Robert Westerholt

Robert Westerholt (born January 2, 1975, Waddinxveen) is the founder of, and guitarist in, the symphonic metal band Within Temptation. He writes a great deal of the music for the band, along with the band's vocalist, his partner, Sharon den Adel. The two became parents to baby Eva Luna on December 7, 2005 and are expecting their second child this summer. Before committing his life to Within Temptation, Robert worked in human resource management, but left to devote his life to creating music.

Work Prior To Within Temptation

In 1992, Robert formed the band "The Circle" with future Within Temptation keyboard player Martijn Spierenburg , after he began writing his own music. The Circle's first demo, entitled 'Symphony No.1' was finished in December 1992. By this point, The Circle had a complete line-up, comprising of Robert, Martijn, Jeroen Van Veen (Within Temptation's bassist), Arjan Groenedijk and Ernst Van Der Loo, although Arjan and Ernst both left the band a while later. In 1995, DSFA Records released a compilation album, and two songs from The Circle were featured, Broken Silence and Frozen. Soon afterwards, Robert parted ways with The Circle, who changed their name to Voyage, and released their only album 'Embrace' in 1995, on which Sharon den Adel collaborates on the track Frozen.

Within Temptation

After leaving The Circle, Robert began writing more music for a new musical project with his girlfriend, Sharon den Adel. Robert sent demo versions of their songs 'Enter' and 'Candles' to former Voyage bandmate Jeroen Van Veen, who then left Voyage to join Robert's project, along with Michiel Papenhove. Their first drummer was Richard Willemse, who left and was replaced with Dennis Leeflang, with whom Within Temptation recorded their first demo. He left soon afterwards, and was replaced with Ivar de Graaf. Robert recalls that "we always had a little bit of a drummer problem, leaving and coming back again...". By 1997, their line-up had been completed, with Sharon (vocals), Robert (guitars and vocals), Robert's brother Martijn (keyboards), Jeroen (bass), Michiel (guitar) and Ivar (drums). In the same year, Within Temptation were signed to DSFA Records and released their debut album, Enter.

Other Appearances

In 1998, he had a small singing part as Death (along with George Oosthoek of Orphanage) on the Ayreon rock opera "Into the Electric Castle", on which Sharon den Adel played one of the main characters.