His highly charged sets infuse sexy vocal house with a deep driving bass that has the crowd electrified. He’s one of the exciting new breed of Swedish house producers pushing a unique sound across the globe, and he’s about to tour Australia for the very first time. Having just put the finishing touches to Ministry of Sound’s ‘Clubbers Guide to 2006’, Axwell speaks with ITM about how he got his break and what he has planned for the future.
AJ: Can you give us the low down on how it all began for you?
Shit man. That’s a tough question! I guess it began one rainy day when I made a bet with my parents that if I didn’t eat candy for a year I could get a drum kit. I got them when I was eight. I then traded them in for a computer and became a computer geek! Started making music on the computer which eventually became a houseish sort of sound. It then developed from there and now we’re here speaking on the phone like as if nothing has happened…
AJ: Who has been an inspiration to you?
So many people. Armand Van Helden was a huge inspiration, Daft Punk and a lot of unknown names. People who have just released one track here and there. Lately I’ve been inspired by Pharrell Williams from the Neptune’s and back in the day I was a Michael Jackson fan like everybody else.
AJ: Is there any specific era or genre that has influenced your present styles?
I would say disco. Disco is the biggest influence in house music in general. It has so many things in common with house. They just did it better back then!
AJ: You’ve already had a chart topper the world over with ‘Feel The Vibe’, how did it come about?
It was just a mistake. I was in London working with Erol Reed on another track. While he was warming up in the vocal booth he was fooling around and singing all the ‘Feel The Vibe’ stuff… I came home and didn’t do anything with the track for about 6 months. It was then that I needed some vocals for a new instrumental track I was working on. I remembered the session from London and dug up the warm up vocals. It was a sick coincidence that it all fitted!
AJ: Can you give us the run down on your brand new single ‘Watch The Sunrise’?
It’s a different vibe from Feel The Vibe… I had this nice instrumental track lying around in the studio and I was looking for the right vocal to fit over that. The obvious choice would be a sexy female Latin vocal. I tried to record that and it didn’t work. I ended up doing 4-5 different recordings before I realised that I needed Steve Edwards. His vocal would fit perfectly over it. I got hold of him in Sweden. I knew that I needed his vocals.
AJ: You’ve remixed for the likes of Roger Sanchez, Hard Fi, C-MOS, Sabor, Rasmus Faber, Moby, Usher, Faith Evans and Room 5 with major success… What’s next?
The last thing I did was remix Deep Dish’s ‘Dreams’ and Pharrell’s new single ‘Angel’. I’m now just focusing on my own future songs. I’ve done the remixes I want. I’ve finished with that!
AJ: Are we going to see the AXER – 1.2.3 Ep alongside Eric Prydz for the Pryda label down under?
For sure!
AJ: How did you and Eric collaborate?
We’ve been friends for quiet some time. We’ve worked together, we have studios in the same area. I’m going over to him taking a coffee and he’s coming over to me with a coffee. This project came along because I had some basic ideas leading more towards his style. So I gave him those ideas and we worked on those together and it ended up becoming a nice combination.
AJ: Tell us a little bit about your new mix album for Ministry Of Sound – Clubbers Guide 2006?
Yeah man… It’s nice to be asked to do an album like that. It’s quite interesting to try and select the tracks that are going to be big when the compilation comes out. I try to select the tracks that I play out at the moment that I think work really well now and in the future. Such as some tracks from myself, tracks from my friends here in Sweden and some strong summer anthems. So we’ll see how it goes!
AJ: Are you looking forward to touring Australia?
I’m looking forward to going to Australia, it’s a part of the world I’ve never been to before. Probably the tour I’m most looking forward to this year!
AJ: Ever had an embarrassing moment whilst playing out?
Yeah all the time! When you fool around too much with the CD players you fuck about and make mistakes and of course it’s bound to happen. You just have to laugh at it and get on with it!
AJ: If you weren’t in the music industry, What would you’ve been doing?
Good question man… Porn star! No… I don’t know man. I’d probably be a regular computer geek!
Ministry Of Sound’s ‘Clubbers Guide to 2006’, mixed alongside Goodwill, is in stores now through Ministry Of Sound/EMI. Axwell tours Australia this February:
Fri Feb 3rd – Room 680, Melbourne – Goodwill & Axwell
Sat Feb 4th – Family, Brisbane – Axwell
Sun Feb 5th – Platinum, Gold Coast – Goodwill & Axwell
Thu
