A week ago one of the bands from my local scene announced their a comeback of sorts, after breaking-up seven years ago. The perfect time to dive into their history, so here is: What The hell happened to Only Seven Left.
History
Only Seven Left was a Dutch pop rock/pop punk band. Formed in 2006 the bands final-line up consisted of vocalist/guitarist Bjøgen van Essen, guitarist Jochem Winterwerp, bassist Hinne Winterwerp and drummer Bram de Wijs.
At the beginning of 2006 Only Seven left was formed by vocalist/pianist Wouter Bouma and Jochem. Jochem convinced his brother Hinne to pick-up a bass guitar and the band added guitarist Roderick Knijnenburg and drummer Bram. At the start of 2007 the band release their debut Ep “Forever is A Lie” which features the band earlier piano driven sound.
The band played numerous shows around the Netherlands, Belgium and even Egypt. During this time the band also played in opening slots for acts such as “Metro Station” “Destine” and “Tokio Hotel”.
At the end of 2008 Wouter left the band and was replaced by Bart van Dalen who took over vocal duties and guitar. Guitarist Roderick switched to piano.
Albums
At the start of 2010 the band participated in a radio show to djs both manage a different band for a month and look who can make their band the most successful. Only Seven Left won and went on tour with “Destine” and “MakeBelieve” the band released their debut album “It Was All A Dream”
Bart and Roderick left the band between 2011 and 2012, which sparked a contest/audition on “ZangerGezocht.nl” (vocalist wanted). At the end of 2011 Bjøgen van Essen was announced as the new vocalist.
With this new line-up the band released their second studio album “Anywhere from here” in 2012. And again embarked on tour through the Netherlands as well as a tour with “Valerius”
Other high points are a tour through Indonesia in 2013 and a tour through Germany in 2014.
What the Hell Happened
Around the summer of 2014 the band announced their break up, a last tour, and one last album fittingly named “The Final Album” the band played their last show around December 2014.
These days most of the members are still active with other projects.
Bjøgen
Has his own music production company with which he produces for a lot of new bands in the scene and is the singer in cover/party band “The Daredevils”
Jochem
Has been working in concert booking, plays guitar in the “Daredevils” and also occasionally works on music with his brother Hinne.
Hinne
Still works in the music world, but does more behind the scenes in regarding to safety advice.
Bram
Works as at a TV station and has a successful vlogging channel on youtube, he also presented the first season of a pop punk podcast Kink Fast.
Reunion
On October 6 2021 the band announced a reunion show (which sold out almost the same day) and a 7 song Ep of which the band planned to release one every week until the date of the reunion show. The bands line-up for the reunion consists of Bram, Jochem, Bjørgen, Hinne & Roderick. This is the most exciting thing for me, because they had just broken up when I got into the scene, which mean I finally have chance to see them live.
Conclusion
The bands reunion and new Ep was unexpected for sure but it does make you wonder what can be expected from “Only Seven Left” in the future.