Margriet Sjoerdsma - An introduction

Yesterday I had the pleasure to meet Margriet Sjoerdsma in Rotterdam - The Netherlands.
Margriet is a singer/songwriter. She has a sound of her own but also she writes her own songs, it is a mix of country, pop, rock and a bit of jazz. By Elle Netherlands she was crowned as most promising singer.

After a period of creative reflection, writing and hard work Margriet launched this year already her third album 'Drawing Circles'
Her first albums 'With the whisper of a morning'(2006) and 'Bloom'(2008) has brought her on stage at the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Concertgebouw and the Kleine Komedie. She has also be on tour to Bulgaria, Croatia and South Korea.

Margriet studied jazz at the Conservatory but she has always been inspired by artists like Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell and Sheryl Crow. On her first two albums particularly jazz influences can be heard. Her album 'Drawing Circles' has a different angle. The condition for this record was that she would start writing songs that she also would like to listen to. She always wrote, but now she forced herself to dive deeper into it. She often could not find the peace to a song or a text to finish. That peace she has taken now consciously. She also wanted to write with others to gain new ideas. For this album she wrote with Louk Boudesteijn, Maarten van Damme, Jan Peter Hoekstra and Martijn van Agt.
 "We have written a lot on guitar, which was new to me. It inspired me again to sit alone behind the piano, trying things out. Not from an idea to write, but to see what currently occurs. "Therefore in 'Drawing Circles' the guitar is central instead of the piano. "I have been working closely with pianist / composer Dimitar Bodurov, and asked Martijn van Agt to join me for the recordings on guitar. "Yesterday was the video recording of two songs of her and soon I will share with you the recordings, made by Eric van Nieuwland and Ron Beenen but first the photos of Margriet getting ready for her photoshoot.

It all happened in an old grain silo next to the river Maas in Rotterdam (Maassilo)

Margriet in the capable hands of Make Up Artist & Hair stylist Willemijn

And ready for the photoshoot by Eric van Nieuwland

And in my next post, have a look at a few snapshots of the making of her new video clip.