Stephan Moccio - THE ARCHIVES (2021) [Hi-Res]

It might be surprising that the Oscar and Grammy nominated gentleman behind massive inescapable hits for Miley Cyrus, The Weeknd, and Celine Dion is a classically trained impresario. However, for producer, songwriter, composer and musician Stephan Moccio, bringing a timeless aesthetic into the modern musical landscape comes naturally.

“I love to show people that great melodies and lush harmonies can exist on the radio and in film,” he says. “I’ve lived on both sides of the medium. I’ve been studying classical music my whole life, and I try to inject that into pop. It comes out of my fingers when I sit at the piano.”

With its simmering waltz, entrancing orchestral strings, and elegant piano played by Stephan, “Earned It” became a #3 Hot 100 hit song, earning a quintuple-platinum plaque, an Oscar nomination and Grammy awards. It firmly established his style too with The Weeknd personally requesting “that Stephan Moccio classical thing” for his third full-length album. In the meantime, he penned music for everyone from Jon Bellion to Jordan Smith, Skylar Grey to Gladys Knight, while further expanding his imprint in the film and television worlds.

Ultimately, the world is only beginning to embrace Stephan’s sound. “I love the arc of a song—how it starts, builds, and fades out,” he leaves off. “I have so much reverence for that. It’s the way I complete melodies on the piano. There’s something about a sound all centered around live musicians. People need that human touch and something real. When anybody hears my music, I want them to feel emotions number one. That drives everything. No matter what I do, there’s a lot of love I put into it. I’ve learned if you do things that move you, you can move others.”