Avicii’s hit song that he’s sick of
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Two organs down … Swedish DJ Avicii is back to top health and ready to tour again.
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IN the end, while he ignored everyone around him, it took Avicii’s own body to tell him he’d been pushing himself too hard.
In 2013, while in Australia for the Future Music Festival, the Swedish DJ and producer born Tim Bergling wound up hospitalised after severe gall bladder pains.
He cancelled a few dates but the show went on. And on and on, especially when Avicii overtook the success of his instrumental Levels with the global folk-goes-electro anthem Wake Me Up, an international No. 1 last year.
While touring his debut album True (also home to Addicted To You and Hey Brother), Avicii had flown to Miami for another supersized show befitting a superstar DJ.
However the workaholic was swiftly hospitalised again, this time both his pesky gall bladder and his appendix were removed.
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Almighty Avicii … lost his appendix. Picture: Jacob Schulman.
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Even then, loss of two organs wasn’t enough to derail Avicii.
“I’d had the surgery and I just kept going,” Avicii, 25, admits. “I was pushing myself a lot, I thought I could still do everything, I didn’t want to cancel anything, I didn’t want to reschedule anything. But towards the end of last year I was getting to a place where I needed to take some time off and everyone noticed that too.”
So for the first time in seven years Avicii said no. He says it’s been a revelation.
“I’ve never felt this well-rested since before I started my career,” he notes.
“Everything’s back to normal. I’d been struggling up and down with health issues, so I feel tremendously lucky that I haven’t done anything chronic.”
The DJ has hinted that some of the internal troubles were prompted by heavy drinking in his early days on the scene, where free alcohol and free time before hitting the decks in the wee hours of the morning were a bad combination.
Ready to party … Swedish DJ Avicii is coming back to Australia.
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“I’ve maybe had three or four drinks in the last three years,” he says. “I’ve been taking it easy for a while on the party side of things. This year I’ll definitely tour less, or tour smarter than I’ve done before. I’m looking after myself more, I’m working out, trying to keep up with all that while I’m on tour. That’s my New Year’s resolution.”
He’ll return to the Future Music Festival shortly, where Australia will get the first taste of his upcoming new album Stories.
Second release The Nights is already a top 10 hit in Australia, following first single The Days, which featured vocals from Robbie Williams.
The success of True has seen Avicii secure a string of A-list names for Stories — including Chris Martin of Coldplay, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day and even Jon Bon Jovi.
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Are you ready for an EDM JBJ? Bon Jovi gets his groove on with Avicii.
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“You can totally hear influences from both of us in the song,” he says. “We just have to get together to finish it, which has almost been impossible with both our schedules.”
The Billie Joe track is “the most pure rock moment on the album” while the collaboration with Chris Martin follows Avicii co-writing Coldplay’s hit A Sky Full Of Stars last year.
“It’s similar to A Sky Full Of Stars, but this one is more of a collaborative effort between me and Chris. With that song Chris had already written the lyrics, I remade the whole instrumental. This time around from the start we’ve done something together. We’ve done a bunch of stuff together that’s lying around, but nothing’s ever got to the point like this one is at now.”
Hebrew reggae rapper Matisyahu is another named linked to Stories, while Nile Rodgers, who worked on True, has hinted at being involved in the record.
Avicii factors that, depending on other peoples’ schedules, he’s got a few more months work before Stories is ready for release.
A workaholic … Avicii on the decks. Picture: Jacob Schulman
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“There are some surprise guests, some people who were on the last album, some new people. There’s almost a new person on every song, so many artists that I can’t even name everyone.
“It’s got everything from rock to more poppier stuff, more electronic stuff, stuff that I can’t even really explain, some rap stuff. There’s a lot of different inspirations playing along at the same time. Now I just have to decide which songs make it on the final cut.”
The success of Wake Me Up saw several acts suddenly introduce a folk or country feel to their electronic music. Avicii hints the sea-shanty feel of The Nights may be his last foray in that genre.
“It’s flattering when other people do that sound but it makes you want to do something new, in a good way. I feel it pushes me to keep exploring sounds. When one sound gets successful then it really forces me to come up with something new too. I make so much music, I don’t want to make the same thing twice. I might have a sound, like folk music influences or country, I’ll fiddle around with that until I feel I’ve got that right. When I feel I’ve got it right I’ll move onto something else. That’s how I work.”
Incredible show … are you ready for another huge Avicii live production show at Future?
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When Levels was a hit Avicii even the DJ himself knew it was overexposed.
“There’s no one who’s heard Levels more than me,’’ he told this writer in 2013. “A lot of people are sick of it, and I’m sick of it too.”
With Wake Me Up, he’s now moving it around his live show.
“I’ve had it pretty much everywhere in the set. It’s the biggest song I’ve done to date, obviously. So it’s one of the biggest moments, no matter where I put it. The more important thing is figuring out how the rest of the set is going to be. You have to live up to that moment with all your other songs, you can’t just pop that song early.”
There was one other positive from Avicii’s enforced break from touring — he got to say yes to working on Madonna’s new album Rebel Heart. He co-wrote the track Devil Pray and is expected to feature on more songs on the full album.
“I’ve had a lot of opportunities I haven’t taken to work with a lot of artists, because I’ve been on the road. The small amount of time I’ve had to make music I focused on making my own music.
“This was a new experience working on someone else’s album, I hadn’t worked in that fashion before. Obviously Madonna’s one of the most iconic artists of all time. She’s reinvented herself so many times, her resume is incredible and so impressive. It’s really hard to come up with bad things to say about her. I’ve always respected her so it was a lot of fun for me.’’
Avicii plays at Future Music Festivals at Royal Randwick Racecourse, Sydney, February 28. HBF Arena Joondalup, Perth March 1, Brisbane Showgrounds March 7, Flemington Racecourse Melbourne March 8 and Adelaide Showground March 9. Tix $ 159 + b/f, futuremusicfestival.com.au
More of Avicii’s hits in our Spotify playlist below:
