New York, NY (Top40 Charts) DJ/producer/songwriter
Avicii today released his new album STORIES, the follow-up to his genre-busting, multi-platinum debut TRUE. Produced by Avicii, aka Tim Bergling, STORIES features 14 original songs on which he worked for two years to push himself genre-wise and maintain his commitment to crafting undeniably catchy melodies and personal themes. Along the way, Bergling collaborated with some of music's most distinctive singers/songwriters including Alex Ebert, Matisyahu, Wyclef Jean,
Gavin DeGraw and Zac Brown.
The new music on STORIES is informed by Bergling's experiences since the release of his record TRUE which sold close to 5 million copies worldwide, charted at #1 on iTunes in 84 countries, and boasted the fastest selling single in 2013, "Wake Me Up," which was streamed nearly 50 billion times. Those experiences varied radically from the elation of playing for 80,000 hometown fans in Stockholm and selling 500,000 tickets on his TRUE Tour to having an illness that necessitated the cancellation of a year's worth of tour dates. Rather than making a total departure from TRUE, STORIES builds on it.
Bergling says the album "refines what I didn't feel was perfect last time. I think there are more layers to the songs than before, and every song has been written on acoustic guitar, so the structure is different. All the songs have a story I wanted to tell."
Avicii's STORIES is rich and varied, with melodies that carry the listener on a roller coaster of emotions. He characterizes the lyrics on a track with
Matisyahu and
Wyclef Jean as 'an old school reggae protest song.' He teased "
Broken Arrows" with the 'amazing voice' of Zac Brown on his monthly Le7els podcast. Brown reciprocated the admiration when he told Country Weekly, "Avicii has an incredible mixture of organic and electronic music together."
The album also includes the single "Waiting for Love," which was #1 in 22 countries and features the powerful vocals of UK-based artist Cherry Ghost, aka
Simon Aldred.
Avicii ties in his own 'story' paying homage to his hometown on the dreamy pop song "Somewhere In Stockholm," giving the album a strong, personal reference point. The enormity of the success of TRUE gave him the freedom to be able to make rock songs and ballads, and explore reggae, blues, and jazz, and he's made the most of that freedom on STORIES.
"Yes it's a challenge," he says, "but it's also a lot of fun."
About Avicii:
In 2011,
Avicii reached critical mass with the global success of "Le7els," which became a No. 1 dance hit in the U.S. and the U.K. and sold four million tracks worldwide. It topped the charts in six other territories, went top 10 in many more, and garnered Bergling his second Grammy nomination. Other hits brought a much-publicized remix of Madonna's "Girl Gone Wild." In 2013,
Avicii won his first American
Music Award (for Favorite Electronic Dance
Music Artist) and his first MTV
Europe Music Award (EMA) (for Best Electronic Artist).
In 2014
Avicii cemented his place in the firmament of superstar recording artist/DJ's with the success of his genre-defying debut album, True, on PRMD Records. The album not only satisfied the 26-year-old Swede's restless creative urge to push musical boundaries, it also upped the ante on what dance music could be by blending the earthy sounds of folk, country, and bluegrass with soaring pop melodies, funky disco jams, and driving house beats. True spawned the 4x-platinum guitar-laden stomper "Wake Me Up," which hit No. 1 in 81 countries and became the most streamed song of all time on Spotify (over 300 million plays) and the No. 1 most Shazamed song worldwide, while racking up 2.6 billion international streams and 600 million combined YouTube views. Upon True's release, The New York Times heralded
Avicii as "an artist carrying today — and tomorrow — on his shoulders."
In May,
Avicii and Volvo Cars, two of Sweden's most influential brands, launched their collaboration on a new brand campaign which features Avicii's reworking of the classic song
Feeling Good. The music video for
Feeling Good was filmed on location in Stockholm and Osterlen, southern Sweden in places of personal significance for
Avicii and tells his own story of renewal, following several years of hard touring.
About PRMD Music:
PRMD is an independent label, home to Avicii,
Cazzette and iSHi, as well as the recently established ICONS label.
Diverse in sound and sourcing talent from across the continents, the label approaches 2015 with a manifesto for taking its reign beyond the electronic dance bubble, tapping into the worlds of electronic music, hip-hop, indie rock and commercial pop, alongside a wealth of both new and already-established artists.
About Island Records:
Island Records, which celebrates its 56th anniversary in 2015, maintains its position as one of the world's legendary record labels, a coveted destination for new and established artists of every description. Island staked its claim at the beginning of the musical revolution that shook the 1960s and '70s, and continues that trend-spotting spirit of adventure. Today's Island is home to a varied roster that ranges from Avicii, Fall Out Boy, Nick Jonas, and The Killers, to Shawn Mendes, The Gaslight Anthem, American Authors, Incubus, Jake Bugg, Tove Lo, Kiesza, and many more. Island Records is a division of Universal
Music Group, the undisputed global music leader, with wholly owned operations in 60 territories. Universal
Music Group is a fully owned subsidiary of Vivendi.
