Last weekend when San Holo came into town for his, ‘New Sky,’ tour we jumped at the opportunity to speak with the musical virtuoso. Born and raised in the Netherlands, the 25-year-old musician has exponentially grown in popularity since his 2014 remix series: “Don’t Touch the Classics.” Since then he has released singles on massive labels like OWSLA, Spinnin’ Records and Monstercat.
Riding the wave of success alongside San Holo is his business partner, childhood friend and fellow musician: Thorwald. They can also be known as the founders of the musical promotion platform/merchandise company called Bitbird.
GainesvilleScene managed to get a moment with both masterminds before San Holo’s set on Saturday. We discussed the new tour, as well as the progression of both San’s music and Bitbird’s formal direction.
GVS: So it’s your second time in the States for your ‘New Sky,’ Tour. How’s the road treating you?
SH: Good..met a lot of new people and learned a lot about my sound and my music and how to play live. I played 20 shows this month, and I learned so much already.
GVS: It’s shocking to read about how much work you’ve done in only three years, it promises brighter futures. How do you feel about how things are going so far?
SH: I’m really quite happy with how it is now. What I wanted from the beginning was to have my own sound. Really have my own musical universe, and I think I kind of created that. People hear that, and they recognize my sound. That’s what I’ve wanted from the beginning, like when they hear a song, without seeing the title they’ll know it’s me. I’m going to keep innovating stuff, making new stuff, that’s the way I want to pursue my career is through innovating.
GVS: It’s uplifting to see how Bitbird has come along too, so how many artists do you have on the roster? Is it a collective, or just people releasing material together?
SH: They are very free to do whatever they want.
Thorwald: I don’t really like calling it a collective. Not that I don’t like artist collectives, but I think we’re getting pretty serious as a label right now, and I’m really happy with that, but we’re still there for the artists. I don’t even know myself how to describe it actually.
SH: Yeah, we really don’t feel like signing artists as like, possessing them or something. We just want to produce their music, and support them in the best way. We have so many good friends that are doing crazy good stuff, and not getting the exposure they deserve. So we created a platform that grew into a label that we call ‘Bitbird.’ We just supported them on there, and of course we hope that they will work with us, but that’s not going to be based on contracts. That’s going to be based on trust and good vibes. If OWSLA comes and says that they’re going to release a record, we’re not going to tell them they can’t. It’s just because I’ve experienced a lot when labels want to get a hold of you and sign you for a longer time. I only signed my singles. I released to a lot of labels to introduce my music to different fan bases, but we’re going to go to Bitbird now. We hope that all those fans that we gathered are going to see Bitbird and realize that it’s cool.
GVS: All of your media production incorporates minimalism in design and sound. I noticed on the ‘about’ section on the Bitbird bio, you both quoted the conceptual artist: Marcel Duchamp. Well-known for breaking boundaries of what’s considered art within an industry, I think it’s so fitting to the sound you guys are creating.
SH: Yes! Yeah! You get it! That quote is so important to us. To consider what is art and how to keep your mind open. Like we’re about to release classical music soon. We listen to a lot of classical music, and to a lot of bands and electronic music…we listen to music as music and not per say as a genre. We are not an EDM label, we are like a musical label.
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