Music with Eddie Rowley
SWEDISH DJ, producer and songwriter Avicii, who died suddenly last Friday week at the age of 28, was regarded as a country artist, particularly after his smash hit, ‘Wake Me Up’.
The song was covered by many country stars, including our own Derek Ryan.
But music genius, Avicii, whose real name was Tim Bergling, said the success of ‘Wake Me Up’ gave fans the wrong impression about his style of music on his album, True.
“A couple of the songs happened to be influenced by country, or rather its subgenre, bluegrass and European folk music,” Avicii said.
“But I’ve never really been a fan of country in general, to be honest. The general mass of it follow very similar chord progressions and feels like the same song a lot of the times.
“I had written and produced a wide array of songs with influences from a variety of genres, and I find it quite funny that, out of the 10 songs on True, there were really only two that could be viewed as ‘country inspired’.
“And yet, that’s the instant label I got because ‘Wake Me Up’ became what it became. Unfortunately, I think a lot of songs from that album got lost, partly because of the country label.”
Avicii is believed to have suffered from acute pancreatitis, and also had his gallbladder and appendix removed in 2014.
He admitted that he drank dangerous levels of alcohol. In an interview five years ago, Avicii said: “I just got into a habit, because you rely on that encouragement and self-confidence you get from alcohol, and then you get dependent on it.”
After being hospitalised, Avicii, who regularly appeared on the Forbes highest-paid DJs list, said he cut back on booze, but admitted that he still exceeded the limit.