Michel Meesters, known under the alias “MAITRO” has released 3 Vaporwave albums, and continues to post new music via Soundcloud. I discovered him from YouTube, after listening to a song of his called “Kid Goku” from his third album “DragonballWave”. In this album, all of the songs’ names and some sounds effects are from the Japanese Anime “Dragonball”.



Michel's Latest Album, "Dragonballwave"

His creations of Vaporwave music are not like the other artists that are normally generalized with the genre. He mixes the sound of Vaporwave with Hip-Hop or “Trap” styling beats, giving it a more approachable feel to the genre that most peers around my age would be comfortable listening to. When listening to his music, metaphorically you’re in the modern age, although you have the lingering feeling of the past all together in a cohesive experience. His distinct styling has a general formula, having a main melody working together, then have a more muted texture to the song. All of these techniques give you the feeling that you’re flying, experiencing amazing ingenuity of a sort from above. Then you’re dropped down back into the action, whether the song is lively or calm.









Hailing from Roosendaal, Netherlands, 23 year old Michellini Meesters is living the dream, making music after his 10 hour work days in a local bakery. He’s made 3 albums so far as MAITRO, called “Future Nostalgia”, “Hidden Gems Vol. 1”, and “DragonballWave” as I’ve said earlier. His hobbies are “making music, graphic design, travelling, reading, [browsing] the internet, chilling with friends, going out, taking walks in nature, and a lot of other things I could tell. Let’s say my hobby is enjoying life.” He started his music career at the age of 14, saying “ I didn't make beats then but did a lot of beatboxing.” He was taught how to produce music with Fruity Loops (Also known as FL Studio) by his friend and started off making music from there. He soon dropped out of high school and began pursuing graphic design. He then soon gave up graphic design and then studied at Herman Brood Academie to produce Hip-Hop, although gave it up as well after falling into a depression and wasn’t able to work on his music. Although, he said “Even though I studied there for barely a year, I learned a lot of things about the music industry, engineering and networking. It still helps me a lot, I’m thinking about getting back there someday.” Today, Michel is working fulltime at his bakery job “to make some money for building my own stu dio and travel a lot.”

Michel's First Album, "Future Nostalgia Deluxe"

A normal day in the life of Michel is “waking up, breakfast, go to work, go home, smoke a spliff, make some music and relax. And when I’m free, I love to go to different cities and hang with friends or have some time for myself in the studio.” But as Michel hangs up the robe, and goes home, he becomes MAITRO. His creative side comes out 1000%. His inspiration for his songs “[come] out from a lot of things”, but primarily from Hip- Hop artists such as MF DOOM, Madlib, Dam Funk, The People Under The Stairs, Toshiki Kadomatdu and J Dilla. The main reason he even began making music was because of MF DOOM. “But mostly I get inspired by feelings inside of me that I can’t explain with words, and I want to show it with my music; I’m an emotional fella, haha. I also get inspiration from sitcoms and animes, I love to make tributes to them. For instance, I want to make a Seinfeld inspired tape in the future.” What Michel means by “tape” is an album or an EP. Mostly in the genre of Vaporwave, the physical copies of albums are on audio cassette tape, and are normally very rare depending on the popularity of the artist.







Michel's Second Album, "Hidden Gems Vol. 1"











When it comes to making music, Michel uses his past experience from the Herman Brood Academie to his advantage. “I make music in Fruity Loops, and it is mostly sample-based with added sounds. First, I look on obscure blogs for samples and if I find something, I listen to it for a week or so, after that I chop the good parts up, make a new composition out of it, and add drums, beats, synths, etc. And as a finishing touch, I add effects and filters. I really love playing with highpass filters and I try to make my own sound with it.” And make his own sound he has. Many of Michel’s songs have his distinct muted section as I said previously, although his execution is just amazing. Michel really loves Vaporwave, although he dislikes how easy it can be to make it. “I don’t like the easy production side of it, and the drums are too soft for me sometimes.” Although he wanted to change it to his liking, to make Vaporwave his own. “I started originally with Hip-Hop producing, so I love good and hard drums, and you can find that in trap. So I thought: ‘Why not blend those worlds together?’” Doing this made him flip the whole genre upside down, and reinvented the wheel, in my opinion. Although, many artists of any type of form hit a wall somewhere. They can’t think, innovate, or construct new ideas. This happens to Michel, and when it does, “I just let it go, If I don’t feel like making music for a while I just focus on other things like making art, or start doing a sport or whatever. Inspiration comes in waves, and I must go with that wave.”













