Maarten was born in 1976 in Nijmegen. When he was six years old he once visited friends who possessed a drum kit. Since that day he never stopped trying to persuade his mother that drums were his game. In the summer of that year he got his first elementary drum lessons at the well-known "Streekmuziekschool Over-Betuwe". At the age of twelve he became fed up with the weekly practicing and quitted the drum lessons, a decision he still regrets. At this time his interest for music developed, first in funk and disco (it was still the early 80's, you know). At the end of the 80's Acid and House grew popular. As the music got less 'instrument' based his orientation shifted towards (jazz-)rock.

In 1994 he started to study Psychology in Groningen, a study that can be combined with a lot of leisure activities. One of these was, and still is, Awake. Curious to know what the other 'musicians' (in Maarten's case almost exclusively guitarists) were talking about he bought a horribly cheap sounding guitar by the questionable name of 'Action'. However, this helped him to become co-writer in the Awake machine.

Unfortunately Maarten had to leave Awake early 2001. He moved to Utrecht for a new job and the distance between Groningen and Utrecht was just to great to keep rehearsing properly. He did however remain a member of his second band Counterpoint and started or joined other projects in Utrecht: Barcode and Furry Heads.

At this time he's working on recording a solo cd with four songs. On this cd all of his former and current band mates will play a guest part. The four songs are Face to Face, Subzero, Tell Me and Let Me Go. The whole idea is to get some old friends meet and play in different line ups. There will be ten people taking part in the project that's celebrating Maarten's twentieth anniversary as a musician. Bass and drums have been recorded. So we're nearly there….

Returning in to Awake is a bit of coming home. After playing together for 10 years you can anticipate on each other's move and that's what a band needs to sound 'compact'.