interview by Ben Gomori
Axwell and his friends Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso have seen a meteoric rise to fame since they first began to appear on the global consciousness in 2004. All three have had impressive solo careers (and continue to do so) but are a truly unstoppable force together as The Swedish House Mafia. Ahead of their Ibiza residency this summer, we chatted to Axwell to find out what makes him and the others tick and about what he feels is his role within the collective. With his hands in several house pies, the dynamic Swede is quite clearly as good an entrepreneur as he is a party fuelling DJ and producer . We caught up with him to find out about everything that he’s got going on, including his new Axtone label compilation...
How’s things?
Little bit of a headache after our Ibiza opening yesterday.
How was it?
Yeah, really nice. It was a good opening. Let the summer games begin.
So you’re feeling a bit tired today?
Yeah, like it should be, ‘cause we played from three till seven in the morning.... so it’s rather late.
So are you back in Sweden now?
No, no – I’m still in Ibiza.
Are you guys there for the summer?
No, we go a little bit back and forth. Well I play pretty much every day anyway.
Would you ever live permanently anywhere else or do you always need that kind of familiarity of home?
I really like that. I think I like that more than I thought. Like before I started DJing a lot and I wasn’t travelling at all I used to think I wanted to live somewhere else but the more I started to travel the world, the more I started to like home. So I think you’re right, I need that familiarity.
I wanted to ask how the three of you met initially. I don’t actually know and I just remember your names appearing together more and more…
I moved to Stockholm maybe ten years back or something like that, from Northern Sweden where I lived before. I used to make my own music but back then there wasn’t many people making house music in Stockholm - so we kind of found out about each other you know. Me, Steve, Seb and Eric Prydz as well. So that we all made the same kind of electronic music and that’s how we got to know each other. And then it sort of developed into a longer friendship and here we are today working together with Swedish House Mafia and having our own night and singles and what-not. So it’s been kind of a nice development.
So what would you say is the difference in personality between the three of you?
There’s a lot of difference. I guess I’m a little bit more calm, I guess. Calm compared to those two at least. Steve and Seb, I would say, are kind of similar to each other. Seb is a guy that very much listens to his intuition. He uses a lot of feeling and intuition. I probably think in an analysing way a little bit more and Steve, I guess is a mixture of both. We’re rather different but we share a lot of things too, our interests and we’ve been getting along for ten or twelve years so I’m sure there’s lots of similarities that click.
Leading on from that, out of the three of you, you’ve been the one to generally do the really big room, more vocal, kind of anthem stuff when you’ve worked on your own. Do you think that is something to do with your personalities that you love making that stuff so much. Or is it something else?
Well, I’ve always like songs I think and my personality is a little bit softer so I guess that’s why I’m more into chords and more musical elements. Steve and Seb also love that but they are also a little bit more crazy so that’s why their music sounds a little bit more crazy. That’s why the combination is really great when we come together to make a single like One. How it combines all of it, I find that a very interesting combination of stuff.
How does it work when the three of you DJ together? Who’s doing what or are you all doing stuff at the same time? How does it work?
Yeah, it’s just a mish-mash of a lot of stuff going on at the same time. When we DJ we just feed off each other and we have some idea of how the set will look. It’s very spontaneous and obviously we speak to each other about what we will play next and stuff. The funnest things are always when we just come up with stuff on the fly. You know when someone sticks on an accapella just by chance and then somebody loops the track at a certain point and it creates something magic – that’s the best part of it.
Do you find that some people are still surprised when they see the name Swedish House Mafia, and then they see your names and think they’re not Swedish names and they look at you and expect blonde hair and blue eyes? Do some people still have those conceptions do you think?
No, not in Europe.
In America?
Axwell: Not there either really. Maybe if you go to Indonesia or something, maybe they’ll have that picture. But over here, it’s all mixed everywhere. Nobody’s pure anything these days, we all become the same I think.
So, where are your guys’ parents from? Are they all from Sweden?
Yeah, my parents are from Sweden. Steve’s are Swedish and Greek and Seb’s are Swedish and Italian.
That explains the craziness then?
Axwell: Yeah!
Do you think there’s something to be said for the theory that Scandinavia produces quite a lot of good music because in the winter there, there’s nothing to do besides lock yourself in doors and make tunes?
Yeah, I think so. I think that’s a big part of it. Like you say, in winter there is nothing. Of course you can go and ski sometimes but you have to work. Not only the winter though. It’s pretty much the whole year except some sunny weeks during the summer. Most of the time it’s crap so you just find other stuff to do and music is a great way to escape reality.
So now you guys have signed with Virgin, I see they are already hooking you up with some of their other emerging artists. I heard Seb was doing something with Tinie Tempah. Are you taking every opportunity you can get to work with big names or are you turning some people down? How do you decide?
It’s not about the name, it’s about what they do I think. In the Tinie Tempah case, it was a case of us actually being in London when we did the Brixton Academy shows; we had an opportunity to work with him. And we always take any opportunity to make music. If it ends up good or bad, we don’t really care about the name so much. When we three work together, and you add a fourth it’s always interesting to see what comes out of it. Tinie Tempah is maybe not an expected person for us to collaborate with, so that’s what’s interesting to see what it can sound like when it comes out. We like to collaborate with interesting people I think.
Are you guys house music until you die or are we going to see you morphing into a band or live act one day?
That could be a possibility I think. But I guess the foundation will always be some sort of house, dance music. I mean that’s what we know. Even if we venture into other versions, there will always be house in the background, in the foundation. That’s what we know and that’s where we came from and we don’t want to turn our backs on that.
So you’ve got your Axtone label compilation out now. Are you going to continue to run the label and are you guys still totally free to pursue your separate solo interests?
Yeah. I have still have my label Axtone, signing artists, releasing tracks and remixing them and putting them on compilations like this. So do the other guys. That’s what’s nice about almost being like two people. I mean I have my Axwell thing, and I have another thing. It’s like having two jobs that I can combine really well and can feed off each other but I can also separate if I want.
Finally, I have to ask – what are you guys going to do with the fat pay cheque you guys no doubt got with the Virgin deal?
We’re going to blow it all on women and alcohol.
Good answer. That’s quite a lot of women and quite a lot of alcohol.
Not if it’s an expensive woman.
Axtone vol.1 mixed by Axwell is out now.