To coincide with the release of his brand new single, we caught up with songwriter and musician Steve Marinangeli, to find out how things have changed since the effects of the pandemic, and what the new song means for the artist moving forwards. Here’s the conversation in full.
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Hi Steve – great to catch up with you! Last time we spoke was during the grip of the pandemic. You poured your time into making music again. How have things changed for you since then?
Hi, thank you for having me again. Yes I poured a lot of time into making music, and a lot has changed until our last chat. I have multiple musical projects on which I am working at the moment. I started a new duo together with my friend RayDi, called RayDi & Stivie.
We also founded our own label called X-Sato Records under which we release our own music. We also work with other artists who we try to sign and then work together with them on their music and give them advice on how to properly release the music.
Tell us about the new single you’re releasing – how did it come to be, and what does it represent for you?
For my new single Without You I teamed up with a producer from Sweden and with the singer Zach Alwin. In my head, I had an idea to do a more summer vibes style song, so I started writing some lyrics which I later changed again to fit the instrumental. After some weeks of work, I stopped working on this song and caught up with it a few months later to finish it. I am now very happy to finally share this song with the world.
Is the song different in style from your previous work?
Yes, my songs were darker and very sad lyrics at the beginning of my career. As I always try to write from personal experiences, I am now in a more happier place and also able to write from a happier perspective. Without You has more summer vibes and has some dance pop elements in it. The chorus is quite catchy too and I hope a lot of people will love it.
Will there also be a video, and if so – what can you tell us about that, and the creative process behind building a visual storyline?
We actually just finished filming a video for the song yesterday, so that’s a yes. I already made a few videos for previous singles and since the first video, I worked with the same director. For this song, he came up with an amazing idea and I was immediately down to do it.
I don’t wanna spoil too much, but I had so much fun shooting this video together with my 2 other friends who are involved in it. The video will be released shortly after the song.
You’ve amassed hundreds of thousands of streams on your music this past two years, not least of all for It’s You and Sacrifice. What do you think it is about these two songs that connected so much with audiences?
To be honest with you, I don’t really have an answer haha. I think that with Sacrifice a lot of people could really identify with the song as I wrote it from two different perspectives and because the theme of the song is something, everyone at least had to go through once. These two songs really helped me reach a bigger audience across the world as it gave me opportunities to feature in interviews or podcasts in the US or Mexico for example.
What’s been your main tool for promotion, and what advice would you give to artists who want to reach a broader audience?
I tried a lot of different promotion tools out. Some of them were more effective than others. I always release my songs on a platform where other artists, producers, label managers etc. can listen to them and give me feedback on what to improve on and what they like about the song. Then another great way of promoting are FB and Instagram Ads.
I was teaming up with David from Sinclair-Media Group who really helped me on how to properly do promotion. Of course you need to invest some money into it, and need to have patience, but if you don’t give up and do it properly, it can help you reach a very big audience.
Another good advice is to connect with other musicians, artists, songwriters, etc.
Are you any closer to performing live these days?
Sadly, since I’m still not a singer, I won’t do live performances of my music. I hope that I’ll find someone one day, with whom I can work with on a lot of songs and that he then can perform all of them live.
Have you managed to attend many live shows since the world opened up again, and if so – does the experience feel more impactful after such a long time without it?
Yes, I finally was able to attend some concerts again. I recently saw Imagine Dragons and One Republic live and both of them blew me away. I still have some concerts left to attend this year so I am really looking forward to experience the full package of a live performance again as an audience member.
What else can fans look forward to from you this year?
My fans can look forward on more music from my solo project, and from a lot of new music with my duo RayDi & Stivie. But we will also try some new stuff apart from music, so make sure to follow me on my social media platform to stay up to date.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
I would like to give my fans a big THANK YOU for always supporting me. This wouldn’t be possible without all of them, so THANK YOU ALL!
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Check out Steve Marinangeli on Facebook, YouTube & Instagram.
