Destination Jam: Our Top 5 San Holo soul-relaxing numbers that will slow your Sunday down
It's the end of the weekend and before we start the dreaded day of the week — Monday — how about we slow things down a little? Although his songs cannot be summed up as specifically slow music, this featured artist certainly strikes a chord with listeners for being mesmerizingly relaxing. Here are our top five favorite San Holo songs on today's Destination Jam.
'Light'
If you've never heard this future bass Dutch DJ before, we've got to start off our introduction to him with the enchantingly sweet 'Light'. Yes, right off the bat, you will notice Holo's music gets strong trap elements but peak between the hard-thumping textual layers and therein lies something mysteriously peaceful. 'Light' repeats a transcendent chant "Even if it makes me blind. I just wanna see the light. Breathing, leave it all behind. I just wanna see the light" while we're getting 'Stranger Things' vibes from the official music video.
'Lift Me From the Ground' (featuring Sofie Winterson)
A certain otherworldly or angelic spirit takes the wheel of Holo's artistry. His music is rich in escapism and Holo replaces the fleeting nature of drama or intensity of emotion with a more neutral let-go of one's own feelings. There is a numbness to it, but instead of anger or pain, there is a honey-dripped sweetness to almost every track. In 'Lift Me From the Ground', featured artist Sofie Winterson sings in a near whisper with "Talk to me, I love that sound. Out of words when you're around. I've been trying to come down. On a high when you're around. Lift me from the ground."
'Worthy'
San Holo is not your typical DJ behind a mixer. The 29-year-old composer never lets the opportunity slide to add instruments to his production equipment. On 'Worthy', Holo, whose real name is Sander van Dijck, takes the vocals and plays his electric guitar with rhythmically inverted riffs in later bars. In a 2018 interview with Billboard, Holo said, "It's about meeting someone that makes you feel like you're floating. I wanted it to be a very simple song; very simple lyrics and easy to sing along. I wrote it pretty quickly. Some songs, they just happen, and this song just happened.”
'Honest' (featuring Broods)
Proving to be a prominent producer with collaborating artists, one of Holo's latest tracks 'Honest' features New Zealand duo Broods. A song about honesty, Broods lead vocalist Georgia Nott explained it best. "Things can become so corrupted by false expectation and self-preservation. Honesty, to me, is the opposite. Honesty leaves little room for that bulls--t. Honesty is fearless," she said. For its sound, Holo said he tried a more "radio-friendly" approach. "I spent over two years changing the drop over and over again," he said.
"I was trying to get it to sound as ‘radio-friendly’ as possible, even though I always loved the very first original version which I had started calling the ‘ugly drop'. I started to produce the song with my head instead of my heart, which is never a good thing to do for me," he continued and added, "Eventually I realized that the ‘ugly drop’ was exactly what made that song so special and heartfelt, so I stuck to the very first version and went with that."
'Lead Me Back'
Released last year, 'Lead Me Back' has been dubbed Holo's "most personal video to date." Few of his songs dive into personal details, but 'Lead Me Back' explores both love and heartbreak. Over acoustic guitar, Holo sings in a light tone with lyrics, "I don't wanna know how long we’ll last. In the end we'll always have the past. Take me to the place where we first met. All I really want is my heart back."
Destination Jam is a daily list of songs that will keep you entertained and grooving up top in lieu of feeling drained and losing the plot. Look out for a fresh selection of great tunes from MEAWW to refresh your mood every day!