The phrase ‘keeping it in the family’ is sometimes a double-edged sword. Sure, you get to work with siblings you love and trust – but what if they’re (whisper it) not very good? Thankfully, that couldn’t be further from the truth for young Swedish buck Antoine Josefsson aka AN21, whose brother Steve Angello is one third of the mighty Swedish House Mafia. This super-talented young producer has been consuming music constantly since he was a child, although he wasn’t always a fan of the music he was surrounded by at home.
These days however he's a fully-fledged child of the beat, so much so that he’s manning the helm along with brother Steve on his Size imprint’s next big project; Size Matters. We caught up with Antoine to discuss the calibre of Sweden’s producers, playing at some of the biggest venues on the scene and the benefits of having a famous brother…
Antoine, AN21…do people get confused what to call you?
Yeah, my name is very confusing. The whole story is from when I was a child and couldn't pronounce my name since it’s French, so I said 'one two one' instead. So ‘AN21’ is pronounced AN-TWO-ONE = Antoine.
What advantages does having a famous brother bring with it?
He pays for most of the dinners.
Sweden is currently cultivating some great talent. Do you already see yourself as the next generation of Swedish producers? Who else should we be looking out for?
Well there’s two kinds of producers in Sweden; the ones that have succeeded and the ones that haven’t succeeded yet. I´m pretty sure most of them will make it! All of us are hardworking and look up to Swedish House Mafia, and you can’t get a bigger ‘role model’ than that.
How would you describe your DJ sound?
I try to play as sexy as I can; I love to start really slow and groovy and then build it up as high as I can. My sets vary a lot depending where I play, but at Pacha in Ibiza or Cocoon in Frankfurt I can keep on playing forever!
When you create a track where do you envisage it being played?
Depends what kind of track it is, but mostly Pacha, Ibiza...
It must be mind blowing to suddenly jump from your own residency in Sweden to some of the most spectacular parties in the world…what does this feel like?
Yeah, totally mind blowing! I played some amazing shows at WMC in Miami earlier in the year, I did Brixton academy with SHM again in May along with a bunch of other amazing shows! Monday nights at Pacha Ibiza this year have just been ridiculous and I've done LED in London, Mysteryland in Amsterdam and the SHM arena at Creamfields too. It is surreal, but very exciting!
AN21
Explain this sentence from your biog "...when I was young, I thought my brother’s music was crap!"
I just didn't understand the house game back in the days, I was too caught up in other styles but when I grew up I really felt that I lost years in house…if I had started when I was 14 maybe things would have been even better now! Not that I complain of course…
Has Steve’s success shown you a plan of how you can develop yourself?
Of course, I´ve seen both their mistakes and their brilliant ideas in the past, but the biggest advantage is that I can ask them what they think of the tracks and they can give great feedback, which helps a lot in the studio.
Musically where do you get your inspiration for your productions?
Everything in life, but my biggest inspiration was my first trip to Ibiza three years ago. After that I locked myself in the studio for several months!
How did it work producing tracks with your brother? How did the dynamic work?
It works great. We have discussed music for years, what’s good and what isn’t, what works and what doesn’t. So it comes quite naturally to work out what we want to do. It only takes a few hours. He works amazingly fast!
Tell me about this new compilation, what is the vibe of your mix?
It represents me this year. It starts with one of my favourite cosy tracks and then moves into some sexy tech house, getting more and more groovy and harder before shifting into some bumpy house with a lot of euphoric strings. After that it becomes a smiling, hands in the air situation, the big, big tracks kick in and it’s all jumping!
Talk me through your own productions that are included, which are you most proud of?
The best track so far is the Ellie Goulding remix I did with Max Vangeli. We started it on Christmas Eve and we knew exactly what we wanted to do with it. The vocals are amazing and I’m really proud of that one...first big track!
What else are you up to with your production partner Max at the moment?
We´re doing one remix right now and focusing on an album for Size actually. I don’t want to reveal too much now, but things are looking veeeery interesting!
Size Matters mixed by Steve Angello & AN21 is out 8th November - pre-order from iTunes now
