Axwell // in da mix
Although his years behind the decks began in the late 1990s, his profile got larger when he teamed up with Robbie Rivera and vocalist Suzan Brittan to record "Burning." The collaboration went to number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 2004.
In late 2004 Axwell released another global hit, "Feel The Vibe", which was re-released under Ministry of Sound in 2005 with added vocals from Tara McDonald as "Feel The Vibe ('Til The Morning Comes)."
Also leading the way has been Mambana, his collaboration with Isabel Fructuoso (of Afro Medusa fame). Signed to Soulfuric Recordings, they have released three tracks since 2002. "No Reason" was their debut single, which hit the top spot in all the Hype/Buzz charts that Summer and was featured in the sets of all the top DJ's including Little Louie Vega, Danny Rampling and Ben Watt. The follow ups were "Felicidad" and "Libre". "Libre" was released in 2003 and was arguably bigger than its predecessor. "Libre" was licensed to more than 12 different territories and featured on compilations that sold in excess of half a million copies.
Axwell has also been responsible for Jetlag's "So Right", which came out in September 2002 on Soulfuric, featuring the vocals of Noel McKoy and co-produced with Brian Tappert. In late 2002 Axwell went back to his roots and produced a track under his own name - "Lead Guitar" which was released by fellow Swede Stonebridge on his Stoney Boy imprint.
2003 saw Axwell recording for London based label suSU (the UK home of Masters At Work) under the guise of Starbeach. The track was called "Get Naked" & featured the vocal talents of D'Empress (from Mutiny). This was followed up by his version of Evelyn Thomas' classic "High Energy". In the autumn of 2003 Axwell's "Wait A Minute", featuring the vocals of Nevada, was released on Soulfuric's sub-label Device. This song was a club smash that gained support from the likes of Pete Tong, Junior Jack, Kid Creme and David Guetta.
In between all this, Axwell has been producing remixes for other artists - recent mixes have included Usher's "Burn" (BMG), Room 5's "Make Luv" (Positiva), Clipse & Faith Evans "Ma, I Don’t Love Her" (RCA), Stonebridge's "Put 'Em High" (Hed Kandi), N*E*R*D's single "Maybe" (Virgin), and more recently HARD-Fi's "Hard To Beat", Deep Dish's "Dreams", Pharrell Williams' "Angel", Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous" and Madonna's "Jump".
In addition to a re-release of "Feel The Vibe" on Ministry Of Sound, he has produced several club remixes, as well as his own production, including "Get Over Here" by Rasmus Faber, "2 Million Ways" by C-Mos, "Turn On The Music" by Roger Sanchez, as well as his collaboration with Sebastian Ingrosso on Ernesto vs Bastian's "Dark Side Of The Moon". Among his original production, it's his other collaboration with the also Swedish producer Ingrosso on "Together". Axwell's most successful release of 2005 was "Watch The Sunrise", with Steve Edwards on vocals (famous for Cassius' "The Sound Of Violence"). The track has reached #3 in UK Dance Singles Chart and BBC Radio 1 Dance Chart. In between Axwell's productions he also found time to create Axtone, his own record label.
In the spring of 2006, Axwell and Steve Angello, under the Supermode alias, have remixed Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy", producing "Tell Me Why". It was released under the Data label. Later, he teamed up with Eric Prydz and produced the tracks 123 and 321 releasing them under the alias Axer.
On 12th August 2007, Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso played the Main room at Cream Amnesia under the alias The Swedish House Mafia as part of Radio 1's Essential Mix Ibiza. The live set received rave reviews.
