A well-known name in the progressive and trance music scene, hailing from The Netherlands, Steven better known as Estiva who is  recognized for his uplifting, melodic style and has released tracks on labels like Armada Music, Enhanced Recordings, Anjunabeats, Colorize to name a few.

We got opportunity to chat with him right after his set at A State of Trance 2025 in Rotterdam.

Hello Steven, How are you?

I’m great nice to meet you. I came off stage around forty minutes ago, it was fun. I bring the more progressive style to the table here. When I was walking around earlier, the stage was filled with pretty banging sounds, but it was good to see that people are up for progressives as well.

 

We heard a new album is in works? 

Yes, I finished an album. It’s called Embrace coming out April 25. So we have to wait a little, but I handed in all the masters. I was on holiday during Christmas and New Year’s Eve in Sri Lanka so had to finish the album before the holidays.

 

How did Steven become Estiva? 

I was 16 or 17 when I came up with it and its just my name Steve, Steven, Estiva. I thought that’s kinda cool, but then after using it for a while and releasing records, I felt it is working and it has to do something like with summer and since then, Steve Steven became Estiva. 

 

You release your tracks on labels like Anjunabeats and Enhanced to name a few. You produce your track as per label or once its produced and then you decide the label ? 

It goes both ways actually. When I’m working on the album I’m restricted to releasing on one label. So everything I make I send to the label that I released the album with, in this case, Colorize, they check if it’s nice for the album and if they reject it and they don’t want it for the label, I can release it elsewhere. So I rarely have a label in mind when I start producing a record, I just write it.

You’re in progressive scene since a very long time. How the progressive scene has changed from back in 2010 to fast forward 2025?

Tracks are becoming shorter but not always. If you look at acts like Guy J or more like them, they still play very long mixes. There’s always progression because there’s new tools that you can work with. 

 

You along with the Rodg and Ruben collaborated on a very special track, Intergalactic. Can we see something like that? 

Rodg, his sounds are good. And I’ve done a lot with Ruben as well which we still haven’t released. With Rodg, we don’t have anything coming up, but we’re friends, so you never know what’s gonna happen exactly.

ESTIVA is always in the progressive scene. How about going up tempo? 

I have another alias called Kudus which is a little bit more progressive trance, a little bit more uplifting, but when I’m in the studio I just write whatever comes up. But right now, I tend to be a little bit more on the slower side around  124 bpm. 

 

These days Trance producers are winking at Techno guys having their melodies and beats. How do you see this kind of progression? 

I think it’s good to look at other genres and mix them up, and learn from other people that have different visions. That’s the way to be inspired, get creative, come up with new ideas. It’s interesting because there’s a cycle, right now scene is very hyped and obviously that’s just for me that’s music from back in the days. But for kids right now, that’s something different. It’s something high energy, and letting it all out. It’s fun to see the cycle and after this, there will be something else because usually if it’s very happy and very fast, probably the next thing is gonna be more slower and darker.

 

Techno is being commercial these days?

There’s different kind of ways you can see with different kinds of techno. I think the TikTok techno is very much hyped, there’s big drops, loud music. But there’s still the underground techno as well, maybe it’s not as visible for the masses because they hear the TikTok stuff all the time. I think in general, genres and sub genres are very stable, but it’s just sometimes things get hyped and they float to the top a little bit more. 

 

Any tips or suggestion for the upcoming producers?

I have a very strong vision about being in the studio. You have to have fun, have to entertain yourself and it sounds a little bit cliche, but if you’re doing it to become a well known DJ or doing it for the money, you’re probably not gonna succeed. Because you just have to feel that passion and do it over and over again. I’m in the studio every day since I was 16 and that’s the way for me to at least grow. It might take a little bit of time, but if you have patience and persistence, then you’ll probably get there. But not everyone is in a position to have that, so just keep doing what you do.

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