Arty Is Ready To Bask In The 'Glorious' Life With New Album

It’s easy to look back and question some of our parents' motives when we were young. It’s actually really easy to do so. Why did I have to practice the piano for hours? Why can't I spend the day playing soccer? What were you thinking when you dressed me in that? Arty, the 26-year-old Russian-born EDM heavyweight, who was born as Artem Stoylyarov, doesn’t have the freedom to ask such questions (well, maybe the last one) because all that groundwork and discipline that his parents instilled in him helped in the long run. In fact, it led to his present-day success as one of the most sought after producers/DJs with affiliations to folks like Armin van Buuren and Above & Beyond.

On the release day of his debut album, Glorious, Arty visited New York City's iHeartRadio HQ for an exclusive interview to discuss the making of the album, his interest in tackling a remix for The Weeknd and, most importantly, his hard-hitting hustle at such a young age.

"I feel so relieved," Arty told iHeartRadio of dropping the project. “I decided to raise the boundaries for myself and I decided to get out of the comfort zone."

As a piano-playing prodigy, Arty spent much of his childhood with the piano by his side ("I had to train myself pretty much every day for five to seven, eight hours.") at a prestigious music school, where he was taught history and technique. It was also a time that saw him step out in front of massive crowds for festivals, but there weren't bass drops here. "It’s the weirdest and scariest thing ever when you perform in a festival,” he said of his classical piano performances. “It’s not like a dance festival with people screaming and shouting and supporting you. [It’s] 400 people in complete silence. Can you image the tense and the nervousness of that moment? It’s insane.”

Unfortunately, Arty eventually fell out of love with the instrument, so he listened to his parents’ guidance and started a degree in mathematics (which he would go on to complete) and continued his interest in DJing with the support of his friends. He told iHeartRadio that he had “the right friends around him,” who listened to EDM and introduced him to the right people to put his dance music aspirations into high gear. 

Still, the DJ stresses it was extremely tough to balance his studies and his then-budding career. “I would travel to Asia and would do my first 20,000 people festival,” he said. “I would do all the preparations on the plane and teach myself how to be able to make the music, travel and be ready for exams at the same time."

Thankfully, all of that hard work paid off and he can now enjoy the fruits of his labor with his debut album, Glorious, which features an array of collaborations from Clarence Coffee Jr., Ray Dalton, and Conrad Sewell. "I had full creativity on my record," he said of the LP, which does its job at exploring his sonic diversity. "It doesn't make sense for me to do the whole 14 track with the same sound. I would never feel satisfied as an artist."

So what’s next for Arty? He just completed a new version of his 2011 track “Kate” that he plans to drop soon. He's touring the country for the remainder of the year. And then there's also a desire to remix a cut for the biggest R&B-turned-pop star of the moment. "I would definitely to do a remix for The Weeknd. Oh my God. His album is amazing," he said. "It's a big step away from the music that he was doing before…I’ve been listening to the album for a month."

Considering he's remixed tracks for Years & Years and Halsey, we're placing our bets that his hustle will somehow lead him to that opportunity. In the meantime, take a listen to Arty’s collaboration with Conrad Sewell below!

Photo: Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio