This site is no longer being updated on a regular basis (obviously). Visit billberends.com for updates and further information. Signup to the Bill Berends / MASTERMIND mailing list to be apprised of any new activity.

Since 2019 Mastermind guitarist/composer Bill Berends has been performing the music of MASTERMIND in Brazil with a band of talented players keeping the music alive at gigs and festivals as recently as April 2021. It will never be MASTERMIND proper without Rich Berends drumming, but the band is good and the music lives on. “Bill Berends plays the music of Mastermind” is simply too unwieldy, so it carries on as Mastermind (Brasil). Rich Berends keeps himself busy with a variety of projects back in the States. Perhaps one day the two will come together again. Anything is possible.

Although this is more or less a legacy site at this point, for fans and those new to the music of MASTERMIND there is still a variety of information presented here. Thanks for visiting.

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2017!!

To start off the new year the entire Mastermind discography is now on sale on bandcamp at a special 50% discount when you purchase the entire catalog. Full fidelity audio or choose from several audio formats, FLAC to mp3, it’s quite a bargain for $37 USD! Simply click on any album and purchase info is below the album price. Take advantage of this deal now!

In other news, Mastermind guitarist Bill Berends has set up a new bandcamp music store called BENVALIA MUSIC to make solo works and other non-Mastermind recordings available. Both Benificial to the artists and of Value to the discerning listener, please take a moment to check it out and like Benvalia Music on Facebook while your at it. Thanks! 🙂

“Benvalia Music showcases works performed, produced, and/or curated by resident musician/producer Bill Berends. Home to a careful selection of styles, bands and artists, it was set up to bring quality music to fans world-wide.”

Titles on Benvalia Music include BIll’s 1988 solo new age electronica EP Life Cycle, pianist brother David Berends’ prog-pop band THE NAME, prog keyboardist Micheal West, and other carefully selected artists Bill has worked with or produced over the years. More interesting music and more Bill Berends solo material both new and old is coming in the near future.

That’s it for now! Please join the Berends Music Mailing List if you have not already.

Here’s to a wonderful New Year!

ps: the Broken EP will be added sooner or later along with other vintage live recordings and various oddities and out takes. So much to do, so little time, please check back often!

I can’t believe it’s 20-fucking-16. Damn.

Nothing new to say, really. I would love to get this going again in some form, but I can’t do it all by myself. So, although I still don’t consider Mastermind to be dead, it is in a deep coma. Will it ever awaken again is yet to be seen. It was never intended for Insomnia to be the last Mastermind album and still may yet not be, but people and things being as they were made it difficult to carry on. We kept it going for 20 years, maybe a 30th Anniversary of sorts could be possible. Then again, I’m not so sure I really want to go backwards in time. We shall see.

I’ve updated a few blog entries here since the site still gets a lot of hits to older entries. I’m halfway tempted to delete them all, but for now I’ll leave them as a historical record of sorts. Quite a lot of attempts at log-ins too, as I see from the site stats. WTF? That’s crazy. The rest of the site is mostly static and kind of a cluster fuck, like the streets of London. It grew over time and meanders around all over the place, but lots of interesting stuff to find poking around. I’ve thought of scratching it all for another boring wordpress site. Nah. lol.

Anyway, the recordings are still there for you to enjoy (and purchase) and new folks are still discovering the music all the time, which is nice. I continue to write and record music on my own and am shooting for some kind of new release in 2016. Some of that includes reworked Mastermind stuff. Most of it is brand spankin’ new material. Life goes on.

Visit billberends.com and sign up to the mailing list to be notified when something happens.

Thanks for looking in.

Yours in music,
Bill Berends
March 01, 2016

Since the demise of Mindawn as our digital distributor, several Mastermind catalog titles have been officially unavailable anywhere online. This unacceptable situation has now been rectified by adding several new titles to our new & improved Mastermind Nimbit Webstore.

As physical CD’s released by Inside Out (Europe/USA) and Avalon (Japan/Asia) the discs have been out of print & sold out for some time with all rights reverting back to us. Thanks to the internet working for us for a change, the albums are again available as digital downloads.

We’ve made some pretty cool albums that still not enough people have heard! And since we’re not exactly competing in the trendy popular music charts, release dates are almost irrelevant for the most part. The music is timeless and could have been released yesterday.

Our Nimbit Webstore sample clips will give you a good overview of an album, but we’ll also be making albums available streaming in-full on youtube so you can enjoy them and fall in love with them. If you already know these albums; we love you! Now anyone can listen to them anywhere, whenever they please. Mastermind worldwide… for free! You can’t beat that.

The first featured album is Angels of the Apocalypse ….

Angels of the Apocalypse was a dramatic shift for us, adding a female vocalist and moving in a decisively more metal direction. It’s risky and experimental, powerful yet nimble, and quite unique sounding. Give it a listen and decide for yourself! Such wonderful performances from vocalist Lisa Bouchelle and Jens Johansson on keys are truly outstanding. I haven’t listened to this for quite some time now and have to say, it’s making my Mastermind juices flow. Mastermind juices… hahah. eww. Anyway, I am proud of this work, the music, and all the people we worked with in making it happen including my bro’ Rich Berends who’s feet were on fire making this one! Also remembering bassist and departed friend Bob Eckman. R.I.P.

The early Mastermind trio albums are all up on mastermind.bandcamp.com streaming in-full along with some exclusive digital-only releases. Our newest album Insomnia (2010) is under contract with Lion Music. Also check out Bill Berends new solo album In My Dreams I Can Fly.

Listen free! -> Love!! -> *purchase* <- thank you!!! ps: please sign up to the mailing list for exclusive updates & more.

Bb

progressive metal, progressive rock, jazz-metal, acid rock

Hi folks!! My solo album on Kickstarter as mentioned below has reached its target goal, so this CD will be happening and I couldn’t be more pleased!! You guys are awesome!!! THANKS to ALL of you who helped me reach my goal!!

Now solidly in the funded zone there is still a week to go on Kickstarter and I am cautiously optimistic about hitting a stretch goal of $3,000, in fact, it’s more than halfway there now. So while I am sitting here waiting for hurricane Sandy to come kick my ass (yikes!) I made a new video for your amusement with hopes that a few more folks and Mastermind fans will kick in with pledges and pre-orders before November 5th. Hoping all my east coast friends get thru the storm unscathed and happy Halloween to you all!

To make a pledge or pre-order a CD on kickstarter just go here… thank you!!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/billberends/1920478859/

Thanks to those who have kicked in already!! Be safe in the storm and wish me luck!

-Bb

Hi folks, Bill Berends here. I’d like to tell you that I have finally finished my solo album of guitar instrumentals!! I’ve been hinting around at it for awhile now, well… now it is done! But rather than go the traditional route of trying to find a record label, I want to bring the music directly to you and I am asking for your help. I am now taking pre-orders on Kickstarter to raise the funds to get the CD pressed and I am hoping you will participate.

The album is called In My Dreams I Can Fly and features 12 brand new original instrumental works for electric guitar. Sort of in the vein of Joe Satriani or Eric Johnson perhaps, but with my own style and substance. I’ve put a lot of work into it and think it turned out nicely.

There are two videos on Kickstarter that feature sound clips from the album and a bit of a presentation by yours truly. The one down at the bottom seems to be getting the most interest, so please, stop by and have a listen. And, if you could, help me get the word out by sharing anywhere you can… forums, music blogs, facebook, myspace, anyplace. Thanks. The funding drive ends at Midnight, November 5th, 2012 so there isn’t a whole lot of time!!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/billberends/1920478859/

This is an all-or-nothing proposition with Kickstarter, so your money is not at risk. I either reach my goal and the CD gets pressed, or I don’t – in which case you won’t be charged. I really hope you can help me bring it to fruition by placing a pre-order now. I think it’s a great album that Mastermind fans can enjoy, but it’s good for classic rockers as well, and certainly for guitar enthusiasts! For prog fans I am pleased mention I have Jason Gianni of the Neal Morse band helping me out on drums for this record and Jason kicks ass!

I really hope I can get the CD out to you THIS year because this is a very important record for me. After this album gets released there will be a new Mastermind album coming, possibly next year, but a lot depends on if I can get this new album funded, so I am asking for your help. Thanks for reading and go check it out!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/billberends/1920478859/

Thanks!!
Bill

We’ve finally gotten ’round to getting a page up on Facebook.

facebook.com/Mastermindband

We hope all you Facebookers will join us there!

Check out our Music & Media page for streaming audio from our catalog. We’ve put together a collection of tracks you can listen to anywhere, anytime! Over 90 min’s of music. You can also embed [update: bandcamp and youtube] players on your own site. We’ve also put up a few tracks from the new archive series on the Mastermind and Mastermind Live pages on Myspace to enjoy.

[UPDATE: deleted ancient dead links. Most links on the sounds page should work. -Bb]

The NEW & IMPROVED Mastermind / Berends Bros list mail server is now up & running so please go add yourself. It’s very user friendly, you can subscribe & unsubscribe yourself, set preferences, and outgoing mail isn’t uploaded in bulk from our local machine. Very cool. We will import the current list and you’ll receive a welcome message allowing you to confirm your subscription and a link to update your list preferences. Please be sure to enter your location so we may fine tune announcements. Click here and sign up today!

[UPDATE: the mailing list has been moved to: billberends.com/list/ -Bb]

Bill Berends here, the mastermind of Mastermind so to speak. This is my first blog after learning how to install WordPress and setup a MySQL database on the mastermindband.com server. Apparently I must have something to say… or perhaps will, to go thru all that (more than I wanted to know!). So check back often to see what it may be… at least somewhere near the end of the this month (March).

I really don’t know much about the etiquette of the blogosphere, but I figured I should have my own, so here it is! It may get more interesting, or I may not have time for it. Dunno yet. Anywho, like I said, at least stop back in a couple weeks & see what’s up.

Thanks for reading!