LATEST MIXTAPES
EARLY DAYS
At age 16 Maarten was living in the rural countryside of the Netherlands. In a small-town with nothing much to do really. Excitement had to be found in the big city, in the beginning kind of limited to ‘nearby’ Rotterdam or Utrecht, where him and his friends used to go out. Fortunately one of his good friends was also very much into music. But not just that, since he also happened to own 2 Technics SL-1200 MKII turntables and a mixer. This is where he first started spinning records. This was the landmark for an ever expanding vinyl collection. Main stores to go to at that time were Kareltje in Utrecht and Velvet Music in Rotterdam.
VPRO - VILLA 65 - PARKZICHT
Before finally moving to The Hague in his early 20’s, Maarten and another friend at some point discovered acid house. VPRO radioshows like ‘Front’ and ‘Villa 65’ (Semtex Cyberradio) were the main inspiration. Progressive and somewhat obscure. Inspired by this they started crate diggin’ themselves, thus feeding the ever growing vinyl collection. And then experiment with it, big time.
After having pitched lots of their, back then considered ‘weird’ mixtapes, they finally managed to pull of a Thursday night residency. Basically a ‘dead’ night back then, but the door was open at what was later to become a legendary venue in Rotterdam, called Parkzicht. At that point it was disco and italo galore. Practically no one had heard of house music yet, let alone acid house.
THE HAGUE
The move to the big city meant a big change for the better. The Hague is where he started dj-ing more, next to organising underground house parties with some of his close dj friends. This resulted in a series of amazing underground parties in the 070-area. Fun Force, SoundSjop, TOF (Techno On Friday) and Secret Sessions parties were the result. He initially performed as O-Jay, and later on under his EmBee alias.
When he finally decided to start following his true dreams he made a drastic career move. Said goodbye to his rather comfortable management job. And then got a job at Combined Forces Records, a well respected dance record company in The Hague. This is also the time when he decided to change his dj name to Dan Sanders. This basically was the result of Sunday afternoon lounge concept, called Dans Anders…
LITTLE MOUNTAIN ROCKS
Acquiring the position of label manager at Sander Kleinenberg’s new Little Mountain Recordings (LMR) label was another landmark. This is where his dj career as Dan Sanders then got another boost. The new label manager job kinda opened up the doors to the international clubbing scene. LMR’s successful Little Mountain Rocks label nights all of a sudden saw him perform from Moscow (Discotheque), to London (Ministry Of Sound), to Miami (Nerve & LIV), to… Well, the sky all of a sudden seemed to be the limit really.
NAU NAU
Only about 2 years ago, after having moved to Spain some time before, the shear love for electronic music all of a sudden started reappearing. Kind of one of those magic moments. This led into some good old inspired crate digging, be it digital crates these days. Next to him getting one of them Pioneer all-in-one sets. He then realised technology had taken quite an interesting leap forward. Opening up a so many interesting new possibilities. After hosting his exclusive invite only parties in Spain over the past year, he’s nau (now) determined in picking up on things on the dj side again. Be it under a new moniker moving forward, Nau Nau.
CLUB NAU
The following exploration of nowadays technology soon resulted in him fully embracing the fine art of mixing music again. Next to his running invite only underground Club Nau nights there’s 2 ‘fresh’ concepts waiting to get rolled out in 2025. His motto has always been, and always will be, “Without music life would be a mistake!” Thus the saga continues…
