So Where To Today?

Maarten Russchen is a Dutch guitar player and singer/songwriter from Amersfoort the Netherlands. He grew up with jazz and blues, and you can clearly hear that in his music. Good musicians have always been a great inspiration for him. Not just guitar players, but also saxophone players, trumpet players and singers. Their power, control, and the ability to express themselves through their music made a huge impression. As a young kit he started with classical piano and classical guitar. At the age of 12 his parents gave him an electric guitar. In 1984 he was admitted to study jazz guitar at the Conservatory in Hilversum. His teacher Wim Overgaauw was a very cool jazz cat with a great technique and superb timing. “I learned an awful lot from him, especially by going out and listening to him playing jazz gigs in a local club”. Wim arranged a great opportunity for Maarten to play in a TV show hosted by the Dutch piano player Pim Jacobs. Following to that he was nominated for the Wessel Ilcken Jazz Award. It was a wonderful time in the 80-ies with many live bands playing in clubs and dance classics at parties. “I was lucky to have a background in classical music and that brought me some nice work as a studio session guitar player. I was proud to be invited to replace regular guitar player in the Metropole Orchestra”. But even back in the 80-ies it was hard to earn a living as a musician. “Perhaps I was doing too much commercial work as a musician and I started to lose my inspiration. Finally I decided to head off in a different direction and study law”. A long story short: he became a solicitor specialized in music business. “New challenges, busy times and I learned a lot”. ButheI always continued to play guitar and he knew that someday I was going to come back on stage. And so he did. In 2010 I made a new start with playing at sessions and writing new songs. This time around his focus was definitely more on songwriting. In 2015 he started his own band, recorded some tracks and started to play gigs in small clubs in the Netherlands. “It is a real pleasure to play with the fantastic musicians that I work with. It feels like an extended family”. Over the course of 50 years of playing the guitar, he has developed his guitar playing. Compositions usually start with a short phrase on guitar. “I often write about topics that I have to deal with myself. I then translate that into a song, quite often with a humorous twist. Others write articles or books, but my focus is always the music”. In 2020 he recorded the EP “Dealbreaker” with his band, which was partly recorded in the Wisseloord Studios. Due to the Corona period, live music performance came to a standstill. Maarten concentrated on songwriting, tried to improve his technique and wrote some “Sad songs about the law” in Dutch language, which he still intends to release. In 2024 he picked up the thread again with the blues band and released Green Flash. In addition to performing with his own band, Maarten Russchen enjoys playing in the Saskia Laroo Band, with which he regularly plays at festivals and in clubs. In 2024 he toured in India and his new release Green Flash was on the setlist. In 2025 he will start to play gigs with his own band again. “We will bring some new repertoire and I am really looking forward to that”.