Little Richard's primal scream in Long Tall Sally made a deep impression on the Brabant boarding school boy Alex Roeka and heralded the beginning of his great love for music. He taught himself to play the guitar and devoured the poems of Nijhoff, Van Ostaijen, Slauerhoff and Lucebert. Restlessness and the urge for freedom overtook psychology student Roeka. He plunged into a life of seafaring and
… many wanderings. In this displaced life he got to know the seamy side; alcohol, drugs and prostitution. Back in the Netherlands, Roeka finished his studies, but he could not find his place in normal life. Around the age of 40 he saw the light and realized that it was his destiny to write autobiographical Dutch songs. Hadeskade is the title of his fifth album and accompanying theater program. Roeka admires Bob Dylan, Hank Williams and Jacques Brel, but he expresses himself in a variety of music styles; blues, rock, pop, folk, chanson and even latin. Intense music that radiates both melancholy and zest for life. (SvdP)more
