ABOUT

Arsene (the band) was founded by Andrei Arsene in March 2005, just before the critically acclaimed single “Where We Started” was about to get airplay in the U.S. The band had submitted the song to a songwriting contest, but eventually it ended up in the hands of a certain radio promoter. There still was one thing they hadn’t thought of yet – they needed an album, fast!

Born in Romania in 1984, Andrei Arsene embraced music from the start. His mother played the piano, his uncle was an accomplished organist who also played the guitar (and built them!) and his father was known to have had the odd accordion lesson in his younger days (although it has never been proven he actually attended those lessons). Andrei first tried his hand at the piano, but after seeing the video for Europe’s “The Final Countdown” he just knew he had to get a guitar. The only one who actually listened to the then 4-year old was his grandmother, who bought him a blue plastic toy guitar – the two (Andrei and the guitar, obviously) became inseparable.

In Nov. 2005, Northeast In-Tune Magazine wrote: "It's fairly obvious that Andrei Arsene loves music and has an appetite for performing, with passion and musicianship going for him...” Passion has indeed been the fuel for Arsene’s music – which he will share with anyone who will listen. When he and his parents moved to the Netherlands in 1991, he really got the chance to perfect his skills on the guitar. While he was at it, he also got to grips with drums and picked up piano playing again.

Listening to Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), Santana and Sting/The Police and playing the guitar were his main occupations during high school. “I have to admit I’ve even been expelled once for consistently skipping classes in favour of playing guitar,” Andrei says. “I’ve always had quite a broad taste in music. I listened to The Police, Santana, Phil Collins, Billy Joel, Paul Simon… and a LOT of jazz, really. And then of course there was Mark Knopfler. Major influence.”

It wasn’t until the age of 20 that he decided to take serious steps in pursuing his career in music and he applied to the Conservatory of Rotterdam, where he is currently studying Music Production. It was around this time that “Where We Started” was picked out to be played on several AC and CHR radio stations in the U.S.; and it became clear it was time to put things down on tape and get that album out - the album was entitled “Where We Started” and was released independently in November 2005.

He started the band, simply named ‘Arsene’, with a couple of friends who also happened to be great musicians – Marco Schaap on guitar, Jonathan Ketel on bass and Joao Eliseo on drums (and some percussion, every now and then). Arsene have performed in such clubs as EXIT (Rotterdam) and the P60 (Amstelveen).

“When You’re Gone”, the 4th song from the album, is out now on the Lo-Budget Love compilation disc released by Innovation Entertainment. In the meantime, Arsene’s own album keeps getting great reviews.

“Yes, I’d really like to make a living out of music. The prospect of writing and performing for the rest of my life makes me very happy indeed. In the end, it’s all about expressing yourself in a way that people might find enjoyable. You’ve got to give ‘em something – comfort, understanding, advice, happiness, even reason perhaps – that is, for me, the essence of music, of being an artist,” Arsene comments. He is indeed expressing himself in a most lovely manner – a way that most certainly will earn him a position in the rankings with the heroes he has been influenced by since childhood.