As a former member of Swedish House Mafia, Greek-Swedish DJ Steve Angello has already achieved chart-topping success. His solo album debut, which is expected to release January 2016, will be the producer’s attempt at achieving his real dream, however in a recent interview with Fuse at Voodoo Festival on Halloween, Angello explained how he sees this solo album debut as an opportunity to leave a legacy that has nothing to do with success and everything to do with something meaningful.
“For me it’s about expressing musically and being something that I’ve wanted to be my whole life. I want to be an artist. I don’t want to be put in a folder of ‘Hey, you’re this DJ guy, stick to that’… I am a music lover.”
He goes on to explain that the bands out there that he respects the most are those that focus on innovation and creativity over charts.
“They don’t try to make it fit anywhere. They’re not trying to make a successful record per se. They are trying to go into the studio and be creative and just express themselves musically. I think a lot of people have forgot that. We forgot that that’s how we grew up. We grew up loving music. We didn’t grow up looking at the charts.”
After coming from the phenomenon that was Swedish House Mafia, Angello is honest and open about his attempt to get back to art and tap into his unique voice as an artist.
“Making this album has just been about forgetting everything and just being like, ‘You know what, I’m going to write something that means something and it’s going to have a story’. If it won’t chart, then it won’t chart but that’s not the purpose of it either.
Watch Angello talk about his vision for his debut solo album Wild Youth, and then listen to the recently-released single from the album “Remember” featuring The Presets below.