Aloe Blacc says the late Avicii is always on his mind when he hits the studio.
The ‘I Need Dollar’ hitmaker has spoken about losing the DJ – whose real name was Tim Bergling – and how he’s always reminded of the great piece of advice he once gave him about the importance of melody.
In an interview with The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column, he said: "What I really came to respect about what he was passionate about is making sure that, while he trusted me with my lyrics and my vocal melody, he would also create a melody that would stand alone.
"So if you’re familiar with a song, like ‘Wake Me Up’, you have a lyric that you could sing.
"But if you take away the lyrics you also have a musical melody that he introduces.
"And that’s just as important as any other part of the song. I think about that every time I’m in a session with producers."
Aloe and Avicii – who tragically died in April 2018 at the age of 28 – recorded the song ‘SOS’ together, which was released on the Swedish producer’s posthumous LP ‘TIM’ in June last year.
Meanwhile, Aloe opened up about stepping outside of his comfort zone to record "romantic" ballad ‘I Do’ for his wife, Maya Jupiter, for the first time to mark their 10th wedding anniversary this year.
He said: "I come from a hip-hop background, and so in my training as a hip-hop artist, romantic love songs were not part of the repertoire.
"So now I feel really comfortable. I feel like now’s a good time to share that process, my experience, my personality.
"She asked me a few times when I would write a song for her.
"I’ve written songs for her which haven’t been released and this is the one that I felt like, ‘OK, this one is perfect’.
"It really feels like our relationship and it falls on our tenth anniversary."
Aloe Blacc thinks about Avicii every time he’s in the studio
