Every morning, Jeff Montalvo wakes up at 7:00 a.m. at his house in Washington state, makes himself a chai vanilla tea and sits on the couch, where his cat, Sirius, sits with him. They spend an hour hanging together, then Montalvo shifts into business, which for him is making music as the longstanding and widely beloved melodic bass producer Seven Lions.
He goes through emails then gets on Instagram, where he looks for art and artists he likes for potential collaborations. This art component is vital and ever-growing, as the Seven Lions project has always had a strong visual identity, where Montalvo and his team have created a mystical, magical, darkly fantastical realm for his music to live inside of and give life to.
Speaking to Billboard in the lobby of the Hollywood hotel he’s staying at while in town, Montalvo references the narrative arc that runs through the project that began with his 2012 debut EP Day to Come, a story complete with characters and symbols and chapters that expands into new territories again today (Dec. 12) with the release of the second Seven Lions album, Asleep in the Garden of Infernal Stars.
While Montalvo is tight-lipped about the specifics of the storyline, one only needs to study the enchanting album cover — which finds a woman asleep in a boat floating along a river in a pretty enchanted looking land — to find clues. “We have a whole mythology written,” he says, “so everything slots in. That’s why we haven’t released the full story of, ‘This is what Seven Lions is.’ The idea is behind it is that it keeps everything very cohesive visually, as far as the world building goes.”
He does reveal, however, that he knows how this story ends.
But while he several times references maturing in the scene, the Seven Lions story is far from over with his new project, out via Seven Lions’ own Ophelia Records. The 11-track set is his classic sound, with the producer acting as sort of a sorcerer who bends bass, guitar, anthemic vocals, drum & bass and the heavy metal elements that have always been his signature into soaring, head-banging and also often very enchanting music.
Here, Montalvo talks about the album, staying true to his sound and
When you started making the music that became the album, were you coming at it from any particular ethos or direction — or finding the music was being influenced by what was going on in your life?
For the last year or two, I’ve been feeling like the scene has changed a lot. I feel like melodic bass had its moment, and kind of transitioned into house music; dubstep is still really strong. When that happens, it’s like a gut check. A lot artists who are into melodic music are going like, “Oh, s–t, maybe I’m not doing the right thing. Maybe I should try something else, because this might not be working anymore.”
For me, it was very much leaning into what I do and not jumping on the train or trying to modernize or chase. I’m very much leaning into what I’m known for.
Was that a decision you had to sit down and make, or was it a more natural inclination?
For me, there are years that I want to grow in the way where I’m like, ‘I’m going do things that are more mainstream and more easily digestible.” [2024 Illenium collab] “Not Even Love” Is the perfect example of that. While it does have melodic base elements, it has a very clear house vibe, with the stutter and the very poppy vocal. That’s always a conscious decision, to do something that’s more digestible and mainstream and will be played on the radio.
The new album has some of that stuff, but I’d say the meat of it is more experimental, just more Seven Lions, with things that are my influence, which is mostly metal.
With the singles you’ve released so far, are you finding that your fans are coming with you?
I have no idea. I just trust the process, that they like me to be me. If they don’t, it’s not that I don’t care, but at this point in my career, I don’t feel a lot of pressure to do things I don’t want to do.
Is that different from how you used to feel?
I think it’s always been up and down. There are times where I’m something I think is going to boost my popularity or career in a direction of success. And then there are other times where I don’t care at all, and where I’m just serving my own creativity and my own self.
Certainly within the music industry there’s this constant pressure to get bigger, and it can feel like it’s all about size. At a certain point, when you’ve done things that are so big, it’s like — can’t we just count that as a win and decide that, “Yeah, I’m good”?
I saw Halsey talking about that with her album, it just popped up on my Instagram. She was talking about how she had a super-successful album, then her next one wasn’t quite as successful, and so the record label was not cool with it. She felt like, “But it still was successful, right?” I don’t think I’m really in that era, but it’s more that this feels like a selfish time creatively for me. I’m just doing my own thing, even down to the artwork. It’s a very metal influence, but also still very Seven Lions.
So much album marketing now seems to take on a flood-the-zone approach, where there’s tons of singles and shows and social media content. Is that daunting at all?
I honestly kind of keep my head in the sand. I don’t know much about what other people do. I’ve realized the limitations of that — but I’m okay with it. I know I’m not a social media mogul, and I know where I’m at, and I think I’m in a cool spot, because I have a lot of creative freedom. I have a really cool team. We’re capable of doing a lot and providing a lot of cool art and music, so I don’t feel the pressures of what you’re talking about as much.
What are your your tricks for staying level in this career for all these years?
That’s tough. It’s gone back and forth. I’ve been more sober lately, which has actually made it a little more difficult to balance, because when I want to be home, I really want to be home. I’d say that’s probably the biggest struggle is being a homebody. I don’t want to feel like this is a job, and generally I don’t, but there are some times where it’s like, “Damn, I don’t want to leave right now.”
So what do you do?
I’m just trying to be aware of that, and maybe it’s a little cliche for a 38-year-old man to be saying stoicism, but I’ve been trying to have that mindset a bit more of being grateful and thinking, “Hey, maybe this is the last time and I should just embrace it and enjoy.”
Your new album really slaps. I turned it on and I was like, “Wow, okay!” What does it say about where you are? Do you feel like you’re going back to your roots? In what ways do you feel like you’re evolving sonically?
It’s a mix of both. “By the Light of the Moon” is like a direct back to the roots kind of thing, whereas “Cold as Snow” and “Thrice Woven” are a little more where I’d like to be, in the sense that those tracks have a lot more guitar. Bass guitar has been super fun to record. They hit that note with the metal influence in a way I really like. I never know what the future is going to be, because I very much create on a whim. Honestly, I’m fickle. I like a lot of things. So that’s where I’m at right now, but I’d say those are probably the freshest and new experimental tracks for me.
You’ve been releasing music for a long time, but your first album didn’t come out until 2022. When you could just release a bunch of singles or an EP, what felt right about this collection of music to do it in the album format?
I think it all goes back to what I was talking about with the artwork, feeling confident with the team, feeling like I was in this space of reaching out to visual artists and finding so much there. Not only do I have a team I feel confident in, and not only are we making a bunch of really cool artwork, but I’m really invested in the studio right now. I had a lot of things in my life that I kind of brushed away for the better for my own personal health, and it just felt like the right time.
What does success for the album look like to you?
Longevity, I’d say. If people dig into it and it becomes something that’s a staple, that’s success for me. Like I said, I feel like I know the limitations of being somewhat anti-social in a time of social media, and I have no ambitions of being some chart-topping artist, I just want to really service my fans and give them something they can hold on to.
