I believe in telling my personal stories, says Steve Angello

Live music lovers, listen up! Steve Angello is in the house as a part of Don’t Let Daddy Know, one of the biggest clubbing concepts, which is all set to continue its world domination with an epic home-grown version of the one night dance music concept — DLDK India — featuring some of the biggest global names in electronic music who will curate seven hours of non-stop mayhem catering to diverse genres of electronic dance music (EDM). Steve, who helped bring EDM to a wider audience as a member of Swedish House Mafia, the now-defunct trio he was part of with fellow Nordic production powerhouses Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso, says that he had fallen in love with the country on his very first tour. Ask him why it took him so long to come back to the Indian turf and Steve quips, “Yes, I have been wondering about this as well. I love my Indian fans; the love they shower on me via social media and fan mails is all very overwhelming. But now here I am, all set to perform for them and reciprocate their love. I promise my fans an amazing experience.”

Recalling his last visit to India, Steve says, “Indian fans are very welcoming. They embrace your music with open arms and that is so heartening. The last time I had come to India for SHM’s One Last Tour, I could feel all the love flowing through the crowd. I have planned a kicka**e set for my Indian audiences this time over and the performance will include a lot of my classics and of course, my latest solo album Wild Youth will play as a key highlight. I can’t reveal the rest as I love to keep my fans guessing.”

The Swedish DJ/producer has been around for decades now, birthing some of the most timeless tracks in the genre and making up one third of super-group Swedish House Mafia for five successful years before their eventual split. Talking about the transition from being a brand member to now a solo artist, the musician explains, “To be very honest, the transition towards going solo wasn’t a smooth one but I adapted quite well. It was a welcome change. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and challenged myself to do what I believe in strongly.”

Steve grew up in Greece with his father but later moved to Stockholm to live with his mother. He began DJing at the age of 14, and by 18, was touring Europe. Talking about the kind of music that he was into while growing up and the music his children are now fond of, he says, “I grew up in a music loving family. Stevie Wonder, Nas, Barry White, Jay Z were the constant staples in my household. We used to listen to real music; music with a message and a purpose behind it. I was also big on Pink Floyd, Gang Starr, Michael Jackson and Daft Punk. My time with my girls Winter and Monday is spent listening to my music and them singing along with it.”

His latest album Wild Youth depicts the story of his life and his formative years. “The neighbouring kids and I were blowing up stuff, and I remember how the youth back then didn’t have a voice. I think I wanted to raise a voice back then. I derived inspirations and drew excerpts from that time and an amalgamation of all that is my music. You will dive into my world a little more with every lyric and every song. My childhood has been one of the major inspirations in the music that I make now, and in the future too it shan’t change. I believe in telling my personal stories with my music,” he shares.

Talking about the biggest misconceptions surrounding EDM, Steve reveals that it is not just-out-of-the-laptop-kind-of-a-thing that many people term it as. “Well, people need to understand the painstaking arrangement that goes behind the making of a track. I spent three and a half years making one album where at one point, I scrapped the entire thing and started over. There’s a lot of blood and sweat involved. But then again, it is not just the people who say that are at fault. Nowadays, we aren’t telling stories with dance music.

Artists just repeat the same beat over and over again, slap some pop vocals on it and voila, you have a successful song.”

The artist who recently said that bands like The Prodigy, Underworld, The Chemical Brothers are still relevant today because their ‘songs are songs. They’re not just beats. They have meaning’, further adds, “You listen to the music from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and you know and understand every word. These songs will never die down. People shall always remember them. That is what matters, doesn’t it In all honesty, people today do not know what they are listening to. Lack of originality in the artists is my concern. The fans will not remember ‘commercially successful’ songs 10 years down because they all sound the same.” The EDM artist has a clear idea about how Indians and Bollywood go hand-in-hand. Ask him if he’d be interested to compose a track for a Bollywood movie, and he laughs, “I really haven’t had a chance to listen to a lot of Indian music but I know for sure about the Bollywood music fandom in India. On my visit, I shall tell the local management to educate me a bit about it. As for any sort of collaborations, I am open to it; it will be an amazing experience to lend my music to a Bollywood soundtrack. Bollywood music producers, are you’ll listening ”

Lastly, an Indian tour is incomplete without food tasting. So quiz him if he is a food lover who is open to try out spicy Indian food, and Steve grins, “I love food. I have heard rave reviews about Indian food; my manager was just telling me about it. Last time, I couldn’t really try anything. This time around, I have specifically briefed my team way in advance. Come what may, I am going to try the butter chicken that a lot of my DJ friends who have visited India keep talking about. I have heard that it’s spicy but I will take my chances.”