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“IT’S MY THERAPY.” WHEN ALESSO SAYS IT, IT’S JUST A FACT, STATED PLAINLY, THE WAY YOU WOULD DESCRIBE ANY TOOL THAT’S KEPT YOU ALIVE. THIS SUMMER, TEN YEARS AFTER HIS LAST STOCKHOLM SHOW, THE SWEDISH DJ AND PRODUCER CAME HOME TO PLAY AT SKANSEN, PROMISING BEFOREHAND THAT IT WOULD BE “ONE HELL OF A NIGHT.” IN THE PAST DECADE, HE HAS BUILT BODY HIGH INTO A HOME FOR TRACKS TOO RAW FOR STREAMING PLAYLISTS, FOUND HIS WAY BACK INTO THE STUDIO WITH ONEREPUBLIC AFTER FIFTEEN YEARS APART, AND SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY, NEARLY LOST HIS HEARING TO IT ALL, A SCARE THAT TAUGHT HIM “NO ONE HAS EARS MADE OF STEEL.”
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Natalia Muntean: How did it feel to come back to Stockholm with a concert after a decade?
Alesso: Every show I do means a lot, but this one hits a little harder. It’s been 11 years since my last solo show in Stockholm. This past weekend I came back and the energy was on another level that I haven’t seen in a while. Nonstop from the minute I stepped on stage to the final song.
NM: Why was the choice of Skansen symbolic, or is it maybe personal to you?
A: As a DJ, you’re always trying to find great venues to DJ, and there are some cool locations in Stockholm where no one has done shows like the ones I do. Skansen was one of them. So the fact that I’ll be the first DJ there, that right there sounded exciting. The view, the backdrop of the city, is amazing. So, yeah, it’s going to be one hell of a night.
NM: You’ve mentioned that you go with your gut feeling when you assess demos for Body High. What does a record have to have in order to catch your attention?
A: It needs to be direct. It needs to be strong enough for me to want to play it. People send songs to me sometimes, and I think they’re great, but if I don’t want to play them, I won’t put them out on Body High. That’s kind of a rule that I have with Body High. Most of the songs I put out, almost all of them, I want to be able to play them. It’s a label; you can put out anything, but I really wanted it to be focused on music that you want to hear live. There is a lot of music, I think, that doesn’t get released because it’s hard to find labels that want to put out songs that might not necessarily stream that much. Obviously, we always hope for that, but there’s a lot of music around from
other artists that’s meant for raves and big main stages, and it doesn’t get put out because some labels might want to invest in other kinds of songs that stream more. I always thought, okay, yeah, it might not stream that much, but for the people who do stream it, I think they’ll really appreciate it. I have songs that weren’t really Spotifyfriendly, you know, and I wanted a home for them, and that’s kind of where it started. I feel like if you’re a part of the process, you kind of want it under your own roof a little bit. I get good music for my shows, and the artist gets happy, they kind of get their name attached to mine in a way, with the label.
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NM: And where would you like to take it in the future?
A: I really just want to keep building it, and hopefully have Body High nights, Body High stages, and be able to find younger, newer artists who might not have been able to play certain festivals, and put them there, under the Body High roof.
NM: You had a tinnitus episode, and now you’re on the other side of it. Did it make you listen to music in a different way, or perceive music differently?
A: Yes, I stopped taking my ears for granted. I was wearing earplugs on and off, and then I was like, you know, it’ll be fine, and then I just woke up one day and it was hell. But I’m okay now. As I said, any person walking on this earth should not take their ears for granted. That’s my message. Especially if you’re in the nightlife, in clubs, because every time you go out to loud music, you might not know it, but you could potentially be harming your ears. No one has ears made of steel. So I’m very, very religious about the earplugs these days, and it actually makes my life better wearing them. I used to have not just tinnitus, but I would get vertigo a little bit, especially at night, and it stopped since I started using earplugs. So, protect those precious ears.
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NM: In terms of how you perceive music and how you work with music, has anything changed since that episode?
A: Yes, I’m just very mindful about the volume. I have decibel meters in my studio. Even with the headphones, that’s the one I kind of need to get better with, because you forget the speakers are basically squished to your ear, and even if you turn up a little bit, it’s way louder than you realise.
NM: If you met the 19-year-old version of yourself today, what’s the one thing that the industry has taught you that you couldn’t have learned any other way?
A: First things first, wear the earplugs. And then I would say, stop stressing so much about little things. Being overly stressed about something, sometimes you think, oh, but I’m just focusing on it, I’m very passionate about something, but certain things you kind of just gotta let ride their own way. I’ve had a lot of moments where I could have dealt with things in a much more stress-free way. It’s almost like I used to think that if I obsessed over something, the result would get better. It could, and it did in some parts, especially with music, but other stuff was really unnecessary. So I would tell myself those two things, stress less.
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NM: What have you learned about what artists need from a label since you started Body High?
A: They need feedback, they need attention, they need a plan, they need support, they need guidance, a bunch of things. What I also tell artists today, the world is different today. A lot of musicians, new and older, don’t really want to do the social media part, and that’s a disfavour to yourself, you know. Today, if you don’t have a social media presence, you most likely won’t get the response you want. It’s not about being a clown or anything like that, but it’s about marketing your music. So I try to always say, when they come with music, okay, you’ve done the first step, the music, now comes the second one, and that is: who are you? What do you stand for? What’s your sound? What’s the goal? What kind of vision do you have? What kind of show do you want to make? Because everyone can be a DJ today, it’s much easier today. So today the challenge is not only making the music but also giving people something that they want and don’t necessarily know they want. If someone made a sound big, I feel like there’s room for two or three more to make that sound, but if you’re the fourth or fifth person making the same music, I wouldn’t recommend going down that way. You can get inspired, but you have to have your thing. You kind of need to be a visionary today. You can’t just do the music. I wish it were like that back in the day, for me, it was just about the music. It could be enough if the music were good. But we’re in a time now when it needs to be visually accessible.
NM: Tell me a little bit about the collaboration with OneRepublic. How did you come back after 15 years?
A: Ryan just called me and was like, “We should do something again,” and I said, “Yeah, I think so too, it’s time.” And then we went into the studio a year ago, and we made a version we weren’t too happy with, and then sat on it for a while. Then I came back with another version of it that he absolutely loved, and I did too, and then we sat on it for another six months, and we still liked it. We did a pop-up event on the beach in Venice, which was the most fun I’ve ever had at a show. It was like 400 people there, and it was as fun, if not even more fun, than my big concert in LA, because every single person there was just so high on the music, having just the best time.
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NM: If you have a song that you decide to bin or set aside, do you go back to it later on and try to rework it?
A: Yes, usually. Sometimes you kind of have to put them in jail, or whatever, on the bookshelf, and leave them there for a while, and then come back to them. I honestly think it’s good sometimes to sit on it, because I hear songs today that I made, and I’m like, I would have done that differently if I had more time. The goal is to create timeless music; that’s the goal. Still sounds good today, and in 15 or 20 years, which is really hard, because you might be really excited by a certain sound or rhythm, and then you just age like poor, like aged milk.
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NM: Speaking of that, you ended your LA show with two of your older songs. How do you decide on the set list?
A: You kind of want to give people what they want in the beginning. I’ve been to concerts where artists hold off on a lot of their hits, and I am not a fan of that. I think you should, well, it also depends on how many big songs you have, but in my position, I try to spread them out, but also give them early, because it just makes people really excited. I love playing new music too, but I also know that when you hear something for the first time, you won’t get the
reaction you think. I’ve listened back to unreleased music, and sometimes you get into it really easily, but sometimes you’re like, I wonder what that was, it’s more like you’re learning about the song than actually enjoying it. I try to give people what they want pretty early in the set, but then also finish where you feel like, oh, I want more, because the goal is also to just keep people entertained and keep them there for two hours, or whatever it is. Whatever you do with your set list, it needs to be as good in the beginning as it is at the end.
NM: You’ve been doing this for almost two decades. Has anything changed in your process of how you build a set and create?
A: Grey hair, yeah. I’m definitely more collaborative these days. In the beginning, I didn’t have that many people to collab with, because no one really knew who I was, but I really think two or three brains work better than one, at least for feedback. If you’re hesitant about something and you’re like, does this sound good, you come up with something, I think it sounds good, if I sit with it by myself, then I might be like, is it really good? Should I make a change? If you have someone who’s good at making music, or you’re inspired by, or you take their judgement seriously, it’s good to get that instant feedback. So I guess I am more collaborative these days.
NM: Have you always been open to feedback, or was it something you had to learn?
A: My first feedback was from my older brother. I would make a song, and I’d play it for him. He was like, “Sick.” I said, “Great, I’ll keep working.”
NM: Is there a younger artist now whose work is making you reconsider yours?
A: There are new producers coming out every year who have a wave or momentum, and you’re like, that’s cool, that’s inspiring. I think there’s more, right now, a lot of music, and this is not to be negative, but a lot of music sounds the same to me in the house music world. It just happens to any genre, when something gets popular, a lot of people want to make that, and even I sometimes will do a little bit of that. But when someone comes out from another angle, with another sound, that’s really refreshing to hear. And I think the one that really took the whole music industry by storm was Fred again.., because he came in with really beautiful melodies and samples of people in the streets, and was able to make music out of that. That was revolutionary in a way. I remember I was listening to Fred again.. before he blew up, and I was like, damn, this is, it was refreshing. I love music, but I listen to music all the time too, and it’s almost like I analyse it. It’s hardly – I just don’t listen to music anymore just to enjoy it, because my brain also goes straight into, oh, how did he make that, oh, maybe I should get inspired by
that sound. But Fred again.. was that music that was just like, oh, I just enjoy listening to this.
NM: Was there a moment when you felt like you had made it?
A: I kind of lived my dream when I started with Swedish House Mafia. They’re still a big inspiration. I love those guys, and to be around them and DJ with them and stuff like that, that was the dream. As any teenager, you look up to
someone, and then you get invited into their world and get to work with them and tour with them. It was everything.
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NM: Is there a decision that you made early on in your career that you would do differently now, with what you know now?
A: Yes, I would. There are some songs that I put out that I kind of felt like I was directed to do, because it was for my career. Some songs that I would call maybe pop, I mean, every song has its story, and there’s a reason, so I’m not ashamed or anything, but looking back at it, some music I felt a little bit pressured into going down that direction, and now I feel more confident in my own judgement than I used to. Today, with the OneRepublic track, the sound that we did for that used to be cool 15 years ago, and we know that. We’re not trying here to be like, yo, we made this whole cool thing; it’s a love letter to ourselves from that time. It’s us saying, remember this time, let’s get inspired by that. And even if the song streams five times a day, I am still so happy that we did that song, and that is the mantra for the future. I think it’s always good to have a plan for your music and stuff, but never forget why you make it. And I feel like there were a couple of years in my career when I forgot a little bit why I was doing it, I was doing it to please the label, to please certain people, to keep the streams up.
NM: Why do you work with music?
A: For me, it’s my therapy. It literally, not to sound cliché, but it saved my life. It did. When I was a teenager, I went through a rough time, and it was the only thing I could lean into, and I think every person needs a purpose. I think that’s what kind of makes you happy in life. To find that so early, I was lucky that I found something I was really passionate about. Whenever I was having a rough time, I could go and make music, and it made me stop thinking about the hard times, so it was a little bit of an escape too.
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NM: What do you think is the role of music in general?
A: I think it’s the sound of our souls. I think it’s flavour in life; it’s what makes our life feel real. I don’t think humanity will be able to live without music. Not to sound extreme, but I really think music also has a really beautiful quality where it brings people together. That’s one of the most powerful things. When you go to raves and stuff like that, it’s people from all over the world, all ages, and everyone’s just happy. We were at EDC in Las Vegas recently, and my fiancée lost her phone in the crowd. One of her friends called it, and someone picked up and said, “Yes, I’m here. I have your phone.” After 30 minutes, we found this person, it was a young girl and her boyfriend. She goes, “Yeah, that’s happened to us too.” I couldn’t believe it, because at any other concert, someone would probably just keep it or kick it, I don’t know. But these people, they believe in PLUR: peace, love, unity, respect, and that’s the power of music, that someone would take 20, 30 minutes of their weekend, where they spent a bunch of money, to find some stranger, because of the music. That’s beautiful. So yeah, I think that’s a good example of what music can do, it inspires people to do better and be more loving.
NM: Is legacy something that you think about?
A: I hope my future kids will be proud of their dad. That would be great, but in terms of leaving a legacy, I think it doesn’t really matter. I think we’re here on borrowed time, and if I can leave something that people will listen to even when I’m dead, that’s pretty cool, I think. But I’m not trying to chase something that should be stressing my life decisions or anything like that. As I said, we’re on borrowed time, make the most of it and keep making good music. That’s just the goal. Whatever happens, happens.
