5 Questions with Eric Prydz
 (2025)

Jeff Schwachter

Two-time Grammy nominee Eric Prydz is a Swedish DJ and producer who has made quite a name for himself in the popular world of Electronic Dance Music (EDM). Months before his 37th birthday, Prydz’s resume looks like that of someone three times his age. Along with his Grammy nominations — he lost out to Skrillex in the Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical category for his remix of the M83 track “Midnight City” this past Sunday, Feb. 10 — Prydz makes music under an assortment of monikers (including Eric Prydz, Pryda and Cirez D.), operates several recording labels, including Pryda, and hosts a widely successful podcast called “Epic Radio.”


Putting aside his long-time fear of flying, Prydz has recently relocated from Europe to Los Angeles. After a successful U.S. tour in 2012, Prydz recently announced his first U.S. residency (called “Black Dice,” which will include a slate of shows at Wynn in Las Vegas). Before that he comes to Atlantic City for an appearance at HQ Nightclub at Revel on Friday, Feb. 15. It’s a show that promises to deliver a little something different than the typical EDM show as Prydz is known to “build a mood” with his music, “controlling a crowd” without relying on the typical “easy” hit tracks and using his skills as a studio producer to create something whole and unique. Although Prydz has toured the States a few times before, this will be his first appearance in Atlantic City. He took some time to chat with AC Weekly.



(WEB EXTRA! See more from this interview following the first five questions)

Some of your songs have no names, I think I read a quote from you saying: “Just listen to it and enjoy.” 


Song titles have never been important to me. I make so much music all the time, and obviously when I’m working on a track I have a project name for it, you need one so you can keep it organized. Tracks like — there’s one off my recent Eric Prydz Presents Pryda album called “Agag,” which is one of the names; it was basically me just throwing my fists at the [computer] keyboard because I was upset about something and it wrote in “Agag” so that became the project name for the track, which then, because it was there for so long, when I finally got to release the track, it felt strange to call it anything else, so that’s what it was. Another time I was at IKEA and we had this new release off of one of my labels, Pryda, and my manager was calling on the phone to tell me, “Eric, we desperately need a title for this track,” and I’m standing there in the line and they have these big boxes of the small white candles, and they were called Glimmer. So I said: “Glimmer.” It was the first thing I saw [and] that’s how it happens sometimes. I think it gets a bit pretentious sometimes when people put a little bit too much effort in the track title. 


“Epic Radio,” how and where do you create those podcasts?


Up until now, we’ve been doing it from the road because I’ve been touring so much. I have a portable studio that I can take out in a hotel room or the tour bus or even at a club. With today’s technology it’s really easy, to be honest. So yeah, it’s all done on the road. I’m very rarely in the studio, only when I have tracks I feel need special attention, but usually I’m on the tour bus with a laptop and headphones. 


Do you work from scraps of paper or ideas that might come to you as you’re working or traveling? 


Sometimes. The music I make is all based around melody and [grooves] and tension, there aren’t really words and such. But it happens sometimes where I get this melody idea in my head and I just record it on my iPhone. There are a lot of clicks and hums from me on my voice memos (laughs). Speaking of this, I have this recurring dream that I’m in a situation and I come up with this melody and it blows me and everyone else away. This is the best piece of music ever written, and I always wake up, and I can’t remember the f***ing melody (laughs). 


Will you sometimes be inspired to start working on a track from a train ride for instance, just from seeing something out the window?


Well yeah, when I was in Europe, going show to show I would use the train system there because it’s so easy to get around. You can just sit there and looking out the window you’re in the Swiss Alps and a few hours later you’re on the Spanish countryside. It’s super inspiring. A lot of the music I make on trains they are almost like a journey within themselves. I think the environment where I make music colors it a lot. 


Have you ever started a track and finished it on the same journey?


Yes, many times. The whole thing, ready to go. It could take one or two hours, it could take 10 months. Sometimes you’re lucky and everything just comes natural. For me, I always work on maybe five to 10 tracks at the same time. I feel it’s very refreshing to work on something for maybe 15 minutes and then I switch to something else and I can come back to it with fresh ears.

WEBEXTRA! Read more from Jeff Schwachter's interview with Eric Prydz:

How would you describe the evolution of the DJ today, who has much more of an acceptance within the music community, getting nominated for Grammys, like you just were for the second time, and even in terms of listeners who now see DJs as artists – who have videos, have chart hits, etc.?

I think there are DJs and [then] there are DJs. I think the kind of DJs that you speak about is more of a performing DJ ... someone like DJ Shadow who actually is a DJ. A lot of the people today, they are producers, they make music in the studio. The way they perform their music is they use either CD players or vinyl or even a computer with software … and they will put together all this music that they make and sometimes join it with other people’s music that they like as well and they make a performance out of it. Basically it’s not that different, as they have followings and concerts; it’s almost like a rock band. If you strip it down, it’s a person or a few persons performing their music. If they do it on a laptop or a guitar or a microphone, it doesn’t really matter. They are there to perform music and people come there because they want to hear it. It’s nothing new really, it’s been going on since music started.

With something like "Proper Education," where obviously Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" is sampled, what type of legal lines do you have to cross? Do you approach publishing companies to get permission or something like that?

Yeah, of course. We have to ask prior to recording. And the thing with that whole situation was [Pink Floyd] never granted anyone to use their music in a new recording [before]. ... So I made this track using elements that everyone recognized, so people could say, 'woah I know this.' And I just played it in my set to get a big reaction. But then the track blew up, especially in Europe, and it got to the point where we sat down and said I think we should ask Pink Floyd if we can release this because people absolutely love it. So that’s what we did. We sent them the track and after some talking and negotiating they said 'fine,' they liked the track and agreed for us to use the song. It actually ended up being nominated for a Grammy.

When did you start writing music, and how did you go after capturing and creating your own sound?

I wrote my first track when I was eight years old on the piano. Music equipment was so expensive back then so it wasn’t really available to me. This was Sweden early '80s. My heroes back then, and still to this day, were bands like Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode … anything made with electronic instruments was something I was obsessed about. I thought it was so cool because it had a different sound than what I was used to hearing. In my house my mom loved dancing, and she would always have disco on in the house, and not the cool stuff. Stuff like ABBA, the stuff you would hear on the radio. That’s the kind of music I was growing up with, and then I heard this new music from nowhere basically, a friend had given me a cassette. On one side it was kind of a mix between different Kraftwerk tracks, and on the other side it was Depeche Mode. I had never heard anything like that and it kind of blew me away. That’s where my interest started … I remember there was this computer came out and it was called the Commodore Amiga 500, it was one of the more developed personal computers. It came with music making software that was really simple and there were four channels you could work with. The big thing was there were samples and you could go and sample like old professional drums, some bass sounds, and it opened up a whole new world for me. I just developed as technology did.

You said that your goal fundamentally is to place the music first and foremost as a DJ.

Yes, well it’s all about the music, for me anyway. It’s not really about anything else. That’s what I do, I play music. I’ve never really been a fan of doing massive PR things or press, unless it’s something that I have to promote. I always thought the music should be able to speak for itself. It should be the music that people see instead of the person behind it.

What is Black Dice going to entail?

I got this new residency, Black Dice, which is cool. I’m going to do that for the whole year. What the concept of Black Dice is really, Vegas is known for the gold and glamour and the extra everything. We just wanted to do something, strip everything down, make it dark, and bring in a type of music that hasn’t really been played in Vegas up until now. Vegas is very commercial. And I think that people are getting a bit fed up of hearing the same tracks day in and day out, and I thought something fresh is needed. And that’s what Black Dice is all about.

Where did the name "Epic Radio" come from?

It actually started from a show I did called "EPIC," that stands for Eric Prydz in Concert, which is this big, big special show I’ve been doing in Europe based on holograms. And it’s a massive stage production thing. And when we sat down and wanted to do this podcast thing, it felt very natural for us to call it "EPIC Radio." It has been massively successful, gotten millions of downloads. For me, I hate flying, so there are places I don’t come to as much, or ever, like Japan and Australia and South America, but with a podcast, you can reach anywhere you want. They can download the newest episode and be totally up to date. It’s a great tool.

EVENT INFO

HQ Nightclub at Revel


Atlantic City


Fri., Feb. 15