Official website: users.pandora.be/cooperate
MP3 sample: Scarred for life
It all started out somewhere in 1997 when two bands from the Mol-area, called AGGRESSIVE CULTURE and EMERGENCY EXIT, wanted to do 1 song together. The plan was to name the song 'COOPERATE' but after a while this whole idea didn't come true. Still a few members of the mentioned bands wanted to give it a try and started to rehearse. It seemed a lot of fun and they decided to form a new band: COOPERATE! [signed september '97]
With the following line-up [Rob:vocals, Deef:guitar, Jakob:drums, Wim:bass] there was a once-only gig with HARD RESISTANCE. Afterwards, Jakob left the country for his studies and nobody would hear from COOPERATE again. But after a few weeks Rob [ex-Tofu] presented himself and even a second guitarplayer [Dennis] got recruited. They worked hard on a worthy playlist and the first gigs didn't keep people waiting. In the beginning there was a period of experiment; 2 or even 3 singers should give more power to the music but eventually it was too difficult to work so they proceeded with the original frontman Rob (aka Slash). Still they want to thank Jochem, Roel, Sarah, Joris and Jan for their effort and trust in the band!
After about 1 year it was time to record their first demoCD "RESPECT 2B RESPECTED". Together with their old friend Swa, they went to the studio's of Beat&Sound [Meerhout] where they put 6 songs on CD. They did the whole job in only 10 hours [soundchecking, recording and mixing]. After that, more and more people got interested in COOPERATE and many gigs followed with bands like MADBALL, DEVIATE, LENGTH OF TIME, BORN FROM PAIN, KICKBACK, BACKFIRE, etc...
At the end of 2001, there was an important line-up change! Slash left the band due some personal reasons (girlfriend, work, distance, ...) which leaded to a period of less dedication and all the consequences. Though they had a really great time with him and wish him the best of luck in his further life.
Deef took over his job, put his 6-strings aside and became the new frontman of COOPERATE.
In a pretty short time, Henny (ex-Inhuman Hatred) was found as the new guitarplayer and even a second demoCD became a fact. "BLOW YOUR BRAINS OUT" counts 4 new tracks wich were recorded at 'Lucifer Sam Studio's' (Retie) and hopefully can arouse some interest from any label! They'll see what future has to offer..