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‘Suppose you have been married for fifty years and you are throwing a party. Your children, your grandchildren, you want to see everyone shine. That’s what I aim for as a performer, and that’s why I have to be very good. I let myself be hired for parties and celebrations, but also for funerals and company meetings. In addition, I travel through the country with my boat to make music and make people laugh. I want to create something that makes everyone a part of it. For example, on the canals of Amsterdam I often have a musical get-together with the carillon of the Zuiderkerk, the Oude Kerk or the Westertoren, or people request a serenade from me. I bring people together, for example I say: ‘wave to each other’, or ’embrace each other’, and then I sail on.
“Afterwards I always pass a nugget from hand to hand, but people almost never have cash in their pockets anymore, so it doesn’t yield much. But that’s not important either. It may sound very soothing, but I do it for that one smile: that is priceless and that makes me happy.
“As a musician, there is a great temptation to teach in addition to the performances, so that you have a basic income. But I’ve always said I don’t want to, because those classes make me tired. And then I no longer have the power to make sure I’m good and to work out new ideas. I often just barely get by, but I’ve had enough and I’m satisfied.
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‘I pay my fixed costs with the performances for which I am hired. The mortgage costs me almost nothing: 47 euros. Who still has that nowadays? I have lived in my house in Soest for 28 years and bought it for little money at the time. I am very handy, that is also my luck. I renovated most of the house myself.
“My gas and light have recently become considerably more expensive, that went from 150 to 400 euros per month. So I do my best to save: the central heating is at 16 degrees, I have a closer on the door and the thermostat goes down when I leave. And I shower very briefly: I go in, a little shampoo, massage and rinse, then quickly suds, rinse and out from under. I’ll make it a counting game, then it will be fun.
“My girlfriend and I – we don’t live together because we’ve only known each other for a few months – have the theme: happiness is there for the taking. And then you see that you can be very happy with very little. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, that already saves money. I don’t have a pet, because I think that’s really too expensive. But I’m also lucky that my mother has been giving me 6,000 euros a year for several years now. I don’t have a buffer and that really saved me, especially in the corona time.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of October 3, 2022