Tim― The Official Biography of Avicii

You can get out of the hole,' said Tim. 'When you turn your face up, you see the whole blue sky. The birds and the light.

So, what is it that you want to do?' Racquel asked. 'I just wanna make music.

In general, dance music had long been overlooked in the US. While house music and techno had become mainstream genres in England, Germany and the Netherlands, they were still subcultures here. Of course, there had been sudden outbursts, moments when the scene had sparked – most recently in the late 90s when Brits like The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim had enjoyed successes on the charts.

Laidback Luke mentioned that he had his own record label, Mixmash Records, and if Tim continued to evolve at this pace, it was not impossible that he would one day release a song by Avici. Now attention was coming from England as well. The DJ and radio host Pete Tong had played the hottest house music on his BBC radio show since the early 90s and in April 2008 he announced a competition for young producers. Tim sent his song ‘Manman’, which to his great surprise was voted the winner by the listeners.

At the club Sturecompagniet the DJ Eric Prydz had first met Sebastian Ingrosso, which had led to the birth of Swedish House Mafia.

A bit playful and a little ironic – as if to emphasise how small yet prominent the Swedish scene was – they had started calling their trio Swedish House Mafia. In the summer they travelled to Ibiza, the party island in the Mediterranean that Filip already knew was the kingdom of heaven and played the clubs there. The pictures on the blog showed Sebastian Ingrosso with a sizeable drink in his hand at the legendary spot Pacha, where they performed with the star David Guetta. Steve Angello sat with a sunhat on the beach and read about himself in the music magazine Mixmag. The dream life.

The Swedish press had of course yet to grasp what was happening – what a lively scene had been created in the capital over the last few years – but what did it matter when Angello’s girlfriend had her own blog? Among pictures of high heels and skincare pointers, she talked about when her boyfriend spun in the booths at the clubs at Stureplan – the nightlife centre of Östermalm – at the venues that Filip Åkesson dreamed of one day getting into. She gossiped about the drinks at Grodan, F12 and Laroy, and posted pictures of Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso, two other producers with whom Steve Angello was increasingly collaborating.

Up towards the small ledge that served as a stage came a guy in worn jeans, a T-shirt, and a backwards baseball cap with the LA Dodgers logo. He slowly pulled up the fader to play a new tune, threw off his cap, baring a tightly tied tuft of hair. There he was. Steve Angello. Of all the house producers in Stockholm, this twenty-four-year-old was by far the coolest in Filip Åkesson’s eyes. You just needed to look at him: how Angello’s body language radiated that he couldn’t care less what people thought. His back held straight and his chest protruding through any and all difficulties.