Avicii Talks Upcoming Ultra 2014 Plans and New Direction in the Music Industry

Every year, hundreds of artists flock to Miami to play at the annual Ultra Music Festival. This event, held in March in the sunshine state, is often a place that breaks ground for new material to be debuted. Tim Bergling is not one to go to Ultra quietly, his 2012 set started with Madonna coming on stage in a shirt that read “MDNA” to introduce him and ask the crowd if they “had seen Molly”. The response from her cameo wasn’t well-received.

During Ultra 2013’s second weekend, Avicii closed out his main-stage set with “Wake Me Up”. The audience was apprehensive. Country and EDM? How could these polar opposite genres ever come together? Well now after over seven months the single is still in the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100, according to Billboard. More info and interview video after the break.

Earlier in November, the international #3 DJ in the world sat down in the MLB Fan Cave to discuss many hot topics surrounding Avicii.

In regard to his decision to go in this direction with music, Avicii remarks, “I set out to make the kind of music I love listening to.” In keeping with his Ultra tradition to make a mark each year (I mean you kind of have to do something outlandish to get people talking that much when the performer list is so stacked for the three days), he said, “It’s more of a way for us to do something fun that no one else is doing.”

But Avicii is still on the way in a different direction. “”I like house music, it’s always where I begin and it’s my number one passion. But those tracks are also made for the dancefloor, they are purpose tracks for the dancefloor. These other songs were more songs and a score. It’s all about the melodies and you’re able to listen to it wherever you are and I love that way,” he said.

Later in the interview, Bergling discusses how he finds his vocalists, “I never set out to find different vocalists, I set out to find talented vocalists and talented songwriters. Together with my manager we bounced ideas about who would be super cool todo something with and just not thinking about if that person would work with house music, that was never in our minds. The house part, electronic part, came after we had the material for the collaborations.”

Closing, the interviewer asked if the DJ had any rituals before getting ready for a show and Avicii said he used to be super nervous (six years ago) and it took him time for himself to settle down and now he doesn’t get nervous, just more excited.

Check out the interview segments with MLB below: