Seven Lions Talks New Music, Drinking With Strangers, & Above & Beyond [Exclusive Interview]

Following Seven Lions’ Middlelands performance, we were left utterly speechless and in complete awe of the talented producer. Jeff Montalvo effortlessly blended a variety of genres, using melodic bass to get us to feel, hypnotizing us with his psy-trance, and finally, allowing us to break our necks to his banging dubstep.

Many can agree with us that it was one of the standout performances of the weekend. Being given the opportunity to chat with him was an honor, and not only were we able to talk to Jeff, but also had the pleasure of meeting his beautiful wife Emma. Although soft-spoken, he’s an intriguing man with many different facets. We dove into all aspects of his career, discussed new music, tours, meet and greets, and Above & Beyond. Check out our exclusive interview with Seven Lions below:

RR – How was your time at Middlelands? Were you able to enjoy any of the festival? Eat any turkey legs, archery, listen to any sets, yoga, arts and crafts?

SL – It’s been awesome so far. We definitely got a turkey leg, that’s the first thing we did. It’s a really unique festival, so it’s been awesome. We’re gonna try to catch Kristian Nairn’s set today, which will be dope.

RR – Last month you kicked off your There and Back Again tour. Is there anything significant about the name of this tour? Any changes from your last Journey tour?

SL – This is more of a club tour. Instead of the live music venues, we’re going back to more clubs. The name is also a reference from The Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins, the book that he writes is called There & Back Again. 

RR – We love the concept of your meet and greets, Drinking With Strangers. How did you come up with that? Do you get to choose the winners of the competition?

SL – Emma usually chooses the winners. We were just talking about how awkward most meet & greets are because you meet somebody, take a picture, and move on. I don’t think it’s fun for anybody, so we were just talking about a good way to just chill and actually meet somebody and just have a beer, so that’s kinda where that concept came from.

RR – Any crazy stories from meeting your fans at Drinking With Strangers?

SL – All really good stories, to be honest. We’ve met some people that we’ve actually stayed in really good contact with.  Like our best friends in Seattle are people that we met through Drinking With Strangers. And I actually did a collab with one of the people that we met.

RR – What’s your favorite beer?

SL – I’d say what I drink most is Guinness just because it’s pretty much everywhere, and it’s just a good drinking beer, but favorite beer would probably be…for a while it was the Sculpin Grapefruit IPA, but before that it was Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA.

RR – Kill The Noise recently teased an image about a collaboration with you. Can you give us any more teasers about this collaboration? What was it like working with KTN?

SL – Working with Jake is awesome because he taught me a lot actually. I worked on most of the song, then sent it to him, then he worked on the song, and then we kinda went back and forth, but we finalized it at his house, so I got to see like how he produces, and it’s way different than the way I produce, so it was really interesting to watch. But yeah, I don’t know, we don’t have a release or anything because we’re trying to work on more music. I’m not sure if it’s only going to be one song, but I think we worked really well together, so we’re talking about just doing another one and maybe have a few songs come out.

RR – You just dropped “Freesol” with Skyler Stonestreet. Is this going to be part of an EP or album? Are you sticking with a similar sound to Freesol?

SL – It’s definitely part of an EP. There are no other songs that are like that, other than “Silent Skies”. It kinda has that vibe, but the rest of the tracks are really different, for sure.

RR – We love your song “Higher Love” with Jason Ross. Can we expect any other Anjunabeats releases from you? Was this your first release on the label?

SL – It was the first original release on Anjuna, but I’ve had a few remixes released. I’m just really close with those guys because they were there for me in the very beginning and they helped me out, so I’m not sure if we’re gonna do another official release any time soon, but I’ll definitely do shows with them and hang out. I’m gonna go see them in London next week, when we go to the Anjuna HQ. I just really like those guys, so we always play with them when we can.

RR – Any other Anjuna artists you would love to collab with?

SL – Above & Beyond, but I mean they don’t collab with anybody (laughs), but yeah Above & Beyond.

RR – In September, you will be joining Above & Beyond at Red Rocks. How did this event come about?

SL – Yeah, we did a whole tour in India together. I’ve definitely played with them, we also had a show together in Miami. I literally say yes anytime they ask me to play. I love playing with them because they have such a good fan base. Like everybody is there for the right reasons. They put on an amazing show and I like to be a part of it when I can.

RR – Have you played at Red Rocks before?

SL – Yes, it’ll be my third time playing there. It’s an awesome venue, it’s really cool.

RR – Do you think you’ll get to help choose who pushes the button during Above & Beyond’s set?

SL- We did get to choose once. We’re good friends with their tour manager, Seamus. He was like, “hey, do you want to help me choose?” Because he’s the guy who chooses. So we went out and chose somebody.

We would like to thank Jeff and Emma Montalvo for taking the time to meet us!

Seven Lions new EP, ‘Where I Won’t Be Found’ is to be released on June 26th! Make sure to keep an eye out for it!

Photo Credit: © Fixation Photography 2017

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