After giving a thrilling performance at a car launch event in Delhi, we caught up with the Swedish artiste backstage. By Team Viva
Ever since his former group, Swedish House Mafia, separated, Axwell has continued to take his music to new heights. Performing at the launch of Maruti Suzuki’s Ignis, the producer and DJ has become amazingly popular and has managed to develop a huge fan base in India. The Swedish House Mafia forerunner has forever taken a keen interest in the country and on numerous occasions professed his love for the same.
When asked about the possibility of incorporating Hindi vocals in his music, he said, “I have been trying to figure this out, but you know it is so hard because I don’t understand the language. I would love to take some vocals from here and there which I’ve heard in the Indian songs, but since I don’t understand I might take a really weird sentence you know, and that won’t make any sense. So, it is kind of a hard thing to do.”
His latest video with Maruti Suzuki Ignis has already received more than 10 million views on YouTube.
Axwell has been performing for Indian audiences since 2012 when he toured with Swedish House Mafia, and with Sebastian Ingrosso in 2014 as Axwell /\ Ingrosso. The DJ also opened about his inspirations. “I get inspired by everything. But then again I just get inspired while I am making music, I get inspired by the music itself. And sometimes you are in a mode when you feel personal and emotional, which is when you make certain tracks, and then sometimes you are in a more rave mode where you make music like a banger where you know people will go crazy. So it just depends on the state of mind.”
Sweden has a record of producing a lot of talented pop and dance writers. Giving a reason behind that, Axwell said, “Sweden is a small country, so possibilities have been limited here in the past, so you try finding ways to strive to become something and be able to go outside in the big world. And because the weather is awful, we kind of live inside our heads in the wintertime and end up in a dream world. Music is a great way to escape. We also have a lot of musical heritage from folk music to Abba. And in public schools there are a lot of music classes. So, it’s a couple of things.”
Talking about his early days of creating music, he said, “I have been creating music from as long as I can remember. As a child, game music always attracted me. Gradually I began learning how to create music on a computer. Then one day I came to know about a software in which I can mix tracks. I learned how to use it and since then I have been creating music and initially I played as a club DJ and eventually started playing in the festivals.”
Axwell believed that EDM has come a long way and he can not even imagine what this has in store for the future. “This is one genre which has evolved so rapidly that one can’t speak of. Earlier dance music was the only part of this genre but now there are numerous styles and it is simply amazing,” the DJ concluded.