Steve Angello Discusses The Creative Process Behind Wild Youth, The Current State Of EDM And More In A Recent Interview

Perhaps one of the most insightful figures in the dance music industry today, Steve Angello has never taken dance music for granted. The Swede has kept up with his artistic integrity in a time when a lot of other artists are going the tried and tested way to get more votes, more Spotify/Soundcloud plays or just visibility. In a recent interview with Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, Angello discusses his time with Swedish House Mafia, his creative process during Wild Youth, the current state of EDM and more.

Talking about the Swedish House Mafia era, he said:

“You wanted to know how far you could take it all. There was a lot of drinking, boating, flying helicopter. I was at a place where one is actually afraid of ending up as an artist. I was out touring the world with meaningless music, but one day you come back down to earth again.”

When talking about Wild Youth and its creative process, he said:

I just felt: I can make dance hits now. There is a special formula that always works. I wanted to create something that means more. Dance music wasn’t evolving or progressing like other musical genres were. Take hip hop, as an example, it always speaks about culture, religion, society and politics. Dance music has never talked about anything. There is no history. So I want to tell mine.

In all my collaborations I only work with artists I truly admire. It’s more like folk and indie rock music, such as Dan Reynolds from Imagine Dragons and Dougy Mandagi from Temper Trap – I have always been a huge fan of their vocals. We wrote all the tracks together and tried to tell a story through it; a simple question, “What do I want to tell them through the music?”.

Going through Tiesto’s Instagram, he discusses the current state of EDM:

It feels like a Disney movie. It is a “happy place”, but nobody says anything of value. Everything is so damn much on pretense. You see the great artists, who are 40 years old, make songs that sound like they are 15. In all other occupations this would be really weird. It is as if Tom Ford would start making Pokémon clothes. This is where we have ended up.

You can check out the complete interview here.