Superstar DJ trio Swedish House Mafia reckon they have created a new musical genre with their summer club track One (Your Name). Featuring Pharrell on vocals it’s their first official release and they believe it’s a totally new sound. Producer Axwell is one third of the group: “It’s a new genre we made up, we’re calling it brave – it’s not rave it’s a little bit more ballsy than that so that’s why it’s called brave. “We thought of that five minutes ago. We like it a lot.” Dance ‘supergroup’ Swedish House Mafia is made up of DJs and producers Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso. Between them they have worked with and remixed Madonna, Temper Trap, Pharrell, N*E*R*D, David Guetta and Miike Snow.
On top of all that, Sebastian Ingrosso has produced tracks on Kylie’s new album. Pharrell has collaborated with Swedish House Mafia on One (Your Name). Axwell told Newsbeat they came together as a group naturally: “We didn’t decide to team up so it’s not like we’re a manufactured boy band. It’s been an ongoing process from 2000. “We’ve all been friends, sharing knowledge about music, working together and then we started DJ’ing together and started to take it more seriously.” He admitted they have been overwhelmed by the interest in them: “The demand has been massive so we’re just following the monster of Swedish House Mafia, just tagging along.” Pharrell who lends the vocals on the track has worked with Axwell and Steve Angelo in the past.
Angelo said they wanted to do something different with the rapper: “We wanted to use him more as an instrument. We wanted to create a house record like they did back in the day when they cut up a vocal and used it through the whole beat. We wanted to shock people.” And their collaboration has cemented their friendship or should we say ‘bromance’: “He loves it, he loves the stuff we’ve all done and he’s a big fan and we’re a big fan of him – we’re having a bromance.” They have a reputation for putting on a big show when they play at clubs. Angelo said they try to make it a full-on experience: “It’s very intense, there’s a lot of energy we rarely give the crowd a moment to breathe. It’s full on for 2-3 hours.
It’s New Year’s eve, it’s fireworks it’s one thing after another.” “We work really hard and I think that we’ve hit something now that we’re going to run with and see where it takes us.” They are playing Pacha in Ibiza every Monday this summer and they are hosting their own tent at Creamfields. But they admit the power of three does cause a stir from their competition: “A lot of people are intimidated by us because there are three of us,” said Angelo. Axwell adds: “In a way the intimidation is nice because it becomes more massive when we are three on stage.” But those intimidated be warned, they aren’t going anywhere: “We work really hard and I think that we’ve hit something now that we’re going to run with and see where it takes us.”