Stef Broks (born 1st of May 1981,

Etten-Leur Etten-Leur () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Dutch province North Brabant. Its name is a combination of the two villages from which the municipality originally arose: Etten and Leur. History The villages were always pa ...

The Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

) is a Dutch musician, teacher and entrepreneur, best known for his work with Dutch progressive metal band Textures (2001-present). He is known for playing rock and metal with a fusion touch and an extensive use of

polyrhythms Polyrhythm () is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-r ...

with his -left-footed- double bass pedals. Broks currently has his own music school Het Popstation in

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

and teaches didactics at his old school Codarts Rotterdam and various courses at Metal Factory,

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

Musical career

After playing in several local bands as a teenager, Broks launched his career in 2001 by asking guitarist Jochem Jacobs to start a new state-of-the-art metal band in the style of modern metal acts such as

Meshuggah Meshuggah () is a Swedish extreme metal band formed in Umeå in 1987. Since 2004, the band's lineup consists of founding members Jens Kidman (lead vocals) and Fredrik Thordendal (lead guitar), alongside rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström, drumm ...

, Devin Townsend, and At the Gates. Broks suggested the band name Textures, derived from the title of an instrumental track on the 1993 album ''

Focus Focus (: foci or focuses) may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in East Australia Film *Focus (2001 film), ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based on the Arthur Miller novel *Focus (2015 ...

'', by the fusion-metal cult band Cynic. While Broks was studying

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

and working for newspapers and magazines ('' Slagwerkkrant'', '' Gitarist'', ') in his early 20s, Textures enjoyed overnight success after the Dutch music magazines '' Oor'' and ' called their self-released debut, '' Polars'', one of the best Dutch metal albums ever. Textures became also one of the first D.I.Y.-acts in The Netherlands with working out artwork, band management, building a studio, album production and videoclips all by themselves. The album was picked up by Listenable Records ( Soilwork, Gojira) a few months later and released to a world wide audience. From 2003 until 2017 Broks and Textures played up to 700 shows across Europe, U.S.A. and India with bands like

Arch Enemy Arch Enemy is a Swedish melodic death metal band, originally a Supergroup (music), supergroup from Halmstad, formed in 1995. Its members were in bands such as Carcass (band), Carcass, Armageddon (Swedish band), Armageddon, Carnage (band), Carna ...

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and Gojira. Including slots on all main metal festivals on the European continent. In the meantime Broks graduated from his studies Journalism (2000-2004) and conservatorium Codarts Rotterdam (2004-2008) later on. Due to his complex and innovative drum compositions for Textures, Broks got awarded as Best Metal Drummer five times by Dutch/Belgian drum magazine Slagwerkkrant. Followed up by doing dozens of drum clinics and workshops in The Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and Nepal. After a seven year hiatus, Textures returned in 2024 with a festival tour across the main European metal festivals. The band also returned to writing modus for finishing the never-released successor of Phenotype (Nuclear Blast Records, 2016). Artists like

Chris Adler Christopher James Adler (born November 23, 1972) is an American musician, best-known as a founding member and the longtime drummer of Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Lamb of God (band), Lamb of God from 1994 to 2019. He was also a Grammy A ...

(

Lamb of God Lamb of God (; , ) is a Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, title for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. It appears at wikisource:Bible (American Standard)/John#1:29, John 1:29, where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, " ...

- 1999-2019), Jay Postones (

), Kerim "Krimh" Lechner ( Decapitated, Septicflesh) and Matt Halpern ( Periphery) name Broks as one of their drum inspirations.

Teaching

After making his teaching debut at the age of 18 years old at Mark Eeftens Drum School in

Breda Breda ( , , , ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. ...

, Broks worked at: *Music Station, Rotterdam (together with Cesar Zuiderwijk) *Popcentrale music school,

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...

* Herman Brood Academie,

*Rock City Institute,

. Broks' teaching career lifted to a new platform when founding his own music school Het Popstation, Utrecht in 2014. Currently home to 300 pupils and 20 teachers. Besides that Broks also works at conservatorium Codarts Rotterdam and Metal Factory Eindhoven since 2014, where he does a lot of band coaching, didactics/pedagogics and drum lessons. Currently Broks is working on a drum method, to be released in 2025.

Equipment

Broks uses Meinl cymbals and Tama drums and drumsticks. *Tama Starclassic drum set *Tama Speed Cobra Double Pedal *Meinl 13" Byzance Traditional hi-hat *Meinl 17" Soundcaster Custom Medium Crash *Meinl 14" Soundcaster Custom Medium Crash *Meinl 16" Soundcaster Custom China *Meinl 12" Soundcaster Custom Splash *Meinl 16" Soundcaster Custom Medium Crash *Meinl 20" Mb10 Medium Ride

Discography

* Textures – '' Polars'' (2003) * Textures – '' Drawing Circles'' (2006) * Textures – '' Silhouettes'' (2008) * Exivious – '' Exivious'' (2009) * Zhabareth – ''Zhabareth'' (2009) * Cube X – ''Kanzi's Word List'' (2011) * Textures – '' Dualism'' (2011) * Maiden United – ''Remembrance'' (2015) * Textures – ''Phenotype'' (2016)

External links

Textures official websiteTextures
at

Encyclopaedia Metallum Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives (commonly known as Metal Archives per the URL or abbreviated as MA) is an online encyclopedia based upon musical artists who predominantly perform heavy metal music along with its various sub-genres ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Broks, Stef 1981 births Living people Dutch male drummers Dutch heavy metal drummers People from Etten-Leur 21st-century Dutch drummers 21st-century Dutch male musicians