Since breaking through with his 2022 tech-house slammer, “Drugs From Amsterdam”, Dutch DJ and producer Mau P hasn’t had a second to rest.
Soon after that track found a home on Lee Foss’ Repopulate Mars label (where it racked up an insane 200 million streams), Mau P’s phone started ringing off the hook with high-profile remix requests from Swedish House Mafia, Armand van Helden, Calvin Harris and the likes. In between those, he continued to release his own productions, including a return to Repopulate Mars with “Beats For The Underground”, “On Again” (which he vocalled himself), and a massive collab with Diplo and Gunna in “Receipts”.
As a DJ, Mau P has been at least as busy, making himself a regular fixture on the White Isle for the last couple of years. In between visits to festivals in Paris, Madrid, Miami and beyond (not to mention a huge B2B with Nic Fanciulli at London’s KOKO), his sets at Ushuaïa, Hï Ibiza and Amnesia have made him a star. Now, in 2025, he’s looking ahead. Thanks to that relentless work schedule, the bookings are getting bigger, including a stunning appearance at the Las Vegas Sphere this year.
He’s also started his own party series, Baddest Behaviour. This year, he launched the series in style with a weekly residency every Wednesday at the legendary Ibiza club Pacha, joined by the likes of Patrick Mason, CamelPhat, Hot Since 82, Seth Troxler, Mind Against, and many more. We caught up with the producer-DJ, formerly known as Maurice West, backstage at Pacha Ibiza to discuss his meteoric rise and the future of his growing empire.
COMPLEX: So, we’re here at the debut night of your Baddest Behaviour residency at Pacha in Ibiza, which is also your first ever residency on the island. You don’t get much bigger than Pacha! How does it feel to be here?
Mau P: It’s definitely a huge honour. Pacha is so legendary; it’s been around for so long and so many great DJs have had residencies here and played here, and they still do. So to be amongst the greats is insane to me.
What was the process like between yourself, your team, and Pacha? Did you pitch yourself to them, or did their tapped-in booking department hit you up directly?
It started with another DJ, actually: Solomun. He sort of took me under his wing because we were talking a lot; we saw each other at festivals and shows and clubs and we just clicked. He was into what I was doing and put my name in with the Pacha owners, as they were looking for new people to have residencies there. And yeah, I guess they liked the idea and we made it work.
Were you surprised they went for it?
I was a little bit surprised, yeah.
From Seth Troxler and Hot Since 82 to Mall Grab and Sally C, it’s clear you took your time to carefully curate the supporting line-up. Take us through that process.
I made a big list of DJs that I’m a really big fan of and we were pretty late booking everyone because the whole residency came in pretty late, so we had to figure out everyone’s schedule and put the whole puzzle together. But somehow, we made it work and I’m really happy with the line-up.
You’ve been producing and DJing under the moniker Mau P since 2022, which was around the time lockdown was just lifting around the world. But you’ve actually been making music since 2015, under the name Maurice West. What inspired you to make that change from Maurice West to Mau P, and why?
It was after Covid, when there were shows again and people were looking for new music again, and I had made so much music. One day, I sent out a folder to all of the DJs that I’m a fan of and, somehow, they picked my song “Drugs From Amsterdam” as the one they wanted to start playing first and then it sort of blew up on its own. I had to change my name because the sound was so different from what I was doing before, so I knew I needed a fresh profile to be able to get booked on the line-ups I wanted to get booked on. It would have made no sense if promoters went to my Spotify and they found a completely different sound. So, the process was very natural or organic. Like, it chose to happen at that moment and the internet sort of took over and I had to adjust, you know?
How would you compare the Maurice West sound to the Mau P sound?
Maurice West was harder and more commercial, more for festivals, I think, because I used to play, like, one hour or 90 minutes of a DJ set and now I play—most of the time—three hours at least. Mau P is more underground, and also truer to me. More authentic. And it goes a little deeper, too. It takes longer, but in a way where it’s more artistic and curated. I feel like I came up in a time where a lot of barriers were being broken down. Before, everything was in a box. I used to think that the guys in Berlin didn’t talk much but then you meet them and they’re super nice and they’re actually open to new stuff, stuff that the underground guys were making and into. Three years ago, I just found a way to make underground music more appealing to bigger crowds.
Do you think you get recognised enough for that?
I don’t know... I remember that I released on Afterlife and, at first, it was a difficult discussion because I previously dropped “Drugs From Amsterdam” and that seemed mainstream to some people and they didn’t understand, like: “How is he now releasing on Afterlife?” But I love that Afterlife opened the door and people saw that it was possible. At the end of the day, if people dance to it, who gives a shit?
Is there a misconception about Amsterdam that you wish wasn’t a thing? Sell your city to the people [laughs].
[Laughs] A lot of people go there to try or do drugs, but just on its own, it’s almost like a fairy tale. It’s a beautiful city. It feels like a small town that’s just a little bit bigger, you know? And yeah, it’s just very, very pretty and cute and it’s just nice to be on the canals and see all the Dutch people on their bikes and shit.
Growing up in Amsterdam, were you involved in any music communities?
There were a lot of house parties, always. All of my friends were always playing house and minimal and whatever obnoxious music, that was only in Amsterdam. And that sort of shaped my taste, I think.
Who are some of your heroes in the house and techno scenes, and why?
Definitely Armand Van Helden. He made so many house classics and he still DJs now. He still looks young! He’s a total G, still doing what he loves. And whenever he plays, he plays all of his own songs. I love Solomun too. I feel like he has his own way of controlling a crowd. I went to one of his shows four or five years ago in Amsterdam, and I’d never seen him play before. I wanted to see why people like his sets so much. I went to that show and was like, “Okay. I understand now.” He has his own way of combining a lot of different sounds in the perfect sort of story. I also appreciate everything he’s done for me, personally. And I also really like Carl Cox. He’s been doing this for so insanely long, and is like the nicest guy ever. And like all of the guys I just mentioned, they have their own unique ways of controlling the dancefloor—which, as a DJ, should be your goal to try and do.
Are there any artists/producers/DJs from ‘Dam that you are backing right now? Who should the world be paying attention to?
RULE is someone I’ve known for a while; he has a lot of older-sounding house songs that get played a lot. One of my really good friends, Franc Fala, makes Afro-house, but he does it in a way that’s not the typical Afro-house pop vocal turned into something you would play in a hotel lobby. I used to go to a lot of parties with him so we have sort of the same taste in house and techno; he brings that into a groovy sound, which is awesome.
What are your thoughts on the whole Afro-house movement? It has blown up massively over the past couple of years.
I like the sound. I like being in a crowd where they play Afro-house—it’s a really good vibe. It’s just that every time something becomes really popular or really big, there are people who like to start doing all these bootlegs and edits of whatever they can find, that nobody asked for [laughs]. So then it sort of loses its touch. But the people that started it always know how to keep it going in fresh and exciting ways.
Is there a collaboration that you need to make happen in his lifetime?
Skrillex.
Really? That’s interesting. What kind of vibe would that be?
I have no idea [laughs]. He’s just one of the reasons I found out about dance music, and I still look up to him so much in terms of production.
Was it through his dubstep phase?
Yeah. I feel like he just always does whatever he wants and no one else is doing that. His stuff always sounds fresh. It was mostly because of Skrillex that I liked dubstep. And then, at the time, there was also progressive house, like Swedish House Mafia, and there was Big Room—which was, like, super energetic stuff. I was into Swedish House Mafia, Alesso and Tiësto around the same time that I was into Skrillex and a bunch of other dubstep guys. But there was also a lot of soul and jazz that my parents taught me about: Miles Davis, The Bill Evans Trio, Donald Fagan… My dad would always play their CDs in the car and I still play their music now, still inspired by it all.
Your latest single, “Tesla”, is making a lot of noise right now. Talk us through the creative process behind that one.
It started out as a really short loop that I made because I had this melody for a bassline that sounded like something Kanye would do, but it was too fast… Watch The Throne-era Kanye, by the way [laughs]. I wanted to make it slower to work on a house tempo, but it was so fast that it never worked. Then, I think a year later, I figured it out because I went back into the project. I did my own vocals for it and, sometimes, a track just produces itself. Sometimes, it takes time for it to land, but it eventually did.
You’ve already achieved so much in your career, but are there any other immediate goals that you have written down?
I want to take these Baddest Behaviour events to the U.S., also more into Europe and South America. Being able to do my own productions is fun, too: renting out a venue, putting the lights in and making the stage look exactly how I want it to. I want to educate U.S. fans, or make them appreciate things in a different way that they wouldn’t expect. I think it’s really fun there because it’s a weird combination between the stuff that I do and… For example, once I played a dubstep song at the end of my set, just because. I was like, “This is what I grew up on, so why not?” I played a Skrillex remix or whatever, and they all lost their minds! I love the element of surprise.