Swedish House Mafia’s headline performance at Ultra Miami festival wasn’t just your regular set; they delivered a block party-style mega-set in which the decks were helmed by a number of both established and rising DJs. On rotation every ten minutes were Kelly Lee Owens, Armand van Helden, Axwell, Afrojack, Eric Prydz and more, framed on the colossal stage by palm trees and bursts of flames. At its core, the set aimed to pay homage to diverse dance sonics that have defined Swedish House Mafia over the past two decades. 

Below, we caught up with two of Swedish House Mafia’s members, Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello, as they reflect on their set, Avicii, and their dream to collaborate with Yung Lean.  

What made headlining Ultra Miami unique? 

Angello: Ultra played a big role in our upcoming in the US. We broke through there early on in a little tent. We ended there 13 years ago, and we came back there last month. It’s always meant something to us. 

Ingrosso: But headlining the main stage at the festival, without sounding cocky, we’ve done it a couple of times, and we just felt like, ‘All right, what's happening now?’ Especially in EDM, it’s too much about the individuals. We started out being three guys DJing. We all know that you don’t need six hands to DJ. But it’s not really about that. 

Angello: It’s about bringing everybody together.

How did you approach curating the set and choosing who to bring on stage?

Ingrosso: Everybody was there for a reason. Armin van Helden was a huge inspiration for the boys and me. He’s been the don of house music for such a long time. Kelly Lee Owens is someone that we admire. She calls techno emotional and she was perfect in that moment with all that noise. Those festivals can almost feel like Disney World sometimes, and she came in there, put on Radiohead with her feminine touch, and the whole festival went numb in the best way possible. That was her mission in The Avengers of this set. And Afrojack, in the beginning of his career, was almost a protégé of Steve.

Angello: He was like our little brother when he came through. 

Ingrosso: So when he came up, it was not about his hits with Sia. We wanted him to play the OG stuff. And then MPH is an upcoming UK garage house kid, that’s just a phenomenal producer and DJ. Boys Noize is the godfather of electronic music. So we had to have him there, otherwise the rings of The Avengers couldn't be fulfilled. And then, obviously, Eric Prydz goes without saying. We started the little community that we called Swedish House Mafia with Eric.

Angello: And we all grew up together. 

You mentioned the Kelly Lee Owens Radiohead moment, which was magnetic. Were there any other moments like that where you could really feel the crowd’s energy? 

Angello: I feel all of it. Listen, we’ve all played back-to-back. So we’re very used to it. But I feel like the most important thing here was the way we did it: every 10 minutes, a new artist came up. Everything felt new. 

Ingrosso: It was a festival within the festival.  

Angello: And I think it’s hard today, where everything is put on a pedestal, and this just felt like a family thing. You could feel it on stage. Every artist showed up, every manager showed up, every agent showed up, even if we're not working with people. It was like a gathering just behind the stage.

How has dance music changed, and what excites you about where it’s headed? 

Ingrosso: I think it’s in a really good space, but it’s also scary, because it’s started to become a little bit oversaturated. We’ve been in three different eras of dance music. It goes up and down. It’s always these geniuses that get born out of these waves and actually inspire us older guys. Fred Again is one of the better ones coming out of this. We had the privilege to work with him in the early days. And I think that he will live as long as he wants to. He’s just genuine about this. We need that, we need the disruption, we need the realness, the community. And then you have Charli xcx doing Boiler Room. I love that. Now it just feels like the typical EDM thing is kind of not there anymore. 

Angello: It’s evolving. The walls are down. Genres are crossing. The open format thing is beautiful to see. DJs are not put in folders. The rules are broken. 

Ingrosso: And you can also see that kids are obsessed with old catalogues. We, the older guys, are like, what’s the next thing? And the new generation is like, how was the old shit?

We want to do something with another Swedish brother, Yung Lean. We respect his art.

An emotional moment of the set was when you honoured Avicii. It's been 10 years since his last Ultra performance – what did that moment mean to you?

Angello: We had to. He’s like a little brother to us. 

Ingrosso: Tim has always had a special place in our hearts. We absolutely adore his music and his craft, and him. As a person, he was just a nice, very talented kid with mental health issues. So, to honour him and his music and his family, we also honoured people out there with similar problems. It’s very hard to talk about, but he’s a Swedish guy that we are very proud of.

How do you handle conflict within the group?

Angello: We don’t!

Ingrosso: We have conflicts all the time. It’s part of the process, part of the brotherhood and family. Everybody is nuts. It’s a lot of creative people all under one roof.

Angello: We solve conflicts by talking, even if it becomes really intense. And we create. 

Is there an artist that you would love to experiment with?

Ingrosso: We want to do something with another Swedish brother, Yung Lean. We respect his art. And it would be interesting to see the contrast of what we do and what he does, and how he sees us, and how he wants to challenge us. We always had a dream to work with Florence and the Machine. Her way of writing music is just beyond. She’s one of the few out there of the OG artists who actually feels inhuman. Obviously, The Weekend was one of them for us that we had the opportunity to work with. That was our top, top, top dream. And we tend to never give up on those things. We kind of like...

Angello: We’ll hunt you down. 

You mentioned Yung Lean. Are there any emerging Swedish artists you’re excited about right now? 

Ingrosso: There are so many up-and-coming. You have this woman called Cobra. We are in communication with her. She’s like, super cool, different kind of has the aesthetics that we love. We have a young kid that we love, a young Swedish DJ called Megra. It feels like he's going to take over soon. Super talented guy.