Jef Van Veen was born on June 18th 1973 in Haarlem, The Netherlands. Inspired by drummers like Vinnie Colaiuta, Peter Erskine, Tony Williams, Steve Gadd, Zach Dansiger, Jef started playing drums himself. At the age of 16 he was accepted into the youth department of the Royal Conservatory of Music where he studied Jazz. In 1993, Jef traveled to Los Angeles where he continued his studies at the Musician's Institute in Hollywood.



Jef returned to Europe in 1994 and started working with British soul artist, Jimmy James, as well as playing the corporate circuit with a soul/dance band and doing a variety of studio and TV work in the Netherlands.



In 1997 Jef returned to the U.K. and took up residence in London's West End, working in the house band of The Grand Plaza Hotel and backing a variety of artists from the musical and comedy scene, working as an independent drummer. Jef also continued working in Holland. In March 1998 Jef was appointed to teach at Cesar Zuiderwijk's (Golden Earring Drummer) drum school and started playing with Shocking Blue (of 'Venus' fame).



In 1999 Jef was a freelance session drummer in London in the Jazz and Pop scene, playing and recording with Rebecca Hollweg, Jont Whittington, Trudy Kerr, Marcus Malone, Anita Wardell, Jim Watson (Incognito), Andy Hamill (Four Hero, Mark Murphy), Nuno Gomes (Alemar), and many others. Engagements in other countries followed. Jef Played in Portugal with American Jazz pianist Holly Perry at Reid's in Madeira and toured the US in 2001 with a theater show based around the music of the Beatles, called ' The Beatles, a Musical Celebration'.



Jef moved to the U.S. in september 2001 after auditioning for The Guest House Live. Jef is currenly part of the new Pop/Rock band 'Stardotstar' (*.*) and is the house drummer for 'The Guest House'.



Recent projects include the recording of Joe Acker's (debut) album 'Find an open Road' , which is about to be released this spring and Kevin Kendrick's (keyboard player for Madonna, Cameo, Outkast etc...) first solo album, that will feature people like Aaron Mills, Larry Jackson and many other great musicians. Recently Jef has been playing on a single for R&B artist 'Justin', produced in Atlanta for Evander Hollyfield's record label and has been performing with Hammond B3 ace Ike Stubblefield. Most recently Jef has been in the studio with Dre from Outkast for his new upcoming release.



Jef van Veen, also known as Vinsky, is currently involved in a musical project called Sonic Whisper.