60 Seconds with... Axwell

SWEDISH house producer Axwell's
latest track, 'I Found U', out 13th August
on Positiva, has been blowing up across
the board on dancefloors and the radio,
thanks to its old skool hardcore pianos
and rolling breakbeat all fused to an
electro-house backbone.

DJmag cornered
him to get his take on rave, unusual gigs
and house music in Sweden...

Your tune 'I Found U' has quite an old
skool, hardcore feel. Are you inspired by
the nu-rave explosion?

"It's a coincidence, I haven't really noticed
the nu-rave explosion to be honest, I didn't
really know about that. But I've always
been into that sound, those XL Records
artists, a fat breakbeat and a soul vocal."

A recent gig took you to the unstable
country of Algeria. What kind of
experience was that?

"It was interesting. They had some security
issues over there. All the clubs are in hotels.
Everybody that goes there has to go
through airport security type shit, they
search all the cars for bombs, all the
people. I didn't even know that you could
go to Algeria to play records!
"The great thing about going to these
places is that they're hungry for the music
and they're really happy you're there - you
feel really appreciated."

You've remixed a lot of big artists, like
Madonna, Usher and Faithless. Who did
you enjoy remixing the most?

"When it's a tune that's not necessarily
house in the beginning, like the Hard-Fi
thing I did. That was a rock/indie sort of
thing and when I took it over to the house
world, it worked. When different genres
work together like that it's amazing."

What is the house music scene like in
Sweden?

"It's great. A couple of years back it was
only r&b in all the clubs, which was
depressing for us. But then when we
started to come through, get our names
out into the world, people started to wake
up back home in Sweden.
"It's really interesting at the moment,
people are throwing parties the whole time,
house music is played everywhere - there's
not an r&b club in sight!"

What's happening with your Axtone
Records label?

"The next song I'm putting out is called 'It's
True', that's with Sebastian Ingrosso and
Salem Al Fakir, who's a multi-talented guy,
he plays piano and guitar, everything. So
we tried to bring it back to something a
little more musical, but make it work on the
dancefl oor. Plus, I signed Dirty South to my
label."

What other gigs have you got coming up
that you're looking forward to?
"I have Pure Pacha with Pete Tong coming
up, Fuck Me I'm Famous with David Guetta,
the Radio 1 weekend... these are gigs I'm
looking forward to for the Ibiza season.
"There are a couple of other gigs that in are
exciting, exotic, places I haven't been. I'm
going to play in Mykonos and Corsica. I
really enjoy going to nice places like that!"