Headbanging, electric guitars, pummeling drums and auto-tuned vocals pulsed through the Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix on August 16, 2024. The performers danced on stage, then jumped into the crowd, blurring the line between performer and participant.

Belgium Tree’s energetic and often unpredictable style on stage engages and thrills audiences, earning the Phoenix-based pop duo a large local fan base since they debuted in 2022.

“We really care about art. We care about pop and we care about music so much,” said Keanu Klepfer.

Belgium Tree’s Klepfer, 20, and Dace Santa Cruz, 19, were passionate about music from an early age.

“I always had a passion towards movies and music. I would get beats online and then just rap on them for fun,” Santa Cruz said. “In eighth grade, I released an album that was just terrible, but it kind of ignited my love for making stuff.”

It was Klepfer’s middle school music teacher, Mr. U, who first inspired him to make music.

“I always loved music, I just never did it,” he said.

He began playing the guitar and other instruments with the help of Mr. U, who then introduced him to music production software.

“Then I met a friend and he showed me how to make beats and that blew my mind,” he said.

Klepfer and Santa Cruz’s love for music led both to the Metropolitan Arts Institute, a college preparatory arts school in Phoenix.

They crossed paths in Spanish class and sparked a friendship over their shared love for bands like Death Grips, The Strokes, The Beach Boys and Michael Jackson, Klepfer said.

They started sending beats back and forth. Then, Klepfer asked Santa Cruz if he could play drums on a track. Instead, Santa Cruz proposed creating music together.

They took inspiration from a film class mockumentary starring a band named “Belgium Tree” and established their identity as a duo.

Shortly after, they began working on their first EP, “Soup Forest,” which featured electric and acoustic guitars alongside distorted vocals and upbeat drums. The EP was released on April 7, 2023.

Following “Soup Forest,” the duo released several singles before their second EP, “Structure Play,” which came out in September 2024

Belgium Tree released their newest single, “ALL I DO IS DANCE,” on Feb. 7.

The song features synthesizers, raw vocals, glitches and several samples, including “Jealous Guy” by John Lennon.

The lyrics reflect the duo’s disappointment after learning that members of a band that heavily inspired them weren’t as admirable as they had hoped.

“We are huge fans of this band’s music, but the more and more we learned about them, we realized they’re kind of [bad] people,” Santa Cruz said.

He said the song is about that realization and a sense of jealousy that, even though the band members didn’t live up to his expectations, “they’re still doing these things I really want to do. They’re doing a headline tour [and] they’re playing these venues that I love.”

Belgium Tree also released a music video for “ALL I DO IS DANCE” on March 17, which showcases a striking blend of contrasting visuals like bouncy houses, pillow fights and Santa Cruz dancing on after a gunshot wound to the foot.

The track is the group’s first single after the release of “Structure Play” in 2024, and the duo says there are more singles to come this year.

The songs have “no overarching theme between them like the way they were in the EPs,” Santa Cruz said.

“So we’re just trying to come out with singles where it’s like, we really master these songs by themselves,” Klepfer added. “We’re trying to come out with something different every single time. It’s going to be fun.”

Belgium Tree’s next performance is at the Formrunner event No Signal on April 26 in Phoenix.

Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.