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'UNDERGROUND' DJS SLATE AXWELL & INGROSSO

DJs strike back after “Underground music is amateur” comment

Swedish duo Axwell and Ingrosso, two-thirds of the Swedish House Mafia, have got themselves into a spot of hot water following comments in the New York Times.

The story was taken up by DJ Mag Canada before DJs such as Sasha and Eats Everything got involved. See the story here 

Talking about their mass appeal, Ingrosso was quoted as saying:  “Underground dance music — in the nicest way possible — it’s amateur.”

Read the whole of the New York Times interview with Axwell & Ingrosso here

On seeing the DJ Mag Canada article, Eats Everything took to Twitter to say: “Not normally one to do this and hate on stuff but check these pair of cunts out @Axwell @Ingrosso not cool at all” – before linking to the DJ Mag Canada article.

Sasha replied shortly after: “@EatsEverything @Axwell @Ingrosso total wankers”

Eats went on to say: “Amateur my fucking ass. I can make what you geezers make in 20 minutes. I'm completely sober as well. @axwell @Ingrosso

He followed in up with: “Thing is I actually really RESPECTED @Axwell bc he is talented. Didn't think he would go this low. Sad.”

And: “Yo @axwell @ingrosso let's have an "amateur off" I'm ready.”

Eats was offended because Axwell & Ingrosso seemed to be saying that underground dance music is amateurish – and, by default, only their big EDM bangers are ‘professional’.

This spat is just the latest beef between EDM DJs and their more underground contemporaries. Seth Troxler in the recent DJ Mag cover story said: “I don’t really agree with the music of Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike or Avicii and all this shit — I call it sonic ear-rape”, while John Digweed and Paul van Dyk both derided EDM DJs during post-Ultra MTV interviews for their “lazy” approach to DJing by just playing the most obvious tracks.

A few days ago, both Sasha and Seth Troxler were pictured with EDM DJs — Sasha in the studio with Avicii and Seth with his arm around Martin Garrix. However, both were photoshopped pictures put together for April Fool’s Day — the implication being that the underground DJ wouldn’t be seen dead in the studio or hanging out with the EDM DJ.

So has the underground started to go to war with EDM?

Axwell took to Twitter to attempt an apology of sorts, saying that he was misquoted in the New York Times article. Here is his statement in full:

Listen up! The amount of bashing we've been given throughout the years for being commercial has been on a record level. and then a rather positive quote about "our" underground music gets put out of context - we are condemning underground music as a whole, and bashing where we come from ? seriously?


“We were merely answering the question - so what do you guys think
of all the underground people bashing people like yourself for moving into the mainstream as opposed to our early music... which we answered from our
standpoint - ie. underground music if that's what people label our early
releases as - for us - was our amateur stage - amateur the way we translate
it from English to Swedish means when we were trying things out, as a hobby, a lovely hobby, a happy time,
after a while we started moving into mainstream more as our music came more successful- or perhaps the
mainstream crowd got to our music - which i guess took it from the underground to mainstream.

“And we were clear to say that if people liked our music great, and if they didn't, that ok. This was about our own releases, not other genres as a whole or other artists. We had nothing bad to say about anyone, this is a super happy time for us right now.

“Anyways, we
love all forms of music , underground or mainstream, and if you know anything about us you know very well we've paid our underground dues
enough, and for us to be "bashing" and condemning where we come
from is just ridiculous. It's a bit disheartening to see the amount
of publicity this has gotten and the fact people seem to like to find something negative to focus on - when in fact nothing negative was meant.”

Eats also tweeted to say that he didn’t consider himself ‘underground’ as such, and issued a half-hearted apology to Axwell & Ingrosso at the end of the affair.