DVBBS

DVBBS comprises Chris Chronicles and Alex Andre, DJs and producers who fuse house, electro, reggae, and dub influences. The siblings made their recorded debut under the name with Initio (2012), their first of several EPs, and soon went on a roll with numerous hit singles in their native Canada and abroad, highlighted by “Tsunami” (2013), multiple versions of which topped charts in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the U.K. They charted four more times in Canada before they released their first album, Nothing to See Here (2020), and have since added to the count with “West Coast,” issued ahead of their second full-length, Sleep (2021).
In the early stages of their career, Ontario, Canada natives Chris Chronicles and Alex Andre, also known respectively as Christopher and Alexandre van den Hoef, joined forces with DJ Martin Sinotte, calling themselves Dubbs. In 2010, the group released the Generation Party EP and went on to tour with the likes of Steve Aoki and LMFAO. Sinotte left the group in 2012, prompting the brothers to change their name from Dubbs to the identically pronounced DVBBS. They released Initio, the first EP credited to their new name, later in the year. Their first major success also came that year with the track “Tsunami,” a collaboration with DJ and producer Borgeous released on Sander van Doorn’s Doorn Records. The single reached number 80 in Canada, climbed into the Top 20 of the German, Austrian, and Swiss charts, and went to number one in the Netherlands and Belgium. A remix featuring Tinie Tempah, titled “Tsunami (Jump),” topped the U.K. pop chart.
As they issued additional singles across 2014 and 2015 — including the van Doorn and Martin Garrix collaboration “Gold Skies,” the van den Hoef brothers’ second charting single in their home country — they continued to raise their profile on the global festival circuit as performers and DJs. They were slotted at number 16 on the DJ Mag Top 100 list in 2015 and held a residency at the popular dance venue Hakkasan in Las Vegas, as well as staging their own Mount Woozy Festival in Toronto. In 2016, they charted again in Canada with “La La Land” and “Not Going Home,” and also issued Beautiful Disaster, a six-song EP that featured the latter single and an appearance from Juicy J. The following year, the duo issued the Blood of My Blood EP and a handful of singles, including ones with rapper Belly (“You Found Me”), Steve Aoki and 2 Chainz (“Without U”), and “Not Going Home” collaborator CMC$ (“Parallel Lines” and “Not Going Home”). They charted in 2018 with “IDWK,” featuring Blackbear, and in 2020 had similar success with “Tinted Eyes” and “West Coast,” joined respectively by the duo of Blackbear, and 24kGoldn and Quinn XCII. Having also released Nothing to See Here, their first album, in 2020, the van den Hoefs continued to operate in album mode with Sleep, slated for 2021. ~ James Pearce & Andy Kellman