Maarten Versteeg

Recent youtube mixes

Maarten Versteeg

Recent soundcloud mixes

Honing the classics, embracing the future

Biography

Playing immersive & soul-stirring electronic music since 1993.

Currently I play on a weekly basis at Amsterdam rooftop cocktailbars overlooking the city, beach clubs in the summer, corporate and private events. Here’s a little background story on how this came about and the music that influenced me. 

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MERGING ACCESSIBLE & UNDERGROUND

In the early 90s, I organized gigs with friends, playing for hundreds of teenagers at self-organized parties of our mobile disco with home built speakers. My early interest in electronic music led me to play as resident in local bars.

With a school friend – who owned a pair of decks – I went by train to Amsterdam on a weekly basis to buy vinyl records at special import stores. Many of the unknown artists from back then, are world class heroes today. Artists like Roger Sanchez, Masters at Work, Kerri Chandler, Mateo & Matos, Dave Lee, Dimitri from Paris, John Ciafone and Ashley Beedle to name but a few.

Going out in the mid/late 90s was a formative period for me. Amsterdam’s  renowned RoXY nightclub introduced me to soulful NYC and Chicago underground house and the more abstract Detroit sound. Summer holidays in Italy with its luxurious open-air discotheques like Baia Imperiale with its pool and gardens, inspired me to add an Italo/Balearic touch to my sets as well. 

Playing the music I liked at bars was not always easy. As house music was not as well established as it is today, bar owners wanted DJs to also play other genres alongside housemusic. As such it was very rewarding to make a ‘difficult’ audience dance on it and see them gradually embrace my weekly residency with a growing following. You can still kind of hear this ‘fusion’ in my style of playing. I mostly play electronic music, but also add disco in the mix and also afro, jazz or Italo influences are never far away. 

CORPORATE & BRANDING EVENTS

In 2007 I founded a marketing & communication consultancy in Amsterdam, which I am still running today. This opened opportunities to dj for advertising agencies – at music at trade shows, product launches for their clients. 

CURRENT STYLE 

I play on a weekly basis at Amsterdam rooftop cocktailbars overlooking the city, beach clubs in the summer, corporate and private events.

While influenced by underground housemusic, my style is accessible nonetheless. I mosty avoid the common (Beatport) charts, to maintain an authentic style and challenge myself to explore new music and push my musical boundaries.

Influenced by travel and living in an open and diverse society which is Amsterdam, my dj sets span music from different decades and from around the world – for people from different ages, styles and backgrounds. Learning new music and expanding my sets everyday, while honing the classics. 

HEAR – IMMERSIVE AUDIO
Under the name HEAR – ‘High-End Audio Rental’ – I rent out high-end active audio sets from the brand-new RCF KX series, as well as Brooklyn Audio: Dutch-designed speakers engineered for phase-perfect sound. And also some crisp & clear Meyer Sound X40 tops and possible X80s in the future. I also advise venues about the audio experience and procurement and placement of speakers.