100% VTSS: the DJ/producer pursuing new paths
Renowned for tearing up the club, Martyna Maja is experimenting in the new phase of her career with new EP Projections.
Music
Words: Jade Wickes
Photography: Marta Michalak
Martyna Maja, the Polish producer and DJ otherwise known as VTSS, has been on a bit of a journey over the last couple of years. Due to the pandemic, she’s moved away from tailoring hard-hitting tracks for the club to making music that people can listen to in any environment, from the daily commute to swigging tins in the park, as well those cathartic moments on hot, sweaty dancefloors.
“Projections is entirely the result of 2020,” Maja says of her new EP, an experimental four tracker released via Ninja Tune. “Like everyone else, I was questioning all my personal and creative choices, which has led me to [move] away from what I usually do and all the expectations built up around me.
“I’m more confident in all the choices and moves I’m making,” she continues. “Instead of tip-toeing around ideas, moods and solutions, I just go ahead and try everything in full.”
Late last year, while clubs were closing and reopening with varying restrictions, she decided to make the move from Berlin – where she’d built her reputation as a fun-loving underground DJ – to London and she’s currently drinking in the thrill of pursuing something new. Check out her 100% questionnaire below.
10% Where were you born, where were you raised and where are you now based?
I was born in Warsaw, Poland. Now I’m based in Hackney, London. I had a few years-long Berlin adventures, which have contributed to my insomnia and anxiety, but also helped me learn a thing or two about club music.
20% What kind of emotions and experiences influence your work?
I’ve never really been much of a softie or one to acknowledge my emotions, so all my previous rave music was probably drawing from some unhealed trauma. Now that I’m more self-aware and less embarrassed about addressing my emotions, the music I make is quite therapeutic. I’m hugely inspired by the process of becoming and self-healing.
30% What’s a piece of advice that changed your life?
Go get therapy!
40% What’s the most pointless fact you can share?
Me and Paris Hilton share a birthday.
50% You rule the world for a day. What’s going down?
I’d leak all the UFO secrets and intel.
60% If you could travel back in time to see an iconic music act perform, who would it be and in what era of their career?
Britney Spears performing I’m a Slave 4 U at the 2001 MTV VMAs.
70% What’s a bad habit you wish you could kick?
Peeling labels off of every bottle I’m holding.
80% Love, like, hate…
I love the smell of dog paws, I like mezcal and I hate human feet.
90% At what point did you realise you’d be able to do what you love for a living?
The moment I got into spinning records and making music I knew there was no other way for me. I was really confident about it for whatever reason and – to the despair of my parents – dropped out of law school to study sound engineering instead. I was a bit delusional from the beginning and never allowed anything to [stop me].
100% What can artists do to help save the world?
Get more political and speak up every now and then.
Stylist: @adamatylda
Hair: @chrissyhuttonhair
MUA: @jaydecoxon
Nails: @pixel_injection
Nail tech assistant: @_anja.nails
Special thanks to @saltsalonlondon
Dress: @daisy.Ltd
