The Story So Far...
Mufkin Tass is a group of 4 talented musicians who are dedicated to writing and playing their music. Being children of the sixties and seventies, they are inspired by (American) rock music from that era. But they are not a retro-band, though. The music is catchy, and their compositions show a great love for melody, harmony and groove. Their influences are diverse: from Elvis to U2, from The Eagles to Queen and from Johnny Cash to Spinal Tap. Onstage, this makes for a pretty diverse and exciting rock ´n roll show, guaranteed to leave audiences flabbergasted.

But how did all this come about? Let's take a quick trip down memory lane. It all started when brothers Mark & Ralph realized at an early age decided that the world just had to hear all of their musical escapades. Their first shows were "cute" according to reviews by (mostly) family members, but they rapidly developed into first class musicians and songwriters. Over the years they've played in many bands, styles varying from acoustic folk to hard rock, from blues to country and everything in between. They played all over the country in bars, clubs and even stadiums. However playing in rather successful bands to appreciative audiences, something was missing. Somewhere in 2002 they decided to take a step back from touring and focus on songwriting and recording. And instead of wondering what their songs would sound like if the world's best rock drummer performed on them, they hopped on a plane to Bloomington, Indiana (U.S.A.) and recorded 4 of their best songs with Kenny Aronoff (a.k.a. the world's best rock drummer). After that, they booked bass-legend Jerry Scheff to cover the bases. Satisfied with the results they were determined to take this show on the road and started forming the band, Mufkin Tass.

First one on board was the talented bass player / singer / songwriter Erwin Pijl. Erwin had been around, playing all over Europe with many bands. He was active as a prolific songwriter, whose songs got played in his bands. When Ralph replaced the lead guitarist in Erwin's last band in 2003, it was obvious that Ralph & Erwin had something in common: the right "feel" for music and being perfectionists. However, when the band lost track of its goal, Ralph left the band and Erwin shortly after to join Mufkin Tass in February of 2004.

Writing songs as a trinity now feels like it should have been all along, which has led to more productivity and joy resulting in some of the most inspired and diverse material they ever dared to come up with.

Obviously the band's budget didn't allow them to recruit Mr. Aronoff on drums on a permanent basis. So the search began for a drummer that could match his power and creativity. After several unsuccessful drummer auditions, Ralph and Mark stumbled upon a drummer called Sjoerd Rutten while engaging in a folk-project. They were immediately amazed by his talent and spirit, so the next step was obvious: Sjoerd had to join Mufkin Tass. He didn't need much convincing…

So there you have it, the story of the band in a nutshell. For more details, please look around on the site.