Originally published January 30, 2024. Rewritten October 8, 2026.
People use “progressive house” to mean a lot of different things. I can only tell you what it means when I’m the one making it. For me it comes down to three habits.
Long builds
The first is time. A progressive track changes gradually. Parts come in and drop out a few at a time, so you feel the track move without being able to point to the bar where it happened.
I like builds that take a while. If the payoff arrives too early it hasn’t been set up, and I’d rather make you wait another eight bars than rush it.
Melody first
Melody comes first for me. That doesn’t always mean it’s written first. A track can start from a chord progression, a bass line or a drum groove. It means that once there’s a melody, every other part is there to support it, and anything competing with it gets turned down or taken out.
The trance influence
Armin van Buuren and Tiësto are two of my biggest influences, and it shows. What I take from trance is the idea that a lead line can carry the emotion of a track by itself, without a lyric explaining it. A lot of what I make sits somewhere between house and trance for that reason.
Where you can hear it
Something More is the release I’d call progressive house without adding any qualifiers, so start there.
Beyond the Stars, which came out in October 2026, leans further toward trance. It’s a progressive trance instrumental with no vocals and no topline, so the melody has to carry the whole track. The piano solo is where it opens up. I built it to be played start to finish.
Faded, my cover of the Alan Walker song with Italian singer-songwriter KEL, is future rave, so it isn’t progressive house at all. I’m including it because the shape is related: driving beats, a big build-up, and a chorus that works as the release.