Martijn Traas received his nickname “Tincho” from a genuine Porteña, whom he met during his first visit to Argentina, in 1996. In that very year Martijn also started to play the bandoneon. This happened as a coincidence; ever since he discovered tango he wished that he could touch such an intriguing instrument, if only once in a lifetime. At ‘De Harmonicacentrale’ in Amsterdam he found his first bandoneon, a Birnstock. It was the old bike on which he learned to ‘pedal’. After having found a real 1935 Alfred Arnold type Premier one year later, he played on that instrument until he went back to Buenos Aires in 2006 and found the 1932 ‘three diamond‘ Doble A he always wanted to have. He got this instrument totally revised by Carsten Heveling in Wuppertal.
Martijn may be called a merely autodidact, but through the years he received some vital directions from Carel Kraayenhof, The Netherlands‘ first and probably best bandoneon player. He took some lessons with Carel but almost ran out of time because the first Trio Tincho got so successful so quickly after the first public performances. Still, after some years of only playing and performing live, he decided to take some more lessons, especially to gain a fine control of the bellows. As a teacher he found Gerard van Duinen (leader of Mala Pinta). Since the Trio restarted with Ezequiel playing guitar, Martijn also considers Ville Hiltula (Sexteto Canyengue) as one of his good advisors.
Martijn likes to see the following bandoneon players as his heroes or examples: Aníbal Troilo, Astor Piazzolla, Pedro Maffia, Alfredo Marcucci, Carel Kraayenhof.