Evolving the Festival Sound with Seth Hills

Let's start at the beginning at the creation of Seth Hills. How did this all get started?
Seth Hills was originally a duo for a short while before we went our separate ways and I took over the project. I got the name for it by basically Americanizing my own name. My name is Sergio van den Heuvel. "Van den Heuvel" literally means "from the hills" in Dutch and "Seth" is a bit more international than "Sergio." The most important thing for me was that now I have total control of my own brand and the freedom to develop it on my own.

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A post shared by Seth Hills (@sethhillsmusic) on Jun 19, 2018 at 8:03am PDT

So now that you're running Seth Hills solo, you've decided to create this sort of festival bass house sound, more in the style of "Get 'M" rather than "Raise Your Hands." What drew you to that particular style of music? 
It actually took a really long time to find the sound that I'm focusing on right now. In 2016 and 2017, I was playing quite a few shows but I found that I was never looking forward to playing my own tracks and so I didn't simply play them a lot. At one point last year on a China tour, I realized that I had to change something because this wasn't the way it should be. I got back to the basics and looked for the reason I started making music. I took the time to focus on what I was playing in my live sets and at the music I was enjoying and decided to go in the direction of this club-ready sound that wasn't really being done at the time. The perfect example of this is my song "Fire" together with Magnificence. This was a club track with a lot of energy and versatile enough for any DJ to play in their sets. So you can say my new style is groovy club songs but with a lot of energy and balls because in the end, it's still a Seth Hills track!

I also really enjoyed your collaboration with Crisis Era, it was a fantastic blend of styles with his sort of airy bass and your own sense of groove and punch. 
Thanks a lot! It was indeed a blend between our styles and it was very interesting to work with the hardstyle producers on a "bass house" track.

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A post shared by Seth Hills (@sethhillsmusic) on Oct 16, 2018 at 8:21am PDT

How your experience was at ADE 2018?
This year's ADE was really special for me. My personal highlight was premiering my new music in an small venue for some fans. It's always an indescribable feeling when you worked on new tracks and the crowd reaction is positive. I also met some new people in the scene, including artists, label managers, and promoters. That's what's really great about ADE as well. The whole scene is in Amsterdam for a week. I met an artist who is interested in working with me, but I can't tell much about that yet so stay tuned!

Can you tell us something about those exclusive tunes you've got lined up? 
All I can say is that there are two tracks coming out soon; one is on a label you could easily guess and the other one is very unexpected so I'm extremely excited about that one in particular! Both of the tracks are great examples of the new sound that I'm working to create so I can't wait for everyone to hear it!

Let's take a step back and take a moment to learn more about the man behind the music.  What does a day in the life of Seth Hills look like?
Well I finished school three years ago when I was nineteen and after I graduated, I became fully focused on music. I've been fortunate to make music my full time profession thanks to some creative thinking and the right connections. There's a huge market for music production in and out of EDM and so taking on those projects is a way to bring in some income as well as widen your creativity.

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A post shared by Seth Hills (@sethhillsmusic) on Dec 31, 2017 at 8:32am PST

During the day, you will mostly find me inside the studio working on Seth Hills music as well as some other projects that I can't talk much about. Outside of music, I try to spend as much as time possible time with family and friends. Whatever time I have left, I try to work on my health by going to the gym. 

When I'm on the road, I try to do as much as I can in whatever city I'm in. I'll do some sightseeing and try the different types of cuisine. So far, my favorite place to visit has been Japan because the people there were so friendly, the atmosphere was so peaceful, and the sushi just made me fall in love with the country!

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Sharing moments ❤️

A post shared by Seth Hills (@sethhillsmusic) on Sep 10, 2017 at 6:34am PDT

Lastly, what have been some your most memorable moments on your journey so far?
The most memorable moment on stage for me was on the China tour together with Magnificence and Maddix. One night, we were each scheduled for hour and a half sets and I was closing out the night, but thirty minutes into my set, I decided to call in the guys and do a B2B2B2B set! The reaction of the crowd was something I've never seen before! The fact that Maddix, Magnificence and I became such good friends in a short time and were able to pull this off on stage was just crazy for all of us.

Leading off of that, not too long after that tour, Magnificence and i discovered that we really had some chemistry in the studio and a similar vision when it came to our music. We got back in the studio and created our collaboration, "Fire" which we were both super proud of. I remember watching Ultra Miami with them and Axwell | Ingrosso premiere our track which was absolutely insane. After they dropped our track, the DJ support just kept on pouring in for that one. That moment for me rivals only the time that Hardwell premiered "Raise Your Hands" at Ultra 2016. It's really been an amazing journey so far and I cannot wait to share what I've got coming up next!

A huge thank you to Seth Hills for taking the time to answer our questions! Be sure to follow him on social media for all the latest updates and releases!

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Chris W. Lao

DJ, Writer, and Student.