Who's Steve Angello
multiple continents, crashing charts worldwide, and tallying streams in the billions, artist, DJ,
producer, and Swedish House Ma
fi
a Co-Founder Steve Angello realized his purpose as a kid in
Sweden.
With bulky headphones on, he sat in front of his record player and spun classics by Led
Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder, and Michael Jackson for hours on end, ultimately
deciding, “I want to become a DJ.”
“I knew what I wanted to do at ten-years-old,” he smiles. “I would save up all of my money
from taking out the trash and doing chores to go to the record store and buy secondhand
Zeppelin and Bob Marley albums—and anything Quincy Jones produced. I even bought a lot of
albums based on the artwork, because it wasn’t like you could hear it before you bought it
back then. Regardless, if it was American country, Swedish rock, or German punk, I would dig
it, because I paid for it,” he laughs. “That’s how it started.”
By the time he turned thirteen, Steve cut his teeth as a DJ, performing at summer basketball
tournaments, and fueling the action with hip-hop breaks and no shortage of scratching. He
honed his talents at scratch competitions around Sweden and produced original material. Early
on, he collaborated with childhood friend Sebastian Ingrosso before launching his own label
Size during 2003. He made waves internationally with a Remix of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of
This)” by Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart in 2005. A year later, he teamed up with Axwell in
Supermode, landing a hit with “Tell Me Why.” Iconic Size solo singles followed, namely
“Gypsy,” “Isabel,” and “Flonko.” 2009 saw him link up with Laidback Luke for the mega-smash
remix of the Robin S Classic “Sho Me Love.”
Around the same time, he joined forces with Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso to launch
Swedish House Ma
fi
a. The group e
ff
ectively took over the world. They notched back-to-back
GRAMMY® nominations in the category of “Best Dance Recording” for the platinum “Save the
World” in 2012 and quintuple-platinum “Don’t You Worry Child” in 2013. Building a catalog
highlighted by global anthems such as the gold-certi
fi
ed “Greyhound” and “One (Your Name),”
they simultaneously sold out legendary venues—including Milton Keynes Bowl and Madison
Square Garden—and delivered historic sets at Coachella, Ultra Music Festival, and beyond.
Following a
fi
ve-year hiatus, they returned as surprise headliners at Ultra 2018 before
embarking on the Save The World Reunion Tour across European. Rekindling their chemistry,
they assembled what would become their long-awaited full-length debut, Paradise Again, in
2021. Landing in 2022, Paradise Again only extended the group’s legacy by cracking the Top
10 of seven global charts and capturing #1 on the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums
Chart and #1 on the UK Dance Albums Chart with praise from Pitchfork, NME, and more. In
tandem with the record, Swedish House Ma
fi
a headlined Coachella joined by The Weeknd for a
groundbreaking show. Their smash “Moth To A Flame” graced both Paradise Again and Dawn
FM on which the trio also contributed to “Sacri
fi
ce” and “How Do I Make You Love Me?”
In between, Steve asserted himself as a force of nature solo. He occupied a spot on DJ Mag’s
coveted “Top 100 DJs” list for fourteen consecutive years and received two DJ Awards. Not to
mention, he has churned out o
ffi
cial remixes for everyone from Justin Timberlake, Coldplay,
and Depeche Mode to Fergie and Moby. Following his full-length debut Wild Youth, he
ascended to another creative peak altogether on his sophomore o
ff
ering, Human. Prior to
o
ffi
cially sharing a note, he famously teased it during his famous Coachella 2017 set. A bold
boundary-breaking body work, he widened the scope of the genre itself, collaborating with the
likes of Bishop T.D. Jakes on “Rejoice,” Pusha T on “Freedom,” Barns Courtney on
“Dopamine,” and more. Right out of the gate, Billboard hailed “the producer’s versatility and
willingness to experiment,” and EDM Sauce christened it “His Magnum Opus.”
“On Wild Youth, I talked about my childhood lyrically and musically,” he explains. “It was more
melancholy. I had lived in Los Angeles for twelve years, but I brought my family back to
Sweden. When I got into the studio, I said, ‘Fuck expectations. I’m not going to think about
radio, playlists, or anything. I’m going to go in and make the album I want to make. I’m going to
explore. I’m going to have fun’. That happened, and it became HUMAN. It’s a really proud
moment for me.”
However, it just paved the way for much more to come from Steve though.
“I’ve been in this game for quite some time,” he leaves o
ff
. “Between doing Swedish House
Ma
fi
a, we each evolved on our own. Now, it’s nice to push the needle and really be on the edge
again together. That’s always exciting to me.””
BOILER PLATE
Long before garnering GRAMMY
®
Award nominations, performing to millions of fans on
multiple continents, crashing charts worldwide, and tallying streams in the billions, artist, DJ,
producer, and Swedish House Ma
fi
a Co-Founder Steve Angello realized his purpose as a kid in
Sweden. He collaborated with childhood friend Sebastian Ingrosso before launching his own
label Size during 2003. He also teamed up with Axwell in Supermode, landing a hit with “Tell
Me Why.” In 2008, he co-founded Swedish House Ma
fi
a with Axwell and Ingrosso. They
garnered consecutive GRAMMY
® nods for
“Best Dance Recording”
with the platinum “Save
the World” in 2012 and quintuple-platinum “Don’t You Worry Child” in 2013. They sold out
legendary venues—including Milton Keynes Bowl and Madison Square Garden—and delivered
historic sets at
Coachella
,
Ultra Music Festival
, and beyond. Plus, Steve asserted himself as a
solo force of nature. He occupied a spot on
DJ Mag
’s coveted
“Top 100 DJs”
list for fourteen
consecutive years and received two DJ Awards. He has delivered o
ffi
cial remixes for everyone
from Justin Timberlake, Coldplay, and Depeche Mode to Fergie and Moby. Following his full-
length debut
Wild Youth
, he ascended to another creative peak on his 2018 sophomore
o
ff
ering,
Human
, collaborating with Bishop T.D. Jakes on “Rejoice,” Pusha T on “Freedom,”
Barns Courtney on “Dopamine,” and more.
2021 marked the momentous comeback of
Swedish House Ma
fi
a with their long-awaited debut LP,
Paradise Again
, clinching #1 on the
Billboard
Top Dance/Electronic Albums Chart and UK Dance Albums Chart. They launched the
blockbuster
Paradise Again
World Tour, canvasing 29 cities in 11 countries across two
continents for
fi
ve months. As always, Steve will be unleashing more music and shifting
perspectives further in 2023