DROELOE (Alumni)
Alumni:
Management & label
Hailing from The Netherlands, DROELOE (pronounced drew-lou) is the creative union of music producer and composer Vincent Rooijers with visual designer Hein Hamers. Part music and part visual project, DROELOE is a multidimensional project that combines each member’s artistic prowess to create a hybrid audiovisual experience that translates across every component of the project on and off the stage. Weaving sonically progressive music and visually elaborate artwork, DROELOE seamlessly crafts cinematic soundscapes and visual projections that feel like stories and unfold like a piece of art. Recognized in Billboard Dance’s inaugural Ones to Watch series, who noted that their style is “dynamic, compelling and drenched in otherworldly emotions,” DROELOE is today one of the most exciting live art projects in the scene.
After officially forming while attending art school in Utrecht, the Netherlands, DROELOE first broke out in early 2016 when San Holo signed the project to his buzzing label bitbird, where they released a chain of successful music and art projects. It was their breakout track “zZz,” however, that put DROELOE on the international map: Released in March 2016, the single—which today counts +4.1 million SoundCloud streams and 10 million additional plays on Spotify, where it was a top 10 hit on the Global Viral 50 chart—topped the Hype Machine charts upon release and caught the eyes and ears of industry tastemakers and global art fans alike.
DROELOE followed that up by penning their debut EP A Moment In Time. Released in August 2017 on bitbird, A Moment in Time perfectly encapsulates the duo’s approach to storytelling via music and visuals. A dynamic collection of diverse styles and influences, the EP reflects all the heartfelt memories and all the small things that comprise life’s special moments. The duo paints an enveloping world of color and sound, weaved together via interconnected themes and beautiful visuals, which include five original cover art works for each of the individual tracks as well as an accompanying visual storyboard. A critical and commercial success, A Moment in Time, which also includes the massive track “Sunburn” (+43MM/Spotify; +2MM/SoundCloud, the duo’s biggest hit on bitbird to date), garnered close to 25 million streams in less than a year.
In August 2018, DROELOE followed up with the boundary-pushing EP, The Choices We Face, via bitbird, a coming-of-age project that chronicles the duo’s musical and artistic journey over the past few years. Collectively, the EP tells a unified story that underlines the creative process and illustrates the enduring, often tumultuous journey one takes when reaching for their wildest dreams. Each of the EP’s seven connected tracks communicates a different feeling and experience, from the beginning stages of your ideas to your retrospective thoughts at the end of your ride. The Choices We Face is led by the massive tracks “Weird Machine” (+3.8MM/Spotify), featuring singer Nevve, as well as “Looking Back” (+7MM/Spotify), which sees producer Rooijers writing his own lyrics and singing on record for the first time ever, a nod to the next step in their ongoing creative evolution.
Following that, the duo released their third EP installment A Promise Is Made in the latter half of 2019 headlined by singles “Virtual Friends” (+2.3MM/Spotify) which once again highlighted Vincent’s singing prowess and “Broken Bricks” (+1.8MM/Spotify) which featured the vocal talents of Kalulu. The EP also featured Vincent rapping for the first time on “A World Full of Snakes” alongside mysterious newcomer PJOTR V – a testament to the duo’s ongoing commitment to pushing their artistic boundaries. A Promise Is Made served to close off the EP trilogy path that the duo first embarked on with 2017’s A Moment In Time and set the stage for 2020 and beyond. From a thematic perspective, the EP explored elements of personal growth, resolve, and the future – which contrasted A Moment In Time and The Choices We Face’s introspective looks into the past and present respectively.
As DROELOE launches into 2020, the duo is gearing up for their biggest year to date as an ever-evolving audiovisual project. The project will debut a new element of the show including an expansion of the cube and exploration into live elements, such as the cajon and trumpet. And with new exploration into these new territories comes new growth within the project. For the first time ever, Vincent will be performing on stage live solo while Hein will focus full time on the project’s ever-growing visual realm. With new music and visuals in tow and a boundary-pushing audiovisual production to boot, DROELOE are elevating their individual creative limits as musicians and visual artists while redefining the possibilities in art.