Last Friday, BBC Radio 1 played Swedish House Mafia's new track One (featuring Pharrell Williams) on Fearne Cotton's show. When I sent an email to congratulate the DJ/producers, I received a reply from group member Axwell saying: "I have no idea where they got the track from. What they played is a leaked work-in-progress copy that we haven't finished. It's really scary. This track has been leaking like a sieve. It's strange, since very few people have had access to it – just us, our management and EMI." Swedish House Mafia consists of DJs Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso. Years ago they decided to tour together (Eric Prydz used to be a member too). Although they enjoy successful solo careers, together they recently signed a 360-degree deal with EMI. One is their first single as Swedish House Mafia (hence the track title), and was initially only supposed to be released as an instrumental, but after working with Pharrell on another project they decided to use some of the left-over vocals. "First the instrumental leaked, then the radio mix of that and then the rough-vocal version," said Angello. "It leaked before Pharrell even got to hear it himself." He says that leaks – and illegal downloading – affect record sales. Angello has 10 artists signed to his own label, which he runs on money he makes from DJing, but says that because of leaks neither he nor his artists make much profit. "When there's no profit I can't fund new projects and sign new artists. A lot of talent gets lost because of illegal downloading." "It almost feels pointless to get into a discussion about it, because we can't do shit," says Axwell. We discuss different ways of tackling the problem. Axwell suggests selling a subscription for £80, which gives fans everything Swedish House Mafia record, including exclusives. "They wouldn't want to give those tracks away to others, would they?" he says. For his next compilation, Angello plans to give away a card with every copy that gives free access to his gigs. With Pharrell on the new record, are Swedish House Mafia planning on "doing a David Guetta" and taking dance music into the US charts? "Guetta is considered urban in the US, not dance," says Angello, who now lives in LA. "In the States, it doesn't matter what the bpm (beats per minute) is – if it's a track featuring an urban artist, it's urban. Pharrell wanted to do a dance track with us. It has no verse, only a chorus. We've used his vocal the way you use vocals in house music – we cut it up." Like Guetta, they've seen a backlash from older fans, the more successful they get. "I read articles all the time, saying that we're getting worse and worse – that we've lost it – even though we get more and more popular," says Axwell. "It doesn't really add up." It seems the proof of real popularity is when Radio 1 rips your song off the internet to play on a daytime show. The producers of Fearne Cotton's show say that the track came from a third party. "They seem to think there's a copy circulating on the internet," says the show's PR. I ask if ripping tracks off the internet is a common occurrence at Radio 1. She says tracks come from all over the place, and that she'll ask the music team. They have yet to reply. EMI believes the Pharrell track was taken from Axwell's computer. Then it was leaked online, where it was discovered by Radio 1 . Although nobody, including Swedish House Mafia, is complaining about being playlisted on Radio 1s, a leak like this creates problems. Swedish House Mafia realise that they need to reduce the time between sending a track to radio stations and making it commercially available. If fans can't buy a track legally, they're even more likely to go to p2p networks. But the Pharrell version of One wasn't even serviced to radio – it wasn't even finished. "It sucks," says Axwell. "It makes it next to impossible to plan when a record should be released." Last week, the group played two packed gigs at London's Brixton Academy. So how did they celebrate? Champagne, perhaps, or a night on the town? No. Instead, they went straight into the studio to finish the Pharrell version of One as quickly as possible.
