Avicii: True Stories

---

[announcer] Give it up for Avicii!

[crowd cheering]

[serene electronic music]

[Avicii] The first four or five years,

everything was awesome...

because you get a kick out of it,

the same thing you're...

If you're jumping out of a plane,

you get a kick, too.

Because you're playing

with the feeling of almost dying.

And when you're up on stage,

I have been playing

with the feeling of being...

special, and finding a connection with

people in the sense of being accepted.

The way I went into DJing

was I'm... I'm gonna give it 100 percent,

no matter what happens.

And I kept giving 100 percent

all the time.

It was all around, in general, that

sense of more and more and more.

I didn't give myself enough time

to really figure out

what about the touring didn't I like.

The only time I had was...

a few... a few weeks here and there,

and... and then I was out

on the road again.

And the few weeks I had,

I never really got to get home anywhere,

and I was out for eight years.

So that meant, after four years,

when I started to come home,

it didn't even feel like home anymore.

I just know that it got to a point

where I didn't like it anymore.

And it got to a point where it's too much.

After that, I just decided:

"F***, I'm gonna quit."

[man singing in Swedish]

I grew up in Stockholm.

My whole childhood

up till I was, like, 19 years old

was in between, like, five blocks.

Like, all my schools that I went to were

all in the same... same area of Stockholm.

I knew that whatever I wanted to do

later in life,

I knew that

I wanted to do something creative.

A friend of mine told me about FL Studio.

And I remember I downloaded it,

so I started playing around with it.

It was very easy because... 'cause

you could, like, draw out the notes.

[Otto] He had his studio in his bedroom,

which was his apartment.

It was only one room.

And it was like a bed, I remember,

that was supposed to be folded,

so you got more space,

but it was always down.

[Lucas] It was, like, covered in plates

with, like, old spaghetti and pesto.

That's all we could afford.

[Otto]

We always met, you know, around noon,

then when I looked at the clock,

one o'clock in the night,

I would say:
"Yeah, maybe we should see

each other again tomorrow and continue",

and he was like:

"Ah, we need to finish now.

It's better to finish now, then...

Then we can do a new song tomorrow."

He worked during the night, basically,

and then when he had sleep,

he often walked up to his roof

and slept in the sun.

And he was like:
"Yeah, its so smart,

because then I get a tan,

I get sleep,

and then I can go back to... to work."

["Hang With Me - Avicii Mix"

playing on stereo]

[Avicii] The first half year was me just

trying to rip off other people's sounds.

And once you've done that

a thousand times, you start improvising.

Maybe I can do these two chords first but

then go to that chord and that, you know.

That's when I started coming up

with... unique stuff.

And then I just sent my music out

to blogs.

I remember I went to Laidback Luke

and I went to his forum

and I contacted him,

sent him a bunch of my demos.

I could already tell his melodies

were awesome

and the way he combined bass lines,

chords, and... and leads,

it was alre... already in there.

He really liked 'em,

and he started feedbacking me on them.

And from that moment on,

I sent every new track I did,

I sent to Luke.

I remember not getting one demo a week

but at least five every week.

And every track,

and I got better and better and better

until they started playing

some of the tracks.

That was the biggest thing for me ever.

He was one of the reasons

I got into house music.

Hi, this is Tim Berg.

Uh, I'm just doing some, uh,

final, uh, touches

on my, uh, upcoming single

on Joia Records...

[Lucas] When he made his first few tracks,

we were a bunch of people at his place.

We must have been around 18.

We were dreaming about, like,

what would happen if we made it big?

We were super into Entourage back then.

We forced him to, like, sign

this really shitty, like, contract

we... we hand painted

with crayons or something.

"Hereby, I, Tim, solemnly swear

that if I ever make it big,

I'm gonna bring all my friends to L.A.

and we're gonna live in a huge mansion,

and it's gonna be awesome."

[Avicii] That's... That's kind of around

that time when I met Ash, initially.

I followed some blogs,

that was part of my job,

and there was this kid that was not really

that hyped on any blogs or anything,

but I-I fell for something.

[Avicii] He sent me, like, um,

like, a message on Facebook,

saying:
"Hey," uh,

"my name is Ash Pournouri,

and I have some friends in the industry.

I'm a promoter in Stockholm.

Think I can help."

So I kind of went to the meeting,

you know.

I-I didn't know what to expect.

It was this, you know,

like, 26-year-old Persian guy

and I'm... I'm, like,

a 17-year-old, you know, kid.

I think he had Coca-Cola or something,

um, and he brought his friend

'cause he was too scared to meet me alone.

He said, like:
"Name one Swedish D.J.

that you think is big right now."

I remember naming someone.

He said:
"I'll make you bigger

than him in one year."

Um, and my ambition level

was... was to make him not a D.J.,

not a producer, but a... but an artist.

From that moment on,

he kind of started, you know...

he kind of started being my manager.

And soon I found a project for us,

I-I found a remix.

The first big remix I got was from, uh...

uh... Roger Sanchez.

It was the first big remix I got to do

from a... for a big artist.

And then we did another remix,

and that went even better.

He made a remix for a Bob Sinclar record,

and I heard it,

I was like:
"Oh, my God.

This is so amazing!"

Uh, but he wasn't...

He wasn't, like, a big producer yet,

you know, and I was shocked,

and I, uh, I got in contact with him

and I think I've asked him

for a remix, too.

He was making amazing mash-ups.

Like, every week, he would send me a new

mash-up, and I really liked his style.

I really loved all his tracks. I started

playing them every week in my show.

[Avicii] My first Avicii show was in Miami

for, uh, Laidback Luke's

"Super You and Me" party.

It was then and there I, uh,

I met a... a very shy

and... and just a held-back type of a kid.

[Avicii] It's, like, a 200-people,

200-capacity club.

He was just so nervous.

He had prepped his set and everything,

and, um, in the end, he ended up

opening the night for three people.

[Avicii] Then, towards the end,

people started coming.

I didn't mess up, I-I survived.

Everything went okay.

I started doing small shows

here and there. It was single clubs.

It was, you know, whatever Ash

had been able to bring in.

At this time, it wasn't many, so he was

coming with me to most of the shows.

- Are you ready for Avicii?

- [cheering and whistling]

He's never managed anyone before.

He'd been a promoter, he loved the music.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes