Besides That 1998 – 2008.
Played 17 years in Besides That (blue line). Timetable of the band history.
The music is released on 66 platforms:
Main platform is Spotify and includes lyrics. SPOTIFY DIRECT LINK
Video
Mark Steenhuis his youtube channel has all main Besides That Videos and other bands and projects he played in. DIRECT LINK
Besides That Music is released on the following official music platforms
Amazon (Downloads) ; Amazon Prime (Streaming) ; Amazon Songs ; Amazon Unlimited (Streaming) ; Anghami ; Apple Beats 1 Radio ; Apple DJMix ; Apple Fitness+ ; Apple Music ; Audiomack ; Beatport ; Beatport Streaming ; Beats ; Boomplay ; Boomplay ; Capcut ; Claromusica (iMusica) ; Deezer ; Facebook ; Flo ; Google Play ; Google Play All Access ; Groove (Downloads) ; Groove (Streaming) ; iHeart Radio ; iTunes ; iTunes Match ; iTunes Songs ; kkbox ; Luna ; LyricFind ; LyricFind Adjustments ; Medianet ; Medianet (Downloads) ; Musixmatch ; Napster ; NetEase ; Pandora ; Pretzel ; Qobuz Downloads ; Qobuz Streaming ; Resso ; Saavn ; Snap ; SoundCloud ; Spotify ; Tencent ; Tidal ; Tidal (Downloads) ; Tidal Direct Artist Payouts ; TikTok ; TikTok Music (Audio) ; TouchTunes ; Triller ; Vevo ; Yandex ; YouTube (Ads) ; YouTube (Ads) – Composition ; YouTube (Audio) ; YouTube (ContentID) ; YouTube (Red) ; YouTube (Red) – Composition ; Youtube Creator Music ; Youtube Creator Music PUB ; Youtube Shorts ; Youtube Shorts Composition .
First encounters with the guitar (the eighties)
Band serious activities 1991-2008 – member of Besides That.
Guitar, composing, keyboards (Visions DEMO, CD Driven and CD 24-7) and recording engineer of 24-7.
Recording and performing live with Besides That
Besides That was founded in the summer of 1988 by singer and guitarist Berry Hoeksema and Gert Zwerver (drums). In 1988, Besides That was a small band from Bedum, drawing inspiration from groups such as The Cure, U2, Simple minds, The Church, and The Alarm. Their first demo was recorded in December 1988 and featured light pop-rock songs. As with many starting bands, there were numerous lineup changes.
After three years, Mark Steenhuis (lead guitar and keyboards) joined the band. Mark brought later along keyboard player Jeroen Bruintjes from his earlier bands, and in 1994 Cees de Jong joined as permanent bass player. In 1992, at Beempop, Besides That performed as the opening act for the Muskee Gang.
Soundscape artist Bruintjes left his mark on the demo Burn (1994) and also on the first CD Lament of the Naiad (1995). The music of Besides That shifted from light pop-rock to rock-pop with heavy keyboard arrangements.
The years 1995 and 1996 were good ones for Besides That, with an honourable participation in the Tonika Award (1995) and the opening act at Pagepop (1996) with Benjamin B and SKIK.
All things come to an end, and Bruintjes moved to Amsterdam, leaving Besides That. In 1998, the band celebrated its tenth anniversary. With the CD The Sign (1998), a new era began: was this rock, or still pop-rock? The Sign received positive reviews, and the band launched a website. That was a thing back then.
Due to competition from DJs and stricter noise regulations, the live music scene in Groningen and the surrounding area declined. Besides That performed occasionally in the northern region. One of the highlights was a concert at Noorderzon on August 28, 1999.
Besides That released two music video’s.
Love is a secret place (Video by Richard Dijkema) and Do you know what love means (Video by Richard Dijkema)
The music from Besides That continued to grow in its own unique direction. Since 1994, the unchanged lineup has formed a tight-knit band with dark compositions. The songs became harder, shorter, and sharper, as can be heard on the CD Driven (2001). Recorded in Beaufort Studio’s Amsterdam.
2006: Big highlight was a performance on Sunstation, a famous local festival in Middelstum.
In 2007 the band released the last album, 24-7. (See Spotify).
In 2008 Trip, Superman and Red Alert were released as leftovers because there was not going to be a new album. In 2008 we played the last show in music club “Den Hertog” in Groningen and that was all she wrote. “Dat was het dan”.
It’s over
The band was:
Mark Steenhuis – guitars on all albums and keys on Visions (1991) Driven (2001) and 24-7 (2007)
Berry Hoeksema – Vocals 1988-2008
Cees de Jong – bass 1994-2008
Gert Zwerver – Drums 1988-2008
To make it even worse for my neighbors, I bought Vai his Carvin Legacy 100 Amp. Still use it but not with the 4×12 – that is too rich for my blood.
In Corona times the band Besides That had plans to reunite (getting the band back together again) but Besides from a 360 video in 2022 the plans got frozen.
Cover bands 2011 –
Mark Steenhuis played in Drive of Five (2011 – 2018)
Mark Steenhuis played in The Triggers Veendam (2020 – 2023)
Composer music for Plays and Movie soundtrack.
Mark composed music and performed it live during two plays and composed for one movie.
Play: Kadaver Cantate 2002
In Dutch “Kadavercantate” , written by Don Duyns in 1996. The group “spelus” performed this play in an abandoned building. Directed by the professional Remy van Tilburg. Mark used the dark lyrics and setting of the play and the best received work was composing and performing a happy waltz about the “end of the world, new beings, new life”. This was a nice project to do, there is a video but very poor quality. This time period around 2002 was the end of the analog video and for a good reason.
Play: The little prince (2003)
No audio recordings exist. Mark played Spanish guitar and piano. Composed all music. This was supposed to be a children’s play but the deeper layers of the play by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is about capitalism and greed. There exists a recording of a theme at rehearsing but the director (Remy van Tilburg) found it too sad and it was not used.
In recording techniques this was the first time used home studio 8 track ADAT recording gear. There was briefly experimenting with four track MINI DISC but that was unreliable for professional recording.
Listen to the prince theme from 2003: Korg m1 and Spanish guitar.
Making music for a Movie: “STUK” by Transcentral Films and Richard Dijkema. (1997)
Richard Dijkema made the movie “stuk” again in 2024-2025 with better equipment and with 25 years more experience under his belt.
Richard was a mutual friend who also filmed two music video’s for Besides That and filmed one concert in 1995. The release concert of Besides That her first CD.
I was never happy with the VHS era. I do have the video for Stuk but quality is not great. The music video’s are on Youtube. Direct recording on VHS was quite normal back them but including mediocre video the audio was also low fi.
For history interesting that this recording from 1997 was a first digital home recording. Done on a 486 PC running Windows 95 and the “top model” SoundBlaster soundcard. Mastered on a Video recorder because that sounded better than alternatives.
Game Music
Game music (unreleased game) The game was around a crashed spaceship. (2017)
Recording engineer
In most of the bands Mark was also responsible for the audio engineering. Since playing guitar always invested in technology and knowledge to get the highest quality recording possible. In 1986 already owned a computer (zx spectrum) with an midi card and a sampler. This was limited 8 bit mono but fascinating gear for the eighties.
Recorded many multitrack projects but I do not own the rights to show them here. But there are some live recordings:
For this project a ORTF setup was used to record live in a church. Classical piece. Composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. Song: Grand Motet Quam Dilecta Tabernacula. (the song below is part 7 of 7). No compression or post EQ!
Not intended but specialized in mobile recordings. Done for a couple of years while still playing in Besides That.
Ditched the Terratec cards and went for the Symatic Audio 24 Utrack soundcard but bought the 900 euro card too early. Not long after that the digital mixers were released for consumers. Presonus, briefly owned one but then the Behringer X32 blew us all away with one machine that could do almost anything. Including pre amps and very portable and programmable settings.
There was debate about Analog versus Digital but since 2006 this is a discussion about taste not quality. 99,9% of the music is recorded digital.
Teaching audio (2023 – )
For Hanze University of Applied Sciences there was an elective course created for Game design students. No guitar but all focus on recording, editing and mastering audio and music.
Using microphones and preamps (still need that) and digital software packages like Adobe Audition, Reaper, FMOD and some smaller other packages. Digital Audio Workstations. DAW, no analog mixers anymore.
Here is one snippet, step 1 of 2.
Listen how the students create a Dinosaur growl:
Hi Cut and lowered the speed by 50%
Recording is from 2025 may.