Nico Brandsen (Alkmaar, 1960) is one of the best organists in the Netherlands, specialising in the Hammond organ, and named best keyboard player in the Netherlands by the NPI, Nico was awarded a Duiveltje.  As a session musician, he played both on stage and on record with a hefty list of big names such as Van Dik Hout, Ilse DeLange, Golden Earring, Maarten van Roozendaal, Anouk, Kane and Jan Akkerman. Besides session work, his own bands such as In De Steen, Ro & Paradise Funk, OLaBOLA & The Fosko Group always occupied an important place. For Angela Groothuizen, he now wrote and produced five albums and played many theatre shows, of which the last four as a one-man band. In his own Drawbar Studio, Nico provided the music for many TV programmes.

In 2012, he stopped doing session work. Nico decided to only make his own stuff and he developed the concept Vintage Future: sixties/seventies Rhythm & Blues and Soul connected with current technological developments. In 2015, the band Mell & Vintage Future emerged. For this band, Nico founded the Vintage Future Records label together with top drummer Ton Dijkman. Three albums by Mell & Vintage Future have now been released on this label. To translate the music of this band to the stage, Nico developed a hybrid system with his new Hammond XK-5 and Ableton where he plays Hammond, (electric) pianos, basses and even footbasses on one instrument. According to Hammond Europe, this made him the first in the world.