Milk Inc.

Filip Vandueren: Producer, Keyboardplayer Full Live Shows, Concerts
Linda Mertens: Vocalist
Regi Penxten: Producer, Keyboardplayer Live-on-tape + Full Live Shows, Concerts

Regi Penxten
 

Regi Penxten

Regi Penxten is a multi-talented musician. Next to producing Milk Inc. songs together with his long time best friend Filip Vandueren, he also plays the keyboards and the 'crowd' ever enthusiasticly during performances, full live shows and concerts. Of course he's also busy with a lot of other projects, like his own project Regi, Sylver with his co-producer and friend Dj Wout,...

Remixing is also a part of Regi's life, in the past he made some remixes for artists like Duran Duran, 2 Unlimited, Boney M,... These days, he still remixes from time to time and gives the songs his special Regi touch. From remixing to deejaying is a small step, he spins the wheels at several parties and clubs each weekend. A combination of both things has resulted in releasing remixed compilations called Regi In The Mix, charting number 1, turning gold.

Creating songs together with other artists was always his thing, knowing about his long list of projects. This also resulted in a special album Registrated where he again worked together with several artists. Since 4 years, Regi also has his own TV show, called Regi's World, so every fan or non-fan can see how he really lives and works...


Linda Mertens
 

Regi Penxten

It was Linda's dream to be a performing artist. She used to be part of a group called Secret Fantasy, but that group actually never broke through. She is very close to her mother, she supported her from the beginning Linda joined Milk Inc. She is without any doubt Linda's biggest fan.

After studying Art at highschool, she studied to become a hairdresser which she was for one year. She quit her job as a hairdresser cause at that time she didn't know which direction she wanted to go to with her life. Linda went to club Illusion with some friends and she found the courage to ask Regi if he needed a singer for a project and if she could do some auditions. She didn't know Regi was looking for a new Milk Inc. singer. He gave her his number and after a few weeks she contacted him for a first audition. After a second audition where she had to sing and dance, she was chosen to be Milk Inc.'s newest singer. In the meantime she accepted an interim job for 4 weeks to earn money so she had some time to think about which directions she wanted to go. At the 3rd day, she heard she was the chosen one so she immediately said she wasn't coming back for that interim job. At this point her singing carreer finally started.

So since 2000, Linda is the fourth and last vocalist of Milk Inc. During the years, Linda proved she can sing live very well. The last 3 years, Milk Inc. has had more full live shows and already 10 sold out concerts, here she had to prove herself each time.

She showed everybody she's more than a pretty face. On stage, you'll always see a cheerfull Linda with one goal, making her fans happy.


Filip Vandueren
 

Regi Penxten

Filip Vandueren uses several different names as producer like Philip Banks and Jedidiah Albertson. He started as a hardtrance and undergroundproducer at the DanceOpera Label. He already has different projects on his name like K-Lab (Reunion) old school trance with a happy feeling of the late nineties, The Klan, Karnak-X (Sky-Trance), Vidts and Vandueren with Quality Trance at the Oceanic Records Label and Dj Jan vs Vandueren with progressive and hard trance with remixes for Dj Tiësto, Dj Esteem.

He's the co-producer of Milk Inc. together with Regi Penxten. Since Milk Inc. has build up its live reputation, Filip joins Regi and Linda on stage together with the other bandmembers to play the keyboards, but only during full live shows and concerts.

1996

In 1996, Milk Incorporated was founded. It started out as a studio project. The very first release was a EP on the underground label of Dance Opera, including Cream, W.O.O.W., Cowmen, Back To The House Of Pain.


1997

In april 1997 Milk Inc.'s first song with the name "La Vache". It wasn't a success in Belgium, but in the UK and France, they loved this record! So Milk Incorporated couldn't profile itself as a studio project anymore, but as a real group. Vocalist Jade 4 U (aka Nikkie Van Lierop) and producer Regi Penxten performed a lot in the UK and France. In France, they released under the label Hottracks of Scorpio Music France. Because they had so much success with "La Vache", the recordcompany decided to rename the group into "La Vache", so people could remember it! In October '97, a second song "Free Your Mind" was released! Because Jade 4 U was also the frontgirl of Praga Khan, she left the Milk Incorporated as Praga Khan became very popular in the USA. Sofie Winters took her place for a few months.


1998

"Inside Of Me" was released in February '98. This time, the vocalist was Ann Vervoort. The song was popular in the clubs, but there was no commercial success. In March, they released a first album in France, with the name "Apocalypse Cow", still under the name "La Vache"! In December '98, they finally got a huge hit with "In My Eyes". The Belgian breakthrough was a fact. With this release in Belgium, they changed their name to Milk Inc. The French public didn't like this song at all and it was the last release in France for Milk Inc.!


1999

"In My Eyes" turned into a gold record and in February they did a tour around France and Spain. In March '99, the next song "Promise" was released and did very well in the Belgian charts. In April '99, Milk Inc. received a "Donna Award" for "In My Eyes". It was time for a first album in Belgium, called "Apocalypse Cow". This album was released in May '99. "Oceans", the fifth Milk Inc. song, was released in June '99 and it was even called out as the summer hit of '99. "Losing Love", number 6, was released in November '99. Milk Inc. did so well they even received the TMF Award for "Beste National Dance Act". They toured a lot in Spain but also in Australia. With the artists from Antler Subway, they perfomed at a big "TMF Christmas 2000" show. Their was also a song together with all the artists, "Antler All Stars", a coversong "Do They Know It's Christmas", but each artist sang a coversong on their own, Milk Inc. made a new christmas song called "Alone at Christmas".


2000

In April '00 they received a special Donna award "Best HolidaySong of The Year". A new song was released "Walk On Water". In May '00, Ann anounced that she was going to leave the group because she wanted to start a record company "Benimusa" at Ibiza together with her boyfriend Pat Krimson. She officially left the group at 15 September '00. September '00 was a exciting month for the Milk Inc.-fans. The new singer, Linda Mertens, was presented at the show "Hitkracht" together with the newest song "Land Of The Living". In October '00 they performed 5 days in South-Africa. In Belgium, they received the award for "Best National song 'Walk On Water'". In November '00, they released a second album "Land Of The Living".


2001

In February 2001, the single "Livin' A Lie" was released together with a video that was filmed in Brussels and Antwerp. In March, Milk Inc. was nominated for the TMF-Awards in The Netherlands. On April 7, they won the award for "Best International Dance-Act" and their show was, as usually, wonderfull! The next single, number eleven, was "Never Again". During the summer, they had a lot of shows in Belgium, The Netherlands and Spain. In September, they went to Germany with a Tourbus. The video for "Walk On Water" was shot during that tour. Meanwhile, they were nominated again for the TMF-Awards from Belgium in 3 categories: "Best Dance National", "Best Single National 'Never Again'" and "Best Video 'Never Again'". On October 27, they won 2 of the 3 awards. "Best Dance National" and "Best Video National". Linda even cried when they received the award for "Best Dance National". Their performance was again really great and they did present "Wide Awake". On November 3, the newest single "Wide Awake" was released together with a Best Of-Album, with songs from the two other albums but also a cd with all the video's. At TMF there was a Milk Inc. Special in November! They had a lot of shows and completed the succesfull year with a big show at Sylvester-evening in Madrid (Spain).


2002

In January, they were nominated for the award "Best International Dance-Act". They didn't win this award! In February, Milk Inc. was nominated again for "Beste Dance Act International" at the Hitkrant Awards in The Netherlands! They didn't won this award either! Linda came in the "Notenclub" to prove she can really sing! They performed together with Sylver at Donna's 10th birthday! togetherhey performed the greatest hits of ABBA and were also dressed like them! In March, they started a tour in Canada! A video was made for "In My Eyes" in the UK! In May there was also a video made for "Sleepwalker" in Portugal! On May 13, the single was finally available! They started their conquest of the UK with "In My Eyes" and reached the top 10 of the charts! In July, they made a video for the second single in the UK, "Walk On Water"! During the summermonths they toured a lot in Belgium, The Netherlands and Spain! In September "Walk On Water" was released in the UK, and also an album "Milk Inc.". The promotion began in the UK! But they also performed a lot in Spain. "Walk On Water" also reached the top 10 of the charts! They got nominated for the Belgian TMF Awards for "Best Dance Act" and "Best Video - Sleepwalker". On October 26 , they received the award for "Best Dance Act" and they performed their newest song "Breathe Without You"! From October, 27 , they toured with the Smash Hits Tour in the UK, together with big stars! Land Of The Living became a top10 hit in the UK. They also worked on a dutch song, for a good cause togheter with other belgian artists, called "Feest voor iedereen". After touring in Belgium and abroad, Milk Inc. had a succesful year.


2003

2003 started with a short vacation for Milk Inc.! After that, they began touring again, in Belgium and abroad. At the end of April, the newest single "Time" was presented at Radio Donna's 11th birthday. A first visit to Scandinavia was a fact. In August the new single "The Sun Always Shines On TV" was presented and it was released in September. The next release for Germany was "Time" and "Breathe Without You". Thanks to their newest hit, they had a lot of performances on TV, like 'Tien Om Te Zien', Top of The Pops,... This year, Milk Inc. was nominated for 3 TMF Awards. And again, they won the award for Beste Dance. The opening of this event was also really special, they performed "Insomnia" by Faithless together with Lasgo and Sylver. This performance was so great everybody was ready for the show. Milk Inc.'s performance was, as usual, a big success. On October 6th, their newest album Closer was released. 14 songs, from which 6 already released. Some highlights on this album are the ballad "November", the duet between Linda and Silvy which is called "I Don't Care", the duet between Regi and Linda called "Maybe", but also the only instrumental song on the album called "Blown Away" is a nice piece of art. Of course, the other songs are completely songs like we are used to, all with the special Milk Inc. sound. During their performance at Base Pop, Milk Inc. had the chance to perform for the french part of Belgium. In October, a almost worldwide release for "The Sun Always Shines On TV" started. The album Closer also was released in several countries. On JimTv the fans could see a program about Milk Inc., how one of their days looks like. In November, Linda posed for a 3rd time for the magazin P-Magazine. To promote their work, they performed in Poland. The last month of the year was also really busy. Performing in Germany and Spain, visiting the Big Brother house, a showcase at JimTv, tv performance for Hitparty 2004,... This year was a very good one for Milk Inc., the yearreviews were the proove of their success.


2004

At the beginning of 2004, "The Sun Always Shines On TV" was released in several countries like Germany, Switzerland, Australia,... Their next single was "I Don't Care", the duet with Silvy (from Sylver). In Poland, the album Closer was released. Furthermore, "I Don't Care" almost reached the top of the Belgian charts, but it couldn't get higher then the 3rd position. In March, they were nominated for the Dutch TMF Awards, the award for Best Dance International went to Special D. In April, they performed 3 shows in America and also once at a big dance event in Russia. In the UK, the Sun Always Shines on Tv was released on 12" with 2 brand new remixes. On May 31st, www.milkinc.be became the official Milk Inc. site. Like every summer, their agenda was full with performances in Belgium and The Netherlands. Several times, there were duoshows together with Sylver, including their hit "I Don't Care". In August, a Best Of 3cd box was released in Australia. In September, they released "Whisper" with a nice video. This song became another number 1 hit on the day they received the award for "Best Dance Act" and the "Life Time Achievement award" during the TMF Awards 2004. The very first DVD with all the videos and an accoustic set was released after the TMF Awards in October. The promotion for "Whisper" went on and the DVD also had a lot of media attention, many tv shows (like Swingpaleis, Kids Top 20, Top Of The Pops,...) and radio programs invited Milk Inc. to present this DVD. On Christmaseve there was a special (prerecorded) tv performance Swingpaleis Christmas edition where they performed "Do they know it's christmas time" together with other dance artists and on sylvesterevening a prerecorded tv performance at Tien Om Te Zien and Hitparty 2005.


2005

At the beginning of 2005, Milk Inc. supported the Tsunami 1212 show in Belgium. They performed a lot in Belgium and Spain. On March 1, "The Sun Always Shines On Tv" was released in the USA. At the end of March, a big dance event BelgaDance was organized. Milk Inc. performed Blind for the very first time and Regi won the award for Best Producer. "Blind" was promoted on tv and radio on several shows. In May, Milk Inc. had a 2 day tour in Norway. In June, "Time" was released in the USA. The summer was very busy, with performances in Belgium and abroad. In August, the album Closer was released in the USA. As every year, they got nominated for "Best Dance Act" at the annual TMF Awards. On October 1, they won their 10th TMF Award and also presented their newest single "Go To Hell". In October, "Go To Hell" was released together with a smashing new video. Also another Best Of album was released, called Milk Inc. Essential. At the end of November, they were the "warm up act" at the Junior Eurosong Festival. To end another great year, in December, Milk Inc. performed in Norway, Spain, Scotland and of course Belgium.


2006

2006, Milk Inc.'s 10th anniversary, announcing a concert to celebrate 10 years Milk Inc.. Touring in Belgium, Norway, The Netherlands,... In June, their newest single Tainted Love was released, a mashup from t he song Tainted Love and It's Gonna Be Alright. This also being a hit again, they were invited several times on the tv show Tien Om Te Zien. With the preperation of their very first concert at the Sportpaleis in mind, they decided to try out their live band with some full live shows during summer. Of course, they also had a busy summer with their usual performances. After the summer, they released their 4th studio album Supersized and a new single Run. Ticketsales for Supersized concert went so good they almost decided to open up a second date, but due to lack of time keeping it to one concert this year. After the Supersized concert, they announced Supersized II 2007, Milk Inc. at the Sportpaleis will start to be a yearly tradition. In October, they won the award for Best Dance one again. JimTv broadcasted the Supersized special and also a 10 years Milk Inc. Special. In November, they toured in Norway, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Namibia,... . To finish the succesful year, they released a DVD from the Supersized concert, re-released the Supersized album in a Digipack together with the DVD and released a new single from the album called No Angel.


2007

In February 2007, Milk Inc. received a Golden record for their Supersized album, 15000 copies sold. They continued performing, also with their live band on several festivals. Milk Inc. still has a good connection with The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Poland,... . In May, they even perform in the USA at a big dance event. After almost 11 years, Linda, Regi and Filip decided to leave Antler Subway/EMI. They signed a record deal with ARS Entertainment. Their very first release at this record company was Sunrise released in June, with a nice video recorded at Alicante, Spain. Once again a hit, once again invited for Tien Om Te Zien. In August, the Supersized /Supersized Digipack album turned into a platina record. New single Tonight was presented at the Supersized II concerts. This year, 3 concerts completely sold old. A new release The Best of and The Best of Limited 2CD, containing all the Milk Inc. hits, after 3 weeks in the charts it turned into a Golden record too. In October, as the yearly tradition seems to want it, Linda, Regi and Filip won the TMF Award for Best Dance. This year, there was only an exclusive Supersized II release with P-Magazine.


2008

This year started in February, winning the MIA award for Best Dance/Electronica. While performing throughout the year, Regi, Filip and Linda managed to find the time to finish the brand new album and single, called Forever. In its second week, the album went to the first place in the album charts and stayed there for 8 weeks. During the summer months, they performed at several festivals like Suikerrock, Lokerse Feesten,... Also at Tien Om Te Zien, they were invited a lot. At one of the Totz shows, they received a golden record for their album Forever. In September single number 29 was Race, including lots of remixes: Matt R, U&M, Wild Ace, Vandøren og Vanhøyland Drøm Remiks, but also a lot of other ones on iTunes or on 12”. Of course, the highlights of the year were the concerts at the sportpaleis, this year 6!! Almost 100000 people bought tickets to see Milk Inc. with their band. The evening before the last show, the anual TMF Awards were held, people could vote for their favorite in each category once again. Milk Inc. was nominated in 3 categories: Best Album, Best Live and, no need to think about this one, Best Dance. Amazing but true, they did win all 3 awards. After their last concert, Milk Inc. was once more suprised, they received a platinum award for 30000 sold copies. In November, Milk Inc. released the DVD with almost a complete registration of the concert at the sportpaleis and a Limited Edition of their album including some live tracks from the concerts and also the DVD. With this re-release, the album obtained the number 1 place again for 2 weeks, making this the best scoring Milk Inc. up until now with 10 weeks number 1. Another album The Best Of turned into a Platinum award on November 11th, 2008, being still in the midprice chart.


2009

2009 started very special, the brand new radio station MNM started their broadcast with a very first song, and it was voted Forever. January was also the nomination month for the MIA’s, with 2 nominations Best Dance/Electronica and Best Song. They won the award for Best Dance/Electronica. Before summer, a new single Blackout was released, the same name as the live concerts at the sportpaleis. During summer, they performed with their live band at several festivals. It was a big surprise when they announced they would perform at the Rock Festival Rock Werchter, although there was much commotion about it, the show was amazing with a full enthusiastic marquee. At the end of September, for the 4th year in a row, we can expect a big party at the Sportpaleis. At the moment, more than 70000 tickets are sold for 5 shows.


Awards 2013
 
Annes Vlaamse Muziek Awards 2012 - Best Female Singer Pop - Linda Mertens
Annes Vlaamse Muziek Awards 2012- Best Dance


Awards 2012
 
Eurodanceweb Award 2012 - Milk Inc. - Miracle
Golden Record Belgium - Best Of Milk Inc. 15 Album
The Jimmies (JimTv) 2011 - Best Group National
Annes Vlaamse Muziek Awards 2011 - Best Dance


Awards 2011
 
Golden Record Belgium - Nomansland Album


Awards 2010
 
Cool Brands Awards 2010 - Coolest Belgian Band of the year
Music Industry Awards MIA's 2009 Belgium - Best Dance/Electronica


Awards 2009
 
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Live National
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Dance National
Double Platinum Award - Forever Album
Telenet Kids Awards 2009 - Best Group
Music Industry Awards MIA's 2008 Belgium - Best Dance/Electronica


Awards 2008
 
Platinum Record Belgium - Forever Album
Golden Record Belgium - Forever Album
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Live National
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Album National
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Dance National
Music Industry Awards MIA's 2007 Belgium - Best Dance/Electronica
Platinum Record - The Best Of Album


Awards 2007
 
Platinum Record - Supersized Album
Golden Record - Supersized Album
Golden Record - The Best Of Album
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Dance National


Awards 2006
 
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Dance National


Awards 2005
 
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Dance National
Belga Dance Awards Belgium - Best Producer Regi Penxten


Awards 2004
 
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Dance National
TMF Awards Belgium - Life Time Achievement Award


Awards 2003
 
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Dance National


Awards 2002
 
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Dance National


Awards 2001
 
Hitkrant The Netherlands - Best International Artists
Hitkrant The Netherlands - Best International Single 'Walk On Water'
TMF Awards The Netherlands - Best Dance International
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Dance National
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Video 'Never Again'


Awards 2000
 
Top Rado Awards Belgium - Best Vocalist Ann Vervoort
Radio Donna Awards Belgium - Best Holidaysong of the year 'Oceans'
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Single National 'Walk On Water'
Golden Record Belgium - Land Of The Living Single
Golden Record Belgium - Walk On Water Single
Golden Record Belgium - Losing Love Single


Awards 1999
 
Radio Donna Awards Belgium - Pepper Award 'In My Eyes'
Move-X Dance Awards Belgium - Best Dance Single 'In My Eyes'
TMF Awards Belgium - Best Dance National
Golden Record Belgium - In My Eyes Single


Awards 1997
 
Golden Record France - La Vache Single
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