The Crowns are a fully independent band from the heart of Amsterdam with a curious love for Converse and skinny jeans. The band was founded early in the summer of 2008 in Amsterdam, where a shared passion for music and an environment  rather  conductive  to creativity led Valentine  (vocals), Thomas (guitar) and Alex (keys)  to record a demo.

Originally  just  intended  to  be  shared with  friends,  the  demo was nevertheless picked up by music fans scouring social networks for their daily aural  fix, resulting in the  Crowns  quickly growing  to  be  the  largest  Dutch  rock band  on Myspace in a matter of months.  Inspired  by  the positive reception of their demo, at the end of the summer The Crowns decided to complete and enhance their line-up with French Toff (on drums) and French-Italian Franky (on bass) in order to fully dedicate themselves to creating and performing music.

True to the spirit of freedom & liberty on which Amsterdam was founded, The Crowns are completely independent  without  any  labels  and managers  constraining  their  creativity or interfering with their connection with their fans. Their first video, which they made with nothing more than an old camera and even older Dutch bike, was placed on Youtube at the beginning of 2009. On the power of this video alone, The Crowns are placed in the top 5 of Dutch musicians on youtube, currently growing faster than any other Dutch musician. The Crowns are currently recording their debut album which is slated for a summer 2009 release. Material from the album recordings is frequently being released to fans in the run up to the full release and can be found in the music section.

Valentine is best known for being the inventor and world champion of extreme yodeling.  Some 20 years ago, after a failed career in Japanese sumo wrestling, Valentine became a recluse in the Swiss Alps. Solitary, yet greatly inspired by traditional Swiss clothing and cuisine, Valentine laid the groundworks for extreme yodeling. Valentine is 23 years of age and can be seen on ESPN hosting the show Yodel or Die.

Spending most of his youth pushing musical boundaries with bands such as The Backstreet Boys and New kids on The Block, Thomas quickly grew bored with the limitations of guitar playing and progressed to dancing. This newfound freedom resulted in the invention of the now world famous Carlton Dance. Thomas guitar style is often admiringly described a combination between Satriani and a drunken hippie.

Alex has spent most of his life researching flatulence for the purpose of autonomous echolocation development (also known as human sonar). Although his research was primarily aimed at helping the visually impaired, years of listening to the reverberations of flatulence allowed him to develop a heightened sense of hearing for the purpose of recording and producing music.

According to some, Toff is the result of an experiment to create the ultimate drummer by genetically fusing The Dalai Lama, Bruce Lee and a deep sea octopus. Others, after decades of sleuthing, have concluded that Toff is a mere illusion created to hide the fact that he is actually a secret NASA super computer running an extremely advanced drumming AI. Yet even today, the true origins of Toff remain shrouded in mystery.

After moving to Amsterdam from Italy during the squatters riots of the ’80s, Franky attempted to establish himself as the godfather of Amsterdam using his bass guitar as an instrument of both creation and destruction. Over the years his attempts to establish a Dutch mob grew increasingly frustrated due to a lack of Italians. Franky can currently be found still living in Amsterdam, spawning offspring at an alarming rate.

Band photography by Ruben De Wilde, photography of Amsterdam by Stuck In Customs.