this, by the press all highly acclaimed and rewarded album, consists of dutch percussion and production super-talent Dutchflower and guitar player/songwriter/producer Roland Dirkse. On this album Rose and Sven also collaborated with Sandra St. Victor (The Family Stand) and many of the finest musicians from Holland.
