Many rehearsals followed, which resulted in a diverse and contemporary repertoire. The band was ready to roll! In the beginning they performed in pubs like Café Thijssen, the Bamboo Bar and de Heeren van Aemstel. At the time the places to be.

Here music lovers gathered to enjoy quality music. The band’s enthusiasm was really effective: throbbing and roaring guitars, musicians kicking up a dust and wild saxophone solos contributed to superheated venues filled with people having the time of their lives. Sonny’s Inc was really burning down the house! One thing led to another and the band was asked to perform at weddings and parties; then things really got started! There was no holding them back anymore, more rehearsals followed and things were beginning to pay off. People started booking them for business parties, festivals and student parties throughout The Netherlands and even abroad.

Because of their ever increasing popularity, Sonny’s Inc. were able to respond to the wishes of guests and fine-tuned their repertoire to those needs. Besides their own compositions, which always play an important role and some of which have been released on CD, Sonny’s Inc adapted popular hit songs, which were crowd pullers. Songs were sometimes refashioned, completed with a swinging or romantic beat, lavished with an exotic flavour or played as a bubbling medley!

Their broad repertoire and ever changing sound always struck the right chord. Their interactive performance and the fact that all musicians play wireless instruments create a contagious interaction with their audience: musicians mingle with the crowd while playing and Sonny Hoogwerf can be seen swinging on top of the bar or hanging from a chandelier. There are no boundaries, for their ultimate goal is to entertain their audience, so they can go absolutely crazy. Because of the band’s full tilt energy and their professionalism, they were invited to add lustre to many special events: The palace het Loo, the marriage of Prince Maurits and Princess Marilene, which the band also treasures as an unforgettable event.

They were present at parties of Jan des Bouvrie, Abraham Moskowicz, Minister Ruding and top-tennis player Sjeng Schalken. Another special event was Eurodisney’s anniversary, the Oranjebal in Oman for Shell, Ruth Jacott’s theatre season was rounded off with a great performance and they played at several benefit concerts in for instance Poland, for Warchild, for the Richard Krajicek Foundation and for Doe een Wens foundation.
But there were more highlights during the last few years, like recording two live albums: Live at Odeon and Live at de Heeren van Aemstel and several singles, a video clip in South-Africa, and competing in the Songfestival 2000 and 2003, several television-performances in a.o. Ivo Niehe’s TV Show, Jos op 1 by Jos Brink, U bent aan de Beurt by Peter-Jan Rens, De Notenclub, Veronica’s Nightclub, Christine van de Horst’s Nachtsuite, Live & Cooking, and many more.

It is very difficult to describe Sonny’s Inc. in a few words, but Willem van Kooten of all people, the man who was famous for his eloquence on Dutch national radio, needs just a few well-chosen words to describe Sonny’s Inc.: “This?” Willem van Kooten ( ex-DJ Joost den Draaijer) says: “This is party music at its best! You have to be there to experience it!” quite a compliment., isn’t it?

Sonny’s Inc. is a 7 man band: Roland Gaedtgens on keyboards, Huig Ouwehand on bass, Ramon Braumuller on drums, Dirk van de Wal on guitar, David Rockefeller on trumpet and Arjan Muusz on saxophone. All alumni of The Academy of Music, who are also active as studio musicians and/or as teachers at the academies of Music in the Netherlands. To put it briefly, musicians in heart and soul, which can be seen and heard during our performances!