René was born on 14th August 1975, in Ede, Holland. He was the third of four children, all of whom were raised in a musical household. Their father played both guitar and piano, and René and his brother Robert learned how to play the piano together. At the age of ten René learned his first guitar chords.

However, it wasn’t until he was fourteen years old that he fully learned to play the guitar under the tutelage of Arno Cornelissen, who was later to join René’s band, ‘Nickels & Dimes’.

In his early years René’s choice of material was greatly influenced by a John Denver song, ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’, which he first heard in 1988. It was performed by Jos van den Brom for a national musical talent competition in the Soundmixshow on Dutch television. Jos won the competition. René was overwhelmed by this song, and for some considerable time his main aim was to learn John Denver compositions. Later on he was further influenced by the songs of his other musical heroes. These included Jim Croce, James Taylor and Gordon Lightfoot. During this period René began to write his own songs and he became very passionate about music.

René was fifteen when he met Jan Boezen at his first Denver Day in Ede. Jan was one of the organisers of that event, and in fact was the compère that day. René wanted to sing ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’, but was fairly shy and rather overawed by the occasion. Jan was the person who put him at his ease and introduced him on stage.

On 18th January 1992, at the age of sixteen, René wrote his first song. It was called, ‘My First Love Song for You’. During that year, and also in 1994, he produced his first tape cassettes, all recorded with his own compositions. The first of these was sponsored by Henny and Harry Schanssema, whom René had met at Denver Days.

When he was seventeen, René was approached by a guitarist called Ronald de Wolf, who had seen him perform at various school events. Obviously impressed, he then asked him to join a small group of musicians, most of whom were much older than René.

They called themselves ‘The Golden Hawks’. Although the majority of the members had an Indonesian background, they performed country as well as Indonesian songs, and René even learned to sing in Malaysian. Through this group he also had the opportunity to play at occasional Pasar Malams. These markets, selling Indonesian food, clothes and handicrafts, are held once or twice a year by the Indonesian population of Holland.

The first big performance for ‘The Golden Hawks’ was on the occasion of René’s parents’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, in March 1996. René was twenty years old. The band continued to perform for a couple of years after this but, due to differences of opinion, eventually broke up. Nonetheless, René had gained very valuable experience whilst working with the other members.