EDM Scene Hero Asks Avicii’s Management Team If He’s a ‘Modern Day Milli Vanilli’

Like anyone famous, Avicii is easy to hate. Last week Thump columnist Seth Troxler zeroed in on Tim Bergling in a powerful op-ed shredding what the EDM scene has become. According to Troxler — Surprise! — the dude is a massive prick. Via Thump:

“Speaking of Avicii, Avicii is a cunt. When he went to the hospital during Ultra in Miami, my tour manager Alex was with the nurse assigned to him. The fucking cunt wouldn’t even speak to the nurse. She would have to tell his manager what to tell him, and they were sitting next to each other.

 Those are some strong words. Fighting words, even. But Troxler isn’t scared, flying to the other side of the Atlantic to continue pestering the shit out of Avicii’s handlers protecting “the brand.”At the International Music Summit in Ibiza, Troxler stood up and called out Avicii’s management team at the Meet Team Avicii panel on Avicii’s bullshit.

“I wanna touch on the idea that you guys are in the pay to play system, paying to play Ultra, also the amount of money you’ve spent on publicity.  Also the 50/50 writing and production credits that you, Ash, get: I was wondering, with you guys, is it more of a modern day Milli Vanilli situation? Who is actually producing the music, and what does your music stand for in the whole giant scope of electronic music, and music generally?”

Here’s how they attempt to answer the question:

“Well, it’s not really 50/50,” Avicii’s manager Ash Pournouri counters. “Tim [Bergling AKA Avicii] has always been the main producer and I’m the Executive Producer, sometimes I have more input and sometimes I have less… I had ideas and Tim had ideas and we merged them into the same brand… To answer your second question, what it means for electronic music, the music we create, we’re not trying to persuade anyone in particular. As any musician would…we’re trying to expose the music to as many people as possible. We started in electronic music and we believe we’re still there, we think we’re staying true to the original sounds we created, which is based on energetic, uplifting melodies.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to be able to influence a lot in the scene: there’s nothing that we’re outright saying, that everybody needs to follow us, or everyone needs to do what we’re doing. We do something we believe in, and when people appreciate it we’re super proud about the work, but we don’t really think of it as ‘we’re gonna come in and show everyone how it’s done’, that’s not what this is about.”

Watch the exchange below. Ballsy question, but it’s about fucking time someone asked it.

Brandon Wenerd is BroBible's publisher, writing on this site since 2009. He writes about sports, music, men's fashion, outdoor gear, traveling, skiing, and epic adventures. Based in Los Angeles, he also enjoys interviewing athletes and entertainers. Proud Penn State alum, former New Yorker. Email: brandon@brobible.com