Artem Stoliarov released his first original track at the age of 19.
Months later in 2010, Armin van Buuren took notice of Arty, as he's come to be known, choosing the track "Bliss" for one of his State of Trance mixes.
Soon, he signed to Above and Beyond's prestigious Anjunabeats label, which led to a breakout year for the young producer, only 21 at the time. And since then, he's also seen release on a bevy of other tastemaking EDM labels, from Ultra and Astralwerks to Axtone, Spinnin, Big Beat, and Interscope.
So it only made sense that when Electric Daisy Carnival visionary and Insomniac Events bossman Pasquale Rotella decided to venture into the business of releasing music and inked a partnership with Interscope for a label dubbed Insomniac Records, the first artist he signed was Arty.
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Despite coming off a plethora of festival appearances, some more intimate club gigs at some of the world's hottest clubs, and his first Vegas residency at Drai, Arty insists that his impending debut album has taken up most of his year.
"I've been working on my album very hard," he says. "I've gotten to the point where I'd say 95 percent of my album is done and all the records I was supposed to make are completed. There's just some tweaks here and there."
Some have suggested that Arty drifted a bit too far from the spotlight in 2014. He dropped to number 99 in DJ Mag's annual Top 100 DJ poll. But he feels like it's been his most accomplished stretch.
"We released 'Up All Night' and that's been the biggest record of my career so far," he points out. "We also got in some great remixes for Porter Robinson and Onerepublic. So not that quiet of a year."
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It's easy to see that Arty takes his work very seriously. And that's especially the case in regard to being the flagship artist for Insomniac's ambitious venture into the recording industry.
"It feels like I have some responsibility for that as well, which is one of the reasons I took my time with this album and I'm trying to polish up the final product. It's not perfect, but it sounds great and I'm excited to be the first artist they signed to the partnership between Insomniac and Interscope. My hard work has been coming up with positive results so far."
With the meticulous work that he's been putting in for his Insomniac debut, cutting 30 to 40 songs and multiple versions of each, it seems that narrowing down all of this material to a final tracklist should serve as a well-deserved victory lap.
For his party, Arty certainly seems to be enjoying himself.
"This record with Taylr Renee, which we've been working on for over a year now, is going to be on my album. Talyr Renee is a very amazing singer and I appreciate her talents," he enthuses.
The producer also reveals: "Mat Zo and I also have a record on this album. We're still trying to figure out which version is going to the album. Mat has his own version and we're unsure if it's going to end up as a remix or if the original version is going to hit the album. We've got two great options so far. This is one of those decisions where you just go through the record you have and see if the track works with the tracks alongside it."
Of course, despite spending so much time in the studio, Arty's no stanger to the bottle crowd, having just finished up his Vegas residency. And he also admits to a special affection for the Magic City.
"Best thing about Miami is that it's a completely different vibe. There's no such place in the United States that has a vibe like that," he says. "When you go in a Miami club, the crowd is completely different. You don't know what you're going to play, but you know it's going to be good."
-- Steve Vaynshtok
Crossfade's Top Blogs
Arty. With Dave Sol. Friday, December 19. Story Nightclub, 136 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. The show starts at 11 p.m. and tickets cost $30 to $40 plus fees via wantickets.com. Ages 21 and up. Call 305-538-2424 or visit storymiami.com.
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