I got an opportunity to sit down with Seven Lions (aka Jeff) after his set at the Perry's stage. His set was filled with not only energy from some hard Progressive Trance, but beautiful emotion from more of his slower, slightly ambient tracks. The crowd was in love the tracks and the overall vibe as a flag that said ‘And without you I can't be' waved gracefully during Seven Lions' set.
This was the first time Seven Lions both attended and performed at Lollapalooza. He told me that with all the variety of genres and fans at this festival, it was an opportunity to share his music with new people.
“It's very different. This is much more of a crossover festival than anything I've done before, so it's been interesting for sure. I was very nervous coming into it because I had no idea if these people were educated in electronic music or people who had no idea what's going on and were just there because ‘Oh it's electronic music'.”
The fans were definitely aware of Seven Lions‘ music. He ended the set with his hit “Strangers” with Myon and Shane 54, and everyone was singing along. A complete stranger even put his arm around me as we shouted out the course together. Recently, the duo of Myon and Shane 54 had mutually decided to go their separate ways. I asked Seven Lions what his thoughts were on the split.
“I haven't spoken much with them since then, but I know it was a mutual split. I'm not surprised by it to be honest. They've been doing it together for a long time. It made sense for do their own thing for a bit. Best of luck to both of them!”
Seven Lions still has great connection with other members of the Anjunabeats family. Recently, Jason Ross remixed Seven Lions' new track “Creation”. Seven Lions mentioned that the two are currently working on a track together. They were in the process of getting a vocal for it at that time. Seven Lions mentioned that you can catch some of the instrumentals from it in some of his sets.
I read an Insomniac interview with Seven Lions where he describes his love of beer. In fact, he finds it as a great opportunity to connect with his fans. Since we were in Chicago, I had to know if Seven Lions enjoyed a Goose Island since he's been in town. He got a good laugh from that.
“Goose Island is everywhere. They've made their was across most of the United States. In fact, we were just in Canada this morning and they had Goose Island on tap.”
That was good to know. Being from the Midwest, I wasn't sure how common it was outside of the region.
“I haven't seen it (Goose Island) in California, but they're big for sure! It's kind of like Lagunitas. That's from California and they've made their way across the states.”
Seven Lions even did a “Drinking With Strangers” promotion where you could drink beer with him during meet-and-greets. I was curious if he was bringing that back any time soon.
“We stopped, but only because we're doing festivals. When I start doing my headlining tour again, we'll probably pick it up. That's also a lot of beer for me!” He smiled. “I don't want to drink like fucking three IPAs every night.”
Finally, the 25th anniversary is commonly known as the ‘Silver Anniversary'. I asked Seven Lions, if there was one item in the world that he could take and turn into silver to give back to Lollapalooza, what would it be? He responded with “A Doc Martin boot”, which he was rocking at the time of this interview.
Big thanks to Seven Lions for taking the time to talk with me about the important things in life, like beer and Trance, especially after just finishing a weekend of exhausting back to back shows.
Seven Lions new tour “The Journey Tour” kicks off this Fall. You can find him before that at some of your favorite festivals!
