Released in July, rising electronic artist Stefan Rose continued his ascent through the electronic music scene with his new EP, This Feeling. The two-track release, out via Nihil Young’s label Frequenza and featuring a standout collaboration with singer Sophie Joe, showcases Stefan’s ability to glide between warmer melodic sounds and darker synthetic elements.

Born in America and raised in Europe, Stefan Rose began DJing at Belgian clubs at a young age, sparking an early fascination with house and techno. Today, he splits his time between New York and London, holding an ongoing residency with UK radio station Bloop London. Electric Mode recently sat down with Stefan to discuss the making of his new EP, his musical roots, and what the future may hold.

1. What inspired the creation of your new EP, This Feeling?

• I often get ideas for new songs at the most unexpected moments. With This Feeling, I was relaxing last summer on a beach near Barcelona, gazing out at the sea under a heavy midday sun, when the main melody of the song entered my head. I sat there reflecting on the notes for several minutes, then also started to imagine female vocals singing over them. Even if the lyrics weren’t clear to me at that point, I played around with the pitch and rhythm so that the vocals sat nicely with the melody. I’m not totally sure what it was – maybe the salt in the air, the sound of the waves, or the powerful heat, but something really clicked when I was sitting on the Spanish coast that day. I recorded all of this shortly afterwards into a voice note, which I almost always do when I get a sudden idea. This voice note would become the foundation of This Feeling and was something I would later repeatedly refer to in the studio.

2. How did your collaboration with Sophie Joe come about?

• I met Sophie at a venue in East London one night when I was DJing, and we started having a nice chat about music. She mentioned that she was a singer, and since I’d just had the new song idea in Spain, I thought it’d be timely to work together on it. At this point, I had also finished writing the lyrics and made a simple backing beat, so all the pieces were there to really get working on the vocals. We booked some studio space in Shoreditch with a vocal recording booth and got to work shortly thereafter. Things fell into place nicely with her from the get-go, which isn’t always the case when collaborating with other artists with whom you don’t have a long history. We spent several hours recording the vocal takes of This Feeling, with Sophie also adding her own unscripted flair, ad-libs in particular, which gave the track some extra warmth and surprise. We actually finished recording This Feeling more quickly than I was expecting, so ended up working on vocals for a few other tracks as well, some of which are still forthcoming! 

3. The track Tusk has a different energy from This Feeling. What was your mindset when producing it?

• I made Tusk not long before I made This Feeling. I’d been experimenting a bit with some more tribal and percussive sounds and built the track around the main drum groove. It has this almost marching-like quality to it, but since it also sounds a bit exotic, it evoked an image of elephants walking to the beat, hence the title. I really strive to give all my tracks their own unique character, and I felt that the percussion in this song, complemented by the strong melody and mesmerizing vocal textures, was exactly that. Plus, it sounds powerful on a dancefloor and really gets people moving!

4. How would you describe the sound of This Feeling EP to someone who hasn’t heard it yet? What elements define this release compared to your previous work?

• This is a melodic-forward release, whichever way you slice it, in particular given Sophie’s outstanding voice on This Feeling and the hypnotic synthesizers on Tusk. Both tracks are somewhat dark and atmospheric, yet each has several uplifting moments. The drop about halfway through This Feeling really stands out to me in that respect, unleashing a certain amount of energy which up to that point had only been hinted at. The title track also has a degree of accessibility that perhaps crosses over between genres somewhat, given it’s a fulsome vocal track. It’s not just a “club track” – indeed, I’ve heard people sing along to it in casual settings – but at the same time, it’s backed by a strong drum foundation to ensure it can carry a room on a proper sound system. 

5. The EP is out on Frequenza. How did that connection with Nihil Young and the label form, and what drew you to release this project with them?

• I’ve been listening to Nihil Young for quite a few years now, sometimes unknowingly under his other aliases. He’s an artist and engineer I’ve long looked up to, and I find his music to be both awesome to listen to but also technically interesting to analyze from a producer standpoint. He’s been building Frequenza as a label for some time, but it’s become a reliable name in the melodic sphere to me more recently. Hence, when I knew I had two melody-centric tracks finished, it was one of the first labels I thought of. I sent the demos to him by way of a cold email – we had no prior communication – and I think he responded in like 20 minutes. Perhaps it was chance timing, but it was a great start to what has now become a valuable relationship.

6. What kind of response has the EP had so far, and how does it feel to see it connect with people live?

• The EP has received broad support from various corners of the electronic music world, some of which I didn’t expect. As I mentioned, the lead track has an appeal that I feel captivates listeners who may not normally play my other, and often harder, releases. This Feeling is a dance song at heart, but Sophie’s vocal has an almost Pop-like quality to it. The song has been getting some strong airtime on the radio, particularly in the U.K., where I currently reside, which is in part why I recorded both extended and radio edits of it. Possibly the biggest highlight so far was seeing Paul van Dyk play it on his recent podcast. He’s a childhood music idol of mine, and a godfather of Trance – and this is a “pinch me” kind of moment that I’ll never forget. It’s an incredibly rewarding feeling to see the music I put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into being embraced by listeners and artists all over the world in this way.

7. Has making this EP shifted anything in your approach to producing or performing?

• All the music I make helps gradually refine my approach to music production, and this EP is no different. It’s certainly not a fundamental revision or anything like that, but producing is a long journey and you’re always learning new tips and tricks along the way, not to mention evolution in taste. This Feeling was one of the more time-consuming tracks I’ve produced recently because of the need to sort through dozens of original recordings to find the absolute best vocal phrases or even single words. I also spent a lot of time processing the vocals once the recordings were selected, as well as layering them, and ensuring that they sat perfectly in the overall mix of the song. It’s not always easy to do this since the human voice is a notoriously difficult sound to finely capture. Indeed, certain artists who heard early versions of the track last year at times gave me conflicting advice on how they’d manage the vocals, but I feel that the final version of the track ended up in the right place. As for performing, not a whole lot has changed vis-à-vis this EP, but both tracks tend to fit best into my DJ sets either early on or very late, depending on the timeslot I’m playing and the mood at the venue.

8. Looking back on the process of completing This Feeling EP, what was the most rewarding part?

• The most rewarding part of this whole process was probably when I returned to my home studio after recording vocals with Sophie earlier the same day. Placing her recordings into my project file – on a rough basis, with no editing, and just taking the first clips I found – was an emotional moment. There was a certain notion of “did we really just make this?” that I kept asking myself when playing it back for the first time, and I just knew based on my own gut feeling that this was going to be something special. I spent the next several weeks working on the vocals and later the entire track into what would eventually become the final version, but hearing that first raw combination of her vocals into the song structure is something I’ll never forget.

9. You started DJing in Belgium at a young age. What drew you to the world of House and Techno?

• It’s a good question and one I still ask myself often! Though I was born in the U.S., I went to high school in Belgium and started DJing nightlife events from an early age. As an American, going out to venues on the weekend and hearing House and Techno music seemed like a completely foreign concept, as it was music that I simply did not hear back in my home country back then. I was completely captivated by it – particularly by its power to unite and transport people to somewhere completely different, even if only for a few hours. I started meeting DJs and learning what they did in the booth, and taking note of the artists producing the tracks that the DJs were playing. It quickly became something I was immensely passionate about, and though it’s evolved since, this passion is steadfast many years later. 

10. How has living in both New York and London influenced your sound and artistic outlook?

• I’m someone who’s moved a lot throughout my life – we spoke about my upbringing in Belgium – but New York is where I lived the longest as an adult. This was where, in addition to DJing, I started throwing music events all over Brooklyn and Manhattan, and in many ways is the city that feels most like home. It’s also a place that’s always had a strong underground scene. That said, I tend to view Europe as the epicenter of electronic music, particularly for my sound, which is in many ways the case today in London. There are so many events and collectives here, not to mention talented artists, that keep things interesting and fresh, both as an artist myself but also as a listener. I routinely go out in London on a weekend, then return to the studio the next week full of new inspiration and ideas from what I’ve just heard.

11. How would you describe your evolution as an artist over the past few years?

• I started this journey as a DJ in Belgium, continued to spin and throw events in New York, and now, in the last few years, have expanded to music production in London. A lot has changed in my own sound over this period – the first records I ever spun were Trance, whereas today my sound is more a mix of Melodic Techno and Indie Dance. My sound has become harder and more percussive but has always maintained some sort of melodic core – I have a soft spot for powerful vocals and enchanting melodies. Producing has also refined my choice of songs that I play. Not simply by spinning my own tracks in my DJ sets, which is itself incredibly rewarding, but also the choice of songs by other artists in my record collection. You start to perceive tracks a bit differently once you understand how to create them, and I believe that being a good producer can help you become a better DJ as well. The opposite is also true. One of the constants throughout all of this has been my focus on my own DJ sets, as I continue to view storytelling through DJ mixes as the most powerful and unique aspect of electronic music.

12. What’s your favorite piece of studio equipment or software when producing?

• There’s a lot to choose from, but recently the software synthesizer Diva is near the top of the list. It’s a very versatile program that can create sounds for so many different occasions, and its ability to emulate analogue sounds in particular is fantastic. Very few of my songs, including the ones on this EP, don’t use Diva in at least some capacity.

13. What artists, labels, or albums have most shaped your musical identity?

• If there is a single song that was most impactful to my musical journey, it’s probably Communication by Armin van Burren. It’s one of his earlier tracks, and I found it by accident during high school in Belgium. Simply put, I’d never heard anything like it. The piano, the vocal layers, and especially the arpeggiator that comes in during the main break around 4 minutes – the extended version of the track is nearly 10 minutes in length! – to this day gives me goosebumps. It was a seminal release in the evolution of Trance as a genre and still holds up incredibly well to this day. For me personally, this song set me on a path at a young age into the world of electronic music. So much of what has happened since then in my musical journey, be it my subsequent fascination with Deep House, a later gravitation towards Progressive sounds, or most recently a firm footing in the Melodic Techno and Indie Dance genres, is because of that first contact I had with artists like Armin.

14. What advice would you give to emerging producers trying to find their own sound?

• I’d advocate for persistence. Throw yourself at this craft without thought as to how it will be received, who might sign it, or if it will grow your profile. Just make songs that come naturally to you – and make them repeatedly. Once you’ve built up a small repertoire, go through your tracks and start connecting dots by looking for themes and points of commonality. If you find these, then that is your sound.

15. If you could play any venue in the world, where would it be and why?

• Pacha Ibiza. It’s the most storied club on the world’s most storied island, and one I’ve visited at many points over my life. I’m not saying it’s necessarily my absolute favorite venue in the world – though it’s certainly up there – but nothing is more iconic.

16. What’s next for you after this release? Any upcoming projects or goals you’re excited about?

• It’s been a big push for me lately in the studio, and I now have several new collaborations finalized – with a mix of talented producers, vocalists, and guitarists. Working with like-minded and passionate artists is one of my favorite aspects when producing music, and I look forward to soon releasing several more of these works into the world!

Stefan Rose’s’ This Feeling EP is out now and available to stream and purchase here: https://lnkfi.re/this_feeling