February 2020 – Singapore – 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?” see’s San carve his own trailblazing lane, crossing over into the indie world with the use of analog instruments and his own vocals throughout, plus collaborations with long-time heroes of San’s, rock band American Football and Rivers Cuomo of Weezer.
Alongside the announcement San Holo shares a euphoric and hopeful new single, “find your way (feat. Bipolar Sunshine)”, lifted from the upcoming album. The track is an ode to staying optimistic and positive during hard times, a theme that runs throughout the album.
“I tend to look at the music I put out as different chapters in my life. When I wrote my last album (album1) I was in love. You can hear it in the music. It’s uplifting. Hopeful. But love is such a complex emotion, it’s fluid, it’s fleeting, it comes and it goes. Sometimes love gets dark, but most importantly, sometimes it ends. For me, when the love has gone, a part will always remain. It’s about learning to move on – even if it hurts.” comments San.
“I wrote “bb u ok? during a new chapter of my life, after that relationship ended. I was learning how to deal with what happens ‘after love’” he goes on to explain “I flew to LA and just started writing and writing, trying to express everything I had been feeling for the last few months. The change in scenery definitely helped, going back to LA (like I did for album1) brought back some good memories of that previous chapter.”
The forthcoming album 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.
Bringing people together is at the core of San’s music. His ‘stay vibrant’ philosophy – a concept which encourages people to be in touch with their own thoughts and feelings, as well as to check-in with each other by rating their vibrancy with a percentage, has created a strong sense of community amongst his fans (over 1.5 million followers across platforms).
Through his career, San has established a sizeable and loyal fanbase in Asia. Since 2016, he’s toured through the region annually, playing at the biggest clubs and festivals. In 2019, his world tour included 75 shows and sold over 100,000 tickets across the globe, including performances in Asia including Malaysia (Good Vibes Festival), Singapore (Zouk) and Indonesia (We The Fest). His plans to return to Asia to perform at Hydeout Festival in Singapore and S20 Festival in Bangkok in 2020 were unfortunately thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Listen to “find your way (feat. Bipolar Sunshine)” here: sanholo.lnk.to/findyourway
Pre-save the album ‘bb u ok?’ here: sanholo.lnk.to/bb-album
