San Francisco
Swedish House Mafia
Saturday, February 16, 2013 (8:00 PM - 2:00 AM) | 
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium 99 Grove Street San Francisco CA
Swedish House Mafia
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It’s three forty five in the morning when Swedish House Mafia Aka Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso and Axwell descend on the DJ booth at their Masquerade Motel night (at Ibiza’s legendary Pacha) and drop their undisputed Summer anthem ‘One’. Now signed to Virgin Records and powered by a suitably smooth soul vocal from Pharrell Williams, the roar of approval for ‘One’ is so loud that it’s as if they’ve just stepped out onto the stage at Wembley. What’s more, it’s a tune so immense that they have no choice but to play it again at the end of the night. Zane Lowe, Pete Tong, Erick Morillo it seems there isn’t anyone in the electronic scene who hasn’t been knocked out by the power of ‘One’.
“The whole season has been absolutely unbelievable,” say house Mafioso Steve Angello, who’s never backwards in coming forwards with sound bites. “We’re competing with the biggest nights on the island and now we’re one of the biggest I’ve never seen Pacha like that before. This year everybody came through and it’s been an incredible experience.” As for the party, we can’t help but notice that this Motel is full of the same raw energy you’d normally see at a rock show – only for these clubbers, ‘One’ really is the new ’Teen Spirit’. “We did the track in LA together,” explains Sebastian Ingrosso. “We actually thought we wouldn’t do a track together but after ‘Leave The World Behind’ with Laidback Luke did so well, we decided to make a track and it came out great.” Amazingly, the whole shape of ‘One’ came together in just two days. Not bad for a record that Beatport has proclaimed the fastest-selling number one download single of all time. “Two days!” laughs Seb. “We had the idea and arrangement done and after that we were bouncing it back and forth for one day. The concept was simple: we had an idea of looping a kick-drum into a bassline but I said it needed a crescendo of in your face melodies.” But let’s rewind a little. We all know that ‘One’ is the record that’s flipped the script but there are so many other questions we need to be answered.
For example, how did these Swedes meet? Who gave them their name? And are they really direct descendants of the mafia? “Me and Seb met when we were six or seven: we got into all kinds of trouble together!” laughs Steve. “Seb’s Dad had a label called Plumphouse and we got into music and did all kinds of weird things including lounge compilations and made music for shows. I even did music for a Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden…” So Team Angello and Ingrosso had been working together for quite some time. “We bumped into Axwell ten years ago now, when he was doing stuff on [the house label] Sulphuric,” says Steve. “We got in touch we were younger than him and we just clicked. We all learned from each other because we were young kids. Also, when it came to the music, Me and Seb were more rough. I don’t tweak a hi-hat for six hours!” And then there was fellow Swede Eric Prydz, who together with Steve created the CR2 smash ‘Woz Not Woz in 2004. “We all hung out like friends and started building a relationship. But no-one would give us shows we had to beg nightclubs to put us on! We begged them to let us play for one hour and everyone loved it. But since no one would touch us, that’s why we worked so hard at the start. After that, me and Ax did Supermode (the Communards-sampling ‘Tell Me Why’ on Data) and me and Seb did a couple of records as Buy Now. We never got the support until now.”
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Saturday, February 16, 2013 (8:00 PM - 2:00 AM)
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium 99 Grove Street, San FranciscoCA