Another late-night entry as I’ve been spending the day with the kids. However, we’re not ones to leave a band out in the cold on a night like this! Come on in, The Last Element…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are from the Netherlands, a little bit spread over the country, but it’s not that big so that doesn’t say a lot! The central spot for us is Amsterdam.
How did you meet?
Jan and Robert have played together for approximately 6 years before they formed The Last Element with Jasper and Noah.
Each of us had experience with other bands and projects. Jan and Robert have the most experience with touring, recording bands and the music business, while Noah, Jasper make sure there is a good balance for the new, now and the current business. Together we make a great team!
When we started making music together we glued together quickly and created our own signature in songs and sound. We started practicing for live sets, did gigs and recorded a lot of songs!
Without a doubt, for all of us, this is the best lineup we’ve ever been in.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Nah, that’s ok to explain – we like the story 😊
We were searching for a way to explain the driving factor behind our band, our music has always been very close to our hearts, we write about things that really matter to us, but that we believe also really matter to a lot of people. We were searching for a way to explain what could combine the elements of, hardship, love, trust, friendship and perseverance. That’s when we decided all of these combined could be seen as: The Last Element – When we are together, we are stronger!
What are your influences?
Bring Me The Horizon, Breaking Benjamin… heck, all major bands. In the end we check out everything that’s available, music isn’t linear and it’s not defined by a single genre. We love to listen to all that’s out there. Each of us listens to music a lot in their spare time, this will always influence you, but we don’t have a single style or artist. We just make what we love and take it from there.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We want to say we sound like The Last Element, that makes us unique! Each of our songs is packed with heartfelt lyrics and vocals, backed up by heavy and epic guitar and bass grooves. With killer drums laying the foundation for it all. There is a lot going on, but it has a distinct sound that blends perfectly. I think most of our fans will easily recognize us among the many bands. Furthermore we focus on the music, we believe it’s a story we tell about everyone, we write music most can relate to and understand. It’s not about us, it’s about you!
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Not really, just in general what happens in life and what has a hold of you at that moment. Mostly I (jasper) write about my history or current life events that shape me. I like to really keep the lyrics close to what I feel, that way I can really put my all into it. Each word is felt and I believe that shows.
I do always keep in mind that the lyrics that I write are not just my stories, they are stories we all can tell and we all go through at some points in our lives. Each their own and that’s what I love about it, I love to be able to not only tell my story, but also the stories of so many others. With that in mind I just try to scream it out loud for everyone to hear.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
You can find some online, go ahead YouTube it! Our shows are wild man… no one gets out ali… no wait, ok – everyone gets out alive and happy, that’s what we aim for! We love the energy from the crowd and the interaction! We did some really cool support acts for some big bands like Red and Skillet. Now we are working hard to get more cool support slots!
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
We are not easy shocked, we’ve seen a lot of cool artists live.. but in reality the wildest things we see is how good some bands are live, how much that inspires us !
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Robert’s kit is a Tama Superstar sparkle set with Amedia cymbals, Noah plays a PRS Custom 24 goldtop and a Godin… Kemper amplification, Jan plays Fernandes Gravity 4/5 string basses and Mesa Boogie Amps.
What are your plans for the next 12 months?
Hopefully some amazing shows, we are so done with the whole lockdown and no live scene, so hopefully everything works out in the next few months and we can play some cool shows again.
Not only that, we are working really hard on our sound, we aim to really be on par with some of the biggest bands. We know we still got a lot of work to do, but I think we can manage in the next 12 months! Also we are working hard on the development of our visual identity, new pictures, videos, logo, etc.
Last, we are working on new material, better than what we have ever written and we write a lot!! We’ve got so many songs we can’t wait for you guys/girls to hear.
Damn…. We are really working on a lot, so stay tuned!
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
We would love to open for a lot of bands! But a really cool package might be: Bring Me The Horizon as support for us, and we open for Life’s Electric! Oh, wait I turned that around… We would love to open for Bring me the Horizon, hell we would be having a party in the crowd and have a blast seeing them live.
Life’s Electric would be a cool band to open for us, amazing band, really cool energy and just like us, fairly unknown… But time will tell, good things might happen for both bands!
Check out this month’s BotD Playlist on Spotify and YouTube
The Last Element: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | spotify | youtube
