Moving House

The now defunct Swedish House Mafia.
Source: Supplied

Steve Angello was one third of stadium-filling DJs Swedish House Mafia and he totally agrees with you.

“I’m a little allergic to where dance is going now,” Angello says.

“The demand for electronic music is still there but the artists need to step up their game and try different things. It all sounds the same. That is what is eventually going to kill the scene, because people are not going to be able to tell who has done what.

“I’ve been part of making dance music mainstream,” he continues. “But at the same time if you listen to Swedish House Mafia songs they all sound different. Greyhound is different to Antidote, One is different to Don’t You Worry Child or Save the World. I feel people are repeating themselves too much, because they’re busy touring or it works for the moment. Back in the` 80s and `90s people created songs differently, when you hear those songs you know every single word. What’s big now in dance music, I’m not going to remember that in 10 years. That’s what is killing the scene. So many guys are just redoing what everyone else is doing, it’s overkill of repeat. For a fan, maybe they’re not super excited to go to festivals because all the music sounds the same. That’s why I love indie music so much, I can go see Temper Trap or Arcade Fire and it’s all different. That’s why I fell in love with music. Today you can’t even tell which artist is on which track, they all sound the same.

“Chic had their own sound, Stevie Wonder had their own sound, Michael Jackson had his own sound. That’s what is missing today. You have to create your own sound. Daft Punk owned their sound. Dance people should get inspired by that, jump in the studio and create their signature sound and not just repeat what’s already out there.”

Angello is working on an antidote to generic dance music – his first album since Swedish House Mafia split last year.

He’s using his downtime in Australia on the Big Day Out to finish it, with a release date in the first half of 2014 planned.

“This album is not one of those five pop stars and me releases,” he says.

“I’m trying to stay away from creating McDonalds. I miss music, I miss instrumentation, I miss bands like Pink Floyd. I miss all of those synth experimental trips. I’ve gone a little indie with this album. It’s very minimal in production, I hold back a lot. It’s very scaled down, very melodic. It’s a little melancholic. I’m a moody person. I’m trying to reflect that as well. I’m Swedish. It’s dark 90 per cent of the year there. That definitely comes through. There’s still those big moments, but it’s not an attempt to create another hit song. I don’t want to repeat what we did with Swedish House Mafia. I want to find my own two legs as an artist. It’s exciting to go back into the lab and disconnect and do something new and fresh and something I love the process of.”

Anyone expecting 10 variations of Don’t You Worry Child will be disappointed.

“It’s not an attempt to create pop or hit songs, it’s straight music. This has been something I’ve wanted to do my whole life but I’ve never had the guts to do it. I risk everything to be creative. I feel it’s time for change in my career. I want to make a real artist album and not just throw out 15 dance songs. There’s so much more that has happened in my last 15 years as a musician that I want to get out. I think it’s important.

I want to dig into the writing and meaning. Every song has a story. You’re working on something that tells a story about your life, which can be awkward.”

Angello won’t play much from the album during his Big Day Out sets, but you will hear rebooted versions of Swedish House Mafia favourites, and new material from his labour of love record label Size.

“I have never made a penny from Size,” Angello says.

“ I spend it on videos or visuals or what’s coming next. It’s a never ending loop and you shouldn’t stop that loop because you lose your faith otherwise. When I grew up I felt free making music. Nobody told me what to do, I didn’t have a path to follow. We can forget that. If I need to make money, I’m away from my family 200 days a year, I can probably find another way to make money. I spend ridiculous amounts of money on being creative, getting the right visual guys and camera crew and the right creative director for a project. I invest a lot of money in that, it has to move forward. My team are working to be creative. This is so far from a traditional record label. The process can start with me finding a font I like, all of a sudden I find a song to match the font. We work completely opposite to everybody else.”

As well as running Size, Angello has a creative agency who make ads for Nike, Adidas and Audi.

“We do a lot of big brands and that feeds back into the music for me, it’s a different form of marketing. I’ve learnt how important it is to be innovative. I change my logo every year. I change my art direction every year. I change my colour schemes every year. It’s like a fashion brand. It’s for me to feel fresh all the time. I see some DJ logos who’ve had the same logo for ten years. They’ll say `Yeah, but it works, it sells merch, it’s all good’. But for me I can’t see my logo after one year, I think it’s disgusting!”

SEE
Steve Angello, Big Day Out, Flemington Racecourse, tomorrow. Sydney Showground Sunday. Adelaide Bonython Park January 31. Perth Arena Joondalup February 2. $ 185-$ 285, bigdayout.com

www.news.com.au/entertainment/music