Steve Angello has been active in the dance music industry for more than a decade, and has had some pretty in depth insights into the scene. Be it as a part of Swedish House Mafia or as a solo artist, the Swede has never held back in speaking his mind.
In a recent guest column for British publication Q, Angello highlights the fact that how electronic music needs more collaboration to continue evolving.
I’ve always seen a vocal as another instrument you can add too, but an instrument that adds more depth to music. I’d love to see more up and coming producers heading in that direction because I think it’s important for us to make more songs. It’d be good to add more to certain parts of the electronic music community than we already have, because, as I mentioned earlier, a lot of dance records are starting to sound very similar to each other. Personally I think artists need to continue to work hard and develop their sound in order to standout rather than fit in, which will in turn generate a higher calibre of producers, DJs and vocalists.
Taking his album Wild Youth as an example, he says:
For my new album, Wild Youth, I wanted to tell a story, and I just don’t feel like it’s possible to make a record that can do that properly without words. Using a selection of singer-songwriters gives you so much more ammunition to create a great record. I worked with Dan from Imagine Dragons, Dougy from The Temper Trap, Julia Spada and loads more – there were about 80 tracks that never made it onto the album! Those guys added a great variation of sounds and the way everything comes together on an album is what can separate good records from great ones.
Angello also brings up the topic of young producers taking shortcuts to fame, ignoring creative growth in the process.
It’s now become acceptable for artists to just copy each other in the hope of instant fame and recognition – and that’s not a great way of contributing to creative growth.
You can check out the whole column here.
Source: Q
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