Seven Lions: Welcome To The Jungle

Seven Lions

Electronica producer Jeff Montalvo aka Seven Lions might be among the most sought-after artists in the EDM world right now. Seven Lions, who began performing in 2010 and went on to perform at Burning Man in 2012, Ultra Music Festival in 2013 and Electric Zoo earlier this year, has held on to his metal allegiances. Says 27-year-old Montalvo, who started out as a drum­mer in a metal band in high school, “I think dance music is going to become more me­lodic, more progressive, more groovy.”

Montalvo, who includes everything from dubstep to trance in his music, had his first big break in 2011, when he won a remix contest organized by trance veterans Above & Beyond. The success of the remixed single “You Gotta Go” led the group to invite Montalvo to perform with them for their Group Therapy tour last year. Says Montalvo, “At that point, the only other country I’d seen was Canada, so India was probably the biggest change in culture that I’d ever seen. When we’d gone to India, I hadn’t really met them [Above & Beyond] before. But then, we got to hang out and get to know each other, so that was really cool. We’ve been friends ever since.” Since then, the long list of artists that Montalvo is associated with has grown to include British singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding, English rock band Florence + The Machine and Norwegian electronic music duo Royskopp, among others. He says of his recent collaborations, “[EDM duo] Myon and Shane 54 are cool. The girls from Krewella are great. [Estonian electro artist] Kerli was probably the best to work with, she did the vocals very quickly [on my songs] and didn’t have to change much, and that’s really a great thing for a vocalist.”

The artist, who released his latest EP Worlds Apart in April, is already working on his next four-track EP, due later this year. Says Montalvo, “It’s coming together, I’m getting pretty close to finishing it. It gets really boring to make dancefloor songs all the time, so I decided to make something that people will hopefully listen to for a long time. I want to make a more timeless album.” Seven Lions still draws strongly from metal, punk and even acoustic classical music while producing electronica. He adds, “I don’t think I’ll join a metal band ever again, but I do still listen to it. I am still inf luenced by it ”” some of the melodies, some of the drum parts, things like that are inspirational. But it’s not music that I would want to make myself.”

For his tour this month, Montalvo’s set will include everything from progressive house to trance. Says the producer, “The last time I performed in India, I played what I would normally play the first night and then changed a few things for the rest of the tour. That’s probably what I’ll do this time as well and see how things go over. I figure if I’m going to go all the way out there to play music, I wouldn’t want to change my style or customize it for a market.”

 
Seven Lions Worlds Apart India Tour 2014

November 13th – Royalty, Mumbai
November 14th - Nocturne, Kolkata
November 15th – Penthouze, Pune
November 16th – TBA, Bengaluru

Listen to Seven Lions’s EP Worlds Apart: