Talent Tuner

Maik began his musical journey with nearly 10 years of classical percussion education and went on to play for many years in a Dutch orchestra. By 23, he graduated from the Pop Academy as a music composer. He carved out a 13-year DJ career that took him across The Netherlands and Europe, performing at over 1,500 shows, from major festivals and packed clubs to unforgettable underground parties, amassing more than 30 million streams. Over the past five years at Amp.Amsterdam, Maik has specialized in music for film and Sonic Branding, earning multiple industry awards for the projects he’s worked on.

Steve Johnsen (1978) is an executive music producer, musician and creative entrepreneur with over two decades of experience. As the founder of Never Square Music, he specializes in music production, songwriting and sonic branding. Steve has led award-winning projects at MassiveMusic and Antfood and holds an Advanced Diploma from Abbey Road Institute, with additional training at the Sound Sanctuary Academy in Tuscany as he expands into the sound and wellbeing space. Through his own label, Never Square Records, Steve helps emerging talent get heard. Most recently, he served as president of the ADCN Crafts Jury 2025, advocating for excellence in music and sound.

Marijn Roozemond is a sonic branding expert with over ten years of experience, blending project management with creative direction. He started his career at Interbrand, helped build MassiveMusic’s sonic branding department, freelanced for a few years, and now lead the Amsterdam office for Sonicbrand. He has worked with brands big and small – from finance to FMCG – creating sonic assets for every touchpoint and collaborating with agencies all over the world. At the heart of it all: using sound and music to bring brands to life in ways that are powerful, memorable, and real.

Jeffrey graduated from the HKU in 2010. In 2016, he won the Transatlantyk Young Talent Award, and in 2019 he received 3rd prize at the FMF. He composed music for two seasons of Soof and collaborated with Oscar-nominated director Hany Abu-Assad on Huda’s Salon. His score for De Tatta’s (2022) and its sequel attracted over 1.2 million cinema visitors. More recently, he composed music for De Mannenmaker, Alles Flex (2 seasons), Red Flags, and Juffrouw Pots. This year, he is working on Bovensloters and De Tatta’s 3. His style is diverse, but mainly focuses on acoustic music with influences from pop, jazz, and classical genres.

Ella founded Heron Music in 2020 with composer Guido Maat. Together they craft original soundtracks for fashion, advertising—working with clients like Rituals, Vinted and various feature film projects. They are closely connected to composers, artists and labels across the globe and deeply value those relationships. Their mission is to clear the grey area surrounding custom composition, creating more trust and freedom to benefit the creative process. As a result, they’ve built successful, lasting partnerships with a range of brands and advertising agencies. With a deep passion for the craft of original composition, Ella is always exploring new ways to support its makers in the years to come.

Darius Timmer is a keyboard player, composer, producer, mixing and mastering engineer. Together with Tessa Rose Jackson, he runs Tiny Tiger Studios in Amsterdam. As a composer, Darius has worked with many artists as well as filmmakers, among which are: Milou Gevers, Sara de Monchy, Pascal Lamche, Jonathan Elbers, Thomas Vroege, Laura Stek, Anais Lopez, Amazon Prime, David Spearing, HALAL, Witfilm, NTR, DOXY, VPRO, EO and many more. He has won several MIMA’s for his compositions. Recently he and Tessa have been working on a few feature films, though he has in the past worked on podcasts, tv shows, documentaries and theatre plays.

Tom Tukker is a globally operating music creative, producer, composer and singer from the Netherlands, specialized in music for moving media. He has over 10 years of experience as a music professional and worked previously at global music agency MassiveMusic and as lecturer at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Tom had the honor to provide brands like Heineken, UEFA, Nike, Adidas, Toyota and many more with the perfect score for their brand or commercial. He believes that music is the most intuitive key to people’s hearts. Therefore it deserves full attention, dedication and craft to get the most out of every story, recording and brand message.

Mees van der Velde is a Music Producer and A&R at the award-winning music agency Sizzer from Amsterdam. He started his career as a composer for film and advertising after completing his education at the Utrecht University of the Arts (HKU). Here he specialized in music for media. At Sizzer, Mees has collaborated with a wide range of different major brands and organizations – including Adidas: one of his recent projects was the music production for the reveal of the new shirt of the German national football team, for which he, with the ream, recorded a cover of “Major Tom” by Peter Schilling. Shortly afterwards, the German cult hit was officially declared the new “Torhymne” of the German team.