Pardi

"I didn’t even think about it. It never crossed my mind that I could be charting on iTunes,” said fifteen-year-old Jacob Silverstein — or Sliva, as he’s known in the EDM (electronic dance music) world — of his newly released album, Fate, which hit the top 36 EDM album on iTunes on its second day of release. “I went to check on Avicii’s ranking, then I started scanning and was really surprised when I saw mine on the charts.”

Trending on iTunes. Not bad for a high school freshman.
And Sliva is just as humble as he is talented. When I asked him what he thought of Fate, he smiled and said, “It’s my first try at EDM.”
But with its unique, softer EDM sound, it’s no wonder that Fate is already such a hit.

As we sat at Starbucks in Roscoe Village, Sliva, with his strawberry blonde hair and checkered purple and navy shirt, lit up talking about his musical process. ”I always start by writing my music on the piano and then decide if I want to change it later. The thing is that I never really changed it. So, I have the piano playing the chords, and I also have it playing the leads,” Sliva said. Though he wants to create his own sound, Sliva said he models his work off of his favorite artists — Avicii and Martin Garrix, the former of which he recently saw in concert at All State Arena.

It didn’t take long, though, for Sliva to find his sound. Fate, which he started to work on in September, launched in April with eight original tracks. Recording some of it in his basement, Sliva didn’t have a pop filter for the mic, so he crafted one himself. Which also explains why he maintains As and Bs in all his subjects.

In addition to being a rockstar student, Sliva is also goalie for his high school’s hockey team. But music has always been the main passion in his life. Starting piano lessons at age five, at seven he began playing Mozart on his own. “I had heard it in my house. I didn’t know what it was. But I just started playing it.” Again. Just your average seven-year-old.

When asked if he had other musical accomplishments he was proud of, he said, “Another thing I took a lot of passion in was when I wrote a song for piano and violins, and I sang it at my eight grade graduation.”
I told him that his parents must be very proud of him. “Yeah, sure” Sliva said, laughing.

To download this young prodigy’s album, click here. (You’ll be dancing in no time.) Anything else he wants people to know about his music?

“I do it for fun. I don’t see it as work. And I just want people to enjoy it. I want to share it with as many people as I can. My dream is to play at the big music festivals. It’s a big dream.” - Chloe Cline