Eric Prydz talks Swedish House Mafia defection

“I always really wanted to go my own way. I’m not part of the collective known as the Swedish House Mafia.” So said Eric Prydz when he chatted with ITM earlier this month, on the phone to discuss his highly anticipated Australian tour over the New Year period. Besides revealing tasty info on his upcoming Pryda album that’s due early next year, as well as going into frank detail on how he’s conquered his fear of flying, the elite DJ/producer gave insight on his relationship with countrymen Axwell, Sebastian Ingrossio and Steve Angello – otherwise known as the ‘Swedish House Mafia,’ of course.

In the days before international superstardom, the foursome were a tight bunch of mates indeed. “The reason why people started calling us that was that when I lived in Sweden, me and Axwell, Sebastian and Steve, we were all best friends and we didn’t really hang out with anyone else except ourselves. We were this really tight crew, we had all our studios in the same block. And I think that each on our own level, we all broke through at the same time, and we came with a fresh sound that nobody had really heard before. So people, they started to call us the ‘Swedish House Mafia’.”

However, it was several years down the track when the other members of his crew decided to embrace the tag, as a means of promoting their music, that Prydz decided a defection from the mafia was in order. “Seb, Steve and Axwell decided to do this name as a brand, and to play and do events under the name ‘Swedish House Mafia’. I live in London now, and I never really wanted to be part of a collective. I do my own thing, and I’m kind of a control freak when it comes to making music in the studio.”

“So I’m not part of the collective known as the ‘Swedish House Mafia’. But we’re all still best friends.”

Stay tuned to ITM in the lead-up to New Years when we’ll have our feature length interview with Eric Prydz, and check out our Festival Guide for more info on all the shows he’ll be playing around the country.