He started playing house in Axl (Utrecht) in 1996. In the summer of 1997 ROOG gained his first national fame when UPDATE magazine labelled him one of Holland's speedgarage originators. The boys of Club Risk gave him his first break in Arena Amsterdam. One thing led to the other. He was booked in Roxy, Stalker, Silly Symphonies, Wasteland and SOAP. Early 1998 he released his first mix cd called "wasteland presents TRASH" (NEWS/BMG).

Now in the new millenium ROOG is one of Holland's most in demand DJ's, playing all the big clubs and parties on a regular basis... His second mix-cd called PLANET DISCO (EMI/VIRGIN) sold over 10.000 copies.

Roog hails from a musical family. He started playing classical piano at the tender age of 6. During high school he played keyboards in several pop/funkbands. He started writing and creating music when he was 13 years old. Some of his activities were writing music for a school-play and competing in contests like the Roland midi-awards (finals), Levi's Demo contest (1st price) and Kunstbende (finals)...

As described above ROOG fell in love with house music and it was only natural for him to start making housemusic together with brother GREG as HARDSOUL...

By 1995 they had their first house track cut on acetate, which was played by DJ Marcello at Chemistry. In 1997 they gained their first fame with their house remix of Lakiesha Berry's "Like This and Like That" which appeared on a British speedgarage compilation. Throughout 1997 and 1998 they produced and remixed records on several labels like: Outland, After Midnight, 33/45 and Stealth for artists like DJ Tonka, DJ Guan ft. Cybill Jefferies, Black and White Brothers, Soup and Kim Lucas...

Now in 2000 Hardsoul are working on several projects. They are remixing for artists like Kolourful Karma, USA, Laidback Luke, Floris, and Tom de Neef (of Plastika) and writing and producing for ROSE, DEBBY SCHREUDER, FORREST, SOULHUSTLERS and DEBBY SLEDGE (of Sister Sledge). Their 33/45 release " Your Last Dance" was played by the Basement Jaxx in their BBC Radio 1 essential mix...