ROMAN CIGI: "Music is the one thing in this world that genuinely makes sense to me"
- Soundevote
- Jun 7
- 10 min read
Updated: Jun 13
ROMAN CIGI is a London-based artist, producer, DJ, and the founder of Soundevote — the independent label he built from scratch in 2017. Over nearly a decade, he's moved from his first DJ controller to CDJs, from experimenting with genres to finding his home in techno, tech-house, and progressive. His track "I'm Alive" took three years to finish and passed a million plays on VEVO. This is his story in his own words.
🎤 You're an artist, producer, DJ, and the founder of Soundevote — that's a lot of hats. Where did the journey begin, and how did all these roles naturally come together into one path?
It all started when I moved to the UK in 2015. The first couple of years were mostly about adjusting — new environment, new people, new language. Music came shortly after. In 2016, I bought my first DJ controller, not the standard club Pioneer CDJs, but the NI Kontrol S8 — Native Instruments' flagship at the time. I loved the interface, but it was laptop-dependent, which had its limitations. Three years later I made the move to CDJs — the industry standard you find in every serious club setup — and started mixing on both, which gave me a much broader feel for what professional DJing actually demands.
DJing was satisfying, but something was always missing. Playing other people's music wasn't enough. So in 2017 I moved into production, started experimenting across genres, and quickly realised which world I actually wanted to live in — the underground. Techno, tech-house, progressive. Not commercial, even though I enjoy it.
Soundevote also started in 2017, and honestly, it was a real dilemma at the time. If I knew then what I know now about the music industry and what running a label actually takes — the time, the money, the learning curve — I'd probably hesitate. But I don't regret it for a second. Music is the one thing in this world that genuinely makes sense to me, and everything else just followed from that.
🎤 What's the story behind the name ROMAN CIGI — is it purely a stage identity, or does it carry a deeper personal meaning?
It's actually quite simple, and a little funny. My real name is Roman Cigan. Growing up, my friends always called me "Cigi" — just a nickname that stuck from childhood. When it came to choosing an artist name, I didn't want something invented or completely detached from who I am. So I kept Roman, shortened Cigan to Cigi, and put it all in capitals. ROMAN CIGI. Real name plus childhood nickname — that's it.
I've never found another artist with that name, which matters to me. It's unique, but it's also genuinely mine.
🎤 Soundevote sits firmly in the electronic space — house, techno, tech-house, EDM. How would you describe where ROMAN CIGI specifically sits within that world? Is there a signature feeling you always chase in your productions?
After years of experimenting across different genres, I found where I actually belong — techno, tech-house, melodic techno, progressive, with some trance elements thrown in. The most accurate description is probably somewhere between Tech-Trance and a combination of Techno, Trance, and Progressive. What they all share is energy. Nothing I make sits below 125 BPM. Right now I'm working in the 128–133 range, but I want to push further — closer to 145 — and keep evolving that sound.
As for the feeling I chase — it goes beyond genre. The music I care most about is the kind that helps people escape the daily chaos that surrounds us. Not escape in an avoidance sense, but finding the strength to face difficult things and knowing when to let go. That thread runs through everything I make. "I'm Alive" is probably the most direct expression of it — a track that took three years to finish and started from a very personal place. But that same feeling is in everything, whether people recognise it or not.
🎤 Walk us through how a ROMAN CIGI track is born — do you start with a groove, an atmosphere, or something completely different? And what does your studio setup look like right now?
I don't use templates, and I don't follow a fixed method — everything I know about production I taught myself through experimenting. Over eight years, I've built a serious library of samples, sounds, and effects, and that's usually where a track starts — digging through that arsenal until something sparks.
The process is like solving a puzzle. You have all these pieces in front of you, and you're not always sure what the picture looks like until you start placing them. Sometimes it begins with a melody, sometimes a kick pattern, sometimes just a weird effect that suggests a direction. There's no rule. And sometimes the track tells you its own name halfway through — that's happened more than once.
The studio setup is deliberately simple: Ableton Live, my sample library, good monitors, and professional headphones. No external hardware, no complex routing. To give you a sense of the scale — a recent project ran to 54 tracks in Ableton, with the extended club version reaching 70. That level of depth is possible without a single piece of external gear. I'm considering adding a hardware synthesiser at some point, but right now I'm deep in projects, and the tools I have are more than enough. Imagination matters more than gear.
🎤 Soundevote was founded in 2017 and all your releases go through it. What's the advantage of having full creative and business control, and what's the part people don't see — the unglamorous reality of running an indie label?
Everything has its pros and cons — having a label included. The obvious advantage is control: creative decisions, release timing, who you work with, and how you present everything. Nobody else is steering the ship.
But the part people don't see is the weight of it. More responsibility, more paperwork, more time, more money going out before anything comes back in. Over the years, we've tested a lot of services, run campaigns, made mistakes, and learned from them. Not everything worked, and that's just part of it.
I treat Soundevote more like a serious passion project than a traditional business. What it's given me more than anything is a deep understanding of how this industry actually works — and how deep the rabbit hole goes. Success in music means something different to everyone. For some, it's revenue, for others, it's the experience of being part of it. I'm closer to the second camp. That said, one lesson has become very clear over the years: life is too short to invest your energy somewhere it isn't appreciated. You choose where your time goes.
🎤 AI is becoming impossible to ignore in music — from composition tools to mastering platforms to generative sound design. As both a producer and label owner, what's your honest take? Is AI a tool you've embraced, something you're cautious about, or both?
I'll be honest — I can't imagine making music any other way than inside a DAW. For me, that's Ableton Live.
People generating tracks in Suno or Udio and uploading them directly to Spotify without ever touching a DAW — I don't consider that music production. You're typing a prompt and getting an output. That's not cutting samples, editing arrangements, or building a sound from scratch. Companies like Suno will tell you otherwise, because it's good for their business. But what's good for their business isn't necessarily good for music.
That said, I tried Suno out of curiosity — it was cheap, around $10 a month. And I'll admit, some of what it generated was interesting. But it felt completely hollow. No matter how detailed the prompt, it could never produce what's actually in my head. For any producer working seriously in a DAW, these tools will never replace the process.
Where I draw my personal line: up to around 15–20% AI assistance in a track is fine — whether that's AI-assisted mastering, sound processing, whatever. Beyond 50%, I wouldn't call it music production. That's just my view.
What genuinely concerns me is something bigger. One person can now run ten AI artist profiles, release music under fake identities, farm streams, and collect royalties. I've seen it happen in real time — a band page created six weeks ago, nearly 200K Facebook followers, 100K streams on Spotify. Red flags everywhere. This isn't music — it's a content machine, and it devalues everything real artists put into their work. Platforms like Spotify need to get serious about this, and fast. Right now, fewer than 5% of artists on the platform earn anything close to a livable income from it.
Soundevote's position is simple: we don't work with AI-generated artists, we don't release tracks built entirely by algorithms, and we never will. Our music is made the old-fashioned way. AI can be a small tool in the box — not the box itself.
AI isn't going away. I'm not naive about that. But knowing what it is, how it works, and where it's being abused — that's what every artist and listener should be paying attention to right now.
🎤 As a DJ, you're reading a room in real time. What kind of moment are you trying to create on a dancefloor — is there one gig or set that still stands out as the best one so far?
Reading the room is everything. If the crowd isn't connecting with what you're playing, you change direction — full stop. Some DJs stick rigidly to their prepared setlist regardless of the energy in the room. I understand that approach, but it's not mine anymore. Every event is different. Different crowd, different venue, different vibe. You have to be present enough to feel that and respond.
I've had a few gigs that each left their own mark. One of the early ones was at The Phoenix in High Wycombe — a great pub with a real atmosphere, where I played a house set that genuinely clicked with the crowd. That place has since shut down, which is a shame. Then there was Ministry of Sound in London — an iconic venue, and a solid experience, though honestly not the most memorable night personally. The one that sticks most is Ibiza, at a small club called Itaca Beach. I played a latin house and tech-house set there, and everything just worked — the vibe, the crowd, the energy. That turned out to be my last live club gig before Covid changed everything.
One thing I'll say honestly — live performance and studio production are completely separate headspaces for me. When you're playing live, you're reading the room and selecting tracks in real time. That experience has never really filtered back into how I make music in the studio. I know that might surprise some people, but I'd rather be honest about where ideas actually come from than give the expected answer.
Since then, it's been studio work, studio mixes, and production — which I've genuinely enjoyed. But getting back out to live gigs is something I'm keeping open. Watch this space.
🎤 What's been the single hardest moment or period in your career, and what pulled you through it?
2020, and it goes well beyond the career.
I was diagnosed with ME/CFS — Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome. It brings extreme exhaustion, physical and mental, and the effects can last for months or years. Mine have continued.
What pulled me through it — at least in part — was making music about it. In 2021 I started working on a track called "I'm Alive." Not as a statement, not as a comeback story, just as a way of processing what I was going through. The track took three years to finish. It came out on VEVO in October 2024 and went past a million plays. Brosso's remix followed and crossed 500,000 streams. I still find those numbers difficult to fully take in.
The music video deserves its own story. We filmed across three locations in the UK — London, High Wycombe, and Salisbury. The Salisbury shoot involved a 15,000-foot skydive over Old Sarum Airfield. Four cinematographers, two models, multiple organisations, and the kind of unpredictable English weather that laughs at any schedule. I edited the final piece myself in DaVinci Resolve. It moves the way the music does — fast when it needs to be, still when it has to be.
I want to be clear about what "I'm Alive" is and isn't. It's not a triumph. It's not a motivational poster. It's an acknowledgement. Life is difficult, circumstances don't always improve, and some battles are ongoing. The track doesn't promise resolution. What I wanted it to say — and I think it does — is simply: no matter how difficult life gets, we keep going. Because we're here and we're alive.
That's enough. It has to be.
🎤 If a talented producer came to you tomorrow asking how to navigate the independent music world in 2026 — releases, distribution, promotion — what's the most honest advice you'd give them?
First thing I'd say: I'm not going to promise you streams, gigs, or fame. Nobody should. If someone leads with that, walk away.
Talent in 2026 is a great starting point, but it's not enough on its own. You need people around you — the right people. Nobody builds anything alone, no matter what they tell you. The music industry has always had gatekeepers, and while the tools have changed dramatically, that reality hasn't.
The most important thing is your mindset. Do it because you love it. If that's genuinely why you're there, everything else becomes clearer.
Practically speaking, consistency and discipline matter more than almost anything. Once your music is ready, you have two main routes. A distributor gives you independence and 100% of your revenue — ideal if you have a marketing budget and some industry knowledge already. A record label offers a different kind of support: promotion, editorial coverage, network, and feedback. The right label invests in your career, not just your track count. The wrong one treats you like a number.
My honest advice — test both. Release something through a distributor, explore a label deal. See what fits. And don't assume bigger always means better. A label with hundreds of artists on their roster is focused on their established names. Sometimes, a smaller label that genuinely cares about a few artists will do more for you than a big name that barely knows you exist.
Above all: quality over quantity. We're drowning in new releases every day. The ones that cut through are the ones that actually say something.
🎤 What's coming next for ROMAN CIGI and Soundevote — new music, new artists on the label, new directions? What should people be watching out for?
A lot is moving, and I'll be honest — I'm keeping some of it deliberately close to my chest. I prefer to surprise rather than be predictable. Predictable is boring, and there's too much of that in music right now.
What I can say: new ROMAN CIGI music is coming. Collaborations, new releases, studio gigs, and potentially live gigs — all in motion. "I'm Alive" is still finding new listeners, and that project continues to mean a lot to me. If anything, it set a standard I want to hold myself to — music that comes from somewhere real, not just something that fills a release schedule.
On the Soundevote side, the editorial platform is expanding. We're growing the blog to cover artists at every level — emerging producers, established DJs, anyone doing something genuinely interesting. Interviews, reviews, honest conversations about music and the industry. The goal is a platform with real value, not just content for its own sake.
The doors are open to artists who want to be part of what we're building — whether that's a release, coverage, or a collaboration. We're selective, but we're always listening.
Stay tuned. Some of what's coming, you won't see coming. And if I can leave you with one thing — find what makes sense in your life. Embrace the moment. You're still here.
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