We never thought we’d perform in India: Sebastian Ingrosso
Their “One Last Tour” in 2013 was a clear indication that the Swedish House Mafia was disbanding. That each of the three DJs and producers — Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello — would go separate ways after performing on a world stage one last time. Despite that, fans had hoped that the trio would at some point come together, much like other bands, to serve larger musical interests. And fortunately for the fans, that did happen — at least partially. Axwell and Ingrosso came together to create “musical mayhem” in their words while clearly hinting that the stage from now on, will only be able to hold two of the three Swedish mafiosos.
Speaking to us minutes before taking on the console at the Sunburn Arena event in Mumbai’s NSCI stadium, Axwell says, “There was a reason we called it ‘One Last Tour’, right? We’re going to open this set with This Time We Can’t Go Home. It’s symbolic of our journey. It means that we’ve ended one thing already, no more endings.”
The duo tells us that since the split, the music has evolved in ways and that they’re only looking forward to a better run. “It has changed for sure, like it should. We get bored of old songs. We love what we created and we play them all the time, but we are also looking forward to making new music. So yes, we have evolved, hopefully for the better,” he adds.
Regulars on the Indian soil, they say that what pulls them to the subcontinent is the zest of the audiences. “We’re not doing a tour per se, because we’re in the middle of a lot of stuff, but we decided to come to India and fill up on some energy before the winter. The crowd here has immense energy that is non-aggressive. Everywhere else in the world people make mosh pits, throw stuff in the air, but here it’s different. People are positive and polite and don’t have an attitude — in a good way of course. To be honest, we never thought that we’d perform in India ever. The first time we were here and we saw people singing to our tunes, it was unreal. We hadn’t expected that. Now of course we know what to expect,” says Ingrosso.
While Reload and This Time We Can’t Go Home are the new anthems that the duo has been belting out, they admit that a single like Don’t You Worry Child that received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording in the 2013 and is known to “make grown men cry” in their words, is difficult to replicate. “It’s hard to say how it happened. Probably when the lyrics and melody came together in one magical combination,” says Axwell. “I think the message is really strong — it’s what everybody can relate to and is thinking about. It’s got the healing vibe that say, a Bob Marley’s Everything’s Gonna Be Alright would have,” adds Ingrosso.
The two admit that chasing the Grammys is probably not on the top of their list now. They’re happy that Daft Punk’s Get Lucky paved a way for dance music to enter mainstream categories, although not entirely. “Daft Punk’s music transcends different genres, so I wouldn’t call it pure dance music. About us chasing the Grammys, we’ve been nominated in the dance music category twice, though we didn’t win. So we’ve let that go a little bit. You don’t want to hope for something that doesn’t happen. We’ve done that a couple of times and we got disappointed. It hurts,” says Axwell hanging his head low in mock despair.
EDM may have earned a fan following across the globe, but there is a chunk of music aficionados who believe that the genre is riding a high wave that may not last for a long time. The duo isn’t very sure of that. “It’s difficult to say really. I think it’s here to stay, but if has too be replaced by something, then it’ll have to be big, crazy and something that makes people go insane, like dance music does.”
Coming back to the India tour and the things that surround it, would they consider collaborating with Indian artistes or Bollywood at some point? They’re both positive about that. “Why not? You never know. You won’t see us dancing or singing for sure, but music wise, we’d love to,” says Ingrosso.
