TERRITORIES: NORTH & SOUTH AMERICA

Exploding into popular consciousness five years ago with a Dance Music pedigree and well-earned reputation for head-banging live performances, the Canadian electronic duo DVBBS (pronounced “Dubs”) has rapidly evolved into one of dance music’s most innovative, globe-trotting, chart-topping acts.

Comprised of Ontario-born brothers Alexandre and Christopher van den Hoef, the group first gained acclaim with its major label debut, releasing the EP INITIO through Universal Music in 2012. A year later, DVBBS broke into EDM’s major league with the smash single “Tsunami.” And since then, they’ve dropped a string of hits—including “La La Land,” “Gold Skies” and the No. 1 breakthrough “Angel”—relentlessly expanding their cultural footprint through platinum sales certifications in nearly a dozen countries, more than a billion online song plays and coming to rank No. 16 on DJ Magazine’s Top 100 poll.

All the while, the multi-instrumentalists (who grew up performing reggae, punk rock and ska before coming together as DVBBS) have demonstrated startling versatility as songwriter-producers. As showcased on their six-song December EP Beautiful Disaster, Chris and Alex structure their new music around sunny melodies, catchy vocal tracks and even feel-good guitars, connecting the dots between trap beats, future house and electro, as well as the four-on-the-floor sound and blistering party bangers for which DVBBS is best known.

“I consider myself more of a songwriter: melodies, guitar, beats and vocals,” says Alex. “While Chris is behind the engineering and production. That’s where the records come from: putting our heads in one place. We fight a lot and we bicker a lot. But because we’re so honest with each other—we are so competitive—the end product goes where we need it to go.”

Behind the decks, the brothers performed a staggering 250 dates per year for the last three years, delivering unforgettable, high-energy DJ gigs at many of the world’s most prestigious music festivals and top-tier clubs including Tomorrowland, TomorrowWorld, EDC Las Vegas, Miami’s Ultra Music Festival, Hakkasan Las Vegas and Ibiza’s Amnesia and Ushuaia.

In 2015, DVBBS established its own Mount Woozy Festival in Toronto with plans to franchise the fest outside Canada in years to come. And the duo has burnished its live performance bona fides by appearing on concert lineups alongside such electronic dance music all-stars as Steve Aoki, Tiësto, NERVO, Martin Garrix and DJ Snake.

With the launch last year of their record label-come-apparel line KANARY, DVBBS promises big things will keep on coming. “We’re not just putting out 100 tracks just to have one catch at radio and then call ourselves a record label,” Alex promises. “We’re going to put out our material, and different talent that we find all over the world. We want to be here in 20 years. We want to put out things people respect.”