Dance music god Axwell, in town to meet Bollywood bigwigs, says that by the time people proclaim his kind of music is dead, it has already re-invented itself
Pic/Sayed Sameer Abedi
People in America live in a bubble,” says Axel Christofer Hedfors, aka Axwell, also an artiste formerly known as Swedish House Mafia (formed of Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso), and currently also known as Axwell Λ Ingrosso. “They said a year ago that Electronic Dance Music was dead. What happened to that statement? By the time someone puts that in print and a person reads that, the genre has already re-invented itself.”
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We are sitting at a Lower Parel five-star talking music as Axwell has been brought down by Tanaaz Bhatia of Bottomline Media (who also brought down the Vamps last year) in India for a gig, and to meet a few Bollywood bigwigs. “I am meeting Shankar Ehsaan Loy today. This is the first time I am getting time to think about doing stuff here. Usually, it’s touch and go, and I haven’t got into it. But yes, am now here, and open to collaborations,” says the four-time Grammy Award-nominated, and two-time DJ Awards Best House DJ winner. The Stockholm-resident really started making waves in 2004 with the massive hit Feel The Vibe. Later, he formed Swedish House Mafia whose biggest hit was the 2012 chart-topping Don't You Worry Child. After they split in 2013, he, as Axwell Λ Ingrosso, has given hits such as On My Way and This Time.
We now live in a world where the lines between commercial pop music and EDM (House/Techno/Trance) have blurred considerably in the past few years, with artists such as Justin Bieber jumping on to the Tropical House bandwagon, and almost every pop singer having at least one dance track in their repertoire. But Axwell thinks its just a good thing. “Things are moving so fast these days. If you have a sound from the underground that’s attractive, pop stars are going to want to jump on that for their next pop fix. If there is like one Skrillex, who has a certain sound, then there will like 100 Skrillex making the same music. All sounds and genres are open now, and that is kind of nice. Because before, when you made house or progressive house, you had to be inside the lines. But now it’s more free,” says the 39-year-old.
Ask him if that may lead to an EDM burnout and he doesn’t seem pessimistic. “There will be people who branch out and experiment and go ahead. And there will be people who will take their place and do what they used to do. So it’s a cycle, it keeps going on. It’s like a living organism.”
Axwell, who started playing the drums at the age of 9, says he grew up listening to the likes of Dire Straits, the early albums of Michael Jackson and Europe. “I was listening to music that was good to play drums to,” he smiles. It was when he was 13 that he shifted his attention to the computer and computer game music. “I used to play a lot of computer games, and the music that formed the background on such games was attractive to me. I am sure people were doing electronic music then and people like Jean-Michel Jarre doing some synth stuff, but I didn’t know that music. My introduction to electronic music came from computer music. And then I decided to replicate that on the computer. And it was hard, almost impossible to recreate the melody. Now I can create whatever I want, but that road was very long,” he laughs.
He has come a long way from Feel The Vibe, which was a poppy, light dance song to songs like Barricade and Can’t Hold Us Down, which are darker and harder. “Sometimes you want to make songs like that which are more aggressive, because when you play for bigger arenas, you need a sound that can fill up the audience. Lighter songs don’t do that well.” But he does admit that his sound has softened now, and he — surprise, surprise — likes Tropical House. “I like the softer vibe. People heard Tropical House and realised EDM can be softer. EDM is like a wave, it changes sound.”
As far as India goes, he thinks this is where the future of EDM exists. He calls the fans crazy for the music, and hence, the best type of people to play for. “Asia is where it’s at — India and South Korea specifically,” he says. To end, he parts with some wise words for all electronic music DJs and that’s to live life like he does, in his own musical bubble. “Don’t copy people or follow a trend. Just do what you have to. That’s the best way to make the best music.”
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