Mental Shift is a female fronted alternative rock band from the Netherlands! Their sound has been described as a mix of Skunk Anansie, Kate Bush, Placebo, the Gathering and Blondie. While alternative in its core, the different musical backgrounds of the band members result in a mix of influences from pop, metal, alternative and rock. Lively melodics mostly midtempo rock beats, high pitched vocals, a solid drums and bass which leads to the very accessible, melodic, alternative rock of Mental Shift. A full debut album was released in 2018, with the singles Back to Live, Disclosure, Too Much and My Heavy Heart. Latest single releases are Winter, The Last Thing, Déjà vu Endless and finally the ballad My Great Reset, inspired by covid.

Line Up

Daphne Gobius du Sart – Lead Vocals, Songwriter, Lyrics

Daphne started her singing career at an early age, joining The Academy Of Vocal Arts in The Hague at the age of 8. This intensive vocal training allowed her to develop her voice and a solid understanding of music and singing in general. In releasing several albums and performing throughout Europe her passion for singing was awakened.

Through her teens and twenties she enjoyed singing lessons in pop (Musical Academy Leiden) and classical singing (Het Phondament The Hague). She also took lessons with Floor Jansen (Nightwish) to develop a more powerful style and learn belting techniques. She has been writing songs and lyrics for over ten years which she performed in several bands. Very experienced in live gigs she performed dozens of times at festivals and pop stages.

Hans Flikkema – Guitars

Hans is playing the guitars in Mental Shift. He started playing classical guitar at the age of seven, inspired by the great Segovia. In high school, Hans got inspired by Deep Purple’s Richie Blackmore, Jethro Tull, Kayak, Uriah Heep, Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies, Peter Frampton, Stones Get their ya ya’s out, Rainbow, Sweet, Blondie etc. Stopped playing classical guitar, learned himself how to rock by playing three hours a day. Got his first 3 man band at the age of 15, creating own rock songs and sound. From that moment this band changed musical styles, line up and had several band names every few years. After 25 years of changes Hans finally quitted the scene and ended up toggling an acoustic guitar and rediscovered the classical guitar for a bit, while raising kids. From 2010 Hans started up again, trying covering classical rock songs and modern blues-rock, got a bit inspired by guys like John Mayer and Joe Bonamassa. Anyway covering is not his thing, now creating and recording new songs again in Mental Shift.

Michiel Flikkema – Drums

Michiel started playing drums at the age of 15. He learned playing the drums mainly autodidact and attended one year of education in jazz-feel drumming to improve his techniques for playing the style of drumming he likes best, inspired by Ian Paice, John Bonham, Steve Copeland and John Cogholan. Together with Hans he played in a band for about twenty years making alternative rock. After this a period of various music and theatre productions. The style he likes most is rock feel straight bold or massive symphonic. Playing drums is by far his most favorite energizer. Playing in Mental Shift is for him the ultimate experience in performing. Michiel is less composer but likes being on stage best and so eager he sometimes needs to be tamed.

Sascha van ‘t Hoog – Bass

Sascha is the steady bass player since summer 2020 in Mental Shift. Likes loud music mostly and playing the greatest rock songs.

Jeroen Koevoets – Guitars

Jeroen is a singer songwriter by nature. He has been involved with music from an early age, especially through his musical father, who played in a lot in bands. Jeroen got and still is inspired by bands like Pink Floyd, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone age.