The band did not have the same success with Veenendaal originally until 2020, when the single "Soldier On" achieved widespread popularity in the Netherlands associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

[1] Di-rect began in October 1999 when 15-year-old Jamie Westland asked his father Dick to help him set up a band.

[13] That year, Di-rect performed at the Museumplein in Amsterdam for Koninginnedag and signed a sponsorship contract with Pepsi in June.

De Volkskrant noted in 2003 that Di-rect was "popular (especially among girls)" and wrote "punky pop songs".

[15] Akkerman sang on "Als je iets kan doen", a charity single released under Artiesten voor Azië in relief for the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

[19] Two further singles, "Cool Without You" and "Webcam Girl", also reached the top 10, and "Blind for You", featuring the classical pianist Wibi Soerjadi, made No.

In September 2005, Di-rect competed against the Belgian band Nailpin in the Dutch MTV show Road Rally, where they had to travel from California to New York City with one full tank of gas in a van and no other expenses paid for, needing to schedule their own concerts along the way in order to make money to complete the journey.

[22] On 9 April, Di-rect released "A Good Thing", the lead single for the band's self-titled fourth album.

[1] In 2008, Di-rect was approached by Jan Rot for doing a theatre tour performing Tommy, the rock opera by The Who.

), the band made a unanimous decision to bring on Marcel Veenendaal from Arnhem as their new lead vocalist and frontman.

[26] In 2017, Akkerman admitted that people involved with the band paid money to give Di-rect higher chart positions on the Dutch Top 40, revealing that "there were agencies that could buy hits".

[27][28] In 2018, Di-rect performed at Pinkpop Festival for the first time in 13 years, taking over for The Kooks on the main stage as a last-minute substitution because their singer Luke Pritchard was too ill to play.

[30] In 2022, Di-rect scored a ninth top ten single with "Through the Looking Glass", which was their second such hit with Veenendaal as lead vocalist.

[31] To celebrate the band's 25th anniversary, Di-rect announced its largest concerts yet with three shows at De Kuip in Rotterdam from 12 to 14 June 2025.

[32] With the band's original singer Tim Akkerman, Di-rect's music was described as pop rock and pop-punk.