Nosferatu |
Erwin van Kan
Born in 1973 in The Hague - Netherlands, Erwin started his carreer apparently when he was 3 years old (!)
At that age he was playing behind an old piano from his grandpa wich ended up into several keys smashed off the thing! After playing some notes, he raised himself up onto (!) the piano, took a burning cigar out of an ashtray, from his grandpa who was standing in the kitchen with his daughter. Pounding, jumping and smashing on the piano, Erwin slipped and fell, hitting his eyebraw on a sharp point of a table, leaving a nasty scar above his eye - maybe his Hardcore era already had been born?
As an infant, Erwin played on piano's and keyboards (not smashing them, though!) on several Christmas-eves and Wedding-receptions during the years. At the age of 12, he began to mix some music with a tape-deck and a non-pitchable turntable, resulting in various styles of mixes wich he gave to his friends.
Continue to grew up, mixing, pasting and cutting music up into an improved style of music, he and his father managed to make a small studio out of a small bird-environment in their backyard. At that time, he stopped mixing-up music for a while and began to produce his own music. When he bought his first sampler, the heat was on... He produced several tracks but didn't know yet what to do with them so gave his music only to friends.
After a difficult time in school (skipping classes to do his musical production needs, fighting and due to the thing they called 'street knowledge') but yet with a neat graduation, he wanted to do something in music. Knowing that he needed money to buy more and improved equipment for his music, he worked at several stores to earn some money. Not only did he bought new equipment, he also started to buy records at the local recordstore. Also listening to a lot of non-hardcore styles of music, like Vangelis, JeanMichel Jarre, Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, U2, Simple Minds, The Doors, NWA, EPMD, Public Enemy etc. etc. he managed to influence himself with these particular styles and wanted to put that inspiration into his own style of music; the hardcore...
Erwin managed to build a nice record-collection throughout these years and also his nice, yet still very small studio was updated again at that time. Then, a good friend told him that they wanted a DJ in a coffeeshop near his home. So without hesitation he went to the shop and talked with the owner. Every wednesday he could spin there as DJ Myztic (Nosferatu's former DJ-name), for free consumption and some money. He accepted the offer and his carreer went a bit up. After a couple of weeks, he was asked to spin also in the weekends on afterparties or normal parties. The vibe in the shop was always a thrill when this resident DJ was spinning his stuff!
After a year spinning in the coffeeshop, he was asked to perform on small, underground parties throughout his city. One particular party was a massive, underground rave wich was held in the suburbs of The Hague. With a toilet, a huge bar and lots of plastic crates filled with vinyls in the back, Nosferatu played there for over 7 hours non-stop! Everyone knew that this rave was one for the historybooks! Even the cops that were in the building for a while to check things out, were amazed by the great vibe and atmosphere that went on there! The building was on a list for demolition, so the look of the building was also very underground; walls were crushed, broken windows, lots of bricks and stones and only a strobe and a small smokemachine were present for the effects. And with a huge soundsystem that went highly above all decibels, this party was the perfect definition of an underground rave how it was ment to be!
After he was being dumped by some girl, he managed to make a very fast track wich he spinned a couple of times at the coffeeshop. A friend told him that he knew Charly Lownoise (Ramon Roelofs) and he wanted Erwin to give that track to Charly, wich he did. He went nuts when he heard that his track 'All That She Wants...' was going to be released on vinyl. His first record was born. And this e.p. went up the charts, especially in Germany. At that time the Happy Hardcore-scene was growing larger and larger, but yet it grew also happier and happier. It was not unthinkable that Erwin turned his back on this scene after just one record. So he stopped producing for this company and went on.
His style has always been rough, hard, extreme and controverse. That's why he loved the vinyls of the vicious Ruffneck-records at that time. Most of the time you could find him at his local record-store 'Stad Den Haag-records' where he bought a lot of vinyl every single week, and given by a lot of people he went by the name of 'the hardest DJ of The Hague'. Besides his spinning qualities he still wanted to produce his own tracks and after a big investment in good equipment for his studio, he went producing on a more proffesional level, wich ended up into a first demo. Offcourse his interests went out to Ruffneck-records, so he decided to sent the demo to its wellknown recordcompany Cardiac Music. But he saw DJ Ruffneck (Patrick v. Kerckhoven) was about to spin at a rave near The Hague, so he decided to give his demo there. At that rave, still deciding what was best for his future: to spin or to produce, he finally gave his demo to Patrick and after a couple of days he got a call from Cardiac Music-manager Andrea v.d Rhee wich informed him that his demo was approved and they wanted to make an appointment. At that point his carreer started to go way up and running!
For some reason it was a coincedence that another Nosferatu (Fred Henderson) was present at the Ruffneck label. Only this one wanted to make other music than Hardcore at that time, so he decided to quit making hardcore and freely went to other record-companies, leaving the name Nosferatu behind, yet intact. At that point Erwin and Patrick decided to use Nosferatu for future releases...The Future? =)
The Nosferatu era had begon!
Hits like: Dangerous Battle, Destiny, The Future, To Da Rhythm and many more were made by the hand of Erwin for Ruffneck-records, overseen by the critical ears of the Ruffster!
After XSV (some recordcompany Ruffneck-records was stationed) went bankrupt, Patrick decided to lay down the Ruffneck-label, for it had a strange curse, noticable that almost everything went wrong for a couple of months during that period. Patrick asked his producers if they wanted to stay and produce for a new and improved label starting from zero, or go on to an other label that already existed. Because of a great friendship Erwin had build, he had no doubt wanting to stay as long as it lasted. At that point, the Gangsta label was started. Erwin had the oppertunity to release the first solo e.p on this label. 'Enter The Darkness' was released. The name was perfectly chosen, due to the fact that he wanted to turn his style noticible by his name: Nosferatu; dark, hard, but yet with a melodic touch..
And than he managed to produce his first album: 'Enemy Of The State' from that point he placed his style of music up the charts every single time. Hits like: Human Experiments, Language Of Rhythm, Desolate One, etc. etc were constantly licensed for dozens of CD's. The catalognumber G64 in all it's aspects and success was a happening Erwin never could have dreamed off! Also his DJ-bookings went berzerk. Every single weekend he was booked and he was making a great reputation in the scene.
During the great 'dipper' in the year 2000, Gangsta layed down also and Patrick wanted to have Endymion and Nosferatu to be the roleplayers of a new label wich was given the name: Enzyme. But yet overseen by Patrick, due to the design of the covers, the mastering of all the tracks etc, etc. And with this label, Erwin explored many musical stuff for his mind and throughout the years he produced many hits wich were spinned by several respected and wellknown DJ's.
Hits like Raythered, Psychiatric Ass (with Ophidian), Purgatory Knowledge, Disease, Project Hardcore Anthem (with Endymion & The Viper), Cameltoe, Beaver Cleaver, Knock Out and many more...
Nowadays, Nosferatu can be found every weekend spinning at raves (his schedule doesn't lie), infecting everybody with the vicious Enzyme-virus and still he does that with great enthousiasm and lots of passion. Also a new location of his studio has been a fact. 66m2 studio, office and gamecorner (!) are stationed near the location of his good friends and collegues Endymion.
He played in countries like, U.K./Scotland (Newcastle, Edinburgh), Italy (Rimini, Milan, Rome), Spain (Lloret De Mar, Blanes, Barcelona and more), Germany (Köln, München, Dortmund, and more), Switserland (Basel and more), and offcourse The Netherlands where he spins in every city where possible! Unfortunately, due to his fear of flying and air-sickness his capabilities to go further more around the globe has been limited; he gets bookings for the U.S., Russia, Australia and last year even a booking for Peru (!)... It goes without saying that he defies the fact that he cannot accept those bookings at all.
But for now, you can notice him every weekend on stage anywere in Holland!
"...live your life how you want it to life, but keep it alive!..."
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