Hi there!
I'm Stijn, a musician from Groningen, The Netherlands. During my life I traveled through different musical styles that make me the musician and music enthousiast that I am today.
Starting out on the classical guitar
At a young age, I learned to play the classical guitar. This still is my main instrument for writing music. To me, the warm, wooden sound of nylon strings is endlessly inspiring.
Picking up the bass guitar
During my teenage years, I picked up the bass guitar and played in my first band, Dehaze, which was named after my guitar teacher Piet de Haas. I started writing full-band songs and lyrics, resulting in Dehaze's progressive rock EP 'Groundwork', together with Koen Maasen (drums), Alexander Berndsen (guitar) and Bram van Kuipers (vocals).
Discovering jazz and funk
In my early twenties, I moved to Delft to study architecture. I joined student jazz association Groover, took part in weekly jamsessions, learned to quickly adapt to new musical settings and played with a lot of different people. At the same time, I joined soul/funkband Capital S where I learned the power, energy and joy of soul and funk music.
Rock + funk + jazz + world = ?
I was eager to combine my love for progressive rock, funk and jazz into one band. I started Wakki together with Laurens Buijs (drums), Stijn van der Smagt (keys) and Richard Coesoij (guitar). We recorded our first EP 'Lunch' and were later joined by Mischa de Haan (saxophone) and Sebas Joosen (percussion) with whom we recorded our first full length album 'Tektonics' soon after.
Since then, Wakki has been my main project that I write music for and perform with, resulting in our second album 'Kosmonauts', live EP 'Live Log 1' and latest EP 'Taxonomi'.
Solo music projects
After moving from Delft to Groningen in 2024, I'm writing and recording music for my first solo work and looking for new collaborations in the Northern part of the Netherlands. Please contact me if you're interested!
For those interested, here is a list of bands and artists that I keep returning to listen to.