A lifelong musician, Ivanov is a talented triple-threat who produces, songwrites and sings. After a few busy years of pouring himself into song, his solo project ALIUS is hitting all the right notes. Original tracks like ‘Caught Up’, ‘Fraction’ and ‘Impossible To Love You’ have already clocked up over 35 million streams on Spotify alone, while his remake of the Dawson’s Creek theme song ‘I Don’t Wanna Wait’ was picked for the Ministry of Sound Summer Anthems release, spending several weeks in the top 10 of the iTunes charts.

Now fresh from a songwriting stint in Sweden, ALIUS is back home and ready to step out of the studio and onto the stage.

The new single from ALIUS is ‘Houdini’, a vibrant upbeat pop track cleverly expressing that a commitment can turn into a disappearing act. Bringing it to life are the vocals from Newcastle’s BOI, who co-wrote ‘Houdini’ with Sebastian after the pair formed an instant connection. The tune is fun, addictive and upbeat, but written from Sebastian’s own experience of relationships. When he was faced with too much commitment he would disappear, and when he wasn’t getting enough commitment he would reappear, ‘just like Houdini’. In song, the message expressed: “You come and you go, stay and you leave me, yeah you’re smoke and you’re mirrors just like Houdini,” as BOI sings. It was released 1 month ago, already clocking up great numbers on Spotify and hitting radio on KIIS FM, The Hit Network and now Nova Australia wide.

Next is ‘Almost There’, a punchy, addictive anthem about pushing yourself to the next level. “I was turning red / ‘cause I held my breath / Now I’ve found the way / I have better days / learned from my mistakes,” Swedish vocalist CILVR coos. As Sebastian tells it, ‘Almost There’ is a track for anyone who’s ever set their mind to a goal and worked for it. “It’s definitely something I think people who are driven and have passion in their lives will connect to,” he says.

The music of ALIUS taps into a wide range of human experiences: friendships, family, aspirations, expectations, hope and disappointment. “With ALIUS, it’s about the experience of life,” Sebastian says. “It’s not just about the whole love thing, or hate, or partying. It’s about the complications of life, its contrasts and what it’s all about. It’s an expression of the stories that I’ve gone through and I feel as though other people have gone through as well”.

The result is music that will make you feel as much as it makes you move. Take a listen and dive into the inner workings of ALIUS.