DID AVICII’S FAME LEAVE HIM OUT OF STEP WITH LIFE?
▶ The Swedish DJ’s death has provoked a debate about the physical and mental strain faced by top electronic dance musicians, writes Saeed Saeed
Avicii’s last performance was a send-off gig in Ibiza in August 2016, after which he largely shunned the spotlight, with the exception of collaborations with the likes of rapper Will.i.am and funk legend Nile Rodgers. The announcement of his death on Friday in Oman has provoked an outpouring of grief and emotion from his colleagues and friends.
“This industry can be rough and from afar I saw it take a toll on him,” Canadian DJ Skrillex posted on social media. “I just wish I could have hugged him more and told him it would be OK.”
US producer and spinner Diplo agreed: “I know you had your demons and maybe this wasn’t the right place for you sometimes but we need to protect true artists like you at all costs, because there are not enough left and we are losing too many.”
Indeed, Avicii’s passing not only marks a DJ superstar taken away from us too soon, but may provoke a wider discussion about fame.
There is no doubt that DJs are the new rock stars.
Artists such as Avicii – real name Tim Bergling – the UK’s Calvin Harris and Dutchman Hardwell regularly perform to huge audiences through a mixture of festival appearances, club shows and exclusive residencies.
With the explosion of international dance clubs, high-profile DJs are a promoter’s dream because they can clock up as many as four gigs a week in destinations ranging from the Arabian Gulf to Europe and North America.
However, no matter how attractive the millionaire’s lifestyle appears to be – in 2016, Avicii’s estimated fortune of $75million (Dh275m) made him the third-richest DJ in the world at the time – the physical and mental strain of the business means many DJs suffer from stress and fatigue. In an interview with The
National in 2016, Hardwell described his own “crash” six years prior, and how he has managed to rejig his life since that time.
“At a certain level you have some kind of meltdown,” he said. “I had mine around 2010 and I have not felt that tired or depressed since.
It is about finding balance between studio time, touring and rest.”
His fellow Dutchmen Laidback Luke was even more candid. In the 2013 documentary My Son The DJ, he recalled that when he broke into the mainstream in 2010 he performed 150 shows that year alone.
It was to cost him his marriage and left the artist suffering from burn-out at the age of 30. “I was in the bus enjoying my time off and all I wanted to do was scream ... because I was just getting crazy.”
The documentary illustrated how Laidback Luke changed his lifestyle – getting on to a cleaner and caffeine-free diet and becoming involved in martial arts – to maintain his career and rebuild his mental health.
However, for British DJ Benga, the mental strain caused him to halt touring completely in 2014.
After falling silent for a year, he took to social media to explain that the gruelling nature of life on the road had exacerbated his health issues: “I might as well explain it on here. My bipolar was brought on by drugs and the schizophrenia was the result of excessive touring.”
What makes Avicii’s death so tragic and unexpected was that he had reached a similar realisation.
It came after he was forced into the emergency room of a Miami hospital in 2015 where his gall bladder and appendix were removed. This came nearly five years after he had been found to be suffering from acute pancreatitis, as a 21-year-old, which was caused by alcohol abuse.
When he spoke to The
National at the Mawazine Festival in 2015, he had returned refreshed from a six-month break and had taken his best friends on the road with him, one of whom is a personal trainer, to keep him positive.
“I had all those health issues and I really never gave myself a proper break. I went back to playing shows again and then my dad, family, manager and friends all started seeing me begin losing weight and not being on my A-game, so I just decided to take six months off and give myself the rest that I had needed for the past five years.”
That detour from life on the road became a permanent change of direction when a year later he announced he was retiring from touring.
With details yet to emerge of how Avicii spent his final 19 months out of the public eye, it is hoped his passing will galvanise the EDM scene into addressing the broader well-being of its stars.
With the genre renowned for its openness and viewing fans as one large and eclectic family, the industry is well placed to have this discussion, but this conversation needs to be had sooner rather than later.
We need to protect true artists like you at all costs because there are not enough left and we are losing too many DIPLO US producer and spinner