SEVEN LIONS DELIVERS HIS LATEST 'CREATION'

Seven Lions has finally finished his highly anticipated EP, ‘Creation’ — and it turns out, the wait was well worth it. Fans of California-based DJ/producer Jeff Montalvo, aka Seven Lions, have high expectations for the artist who shatters boundaries by refusing to confine his euphoric musical tendencies to a single box. They won’t be disappointed. ‘Creation’ features the best of what we already know he can deliver, alongside the best of what we never expected to hear. In one word, it’s magical.

“Overall, this EP is a reflection of where I am personally,” Jeff explains. “I like playing live shows, so I want to make some songs that are great for the dance floor. At the same time, I am also overwhelmed by how generic a lot of electronic music is, so I wanted to make music that is completely on a different level and without the restrictions of fitting into a genre.”

Bucking genre buckets is what he does best, but the way in which Seven Lions moves our souls this time around is special. The seven-track EP’s closing cut, ‘Leaving Earth’, is particularly poignant; a gorgeous composition that sweeps listeners far away from this planet, indeed. In keeping with the EP’s title, we asked Seven Lions to take us through the “creation” of it, track by track... 

‘Summer of the Occult’

“This song started out with the intention of being a dark and moody dance floor headbanger. The song ended up going in more of a melodic direction that culminated with the acoustic guitar towards the end.”

‘Creation feat. Vök’

“Creation was always meant to be a vocal track; when I start songs sometimes I leave room for vocals and sometimes I don't. It took a long time to find the perfect vocalist and I think Vök nailed it."

‘Coming Home feat. Mike Mains’

“At the time I started this I was playing a lot of guitar and messing around in open tuning; the riff is really simple and I originally planned on only having the acoustic in the breakdown, but after building up to the drop, I realized going towards a more traditional electronic music ‘drop’ would really be a disappointment to the song. I decided to try and keep it really organic and ended up using organs, bells, pianos for parts where I would normally use synths.”

‘The Journey’

“As a big fan of melodic/viking metal, I really wanted to see how far I could take a song in that direction. The song is in 3/4 timing and is pretty fast, so it’s definitely got the metal rhythm; all the synths are also harmonies of each other, which is very typical of metal.”

‘Falling Away feat. LIGHTS’ (Festival Mix)

“This is the festival mix of 'Falling Away'; the original is the one intended to be on the EP, but as I was listening to the whole EP I realized I wanted to get the energy back up before the big outro and decided to go with the festival version. The festival version was actually made because the original was so mellow and I wanted something to play during my live shows, because Lights’ vocal was so great.” 

‘Leaving Earth’

“This is a very personal one for me. This is also in 3/4 which is very prog rock/metal sounding. I wanted to make something I would listen to with this song. For me, I think it’s the song I am most proud of so far, although I know it will generally be passed over because of how long and moody it is. The song, for me, really captures the escapism that I love about music and how just listening to certain songs and closing your eyes can really take you far, far away.”