Leiden born Dutchman Maarten (Theo) Bousie’s journey in the music & entertainment industry started in the late 90’s. At that point he simply wasn’t feeling his job as general manager of a hairstyling institute anymore. The latter position he required after having been a teacher and assistant manager at another hairstyling institute. After careful consideration he then decided to take somewhat of a drastic leap by stepping out of his comfort zone. This is when he finally started following his true passion – music – in stead.
COMBINED FORCES
He then joined the promotion department of Combined Forces Records (The Hague, NL). The home of one of his back then favorite producers Vincent de Moor (aka Fix To Fax), and labels like Deal Records. This is where he first learnt some of the ropes of the music & entertainment industry on a professional level.
At the same time he continued organising underground parties in the 070-area. This resulted in a series of truly amazing underground parties under Fun Force, Soundsjop, TOF (Techno On Friday), Secret Sessions and Teknologix. During this time he was still dj-ing under his original O-Jay moniker, later to become Em-Bee.
The next five years at CFR saw him work his way up from the promotion department to the international licensing department. CFR was somewhat of a candy store since it granted Maarten access to some of his favorite producers, like Sander Kleinenberg and Vincent de Moor.
Combined’s HQ included a studio complex, where they housed production studios for some of their exclusive artists. This is where Maarten officially first met Kleinenberg, who at that time also happened to be one of his favorite dj’s. At the same time he continued dj-ing himself, be it under his Dan Sanders alias.
ADVENTURES
Late 2002 it was time to move on again. A good friend introduced him to the Red Bull (RB) marketing team in the Netherlands. Maarten got invited to write and design concepts for them. RB’s aim was to easily roll out tailor-made entertainment concepts to their prime customers in the Netherlands. Whilst in the writing process for RB he got an unexpected call from one of his close friends. He appeared to be on the way back from Roskilde Festival (DEN), sitting in the car next to hís best friend, Sander Kleinenberg.
Turned out Kleinenberg was looking for the right person to run his newly founded record label. Even though the challenge at RB could mean a stable position within an extremely creative environment, Maarten again decided to step out of his comfort zone. So he took up on Kleinenberg’s invitation to become label manager of Little Mountain Recordings (LMR). This exciting new opportunity turned out to be the start of a truly amazing decade of inspiring and challenging work, next to traveling the globe.
THIS IS / LITTLE MOUNTAIN
This new adventure started shortly after Kleinenberg had released the first part of his Four Seasons EP trilogy. This included the release of his critically acclaimed ‘My Lexicon’. The latter turned out to be his breakthrough release in the earlier mentioned scene where his star was on one the rise. And then some…
His touring adventures across the globe included a wide variety of international and inhouse events with some of Sander’s close dj friends, such as Sasha, John Digweed, Nick Warren, Deep Dish, Damian Lazarus, Pete Tong, James Zabiela, Nick Warren, Jody Wisternoff and Deadmau5, to name but a few. At the same time the electronic music scene was further developing and kept being on the rise. What an amazing journey…!
From then onwards he had a successful career in the international music and entertainment industry. Predominantly as label manager of Sander Kleinenberg’s LMR and This Is Recordings. And in the slipstream of being label manager also as a dj. At that time under the earlier mentioned Dan Sanders moniker.
Artists releasing on LMR and This Is ™, next to mr. Kleinenberg himself included; 2 Faced (aka Don Diablo), Bit Crushers, Compuphonic, Dansor, David Keno, Diskjokke, Eelke Kleijn, Erick E, Fine Taste, Funkagenda, Kolombo, Kraver, Love Girls, Low End Specialists, Matthew Dekay, Mark Knight, Max Graham, Michael Burns, Muzikjunki, NSFW, René Amesz, Patch Park, Pleasurekraft, Redondo, Sharam Jey, Steve Porter and UMEK, amongst many, many others, considering a little over 100 releases.
LITTLE MOUNTAIN ROCKS
The team was hosting the globally respected Little Mountain Rocks label nights at famous venues. Think Ministry Of Sound (London, ENG). Paradiso (Amsterdam, NL), Nerve (Miami, USA), Discotheque (Moscow, RUS), Melkweg (Amsterdam, NL) and LIV (Miami, USA), to name but a few. Maarten was also part of the A&R team of both imprints. After a few years they then continued organising their globally respected events under the new This Is ™ brand.
His true passion, job and dj-ing took him to a wide variety of illustrious and inspiring places, venues and countries. This to him felt as a true and unimaginable privilege. That being said, even the best jobs ever, unfortunately do at some point have to come to an end as well.
MOODS
We’re talking 2013, when he took a step back from both the Progressive scene as well as out of the dj-spotlight. This eventually resulted in a 10 year lasting sabbatical from both dj-ing and electronic music. In the mean time he teamed up with Rotterdam based Sober Industries, with the intention to restructure Sober Music. This is where he met Bluntspeakers, Pop On Acid and Moods. He worked on some interesting projects with Sober Industries, and on releases with Bluntspeakers, Pop On Acid and Moods.
Signing Moods to his management company meant the start a fresh and inspiring journey. Their collab resulted in a signed record deal with Kraak & Smaak’s label, BoogieAngst, as well as a publishing deal with London based Jalapeño. Their journey included Moods’ first steps as a dj/performer in the European club and festival scene. At the same time he was involved in marketing and promotion for some talented people outside the electronic music scene.
STEPHEN EMMER
2014 saw the start of his working relationship with one of the leading Dutch media composers and arrangers, Stephen Emmer. This took him on a genre defying journey. He got invited to become Marketing and Promotion manager for his so called ‘free work’, starting with the release of Emmer’s then newest album, International Blue.
Stephen’s projects throughout the past decade included collaborating artists like; Midge Ure (Ultravox), Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17), Michael Dempsey (The Cure), Ursula Rucker (4 Hero), Chaka Khan, Patti Austin, Leon Ware, Kendra Foster and Dwight Trible, a.o.. What started as a M&P job gradually morphed into a position on the creative side, with a clear focus on creative production. Like graphic design and video editing for Emmer’s releases, next to designing and building some websites.
BODYWRMR
End of Summer 2018 Maarten got in touch again with long time friend Jeffrey Sutorius (formerly known as Dash Berlin). They knew each other from back in the days when Maarten was LMR label manager, whereas Jeff was the store manager at Midtown Records’ (The Hague). After some catching up Jeff invited him to become label manager for his new BODYWRMR imprint.
This is where Maarten worked with featuring artists such as; Haliene, Aleksander Popov, Thomas Heredia, Lost Capital, Haliene and Jonathan Mendelsohn (a.o.).
What started as a promising and exciting new adventure in a somewhat different scene unfortunately ended after only 1,5 year of releases. Let’s say the relationship ended due to the devastating effects of the pandemic on global touring, just to stay on the positive side.
NAU NAU /CLUB NAU
Only about 2 years ago, after having moved to Spain some time before, the shear love for electronic music all of a sudden reappeared. Kind of one of those magic moments. This soon resulted in some good old inspired crate digging – be it digital crates these days – and him buying a new Pioneer all-in-one set.
After having hosted his own exclusive invite only parties in Spain for over a year now, he decided to pick things up again on the dj side in a more serious way, be it under the new Nau Nau moniker.
Next to his running Club Nau night there’s 2 other event concepts waiting to get rolled out in 2025.
