Steve Angello, one-third of the now disbanded Swedish House Mafia, but a dance music powerhouse in his own right, spoke to MTV recently about his past musical endeavors, admitting that most of his life has been spent “creating a vibe on the dancefloor.” Now that we’re nearing the release of Angello’s new LP, Wild Youth, set for late January 2016, the Swedish producer is opening up about everything that went into this album.
“I started three and a half years ago. I started it because I wanted to write something that had a meaning and I wanted to tell a story. I think a lot of music today is not really storytelling. A lot of people are just working with songwriters and producers and they get delivered something based upon a request from a record label and some input from the artist. So for me it’s really important to start from scratch.
“I sat down with a piece of paper and thought, what’s my story? What do I wanna talk about? I think that was a different aspect for me because I’ve made songs my whole life that have just been for partying and creating a vibe on the dance floor. But now, I actually wanted to do a real artist album that I felt that this is something special, not only for me but for the people around me. I can have people take part in this, and explain and tell something and they will actually get it.
“The process has been really hard, I thought I was done a year and a half ago but I listened back to the album and it was too similar to the stuff that I’d done previously so I scrapped pretty much half of the album and started over. It’s been really long but at the same time it’s been really emotional and like a self-discovery trip for me where I’ve actually figured out myself which is awesome.”
Considering Steve Angello has caught plenty of hate from the dance world’s keyboard warriors, this genuine direction and conviction is deeply touching. He understands full well the state-of-affairs within “EDM” and realizes it takes more than a Twitter rant to make some change.
“Me going on a rant on social media about dance music isn’t gonna change anything unless I do. I have that approach, I’d rather put my head down and go and work my ass off and then I can release music that has substance instead.”
There have also been plenty of rumors circulating about a Justin Bieber collab, which would make sense considering Scooter Braun manages them both. So when hit with the inevitable question of working with Bieber, it was quite a shock to hear Angello sticking to his values.
“No, I mean, he knows I would never do that, I don’t think he would ever ask me. At the same time they appreciate the work that we put into it and they understand the craft of it, where this is a life story, this is something that I’ve been trying to tell people for my whole life and now I’ve finally got to the time where I can tell it so for them it’s equally interesting with just having something with a lot of substance than just pushing one radio record.”
All in all, we couldn’t be more excited for Wild Youth and Steve Angello‘s new trajectory. Have a listen to Wild Youth Part 1 above, and be sure to pre-order the album in full on iTunes.
