Noud was born and raised in a small town called Heerlen in the south of the Netherlands. In his early teens music took a hold of Noud's life after receiving a gift from his neighbour: a package with vinyl records from artists like Deep Purple, Steppenwolf and Jimi Hendrix !
Comming from a family who loves music (both his grandfathers used to sing in a choir and his father played saxophone for 9 years) Noud bought his his first electric guitar at the age of 15 and started taking lessons. It was time to start playing live with local bands.
In 1985 Noud got an invitation from Lions Pride from Belgium who had just released their first album on Mausoleum and departed with one of their guitar players.
The band played a lot of gigs in Belgium and Holland, also at the Shockwave Festival in Belgium where the gig was filmed for a video to support the new album (that was never recorded.)
Noud left Lionspride after one year , finished school, moved to another place and started to study film and photography for four years. Besides that he started his own band Masquerade.
The band recorded one demo in 1989 that turned out to be a real killer selling about 400 copies (and that’s without the internet) and played gigs supporting bands like Crimson Glory, Hellstar, and Elegy.
In the summer of 1994 he recorded 8 tracks as Project Masquerade with Rob Snijders (now with Agua de Annique) on drums and a few different metal singers like Gregoor vd Loo who was playing with Lemur Voice at that time, Hans Reinders from Form and Michel Zandbergen who played with bands like Picture. The final mix was done bij Ron Lieberton (Zinatra)
At the end of 2001 Noud joined a band that ended up to become New Breed. As winner of the "Westerpopbokaal", a prestigious bandcompetition in the south-west of Holland, New Breed became one of the the most important metal crossoverbands in the Netherlands.
In jan 2002 the band recorded its first 5 track self-financed cd entitled "Cut the Crap" which was very well received by the press and rated in the Music Maker magazine as dutch cd with the best guitarwork with 4 out of 5 stars.
After this CD, New Breed's style changed. The music got heavier and a DJ joined the band for a short time. the band was offered to record a promo single at the famous Harrow studio in Losser.
"Lost/She" was released in 2003 and the media responded even better.
With american producer Chris Barth, New Breed + guest "Noneedles" recorded "Back in your love" for the Herman Brood (the only real dutch rockstar) tribute-album "Skinny bones and Monsters". Release 2004. The track was mastered by the famous Bob katz.
In 2004 the band also recorded a track for the Dutch movie Heilig Bloed ( holy blood) Aall this leads into an endorsement deal with the bo-el guitarcompany from the Netherlands
Noud starts building his own small recordingstudio in 2008 and kicks off writing songs for a solo cd. He also playes live with Edge of Serenity who just released a debuutalbum on the US label Romulus X records and with singer songwriter Grain who released an amazing album “Shut your mouth Kevin”
in februari 2010 the Adrenaline / Steelheart Records label released the Masquerade album ‘Cybernetic Empire’, which is a compilation of the complete works of the Dutch band from 1989 to 1994.
The album gets great international reviews .
Being a perfectionist, the new album Nothing but everyhing wil remain took about 3 years of writing and recording.
In april 2011 Tommy Bonajo (Blindsight) makes the final mix and master of the album at his Tomsterproject studio
The album is recorded in the Netherlands and in New York and besides Noud Smeets on 7 and 8 string guitars there are a lot of great guestmusicians:
Besides music Noud spends most of his time teaching photography and working as a photographer, and spending time with his family: singersongwriter Grain and their beautiful little son Kick
Biggest Inspirations:
Randy Rhoads, Ritchie Blackmore, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Akira Takasaki, Chriss Olivia, George Lynch, Tori Amos, Charlie Parker,Deep Purple, Racer X, Queensryche, Crimson Glory, Killswitch Engage, my 5 crazy maine coons