Bowe (Boudewijn de Jong) started playing the piano at a very young age. When he was a teenager, the piano was replaced by a guitar. Because he disliked music lessons he decided to teach himself how to play. To do so, he picked up a guitar from a right handed friend and tried to strum his first chords. For Bowe this didn’t feel right at all, so he simply turned the instrument around and learned how to play upside down. Later he found out that this way of playing has both advantages and disadvantages. He decided to benefit as much as possible from the advantages and take the disadvantages for granted. His playing style has led to a unique approach to writing songs.
Moving through the Night was his debut album which was released in 2009. Bowe was influenced by a wide variety of artists such as The Rolling Stones and Crowded House. The album got very positive reviews in The Netherlands. Radio icon Frits Spits called it a remarkably good debut and website Musicfrom.nl described it as ‘John Mayer meets The Eagles’.
His second album Nomansland was released in 2013. The album features twelve original tracks which were written by Bowe and his writing companion Ton Snijders and two monoPunk remixes.
Nomansland features special guest performances by Sandra St. Victor (The Family Stand and Prince) and Tollak Ollestad (Don Henley, Seal). Also many Dutch artists contributed such as Arnold van Dongen (Ilse DeLange), Jan Kooper (Doe Maar) and Thijs van Leer.
Bowe Has performed live with different musicians on Radio 1, Radio 2 and 3FM. His track ‘Tired of giving good things up was awarded best new track of the week on 3FM by Rob Stenders and Sander Hoogendoorn. Giel Beelen invited Bowe for his show in 2014 where Bowe played 2 songs including his second single Pretty Plain.
In 2016 Bowe released the track ‘Relax Relax Relax’ that was used in a commercial on Dutch TV and radio.
In 2017 his first single ‘Feel the Fire’ and its successor Sing for Love were released. Sing for love was DJ choice on NPO Radio 2.
In 2018 started making music with Dutch lyrics with producer Kevin Patrick. The first single Rum Cola ended up at more than 100 Spotify playlists. The second single premiered on NPO Radio 1.
In 2019 Bowe has released a single in Dutch that’s called ‘Laat me Leven’ with City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. He’s also released an English track ‘Ghosttown’. Both tracks feature Wesley Nuis on guitar.
In 2020 Bowe returned to Dutch with a new single that’s called ‘Voel!’. In summer 2020 Bowe released a remaster of his single Tired of giving good things up, that hit the charts in The Netherlands, being playlisted on the leading Dutch radio stations.
In November 2020 Bowe released an new track called Beautiful People that was co-written by Niels Geusebroek. Sandra St. Victor did a special guest performance.
