Stiv Hey: all my best friendship came from a musical connection

This Friday Radio Intense is happy to share another interview. We had a pleasure to talk to marvelous Stiv Hey.

It's unusual for an artist's first releases to be acknowledged by Dubfire, Richie Hawtin, Adam Beyer, and Marco Carola. Then again, Stiv Hey isn't your usual artist.

Hailing from Milan, Stiv is quickly becoming an authority in techno, spearheading the next generation of music leaders. Approaching the genre with a contemporary edge, Stiv flows between a punchy techno and a more groove based tech style.

We asked Stive Hey about his path in the industry, new release "Gate 21" on Codex and upcoming projects. Check it out now!

— Hello Stiv! How is everything going? Thanks for catching up.
— Hey guys, everything is really good actually! This 2021 started in the best way ever! Thanks to you for inviting me, I have been following your work on Socials and it looks amazing. It is a pleasure to be part of it.
— Please, tell us more about "Stiv Hey", speaking artistically and individually. How did you start your way in the industry? What challenges have you faced?
— What can I say, Stiv Hey is just the Techno version of myself ahah. I was lucky enough during my journey in the music industry and in life in general to understand that the best way to behave is just being yourself, following your feelings and your taste instead of the trends, if you stay true with time people will buy into it. How have I started in the music industry? Well, all began with an extraordinarily strong passion for music, when I discovered music production it was my first year at university and I could not keep up with the classes or doing anything else (I even broke up with my girlfriend ahah), I only wanted to make music all day and all night long.

The challenges that you must face in this job are many, the biggest one for me was always the lack of information and a practical and complete path to follow to be able to construct my career.

Therefore, I'm investing a lot of time and energy in the Sounders project, which aims to change the situation bringing a revolution in the Italian music industry.
— What can you consider as your biggest achievements so far?
— My biggest achievements are surely the improvements in my music production skills. Being able to fully express your musical ideas and the sounds that are flowing in your mind, and turn them into music, is one of the best feeling in the world. I am also starting to sign EP on almost every label that has been in my "Dream list" since the beginning, and it feels great to see that list shortening up.
— You are originally from Italy. Can you say that Italian culture had an impact on your artistic development?
— Yes, of course, we have a strong musical culture and musical identity in Italy. What we are missing in Italy is the sharing of values and a proper community of Dj's and Producers.This is exactly what we are building with Sounders.
— Your new release "Gate 21" together with Audiomatiques will be out soon on Codex. What can you tell about this collaboration?
— Me and Marco have been friends for a few years, it all started with him signing some of my tracks for Loose Records. Then, after some time, I got able to sign my first record on Unrilis, which was one of my dream labels. So, we have been connected by the music since the beginning, and in fact all my best friendships came from a musical connection. At one point we both moved to Barcelona, and that is when our collaboration started. We started to join forces in the studio, and we produced "Mi Dica" which sat on Beatport Techno Top.10 for quite few months. Then the tracks contained in the "Gate 21" EP followed, and we are extremely happy to release them on Codex which is a great label and Spartaque, the label owner, is a good friend of both of us.
— You are a frequent guest of Beatport Charts. How do you feel about it?
— AhAh thanks! Definitely it feels good to see your name often climbing the charts, but this (as my manager Zenzo says) is just the result of the hard work I did in the studio in the last years: it is finally paying back. I am focused on the continuous improvement of my skills, not on the results. The important thing for me is to learn something new every day and become a little bit better at what I do every single day.
— Any exciting project in the future you would like to share about?
— I have many actually :) right now my number one focus is music production, I am producing a lot of music, working hard on creating my own signature sound. You will soon listen to new Ep's on Form, Set About, Unrilis and more. As I mentioned before I am also putting a lot of effort in Sounders, which aims to be the number 1 Community and Academy dedicated to Italian Dj's and Producers. Sounders wants to provide the best skills and tools to help aspiring and more experienced Dj/Producers to build or scale their career in the music world. Sounders aims to create a revolution, break through the doors of a closed system and change the music production sector in Italy.