Long before garnering GRAMMY® Award nominations, performing to millions of fans on multiple continents, crashing charts worldwide, and tallying streams in the billions, artist, DJ, producer, and Swedish House Mafia Co-Founder Steve Angello realized his purpose as a kid in Sweden.
With bulky headphones on, he sat in front of his record player and spun classics by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder, and Michael Jackson for hours on end, ultimately deciding, “I want to become a DJ.”



“I knew what I wanted to do at ten-years-old,” he smiles. “I would save up all of my money from taking out the trash and doing chores to go to the record store and buy secondhand Zeppelin and Bob Marley albums—and anything Quincy Jones produced. I even bought a lot of albums based on the artwork, because it wasn’t like you could hear it before you bought it back then. Regardless, if it was American country, Swedish rock, or German punk, I would dig it, because I paid for it,” he laughs. “That’s how it started.”



By the time he turned thirteen, Steve cut his teeth as a DJ, performing at summer basketball tournaments, and fueling the action with hip-hop breaks and no shortage of scratching. He honed his talents at scratch competitions around Sweden and produced original material. Early on, he collaborated with childhood friend Sebastian Ingrosso before launching his own label Size during 2003. He made waves internationally with a Remix of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart in 2005. A year later, he teamed up with Axwell in Supermode, landing a hit with “Tell Me Why.” Iconic Size solo singles followed, namely “Gypsy,” “Isabel,” and “Flonko.” 2009 saw him link up with Laidback Luke for the mega-smash remix of the Robin S Classic “Show Me Love.”



Around the same time, he joined forces with Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso to launch Swedish House Mafia. The group effectively took over the world. They notched back-to-back GRAMMY® nominations in the ...