Words: DREW MILLARD Photos: LAWRENCE WATSON


ERIC PRYDZ IS BACK IN THE US FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOUR YEARS, HEADLINING THE STAR-STUDDED IDENTITY TOUR AND PROMOTING HIS LATEST PRYDA ALBUM. HERE HE TELLS DJ MAG USA ABOUT THE STORY BEHIND HIS SUCCESS, HOW THERE’S YET ANOTHER ALBUM ON THE WAY, AND WHAT EXACTLY HE THINKS OF EDM...


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ric Prydz is a man of many hats. The Swedish DJ has produced tracks of nearly every style of dance music under the sun using nearly just as many names — Eric Prydz, Pryda, Cirez D, The Dukes Of Sluca, Sheridan, Moo… you get the point. Name a phonetic combination of letters, and Prydz has probably released a single using that name.


Under his various guises he’s started the highly successful “concept label” Pryda, sold out arenas, and somehow managed to craft huge hits based on samples of artists who were previously thought to be nigh unsampleable. Though he’s operated within the ranks of world-renowned big-wig DJs for years, Prydz can safely say he’s remained his own man throughout the sea of hype he’s navigated.


Speaking to DJ Mag USA on the phone from Cincinnati, Prydz comes across as a cool-headed, thoughtful guy, one devoid of the ego associated with musicians of his stature. He spoke with us on his thirty-sixth birthday, which coincided with the kickoff of the second Identity Festival, the roving electronic music fest that reminds more than a little of the Vans Warped Tour, give or take a few thousand lasers. He’s heading up a bill including such formidable names as veteran trance dude Paul van Dyk, skittering dubsteppy duo Nero and the mighty Wolfgang Gartner. It’s an important tour in the landscape of electronic music in America, one that promises to build upon last year’s tour and help further establish the genre as a concrete force in American pop culture. Prydz seems unperturbed by the intense implications associated with heading up the ID Fest, taking it all in stride. “It’s definitely gonna be a lot of fun,” he says demurely as he prepares the evening’s set.


This trip to America is Prydz’s first since 2008 (he last toured the States the year prior), which makes his presence on the ID Tour that much the more noteworthy. He holds a deep, deep fear of flying, which makes getting to the States from his home base in Europe complicated, to say the least. Though DJ Mag USA was politely asked by his management not to bring his phobia up, he discussed the matter frankly with the UK edition of the magazine for our March 2010 cover feature, saying: “If I have a flight in a month’s time, I can’t sleep at night. It’s worry, worry, worry.” After four years, however, Prydz finally bit the bullet and headed back to America. “So much has changed since then,” he says of the American electronic scene that burgeoned in his absence. “It’s a new scene, this commercial pop-house thing that’s grown to be so accessible. This new generation of kids has really taken it and made it their own. It’s fun to see.”


Indeed, in the time that Prydz was in Europe, an economic infrastructure of sorts has been set into place, allowing such a tour as ID to even occur. Standalone festivals such as Ultra and Electric Daisy have seen their attendances rise exponentially in the past four years (70,000 to 165,000 for Ultra, 65,000 to 300,000 for EDC), EDC going so far as to expand to New York, signaling the market demand for a roving DJ tour. “It was underground, our music,” Prydz says of the recent past. “Now it’s Top Ten chart music. Dance music is almost bigger than hip-hop and r&b in the States, which was unthinkable six years ago. This new generation of kids have taken it and made it their own. It’s kind of awesome to see, actually.”


PITCHFOrK In an equally unfathomable move, the scene got a tacit nod of approval from the notoriously finicky tastemakers over at the website Pitchfork, who


in May of this year tagged Avicii’s ‘Silhouettes’ with the coveted ‘Best New Music’ designation. It was a purposeful, pointed statement by the site, one that has in the past emphasized DIY ideals and a marked sense of iconoclasm in the face of pop trends. Giving ‘Silhouettes’ a BNM might have seemed a bit off-message for the site, which tends to stick to what’s new and daring. But then again, maybe it makes perfect sense: songs such as ‘Silhouettes’ (and countless Prydz tracks) are in their own way new, daring directions for American pop to go in. More importantly than that, they’re really fucking good.


Returning from something of a self-imposed writing sabbatical, Pitchfork founder Ryan Shcrieber raised an interesting point about the nature of the term ‘EDM’ as a genre signifier. “As genre names go, EDM is about as vague as ‘indie.’” It’s a valid observation, one that Prydz largely agrees with, asking, “How can you label music?” Continuing, he says, “Everyone all of a sudden is like, ‘Oh, I’m an EDM guy. I’m really into EDM’. I’m just like, ‘What?’” When asked what type of music he makes, Prydz’s go-to response is, “I make music for you to dance to, and I use synthesizers and stuff like that. I’ve never been a fan of putting music into brackets.”


PIAnO-DrIVEn There’s a reason Prydz is an avowed eschewer of genre tags. It’s that his music doesn’t really fit into any distinct categories. As a producer, Prydz can do it all — synthy big-room bangers, lithe piano-driven tunes in the vein of classic house, the type of slow-building trance numbers you’d expect to hear as the sun rises in the middle of a rave in some cornfield, disco-infused funky jams, deep progressive house... you name it.


“I’ve been making music since I was about eight years old,” Prydz says when discussing his musical


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