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Swedish House Mafia Join Forces With Rap/R&B Godfathers Pharrell and Usher

Swedish Mafia HouseDenise Truscello, WireImage.com

Steve Angello, key member of the jet-setting Swedish House Mafia DJ and producer crew, speaks happily from his recently acquired Los Angeles home. Living in the epicenter of the world's entertainment industry has certainly shifted his production habits. It may be the Hollywood shine that has been turning him on, but more importantly, he says, he starts each day excited. "Living here helps me work a lot harder, and have more focus. There's a lot of stuff going on in L.A.," he tells Spinner. "And the nightlife sucks, so it's a perfect fit."

Coincidentally, his move to Tinseltown has also brought about the release of the Swedish House Mafia documentary 'Take One,' a bonus in the box set issued in honour of the trio's first official mix CD, 'Until One.' The film -- given an edgy black-and-white treatment by Christian Larsen (editor of Lady Gaga's 'Telephone' music video) -- is a candid 45-minute snapshot of their high-flying lives, filmed over a period of two years.

"We were doing these teaser trailers to push releases and Swedish House Mafia shows and tours. After a while, Christian decided that we had enough material to make a full movie out of it," says Angello. "There are a lot of things we could have changed that maybe aren't showing the best of us, but I think it's important for people to see us like that, instead of making everything look perfect, lovely and glamorous. I think it still caught a really good side of us, and shows what we're really like."

While some may be critical of big name DJs who appear to simply hang out behind a mixer and press the play button, Angello argues, "I love the feel of vinyl. I still carry CDs with me -- I don't want to lose that DJ touch -- but we've actually switched to SD cards. The title of the mix CD 'Until One' represents what we've done individually, and what we've done together. It's a collection of music to show one chapter of our lives, and to start a new one."

This next stage seems to be well under way thanks to high-profile collaborations with the likes of Pharrell (on the epic 'One (Your Name)') and Tinie Tempah (on the swaggering 'Miami 2 Ibiza'), and an impromptu performance with the 'OMG'-ing Usher at the American Music Awards.

Watch Swedish House Mafia's Video for 'Miami 2 Ibiza' Ft. Tinie Tempah

"The Usher thing was more like a request we received from his crew to crash his performance," says Angello. "We weren't supposed to be on from the first second of the show, but it had to be that way for the programming to work out. We just showed up and he danced, and [we] jammed over that. But, you know, If Jay-Z came to us, for sure we would do a track with him -- there's no plan, but if it works, cool."

While blending house music with rappers may not be a new phenomenon -- hip-house enjoyed a short-lived heyday in the early '90s and Black Eyed Peas have since brought dance-rap back up the charts -- there's certainly something about the style that is reaching the American masses.

"House music culture is definitely coming back. At one point, we would come to the US and only book these small-time clubs. But now we can play 100,000-person venues in L.A., which is amazing because we're not doing anything different."

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Where is the news here? There is no "exclusive" and no "news" at all. Nothing new learned at all.

This is rather late if it is about "Take One," which came out in November.

January 04 2011 at 2:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply