Dutch house producer, DJ Oliver Heldens has revealed himself to be the name behind the mysterious producer HI-LO that has generated some buzz recently with his single "Crank It Up." In addition to sharing his new identity, the "Melody" DJ also shared the news that he has started his own label, Heldeep Records, and "Renegade Mastah" will be the first track on the imprint.
The news of HI-Lo's identity was delivered earlier today via Billboard. The move expands the growing empire that Heldens has started to build for himself as a leader of the "future house" genre. He is in on week 57 of his weekly Heldeep Radio show, which spawned the name for the label and has already started to host some of his own Heldeep stages and club nights around the world.
He seems to have found a very comfortable home at Spinnin' Records, but the new label platform will allow him to A&R his own music, as well as others, and use his newfound celebrity within the electronic music community to support other artists just as Tiësto and others did for him. He has not laid out an exact vision for the label -- whether or not it will be a very large one with a lot of releases, or more of a platform for his own music, but either way a new powerhouse has entered the electronic music label marketplace.
The news that he is HI-LO is not that big a surprise given the similarities of the two moniker's sounds. Heldens has unveiled two tracks from HI-LO in the past two months, a pace he surely can't keep up with touring, managing a label and his own Heldens productions, but we will see in the coming weeks and months how the DJ manages HI-LO. Stream "Renegade Mastah" below before its July 20 release date.
