Seven Lions is the stage name of Jeffrey Allen Montalvo, an American DJ, record producer and multi-instrumentalist born March 31, 1987, in Santa Barbara, California. His stage name comes from a character in Gene Wolfe’s fantasy novella “Latro in the Mist,” a book he has named as his favorite, a detail confirmed on Wikipedia’s Seven Lions entry. He grew up playing bass and guitar in metal and punk bands, and first explored music production at around age seven, when his father brought home a Macintosh computer and a keyboard. He later taught himself FL Studio after a friend gave him the software, and he has said a college-era encounter with a Tiesto CD pulled him toward trance, a genre whose melodic sensibility still runs through his music today alongside the heavier metal and dubstep influences from his teenage years in bands.

Montalvo began releasing music under the Seven Lions name in 2010, starting with an unofficial remix of Florence and the Machine’s “Cosmic Love.” His first significant industry recognition came in 2011, when he won Above & Beyond’s Beatport remix competition for “You Got to Go,” a win that put the track at number two on Beatport’s dubstep chart for six weeks, according to the same Wikipedia biography. In 2012 he released his debut EP, “Polarize,” on Viper Recordings, then followed it with “Days to Come” on Skrillex’s OWSLA label, which peaked at number ten on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart, giving him mainstream chart presence within roughly two years of starting the project.

His breakout moment arrived in 2013 with “Strangers,” a collaboration with Hungarian duo Myon & Shane54 featuring Swedish singer Tove Lo, released through Republic and Casablanca Records as part of the soundtrack to “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.” The song only reached number 84 on the US Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart on release, but it became a slow-burning festival staple that carried his name well beyond dance-music circles, as detailed on Wikipedia’s entry on the song. The momentum continued in 2014 with the “Worlds Apart” EP on Casablanca Records, which reached number 76 on the Billboard 200, while “Don’t Leave,” featuring Ellie Goulding, entered the UK Singles Chart, pulling in crossover attention from outside dance-music press for the first time.

Seven Lions debuted on the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs poll at number 144 in 2014 without running an active campaign for votes, a detail noted on his Wikipedia page. His “Creation” EP reached number one on the Billboard Top Electronic Albums chart in 2016, and he released his debut studio album, “Beyond the Veil,” in October 2022, alongside a “10 Years of Seven Lions” anniversary compilation the same year. In April 2024, more than a decade after its release, “Strangers” earned RIAA Gold certification for 500,000 certified units, his first-ever gold record, an achievement covered by Exron Music’s report on the certification. He sold out a show at Tacoma Dome in 2023, played a WAMU Theater date in Seattle in December 2024, and released his second studio album, “Asleep in the Garden of Infernal Stars,” in December 2025.

Seven Lions is a regular presence on the North American festival circuit, with appearances at Ultra Music Festival, Electric Daisy Carnival, Electric Forest, Bonnaroo, Electric Zoo, Spring Awakening, Camp Bisco and SXSW. Rather than chasing a single festival’s main stage, he has built a following around branded events of his own: the “Chronicles” concert series at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, including “Chronicles III” in 2021, and the label’s first “Pantheon” tour that same year. His Seattle Refined feature confirms the sold-out Tacoma Dome show and the December 2024 WAMU Theater date, and notes his “Visions” livestream series, launched in 2020, which he used to keep a direct connection with fans during the pandemic touring shutdown.

No major consumer-brand sponsorship, such as a beverage, apparel or paid audio-equipment deal, is documented in mainstream music press for Montalvo, setting him apart from touring peers who carry those kinds of contracts. His clearest brand relationship is a production-tool partnership rather than a cash endorsement: Image-Line lists him as an official FL Studio “Power User” on its own artist page, highlighting how he builds tracks inside the software, per Image-Line’s Seven Lions artist profile. He is also noted for producing on Dynaudio BM5A studio monitors according to his Wikipedia biography, though that reads as a documented equipment preference rather than a reported paid sponsorship.

Montalvo founded Ophelia Records on February 14, 2018, releasing the label’s first single, “Calling You Home,” two days later, according to Wikipedia’s entry on the label. The roster has grown to include Au5, Blanke, Feed Me, Feint, Jason Ross, k?d, Kill the Noise, MitiS, Trivecta and Wooli, and his Seattle Refined profile reports the label has passed one billion combined streams. Dancing Astronaut named Ophelia its Label of the Year in 2021, citing 34 singles, 11 EPs and four LPs released that year, a 100th-release milestone with the track “Pantheon,” and a run of live events including Chronicles III, a Nocturnal Wonderland stage takeover and a Higher Love show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, per Dancing Astronaut’s award coverage. In September 2025 he formalized a second business line, registering Seven Lions Merch LLC in Washington state as a direct-to-consumer merchandise operation, according to the public business filing hosted on BizProfile; a separate brand-data aggregator, Internet Research Unit, lists the associated store as a Shopify Plus operation carrying roughly 39 products with an average price near $58, though those figures are estimates rather than disclosed company revenue.

No mainstream real-estate press or publicly reported purchase price exists for a personal home belonging to Montalvo. Washington state business records do show that he formed Seven Lions Merch LLC on September 16, 2025, listing a principal address of 15232 NE 177th Drive, Woodinville, WA 98072, with himself named as both Manager and CEO of the entity, per the filing summary on BizProfile. That address lines up with the Woodinville, Washington home he and his wife, Emma, have lived in since roughly 2016 after relocating from California, a home his Seattle Refined feature describes as including his personal recording studio. Beyond that residence, his most substantial verifiable assets are business holdings rather than personal property: his founder’s ownership stake in Ophelia Records, a label with more than 100 releases and a reported billion-plus streams, and his catalog of masters and publishing built across 15 years of originals and remixes, including the RIAA Gold-certified “Strangers.”