In 1994 Arnout Arkenbout was born in Roden (Drenthe, NL) where he grew up in a family of singers, artists and sound engineers. The province of Drenthe in The Netherlands, by the way, is strongly influenced by the blues (Cuby and the Blizzards)...
Arnout always loved the sound of the Hammond. The first time he heard a Hammond was when he saw the movie "The Blues Brothers" at the age of 4. He began to play piano when he was 6 and started with classical lessons when he was 11. At the age of 15 he discovered blues and jazz. His big inspirations were and are John Lord and Jimmy Smith.
In 2011 Arnout started a music course at the Friesland College D'drive in Leeuwarden and he graduated in 2015.
He played a lot of Hammond during his study but didn’t own a Hammond until his 20th birthday. That day his parent gave him a Hammond XB-2. A year later he bought a massive old Hammond Grandee of an older man. The Grandee is is a rather big Hammond organ with build in Leslie and a rhytm-unit. It takes a couple of strong people to move the organ!
In 2014 Arnout was the co-founder/composer/organist of the band Uncle Jimmy. With this band he played about 85 gigs in the Netherlands and Germany until he left the band in April 2016. From 2016 Arnout plays his gigs on a Hammond XK-3 with XLK-3 and stand.
In January 2017 Arnout became member of a young promising Blues-Rock band called 'Maaris'. In September 2017 Arnout started a 4 year course at the Academy for Pop in Leeuwarden.
He is frequently asked to play with blues bands like Raindog and the Sidekicks. He also plays with a 10-man Soul cover band, Soulblender.
"Hammond was my first love and it will last forever."