Steve Angello of Swedish House Mafia: “We Had an Album, We Scrapped It”

In a recent interview, Swedish House Mafia member Steve Angello shed light on what happens “as a creator, if you’re not feeling something.”

Swedish House Mafia have abandoned their fair share of projects over the years, but few fans might suspect that they gutted an entire album. According to Steve Angello, however, that’s exactly what they did.

The supergroup member and Size Records label boss spoke to Meghan Mahar for Billboard, touching on topics ranging from tour life to changes in the dance music landscape. When asked when fans could expect the follow-up album to SHM’s 2022 effort, Paradise Again, Angello chuckled and said, “That question.”

“We had an album,” he explained, “we scrapped it, and we put out singles. We are still always working on music, and when we feel like, ‘Okay, this is good enough for us,’ we put it out.

Angello went on to say that “as a creator, if you’re not feeling something, it’s not gonna see the daylight.” Either Mahar didn’t press the matter further, or the video editor cut out any additional discourse.

Swedish House Mafia’s original 2008 lineup included not only Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso, and Axwell, but also longtime solo artist Eric Prydz. Songs like “Save The World” and “Don’t You Worry Child” — both of which feature John Martin — launched them into superstardom as the EDM boom unfolded. The trio split at their height, concluding their reign with an appearance at the 2013 edition of Ultra Music Festival.

Then, in 2019, Swedish House Mafia embarked on a much-hyped reunion tour — and cancelled tour stops notwithstanding, they’ve kept on gigging and releasing together ever since. Around the same time they released Paradise Again: The Live Album in July 2023, Angello said on the mic at Tomorrowland that their next album would arrive “later this summer.”