The band
Music for the introverts and the narcissists.
Skinny Whale exists because music communicates what ordinary language cannot.
There are feelings that live too deep for words — the kind that only become real when a melody finds them. Ward and Johan have built their music around that idea for over 20 years: sharing emotion, creating connection, and making people feel less alone in what they carry. They are feeling-driven musicians in the truest sense — not performing emotion, but channelling it.
The duo brings together backgrounds in bigband, grunge, Dutch-language rock and pop, blues, funk, and metal, and turns that breadth into a sound that values honesty over polish. Progressive rock is the backbone, but the songs move with the warmth of vintage keyboards, the weight of guitar, and a belief that music should leave a mark.
Skinny Whale wants to be artists with something to say. Songs that make the listener think. Music that connects — not because it is comfortable, but because it is real. The goal is simple and ambitious at once: find the people in the audience who recognise the feeling, and make them feel understood.
Their debut single "What You Became" was recorded at Dunk Studios with Jonas Everaert and is available now on streaming platforms, accompanied by a lyric video and a live video on YouTube. Later tracks "Oh Dear God" and "Cloud 9" were self-produced during lockdown and mastered by Jerboa, with more material taking shape in the same honest and emotionally direct style.
Skinny Whale is currently a duo, with Ward and Johan at the core, and is actively looking for a drummer and bassist to complete the live lineup.
Vocals / Guitar / Bass / Percussion / Electronics
Guitarist at heart, with a taste that runs from metal and funk to rock and everything in between. Ward brings warmth, passion, and a deep sense of empathy to the music — the kind of musician who listens as much as he plays. Father, friend, and the emotional core of Skinny Whale.
Keyboards / Hammond / Electronics
His sound starts at the Hammond organ and doesn't stop there — vintage synths, Moog, Prophet, Fender Rhodes, and electronics all find their way in. Johan plays with feeling first, technique second, drawing from funk, rock, and jazz-rock to build something that breathes. At his best when surrounded by like-minded musicians who mean it.
Join the lineup
We're looking for a drummer and a bassist.