Al van der Beek

Birthplace

Tokoroa, New Zealand

Biography

Al van der Beek was born in Tokoroa, New Zealand to a Dutch father and a Samoan mother — Thus making him one of the first DutchSamoans in existence. His family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah when he was about six years old. His parents instilled a love and a passion for music in all of their children from a very young age, and despite his yearning desire to play the saxophone (because he thought it looked really cool), his parents eventually convinced him to play the violin. Singing in four part harmony and playing musical instruments came naturally to him, his four sisters and two brothers. In their home they constantly sang and performed together and they each played instruments — Everything from the piano, to the flute, trumpet to the violin. As a result, he taught himself to play multiple instruments by ear — Guitar, drums & piano, just to name a few. Al continued to practice his violin and work on his vocal skills by actively participating in orchestra and concert choir throughout his intermediate school years. During high school Al formed a music group with three of his best friends. They soon found themselves opening up for many well known groups such as Vanilla Ice, Boyz II Men, L.L. Cool J and Color Me Badd. As their local fame increased he was introduced to the recording studio environment for the very first time. He was instantly intrigued by this newly discovered world of music production and it was a perfect conduit for him to get out all those songs and melodies that had been swimming in his head for years and record them to tape (CDs weren’t invented yet). However, he always left the studio feeling slightly disappointed because the music that he heard in his head never sounded quite the same once it was out and on tape. He decided to take matters into his own hands and started buying recording equipment so he could teach himself the tricks-of-the-trade and record his own original music — Thus, the beginning of his love for songwriting and producing was born. Al opened his own home recording studio in 2004 and continued to refine his skills by producing and recording for many local bands and artists. He went full-time with The Piano Guys in May of 2011 and plays the roles of music producer, songwriter, sound engineer, vocalist, prankster and fashion police.