Tobtok

An incredible 2015 for the Swedish superstar continues

Interview by Dan Prince


Dude welcome back to DMCWORLD – what was the last piece of music you heard before doing this interview?

Hey! Thanks for having me again, it’s been a while! The last piece of music I heard was actually a ’work in progress’ clip from my good friend Salehpour who’s making a cool Techno-banger at this moment!

What a twelve months you have had since we last spoke, let’s kick off with the flurry of remixes you have coming up. What can you tell us about your work on…

The Six

This one is the classical ’Tobtok feelgood tropical-disco jam’ which is out soon on the UK-based label Black Butter. I was very excited to work with such a cool and great label that’s constantly bangin’ out great releases. The remix itself actually only took me about 3 days to make, although I didn’t do much else those days apart from visits to the kitchen and the ol’ toilet hehe.

Hard Rock Sofa

This remix is probably my most successful remix to date, and one of my personal favorites. It was released on Axwell’s own label Axtone, and this year I’ve got to meet the whole crew. The guys are really nice and the label is awesome. The process of making it was kinda rough as I basically just had the original 10 second vocal-loop to work with. My initial idea was to make like a classic high-tempo disco house track but ended up with something else. I think with the track I kinda found my current sound in a way, even though I like to experiment with genres a lot!

Luke The Knife

I made this remix with my good friend and usual remix-partner Oliver Nelson. We’ve both been playing it on our gigs this summer and people seem to love it. There’s a piano-riff from the gods and the overall groove in the tracks makes it perfect for a sunset-jam! We both kinda knew where we wanted to go with this remix, and everything fell into place quite quickly. It actually happens that me and Oliver have the same ideas in our heads and it’s kinda funny when we realize it.

We were all down at the front at Creamfields a few weeks ago, another monumental festival. What were some of the highlights for you?

Even though I got quite unlucky with my set-time due to stage-preparations, I still had the best time at Creamfields. I got to meet so many people in the industry and a lot of friends that I’ve got to know over the years. To mention a few Highlights I think hangin’ out with people like The Magician, Alex Adair and the Axtone-crew, as well as seeing Eric Prydz live for the first time. I even met him at the after-party and snapped some pictures with him, he seemed very happy and cool.

Anthem of the summer?

Hmm, that’s a tough one! There has been so many great records these past months, but one of the tunes that’s been massive in my sets this summer is Sam Feldt – Show Me Love (EDX Remix).

My wife is a huge Rita Ora fan…I understand alongside Oliver Nelson you are producing two new tracks for her coming up?

Yes, that is correct! I can’t tell you guys that many details yet as we are waiting for approval, but I’m very excited about it. To be working for someone that massive feels a bit unreal, and it was a big challenge for both of us, especially since it was so hard to do something outside our comfort-zones as well as making it work time-wise with busy gig-schedules over the summer. Both of us are happy with the outcome and hopefully we will get to see those tracks on her upcoming album next year or whenever it’s getting released hehe.

Sziget Festival in Hungary looked a blast. Most DJs drink a few Vodka Redbulls before going on stage…you though sir prepared with ice cream. Not very rock n’ roll?

Haha! Who told you that? I actually had a lot of beers and a few drinks before going up on stage to calm my nerves. It was the first gig of its kind where I had to follow up crazy EDM-acts such as Julian Jordan and W&W. I do not really know how that happened but no challenge is too big for me I guess! Standing on the side of the stage when W&W where playing the biggest big-room tunes, one after the other, I was thinking ”How am I gonna follow up this?”, especially since it was late at night and to a massive crowd. But then again it’s a festival after all and people just want to party and listen to music. It ended up being one of my best DJ experiences ever and I smile every time I think about Sziget.

The Ibiza season is about to draw to a close, you’ve had some amazing gigs. Ushuaia with Garrix, Heldens and Avicii were all sell out shows…how was the White Isle for you this summer?

It was a breathtaking experience, and a very inspiring one as well. As an Ibiza-virgin it felt very cool to stay at Hard Rock Hotel with the first sight being Armin Van Buuren hanging out in the lobby with gorgeous women swarming all over the place. The overall vibe on the island is very special, it’s definitely a place that never sleeps, and there’s always a DJ you want to see every night. It does get exhausting to be there more than a few days though, the lifestyle you adapt there is quite rough! Supporting the heavyweights Garrix, Heldens and Avicii was like a dream come true, and I feel very blessed to have gotten the opportunity which many people can only dream about getting. It’s something I will cherish for the rest of my life. The Avicii night in particular was absolutely insane as it was the biggest gig on the island ever apparently, completely filling Ushuaia!

Do you change your set if you are playing daytime Ushuaia compared to nighttime at somewhere like Pacha?

Definitely! Knowing your crowd, venue and what is suitable for a certain set-time is in my opinion a few of the most important things about DJing. I always have harder and more uptempo tracks for the later set-times! Dropping my cheesy chill track ”Savanna” at 3am wouldn’t get the crowd going exactly…

Your latest project that has got the world dancing is of course ‘Shelter’…600,000+ plays on Soundcloud and 200,000+ on YouTube already… talk us through the track and the remixes…

I started working on this track about a year ago, so the process has been quite long but it’s been all worth it! People seem to really like it and I feel like it has a unique sound in the climate we have in the so called ’scene’ nowadays. The track started out with the chords like most of my tracks, and I always write my chords with a basic piano-sound, I guess that sound stuck in this one hehe. As for the remixes I chose to get friends that I’ve been into recently which also makes the remix package a bit more special I guess. KREAM and Sonny Alven are both two projects coming from Norway who have made headlines in the deep-house sphere this year, as well as Dante Klein who’s one of my favorite Dutch producers at the moment. The kid is simply a genius! Lastly Beatsession made the track even deeper with his remix that made it into The Magician’s famous Magic Tapes, and only recently my good friend and fellow roomie Osmo made a nice little freebie-remix of it!

Festival moment of 2015?

Awkwardly driving through a massive horde of people at Sziget due to their lack of backstage-roads, so we ended up on the main road of the festival where everyone was walking whilst being in a black car. People looked at me like I was gonna headline the mainstage haha.. It was quite a bizarre experience!

What are the five big tunes in your box this weekend…please give us a few words on each…

Souldynamic – Equatoriale

As seen in the clip of Lil Louis doing his thing on a really cool mixer. This tune is right up my street.

John Newman – Tiring Game (Jean Tonique Remix)

I’ve been blasting this one out at home all weekend, there’s just something with Newman’s voice which just is gold to my ears!

Avicii – For A Better Day

I got obsessed by the pre-chorus of this track because it reminds me of an old Elton John song, can anyone help me out to find which one please?!

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car

You guys will soon understand why.

Malaa – Pregnant

It’s dirty, raw and an absolute banger! I kinda think Malaa is actually DJ Snake’s secret project…

The last GREAT album you listened to…?

Actually, Avicii’s new album Stories is the latest album I listened to as a whole, and I must say I really enjoyed most of it!

What has been your most satisfying moment of 2015?

To be honest it’s probably when I finally slaughtered an ingrown hair which probably had been growing throughout the whole year…Oddly satisfying! Other than that it’s been the best year of my career and being able to see how happy people ’get’ my music has been the most satisfying!

The last occasion you had a really good dance to a DJ?

At a local disco-club called ”Chic” in my hometown where my best friend Ghassemi was spinning some old tunes! I’m not much of a dancer (hence why I decided to be a DJ instead), but as most you know I got a soft spot for old disco, and frankly, who could keep still to something like ”Rock With You” by Michael Jackson?

Some future gigs you’re gagging to play?

My next upcoming gig is the only one I have planned this year (for now). It’s gonna be our Perfect Havoc Disco family-night in London, UK along with most of us and the management! It’s gonna be great, so if any of you guys are around in London over the Halloween weekend, you should definitely swing by. I recently applied for my American visa, so hopefully I will make my way to the US soon!

And finally, Christmas is around the corner, what do you want Santa to bring you down the chimney this year?

A nice girlfriend, I’ve actually been single all my life…Haha! On the other hand I would be quite creeped out if some random girl came down the chimney…

Thanks for having me on DMC again. Cheers from Sweden x

Shelter by Tobtok feat. Alex Mills is out now on Good Soldier Records

www.tobtok.com

Listen: https://soundcloud.com/tobtok/shelter-ft-alex-mills

Buy: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/shelter-feat.-alex-mills-single/id1026236943