Exron Exclusive Interview: Tensteps

For the first Exron Music exclusive interview of 2024, we sat down with the talented DJ and producer Tensteps to dive into his top tracks and releases from the past year. Ranging from Andrew Rayel to Armin van Buuren, the selection of his favorite tracks spotlights some of the most iconic releases from the past 12 months. 2023 held many milestones for the flourishing artist including the release of his debut album, ‘Infinite,’ his collaborations with a wide array of talented artists, and headlining his debut DJ performance. As we further delve into his highlights from the past year and forthcoming plans for the new year, it’s clear that Tensteps is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon as he continues to build on a momentum that has already perceived him as a powerful force within electronic music.

Exron Music: Can you share with us your top tracks or releases from this year, and what makes each of them special to you?  

It’s impossible to list them all, but I can definitely share a few!  Andrew Rayel & SMR LVE & Eric Lumiere – ‘Feel Alive’ is one of my favorite tracks in a while, just such an amazing feel-good record, with super strong vocals, great melodies, and great production.  

Armin van Buuren’s ‘Love Is A Drug’ is pretty up there too, that’s one of those tracks that every time I hear it in his set, it ends up sticking in my head for a couple of weeks.  

Taylor Torrence & Jorza – ‘Come With Me’ is a great one as well, they’re both really good friends of mine and this was a pivot into a new sound for both of them and they just absolutely nailed the big room/techno vibe.  

Spencer Newell did a track with Sarah de Warren called ‘History’, which is an absolute banger as well, with massive vocals and fantastic production on that one.  

Outside of trance, Illenium & Skylar Grey – ‘From The Ashes’ is a ridiculously good record, as is Illenium’s track with Spiritbox, ‘Shivering’.  Maddix – ‘My Gasoline’ is a super simple, straightforward track but it packs a punch on a dancefloor, I even made an edit of it for my recent headliner in Vancouver.  

I also got into the acid-infused Techno stuff, like MR. BLACK – ‘Flight 303’ and Marie Vaunt – ‘Techno Acid 303’.

Exron Music: Reflecting on the past year, which track, either by your own production or by another artist, do you feel has had the biggest impact on your career, and why?  

My track with Sarah de Warren, ‘Déjà vu’, I would say is probably the one that had the biggest career impact for me. It resonated well with fans, and Sarah’s an incredible artist in her own right, and we were both able to bring our unique style to the song in a way that just worked really well.

Exron Music: Can you take us behind the scenes and describe the creative process or inspiration behind one of your personal releases that made it to your top list? 

‘End Of The Earth’ was a track from my album that I produced and wrote myself.  I love being able to not only make the music but also write the topline, it allows me to connect the two more than when someone else writes to my track, or if I produce around a pre-existing vocal. When both sides are in my control, I think they blend more seamlessly. For that one, I honed in on this idea of being able to escape the hecticness and stress of the day-to-day and find somewhere that you can just exist peacefully, and having someone there to escape with who doesn’t subtract from that peace, but enhances it. It was a very visually-driven track, I had the mental image in my head the whole time while I was writing it.

Exron Music: Can you share a track by another artist that you discovered this year and felt a deep connection to? What drew you to that particular piece of music?  

Technically it came out at the end of 2022, but I didn’t hear it until early 2023.  Amidy and Man Cub did a track called ‘Wild Winds’ that just absolutely blew my mind. It’s a perfect example of what I love about Melodic Bass music – it’s packed with emotion, it has a super catchy vocal with a great hook, and it’s got power in the production. It paints such a cool sonic picture, I spend hours and hours listening to it on repeat.

Exron Music: Are there any particular musical influences or experiences from the year that you believe are reflected in your selection of top tracks, whether they are your own or by other artists?  

Honestly, I listen to everything, so my influences are all over the place. In a 20-minute car ride, I could play melodic dubstep, country, metal, and trance. I kept my top track selection here to Electronic Music, but if I were to really dig in you’d get some stuff you’d probably never heard of, haha.

Exron Music: Can you share any memorable anecdotes or stories related to the creation or performance of one of your personal releases or a track by another artist on your top list?  

I’m not sure this really counts as a story, but I had a ton of fun writing ‘Broken Ones.’ Even though I’ve worked with Linney before (several times actually, not all as Tensteps), we’d never done a co-writing session before where we actually wrote a topline together. It ended up being an amazing session and we all fell in love with the song right away. It took quite a while to actually get it out into the world, so I think we were all pretty relieved when it finally did.

Exron Music: Looking back on the year, do you notice any common themes or motifs that run through your top tracks, or were they intentionally diverse in style and sound?  

As I said, I listen to a ton of different kinds of music, so my top songs are incredibly diverse. I mostly focused on Electronic Music here, but even then, there’s everything from trance to melodic bass to techno. And outside of that, many of my favorite songs this year were country songs, so that’s definitely a big jump from all this other stuff I’ve been talking about!

Exron Music: How do you feel your music has evolved or changed over the past year, and do your top tracks, whether they are your own or by other artists, represent this evolution in any way?  

My productions have taken quite a turn.  Very few people have heard the new stuff yet, only if you were at the Vancouver show really. But I can safely say that yes, there are some things on my top list that point toward where I’m going.  

Exron Music: What message or emotions do you hope your audience takes away from your selection of top tracks, whether they are your own or by other artists, as they wrap up this year and move into the next?  

Honestly, I hope they just check out some of those songs if they haven’t heard them yet. It’s all great music in my opinion, and it’d be nice for more people to experience them too.

We close our conversation with Tensteps by thanking him for taking the time to talk with us about his 2023; with such a passion and love for the genre, as well as for the wider realm of music, we’re sure Tensteps will continue to be a name on our radar throughout the next year as he keeps taking his sound to new and exciting heights. So, make sure to follow him across social media to learn more about his projects and releases.

Tensteps Online:

Website | Instagram | Soundcloud | Beatport