Back in '76 it all started for Mouse: at seven years of age his musical heart was triggered by a completely different kind of electric organ. In unison with his keyboard-lessons, the careful listening to the rhythms and bass-melodies that were interactively provided by the machine shaped his earliest musical education. Since his folks didn't have to spend money on human teachers, they were able to buy their little boy real instruments like an electric bass guitar, a small drum kit and even an acoustic guitar. All of these made his heart go 'boom-boom' while he was heard playing along to his Beatles-vinyl collection. At the age of fourteen Mouse was introduced to the magic of multitrack-recording by his schoolteacher Rob Gerritsen: …if you could afford a four-track machine, you'd be able to create aural paintings, playing each instrument yourself !! Realizing that such an appliance would be the true electric organ that was needed to complete his musical body, Mouse decided to spend his earnings from a professional party-combo on the purchase of a PortaStudio™. His tiny bedroom-studio, aptly named 't Mauritshuis, saw the creation of his early works, including the recordings of songs that were written by his schoolmate Jan van de Garde who was lead singer of Beauregarde, a band in which Mouse functioned as stickman. In 1984 the rise of the synthesizer made Mouse get back to his first instrument when he became keyboard wizard of a band named coolScool. Still very much in love with all things electronic he kept himself busy with a lot of production work for both his own bands, but also for a number of singing-artists as well as his guitar-pupils and a few other bands. Having been on track for ten years he dropped out of school to prepare for studying composition, guitar and recording at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. In there he collaborated with the likes of Justin Billinger and Hickory Dickory, Louis Andriessen, Micha Hamel, Gilius van Bergeijk, Atti Bauw, Marc Boon, Hans Ravestein and most importantly Roy Bouman, who was at that time bassist of Easy Meat. Still going strong without a record-deal, Mouse recorded and released four solo-albums. For The Time Being he made enough copies to supply his family and friends. During the same period he produced all of Easy Meat's recordings. After touring with them as their live-sound engineer in addition to collaborating with them on his fourth solo venture, he ended up actually joining the group on stage on several occasions such as the three Coverbox-gigs at Paard, The Hague. Following glamrock- and Zappa-themenights, they played the Britpop Coverbox of June 21,1996 sporting the name Tuesday Child and starring Mouse as singer/songwriter with no electric organ needed. At the invitation of Roy Bouman, this concert was witnessed by drummer Bert Fonderie and guitarist Erik Schurman. By September the four of them set out to rehearse the songs of 'No Strings Attached', anticipating their first tour, which was to kick off two months later. TC and x-TC At the time of their 'Midgety Mastery Tour' Tuesday Child was discovered by talent-scout Diana Muus of Sony Music Entertainment. Though her untimely death made it difficult for the band to keep going, the album 'Universal Playground' was released anyhow. It is still among the most colourful albums ever to have appeared from Frans Hagenaars' Sound Enterprise studio. Everybody was impressed by the pace at which things were developing: they did some national radio- and TV-shows, there was the constant touring of Dutch venues, and they even made a trip to the promised land of FunkPoppaRoll. However, success could prevent Tuesday Child's fall from grace; arguments grew in number and intensity, while Mouse concentrated on writing and recording new material at l'Hermitage, his resurrected home-studio. Totally blind to the problems they were facing after two years of great adventure, he was ultimately unable to save the band from being taken down in a mock obituary. Meanwhile in another universe, to kill time, Thijs Muus of Easy Meat had started an acoustic duo with Hugo Remmelt. Ironically, these successful strummers called upon the hero of our little story to produce both their albums. Now Roy Bouman had some time to kill; he started organizing stuff for a project called The Wishing Well and decided to employ The Rodent for the making of records with this collective of some thirty musicians from The Hague who are all linked to each other in one way or another. In case you wonder if all these alliances have proved to be powerful enough to kill the hermit inside of Mouse, you should know he has recently finished work on a new Tuesday Child album called 'Vital Signs'. If it hadn't been for the band's demise, this particular CD would have been ready for release back in 1998. Simple maths tells us that The Graceful Kid has spent six years in hibernation, prone to unexpected events that came in a wide variety. Rumour has it that Tuesday Child has never been and never will be the same, but then again… listening to the album I can hear a melodious thumping that's always been there and there's no reason why it should be different.