during the mid-late 1990s,van haestregt was drummer with dutch cajun band the acadian ramblers, later known as acadia, before moving onto sacrament, after which he joined paralysis. in 2000 he worked with within temptation, as sound engineer of their album "mother earth". when the band's drummer, ivar de graaf, left in 2002, he joined them and five days later made his first performance with the band on the german festival rock im park. stephen has performed on arjen anthony lucassen's album "fate of a dreamer", under the ambeon moniker, and has also produced several albums such as "the rebel in you" by yellow pearl.