Canadian producer Conro was always something of a prodigy — he began playing violin at seven years old and joined the Saskatoon Youth Symphony orchestra. He also began playing piano, guitar and the drums. He first ventured out as a folk artist, under the name he was born with: Conor Patton. (He self-released two folk albums, and you can still check out his folk profile on Myspace.) When Conro started producing, he released more straight-up house music on Armada, Revealed and WOLV. His collaboration with Dyro, “Bittersweet,” is his biggest hit yet; with 1 million streams on Spotify, it’s also gotten live plays from Hardwell and David Guetta.

Last year, Conro decided to change courses and develop a new, sophisticated, downtempo style — it’s electronice music still, sure, but it’s soulful and smooth. His remixes (such as the official ULTRA Miami 2016 anthem “Something About You” by Paris Blohm f/ Blondfire) transform the songs while still keeping their essence.

Conro talks to Myspace about his evolution as a producer; his favorite cities to play in and when we can expect his album.

Hometown: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Homebase: Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

Where is the name Conro from? Is it dyslexic for Conor?

Indeed it is a dyslexic Conor. I was saving my Folk music on my computer as Conor Patton, but every time I spelt Conor my fingers just wanted to spell Conro. So I decided that if I ever make another project I was going to call it that... And CONRO was born.

How would you describe your style of music to someone who'd never heard you before?

Uh, I think I would start by calling it Easy Listening Dance Electronic Future Infused Indie Pop...I call it ELDEFIIP [laughs]. I've always found it difficult to describe my music; it's pretty chill dance music, I suppose, with lots of melody, simply put.

As a kid you played in an orchestra, then had a stint as a folk singer and produced two folk albums. When did you realize you wanted to DJ?

I realized I wanted to pursue electronic music when I was playing in my last band. We had been working together for a long time, but during that time I was also putting lots of time and research into my electronic productions. The more time I was putting towards my side project Conro, the less time I had for my band writing. It was a slow progression into Conro, but over time it was the right decision. Not to mention I was very excited pursuing something so new and interesting.

What was your first life-changing EDM experience like?

First EDM experience I ever had was when I was a kid. Around grade seven or eight, I downloaded a program called Fruity Loops (FL Studio) and messed around with sounds and synths. I was fascinated by this program, loved the concept of this way of creating music. I didn't initially continue down this path of pursuing EDM, but pursued other areas of writing music (rock/folk/indie/alternative). I later rediscovered another program called Logic years later, and this is where things became serious.

Do you like DJing, producing or playing instruments best?

My favorite varies daily. If I find myself in front of a grand piano, I will sit and play and get lost for hours. Creating new melodies, stretching my fingers and diving into the music. By no means am I a phenomenal pianist, I just love to play music. But somedays all I want to do is write a new production, often this is a combination of playing instruments (guitar, piano, drums etc.) and producing. It just requires a lot more brain power to produce a full song. So it just varies. Music is such a privilege to be a part of, I'm pretty stoked just to be around it however that may be.

Who would you love to collaborate with? Whose songs do you love to remix?

I would love to collaborate with Odesza, Louis the Child, Porter Robinson. There are so many talented people, hard to list them all here! I love remixing records that have unique vocals, something with all the emotion right there in the lyrics and melody then I can really dive in and build the track around that. Artists that have this would be like Flume, Kaskade, Odesza, ZHU. Would love to get my hands on any one of these guys future productions to remix!

What's your favorite city in the world to play in?

My favorite city I've played in so far was LA — the energy was crazy, and lots of friends are from there so it always makes for a good time!

Which is your least favorite?

That's a tricky one. I don't want to be that guy who says everything is awesome, but I haven't really been to too many cities that I wouldn't want to go back to. My least favorite show though was in my hometown, but that's a story for another time...

What do you do for fun, when you're not producing music?

I enjoy longboarding downtown, getting donairs or Vietnamese pho. I'm not the best golfer in the world, but I really do like a round of golf with some friends, beers and sunshine. Also hard to beat a good day at the beach!

What piece of gear could you not live without?

I really need my MIDI keyboard. It's not irreplaceable or anything, I think it was around $100, but I've tried to write music by drawing in the notes into my programs but it just doesn't work for me. I need to play it out live and feel how it sounds on my mini piano first!

When can we expect your album?

I do think that I will be releasing an album by the end of the year.