For San Holo, everything is personal. Every note is a story and each lyric a memory, a hyper-real exploration of purpose and shared experience. This emotion shines through on San Holo’s forthcoming album “bb u ok?”, out 21st May 2021 on bitbird/Counter Records. Spanning an impressive 20 tracks “bb u ok?” is San Holo’s (real name Sander Van Dijck) most accomplished work to date. 

Recorded in LA’s Echo Park, “bb u ok?” arrives three years after his critically acclaimed debut “album1”, which garnered amazing support across the board, resulting in San being awarded the International Dance Music Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year and the Edison Pop Award (Dutch equivalent of the GRAMMYs) for Best Dance Album. His 2019 “album1” world tour included 75 shows and sold over 100,000 tickets across North America, Europe, Asia, New Zealand & Australia, including performances at Red Rocks Amphitheatre and New York’s Terminal 5. During 2020 San has performed for various virtual sets including Porter Robinson’s Secret Sky Festival. 

“album1” pioneered a post-EDM sound, blurring the lines between festival anthems and lo-fi bedroom ballads. On “bb u ok?”, San further explores this intersection by mixing more analog instruments and equipment into his genre-bending sound. He fleshes out his band with collaborations, from “album1” returnees Bipolar Sunshine and The Nicholas, to long-time heroes of San’s including Illinois indie rockers American Football and Rivers Cuomo. 

Some heartfelt words from Sander on what the new album means to him and how he hopes for it to resonate with fans in their own individual way. 

“To me, this album ‘bb u ok?’ is about connections - the connections between people and memories, people and each other, people and themselves.

I’ve never been great at expressing myself through words. Words on their own never really seem to capture the essence of how I feel. How can I possibly explain what I feel by just writing it down? Most feelings are so complex it almost seems naive to even try to describe them in words. And that’s why I make music, it’s the only way to truly express myself. These songs are about experiences, conversations, and moments I’ve shared with people throughout my life.

I put my heart into this album. Instead of trying to describe this album in words I would rather just have you listen to it. I hope it takes you somewhere! You can decide for yourself what it means to you, to me, that’s the beauty of music”. 

The producer lives in his own space, crafting a world of beauty and sentiment between the build-and-drop bombast of Post-EDM and the intimate musings of ambient post-rock. In December 2020 he shared emotive new single ‘bb u ok?’, which received great pick-up from the likes of Billboard, DJ Times and Dancing Astronaut who described the track as “Lush guitar melodies and signature sounds reminiscent of his breakthrough hits”.

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