San Holo
Sander van Dijck, better known by his stage name San Holo, is a Dutch DJ, musician, record producer and composer from Zoetermeer. He gained international recognition for his remix of Dr. Dre's "The Next Episode", which currently has over 220 million views on YouTube. He has released music on several record labels including Spinnin' Records, OWSLA, Barong Family, and Monstercat. He also founded Bitbird, a label which has released several of his singles including "Still Looking" and "Light" and his debut album Album1. San Holo's first EP, Cosmos, was released via Heroic on 18 September 2014 and was in the Top 100 Electronic category of iTunes. San Holo's first album, Album1, was released via Bitbird on 21 September 2018 and debuted at #7 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart.
In 2017, he was nominated at the Electronic Music Awards for New Artist of the Year.
Background
Van Dijck studied music production and guitar at Codarts. He graduated in 2012. Before he became a well-known DJ and producer, he was teaching children to play guitar. After years of working with bands, Van Dijck began ghost producing for DJs. His production experienced considerable commercial success, which led him to consider going solo and creating the stage name, San Holo.History
2013: Corellia and Demons extended plays
In early 2013, San Holo released his little known debut EP, Corellia. Later that year in October, he released his second EP, Demons.2014: Heroic Recordings and Walt Disney Pictures
San Holo began making music in 2013 and began to gain attention in 2014, when he was signed by Heroic Recordings. Cosmos EP was released on 18 September 2014 and was in the Top 100 Electronic category of iTunes.In September 2014, Walt Disney Pictures threatened a lawsuit against producer Sander van Dijck. They thought his stage name San Holo was too similar to Han Solo, a character in the Star Wars movies.
In November 2014, he released a remix of Dr. Dre's "The Next Episode", which has over 205 million views on YouTube.
2015: Monstercat and Spinnin' Records
On 4 May 2015, he released a song called "Victory" on Monstercat. On 25 May 2015, he also released a music video of his song "Hold Fast" in Monstercat; both songs become part of Monstercat's 22nd album titled Contact and San Holo's Victory EP, also from Monstercat. On 4 September 2015, he released a video of his single with Father Dude called "IMISSU" on Spinnin' Records. On 2 October 2015, he released a remix of Porter Robinson's song titled "Natural Light". The remix became a part of Robinson's Worlds Remixed album.2016: OWSLA and Bitbird
On 26 January 2016, he released a single with Yellow Claw named "Alright" through OWSLA. This was van Dijck's second song in OWSLA. The song later became a part of a compilation album by OWSLA called OWSLA Worldwide Broadcast. On 11 March 2016, he released the New Sky EP, with a second single and music video on Monstercat called "They Just Haven't Seen It", featuring David Chris. This, as well as his main single in the EP, became part of Monstercat's 026 - Resistance. On 5 June 2016, he teased an unreleased song "RAW", which appeared as the background track of the credits in Episode 7 of Season 3 in the American comedy series Silicon Valley. It was then fully released on 19 July 2016.On 7 June 2016, he released a single named "Still Looking" on his own label bitbird. On 22 November 2016, he released his single "Light" on bitbird which debuted on #38 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs the week of 17 December 2016. The following week it made the highest gains on the chart rising 12 spots to #26 following a strong streaming performance. The next week it continued to climb to #19 for the tracking week of 31 December 2016 after continued streaming performance. The track reached its peak position at #13 on 11 February 2017, after climbing up from the 27th position the week before. "Light" spent a total of 20 weeks on the Hot Dance/Electronic chart. It has since surpassed 100 million streams on Spotify.
2017–2019: ''Album1'' and Casilofi
On 25 April 2017, he released an acoustic version of his hit song "We Rise". Two months later, on 30 June 2017 he released "The Future", his first single in 2017. The song featured James Vincent McMorrow, an award-winning musician.On 12 September 2017, Holo released his second single of 2017, titled "I Still See Your Face" featuring his own vocals, followed by the remixes of the song on 31 October 2017. His last single of 2017 was his song titled "One Thing", which was released on 17 November 2017. The final part of 2017 for Holo was his EP titled The Trip, which was released on 26 December 2017.
He released the first volume of remixes to his single "One Thing" on 12 January 2018. The second volume of remixes to his single "One Thing" was released on 9 February 2018. Both volumes of the remixes were released on Holo's record label Bitbird.
On 1 May 2018, through to early July 2018, Holo uploaded videos containing behind-the-scenes footage of upcoming songs, later revealed to be part of an upcoming album. On 26 July 2018 he released a video announcing the debut album, titled Album1. On 3 August 2018, he released two singles from the upcoming album on Bitbird titled "Worthy" and "Lift Me From the Ground", while also announcing an upcoming tour for the album. "Lift Me From the Ground" also debuted at #42 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs during the week of 18 August 2018. 31 August saw the release of another single from the album, "Brighter Days", featuring singer Bipolar Sunshine, along with an official lyric video for the track. Pre-orders for Album1 were opened on 7 September 2018, alongside an announcement of a release date of 21 September for the album on San Holo's Twitter. Another single from Album1 was released on 14 September 2018 - "Forever Free" featuring Duskus. In the week leading up to the album's release on 21 September, two more singles from the album were released by Holo - "Surface" featuring post-rock band Caspian with uncredited vocals by Fazerdaze on the 17th, and "Voices In My Head" featuring The Nicholas on the 19th.
Upon launch, the album topped the iTunes Electronic Charts in various countries including the United States and Canada. The next week, Album1 debuted at #7 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart for the week of 6 October 2018, landing Holo his first top 10 album. Simultaneously, three songs from Album1 entered the Dance/Electronic Songs chart for the tracking week of 6 October 2018; "Lift Me From the Ground" re-entered the charts at #39, while "Show Me" and "Brighter Days" debuted at #42 and #49 respectively.
On 28 December 2018, Holo announced the revival of Casilofi, his first ever music project before San Holo. This announcement came following teasers on his various social media accounts, and released the EP "Create, Create, Create" on the same day, which consisted of 4 released and remastered tracks from the original project.
On 22 February 2019, he released the single "Lead Me Back". According to him, "it's the most personal song that ever wrote". On 13 June 2019, Holo released "Lost Lately". On 28 September 2019, exactly one year and one week after the release of Album1, Holo released the commentary album Album1 .
On 17 December 2019, Holo announced the release of a remix album: Album1 . It was released 3 days later.
San Holo’s 15-track album: Album1 featured many up and coming acts as well as friends of his. Released on 20 December 2019, the album included singles: "everything matters " remixed by Aiobahn and Laxcity, "lift me from the ground" featuring Sofie Winterson remixed by Jaron, Manilla Killa, and Phuture Noize, "show me" remixed by The Nicholas, "brighter days" featuring Bipolar Sunshine remixed by Atmozfears and Duumu, "always on my mind" featuring James Vincent McMorrow and Yvette Young remixed by MELVV, "go back in time" remixed by EMBRZZ, Rootkit, and Skygate, "love " featuring Cassini remixed by Tails, "voice in my head" featuring The Nicholas remixed by Flaws, "worth" remixed by Prblm Chld, "forever free" featuring Duskus remixed by Janee, "surface" featuring Caspian remixed by Former Hero, and "vestal avenue" remixed by Golden Vessel.
2020-present: Stay Vibrant
Following San Holo’s Album1 release, on 31 January 2020 he released “Honest” featuring Broods. The track entered the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs charts on 15 February 2020 and stayed there for eight weeks, making its way to #25. "Honest" was also featured in Dance/Mix Show Airplay, and LyricFind Global. The accompanying music video shows the theme of self-referential irony and San Holo’s struggle with false expectation and self-preservation. 10 April 2020 San Holo released three remixes for "Honest" featuring Broods by Midnight Kids, Lunice, and 2020 Kid.In San Holo’s social media activity fans will notice he has adopted the phrase "stay vibrant" and the use of the "%" sign to express his mood and emotions with his fans. San Holo aims to embrace the fact that not all days are equally "vibrant" and emphasizes that life is all about ups and downs. The percentage sign is used as a mood meter and San Holo encourages his fans to use it to show how blessed they are feeling that day, without having to put it into words.
Amongst the Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in Spring of 2020, San Holo started the rollout of his Stay Vibrant EP. Released on his independent record label, Bitbird, the EP consists of seven singles: “ hold you”, “don’t forget to breathe today”, “in the end i just want you to be happy”, “idk anything ”, “in case i never see you again…”, “we’re all just on our way home”, and “staring at the sea without you next to me”. The EP features artists such as Analogue Dear, ILIVEHERE, and Luwten. The EP was inspired by San Holo looking for a way to express his emotions and connect with fans while in quarantine.
During this time to stay engaged with his audience, San Holo streamed weekly on Twitch. He also premiered footage from past live shows such as his performance at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in June of 2019, Electric Daisy Carnival in 2017, and Lollapalooza in 2019. San Holo also participated in his independent record label’s first ever livestream, “a day with bitbird”, featured on Diplo's Revolution on Sirius XM.
In May of 2020, San Holo premiered many of the songs from the Stay Vibrant EP in Porter Robinson's Secret Sky Online Music Festival. Money raised from the festival were donated to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.
Discography
- Album1
Awards and nominations