The buzz around Avicii‘s debut album, True, started back in March when he premiered “Wake Me Up” to the massive crowd at Ultra Music Festival, leaving his fans and the EDM community perplexed by the then brand-new country-tinged sound.
And now, with True out on Tuesday (September 17), Avicii will admit he is no stranger to harsh criticism, but this was worse than ever before. “I’m very used to getting bad feedback for stuff. Usually it’s the complete opposite, that it [his music] sounds the same and my songs sound the same,” he pointed out to MTV News. “For this, everyone’s hating on me for doing something different.”
Despite this initial reaction, the single’s official release was wildly successful and the attitude began to shift toward True. “Wake Me Up” has reached #1 all over the world, and tracks like “Lay Me Down” have already received critical acclaim. The genre departure that first alarmed fans and critics is now setting his LP apart from other collections of electronic music.
“This song, this album is nothing more than me sitting down with some time to spare and actually making exactly the type of music I want to make, with access to all of these people,” he explained. Those people include collaborators such as Mike Einzinger, Aloe Blacc, Nile Rodgers, Adam Lambert and Imagine Dragons, just to name a few.
Avicii Wanted To Work With Nile Rodgers ‘Way Before’ Daft Punk.
He was also sure to clarify that the genre crossovers featured in True are not a marketing scheme in any capacity, but very simply what he is into right now. “It’s all about the music and the songs that I make, and it just happens to be this folky blend because that’s what I was listening to a lot at the moment.”
With his new release, he hopes to encourage other producers to return to the “emotion and melody” of dance music. “The genre has so much more to offer, and now is the first time I’ve seen that the scene is kind of lacking.”
As for the criticism — no negativity can bring him down.
“Right from the start, I had such confidence in the music ’cause I knew exactly what I had… for me I was never really worried ’cause I knew it was going to be provocative and I knew I was going to get reactions. I just let it slide and figured once this gets released they’ll see what my idea was with everything.”
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