From Chart Topper To Underground Raver: The Techno Turn Of Oliver Heldens

On Saturday Oliver Heldens played on the mainstage at EDC Las Vegas under his other alias HI LO doing a B2B set with Eli Brown to a packed mainstage crowd. Oliver Heldens has never struggled to pull a crowd, but this was a huge moment in his career with it being his first ever mainstage show under his HI LO alias. This is a moment he has been building up to for over 10 years as he has been slowly growing this alias and developing his skills in making techno. He has had a big shift in the type of music that he makes over this time that has taken him from dominating the charts to now being a huge name in the techno scene.

Back in 2014, Oliver Heldens had a hugely successful year releasing two of his biggest songs ‘Gecko (Overdrive)’ and ‘Koala (Last All Night)’ which would launch him into the charts in the UK even achieving a number 1 hit with ‘Gecko ‘(Overdrive).’ These songs would establish his signature future house sound that he would continue to use to create plenty more massive hits. But even this early on in his career he was showing flashes of his techno potential on his collaboration with Sander Van Doorn, ‘This.’ The thundering kick and thick bass mixed with his future house bounce were just a taste of what was to come, already showing his capability to add his own twist to techno.

In 2015 the anonymous alias HI LO would make its first appearance with the release of ‘Crank It Up’ which gained a lot of attention from artists and fans alike. Only a few weeks after the release of ‘Crank It Up’, Oliver Heldens would reveal that he was the face behind the HI LO alias and would also reveal that he was launching his own record label Heldeep Records. The first release on Heldeep Records would be a HI LO track called ‘Renegade Mastah’ that was massively successful going on to receive over 28 million streams on Spotify. Though not straying too far from his usual sound, in an interview with UKF in 2015 he said, “The music I make as HI-LO is more bassline driven and ‘underground’. The typical Oliver Heldens sound is way more melodic.” He kept on releasing more big tracks as HI LO and started to incorporate them into his live shows laying the foundations for a hugely successful alias.

Over the next few years, the HI LO tracks kept coming though remained very much a side project in comparison to the music being released under Oliver Heldens. But eventually there began to be a bit of a shift when 2020 came around and all of a sudden, the HI LO name started to creep into centre stage. Usually during his live shows, Oliver Heldens would only sprinkle in a couple of his HI LO tracks but on April 25^th 2020 he put up a DJ set on his YouTube channel where he did a full half hour of HI LO music alongside some techno tracks from other artists. This was well received by fans and would become quite common on the various livestreams that he would do over lockdown. He was diving deeper into the world of techno and taking his sound to a darker place with songs like ‘Zeus’ and ‘Kronos’ which really set the tone for his subsequent HI LO releases and starter taking him further into the underground scene.

To help take his tracks to the next level he decided to collaborate with Reinier Zonneveld who was already a well-established name in the underground techno scene. Oliver Heldens had been following his work and had become a big fan of his style and his record label Filth on Acid which led to their first collaboration ‘Saw of Olympus’ in 2021. This track was Oliver Heldens fully embracing his techno side with a heavy, echoing kick and plenty of bass that shook the dancefloors. Working with Reinier Zonneveld allowed him to learn a lot and he would continue to learn more and more about techno as he collaborated with more giants of techno like Will Clarke, T78 and Eli Brown over his coming songs.

With this new catalogue of heavy HI LO techno bangers, it was finally time for the next step which was doing live sets under the HI LO alias. Once lockdown had ended in 2021, the HI LO name could finally start hitting the stage with shows at the likes of 013 Poppodium and Seismic Dance Event where he could unleash his new sound. The thundering techno of HI LO was certainly a big jump from the usual music of Oliver Heldens, but it was a huge success which lead to more and more shows under the alias at the likes of Ultra Europe and Tomorrowland. As the love for HI LO from the fans grew, more of the alias’s tracks started to appear in Oliver Heldens’ live shows with a mashup of his track ‘Flying Octopus’ and the acappella from ‘Lovely’ by Billie Eilish and Khalid being a highlight of his shows that was adored by the fans.

After all those years the HI LO name has gone from a small side project to being one of the biggest names in techno. Under this alias, Oliver Heldens has now collaborated with the likes of Armin Van Buuren, Alan Fitzpatrick, Danny Avila, Space 92, and performed at some of the biggest festivals in the world. In only the past few years HI LO has launched from being solely underground to now being on the mainstage at EDC which is an incredible achievement. Oliver Heldens has managed to take this alias to heights beyond what anyone would have thought 9 years ago, and he certainly isn’t slowing down anytime soon.