Seven Lions Biography

Jeff Montalvo, known professionally as Seven Lions, is an American record producer, remixer, instrumentalist and DJ from Santa Barbara, California. Seven Lions' first significant track was his remix of Above & Beyond’s “You Got To Go.” He has also released three EPs which have charted on Beatport, and his track "Don't Leave" entered the UK Singles Chart in 2014. His 2014 EP Worlds Apart charted at No. 76 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Jeff Montalvo was born on March 31, 1987 in Santa Barbara, California. His interest in music production began at the age of 7, when his father came home with a Macintosh and keyboard. He grew up as a metal and punk-inclined drummer, but he eventually segued into electronic music production.Montalvo explains,

“For me, it was the most accessible thing, to start picking up something like drums as opposed to something like electronic music. My transition out of playing with a band was because I got tired of waiting for my band all the time - I wanted to just start making music so I started composing electronic music by myself.”

After a friend gave him the program Fruity Loops, he started learning production. Around 2011, he began releasing music under the moniker Seven Lions. The name Seven Lions comes from a fantasy book called Latro in the Mist by Gene Wolfe. Seven Lions is a character in the book.