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From: Klas Bergling

(资料图)

To: Tim Bergling

Date: 29 September 2011

Hi Tim,

嗨，Tim，

How’s it going? Have just arrived in Skillinge, played some poker with the guys, it’s fun. Tonight it’s starry skies and refreshing fall in the air. Always the same when you come back here after having been away for a while, it’s so nice, easy to forget.

你好吗？刚到Skillinge，和伙计们玩了些扑克牌，很有趣。今晚满天繁星，秋天的凉意扑面而来。每次离开一段时间后回到这里，总是感觉很美好，容易被忘却。

Thinking about you a lot and hoping your inspiration is enough for this huge tour with gigs every day. I don’t think it’s such a great plan, one needs to be able to pause and breathe a little, but it’s your choice.

我一直在想着你，希望你的灵感足以支撑这个每天都有演出的巨大巡演。我不认为这是一个好计划，人需要停下来，稍微喘口气，但这是你的选择。

Kisses and hugs and I hope it’s going sooooo well!

亲亲抱抱，希望一切顺利！

Your old man

你的老爸

Without even being properly released by a record company, in the autumn of 2011 ‘Levels’ had almost twenty million views on YouTube. On Facebook, Avicii had over a hundred thousand followers, and there were more each night, while Tim Bergling toured between the college towns in the US – that was where the young people were.

在2011年秋季，尽管没有通过唱片公司正式发布，‘Levels’在YouTube上的观看次数已经接近2000万。在Facebook上，Avicii已经有了超过10万的粉丝，而且每天晚上都在增加，同时Tim Bergling在美国的大学城之间巡回演出——那里有年轻人。

In this country, it was important to strike while the iron was hot, something the singer Björn Skifs had experienced four decades earlier. In the mid-70s, he had been on his way to becoming the first Swede ever to conquer first place on the singles chart in the US, with his cover of the song ‘Hooked on a Feeling’, but he blew it all due to his Swedish sense of obligation. The artist had been standing backstage, in full make-up, when the record company called from the other side of the Atlantic and said it was rumoured that the song was about to go number one! IN THE US! Hey, cancel everything, throw yourself on a flight! Skifs explained that it was impossible, because he was about to play a clown in a musical in Västerås. When he and the band Blue Swede eventually left for the USA, the temperature had cooled down and there was never any more chance of a career there.

在这个国家，趁热打铁非常重要，这是歌手Björn Skifs四十年前曾经体验过的。在70年代中期，他曾经凭借翻唱歌曲Hooked on a Feeling在美国单曲榜上取得第一名的成绩，成为了首位征服美国单曲榜的瑞典人，但由于瑞典人特有的责任感，他失去了一切。当时，唱片公司从大西洋的另一边打来电话，说这首歌即将在美国登顶！在后台化了浓妆的艺术家听到这个消息时，他立刻取消了所有的计划，准备赶上一架航班！然而，Skifs被解释说这是不可能的，因为他即将在Västerås的一部音乐剧中扮演小丑。当他和Blue Swede乐队最终启程前往美国时，热度已经降温，再也没有机会在美国发展事业了。

Avicii would not make that kind of mistake. He would be touring intensively to take advantage of the momentum that ‘Levels’ had created. Malik Adunni and Malik Adunni were two Americans who had been hired to act as tour leaders and production managers and to make travel more efficient. The crew zigzagged across the continent, at a pace that dissolved day and night. Just take this October week of 2011, which had begun on Monday in Covington, Kentucky. Then they went to Gainesville, Florida, before flying all over the country to San Diego, making a stop at Jesse Waits’ club in Las Vegas and finally ending up in Bloomington, Indiana, where Tim had just done Saturday night’s first gig. Now they were on their way to an arena in New Jersey to make the evening’s second appearance.

Avicii不会犯那种错误。他会进行巡演，利用Levels制造的势头。Malik Adunni和Malik Adunni是两名美国人，被聘用担任巡演领队和制作经理，以便使旅行更加高效。团队在整个大陆穿梭，以一种忽略白天和黑夜的节奏前进。就拿2011年10月的这一周来说，周一他们在肯塔基州科文顿开始，然后前往佛罗里达州盖恩斯维尔，之后飞往圣迭戈，在拉斯维加斯的杰西·韦茨俱乐部停留，最后在印第安纳州布卢明顿结束了周六晚上的首场演出。现在，他们正前往新泽西的一个竞技场，准备进行当晚的第二场演出。

As usual, Tim sat immersed in his screens, drinking champagne from a plastic glass.

像往常一样，Tim沉浸在屏幕中，从塑料杯中喝着香槟。

He had started chatting intensely with Emily, the girl he had met in Washington, DC, a few months earlier. Via WhatsApp, they sent quotes from the TV series Arrested Development, shared pictures of cute sloths, discussed the Game of Thrones books and joked about Disney movies. One meme led to the next, the topics of conversation never ended, everything was intense and fun. They were from different parts of the world, but Tim already felt that he had found a kindred spirit. Emily was not only funny, she also had good taste – when she suggested the TV series Archer, Tim downloaded it immediately.

他开始与几个月前在华盛顿特区认识的女孩Emily热情地聊天。他们通过WhatsApp发送《逮捕令发展》电视剧的语录，分享可爱树獭的照片，讨论《权力的游戏》的书籍，开玩笑谈论迪士尼电影。一个表情包引发下一个，话题从未结束，一切都是那么的浓烈和有趣。他们来自世界不同的地方，但Tim已经感到他找到了一个志同道合的灵魂。Emily不仅幽默，她还很有品味——当她建议看电视剧《特工狂花》时，Tim立刻下载了它。

In tandem with this, unfortunately, the job never ended. Filip Holm at least had a sense of humour when he emailed all the new commitments.

与此同时，不幸的是，这项工作永远不会结束。Filip Holm在发送新的承诺邮件时至少有一点幽默感。

Interview No. 7888444 URGENT.

采访编号 7888444，紧急。

Another interview request from another student magazine. It was not that Tim did not want to talk about his music, but to answer the same fifteen questions over and over again was more tiring than they seemed to realise on Styrmansgatan.

又是来自一本学生杂志的采访请求。Tim并不是不想谈论他的音乐，但是不断回答那同样的十五个问题比他们在Styrmansgatan意识到的更加疲惫。

Did he drink his coffee with or without milk? Did he ski? What were his favourite songs when he cleaned? Those questions were meaningless but at least they were different. Most were far more generic:

他喝咖啡的时候加牛奶吗？他滑雪吗？他打扫卫生时最喜欢听哪些歌曲？这些问题毫无意义，但至少它们不同寻常。大多数问题都更加普通：

Had you expected all this success?

你预料到了这一切的成功吗？

Would you like to collaborate with Swedish House Mafia?

你想和瑞典浩室黑手党合作吗？

What kind of music do you play in the clubs?

你在俱乐部播放什么类型的音乐？

It was a Slovenian newspaper that wondered about the latter.

那是一家斯洛文尼亚报纸对此产生了疑问。

‘Fuck this, they should at least know that one,’ Tim wrote to Filip. Why did they want to write about him when they did not even know the most basic things?

“去他妈的，他们至少应该知道这个，”Tim写给Filip。他们为什么想写他，却连最基本的东西都不知道？

Do you have any habits before you go on stage?

你上台前有什么习惯吗？

‘I always take a shot of Jäger before I go on. I have Tiësto to thank for that ritual!’

“在上台前我总是喝一口野格。这个仪式我要感谢Tiësto！”

Pancakes, waffles or crêpes – choose one!

煎饼、华夫饼或可丽饼 - 选一个！

‘Crêpes.’

“可丽饼。”

What makes a party perfect?

什么让派对变得完美？

‘I would say good music, good people and Jägermeister.’

“我会说好音乐、好人和野格利口酒。”

What does the name Avicii mean?

Avicii这个名字是什么意思？

‘Fuck this one too, the answer is already found 5000x on Google.’

“他妈的，这个也是，答案在谷歌上已经被查了5000遍了。”

Production manager Felix Alfonso began to understand for the first time how uncomfortable Tim could become around people one Sunday in Boston. Before that night’s gig, they had decided to see the latest Transformers movie.

在波士顿的某个星期天，制作经理Felix Alfonso第一次意识到Tim在人群中会感到不适。在那晚的演出前，他们决定去看最新的《变形金刚》电影。

Felix noticed that Tim was behaving differently as they walked towards the theatre. He seemed to not be in the conversation, walked quietly and stared down at the ground.

当Felix和Tim朝剧院走去时，Felix注意到Tim的行为有些不同寻常。他好像没有参与对话，默默地走着，低头看着地面。

‘What’s up, bro? You good?’

“你怎么了？还好吗？”

Tim hurried forward under his hat.

Tim戴着帽子匆忙前行。

‘I’m okay. Just anxious. There’s so many people here; feels like everybody is staring.’

“我没事，只是有些焦虑。这里有那么多人，感觉每个人都在盯着我看。”

Felix was a little put off, did not know what to answer. Of course, there were people who saw that it was Avicii – he was dressed exactly the same as in the press photos. The same T-shirt from American Apparel, the same check shirt, the same cap.

Felix有些不知所措，不知道该怎么回答。当然，有人看到了这是Avicii——他穿着与新闻照片上完全一样的衣服，同样是美国服装公司的T恤，同样是格子衬衫，同样是一顶帽子。

‘No one is recognising you,’ Felix tried. ‘Just keep on walking and you’ll be fine.’

“没有人会认出你的，”Felix尝试说，“向前走，你会没事的。”

Inside the box office, it was crowded with people.

售票处里面人山人海。

Now the pressure spread across Tim’s chest, his whole body feeling tense. He tried to persuade himself that nothing terrible could happen, he was just out with his friends for a few hours. He tried to focus on breathing deeply and quietly.

此时，压力蔓延到Tim的胸口，他整个身体感到紧张。他试图说服自己，没有什么可怕的事情会发生，他只是和朋友出去几个小时。他试图集中注意力深呼吸并保持安静。

But the air did not come down his throat, it was too thin. He had to sit down.

但空气并没有进入他的喉咙，太稀薄了。他不得不坐下来。

‘I think I’m having a panic attack,’ he said.

“我觉得我在经历一次惊恐发作。”他说。

From a distance, Per Sundin had watched as house music swept the US. ‘Levels’ was changing everything for Tim; it was visible on YouTube, where happy people sang along to the synth riff in club after club. The record company manager had been vying with Arash Pournouri since the spring to buy the rights to release the song – at the manager’s thirtieth birthday party, Sundin had even agreed to be spanked by some burlesque dancers in the hope it would help him secure the deal.

Per Sundin远远地观察着电子音乐在美国的兴起。Levels对Tim的影响正在显现，这一切可以在YouTube上看到，快乐的人们在一个个俱乐部里跟着合成器的旋律唱歌。自从春天以来，唱片公司经理一直在与Arash Pournouri竞争购买发行这首歌的权利——在经理的三十岁生日派对上，Sundin甚至同意被一些脱衣舞女打屁股，希望这能帮助他获得这笔交易。

In early autumn of 2011, he and Arash spoke again over the phone. Arash said that Virgin EMI in London was also interested, and that the competing record company had given him an offer that he couldn’t refuse.

2011年初秋，他和Arash再次通过电话交流。Arash说伦敦的维京EMI唱片公司也很感兴趣，竞争对手公司给他提出了一个他无法拒绝的报价。

They had offered five hundred thousand euros.

他们出价50万欧元。

Per Sundin was shocked. An advance of around five million crowns? It was a sensational amount of money for a single song. Furthermore, the offer went against all custom in the industry.

Per Sundin感到震惊。五百万瑞典克朗的预付款？对于一首单曲来说，这个金额是惊人的。此外，这个出价违反了行业的所有习惯。

Record companies were basically venture capitalists. They evaluated the potential of an artist and invested in the hope of getting a good return. In Sweden, the usual advance would be around fifty thousand euros – for a whole album. And then the record company also got the right to release two more records. Even if a debut album did not go as well as expected, they would still have several years to build the artist into a star. Apparently, no such option was included here.

唱片公司本质上就是风险投资家。他们评估艺人的潜力，并投资希望获得良好的回报。在瑞典，通常的预付款大约为五万欧元，用于制作整张专辑。然后唱片公司还有权利发行另外两张唱片。即使首张专辑的销售不如预期，他们仍然有几年的时间将这位艺人打造成明星。但显然在这里没有这样的选择。

Per Sundin realised that, in practice, it meant a complete shift of power. Such an extensive advance would force any record company to work extra hard to get its investment back, and if it went well for Avicii, the company would have helped build a brand that was open for everyone else to fight over even with the next song.

Per Sundin意识到，实际上这意味着完全的权力转移。这样广泛的进展将迫使任何唱片公司更加努力地努力赚回自己的投资，如果Avicii进展顺利，那么这家公司将帮助打造一个品牌，这个品牌将开放给任何与下一首歌进行竞争的人。

They ended the conversation quickly and Per Sundin slammed the phone down on his desk. As he sat in his office, surrounded by gold discs, he tried to evaluate what he had just heard. Sure, there was clearly a lot of buzz around Avicii. But for the rights to release Tim’s latest song, ‘Fade Into Darkness’, Sundin had paid around ten thousand euros. Now Arash wanted half a million. Surely no one was idiotic enough to offer that amount without even getting an option?

他们很快结束了对话，Per Sundin将电话狠狠地摔在桌子上。当他坐在办公室里，被金唱片包围着时，他试图评估自己刚刚听到的内容。当然，Avicii周围显然有很多话题。但是为了发布Tim的最新歌曲Fade Into Darkness，Sundin已经支付了大约1万欧元的费用。现在Arash想要50万欧元。肯定没有人会如此愚蠢，甚至没有获得选择权就提供那么多钱吧？

At the same time, Sundin knew that working with an imprint of Virgin EMI in London was Jason Ellis, the man who had signed Swedish House Mafia. Maybe Ellis saw even greater potential in Avicii than in the Swedish trio?

同时，Sundin知道与伦敦Virgin EMI的子公司合作的是Jason Ellis，他曾经签下了瑞典浩室黑手党。也许Ellis认为Avicii的潜力比瑞典三人组还要大？

At the office of At Night, the excitement was palpable. Arash had not actually received as high a bid as he’d claimed. But what did it matter? He did not even see it as being deceptive. He could have got the money, he reasoned – the sum simply reflected what he thought ‘Levels’ was worth out in Europe.

在At Night的办公室里，兴奋感弥漫着整个空间。Arash实际上并没有收到他所声称的那么高的出价。但这有什么关系呢？他甚至没有把它看作是一种欺骗。他可以得到这笔钱，他解释道——这笔钱只是反映了他认为Levels在欧洲的价值。

Arash stood in the kitchen on Styrmansgatan and spoke about his risky move.

Arash站在Styrmansgatan的厨房里，谈论着他的冒险举动。

‘I’ve hustled people to the ground with “Levels”. I mean, hustled to the ground! I’m like a scam broker,’ he smiled.

“我曾经用Levels把人们推倒在地。我的意思是，推倒在地！我就像一个骗子经纪人，”他微笑着说道。

Filip Holm thought that it was one of the most stimulating things about working with At Night. No one cared about any of the guidelines, because none of them had done anything like this before. If you didn’t know about the rules, it was surely a lot easier not to give a shit about them.

Filip Holm认为，与At Night合作中最令人兴奋的事情之一就是没有人关心任何规则，因为他们从来没有做过这样的事情。如果你不知道规则，那么不关心它们肯定要容易得多。

Per Sundin, on the other hand, continued to worry. By this time, he had been selling Avicii to his colleagues at Universal for months – this was the artist who would hopefully propel him as well to new heights. And then the carpet was suddenly pulled out from under him. Shameful and angry, Sundin started calling local executives around Europe, mostly to explain that he had lost out.

另一方面，Per Sundin仍然感到担忧。此时，他已经向环球唱片公司的同事们推销Avicii几个月了——这位艺术家有望把他自己也推向新的高度。然而，突然间他的计划被打乱了。Sundin感到羞愧和愤怒，开始拨打欧洲的当地高管电话，主要是为了解释他输了。

To Sundin’s surprise, his colleagues seemed ready to come to the rescue. Patrick Busschots, a Belgian veteran in particular, said that they just could not miss this artist. See what was happening on the house music scene in the US, it was really simmering over there!

让Sundin感到惊讶的是，他的同事们似乎已经准备好出手相助了。特别是比利时老将Patrick Busschots说，他们绝不能错过这位艺术家。看看美国的浩室音乐现场正在发生什么，那里真的很热闹！

Arash had given Sundin a short deadline to change his mind, so Universal quickly constructed a solution where Sweden, Germany, England and the US office each took a quarter of the cost of ‘Levels’.

Arash给Sundin设定了一个短期限，让他改变主意，因此环球公司迅速构建了一个解决方案，瑞典、德国、英国和美国的办事处分别承担Levels成本的四分之一。

Humiliated but relieved, Universal confirmed that they had matched a bid that did not actually exist. Arash Pournouri had got the giant record company exactly where he wanted. Now it was not only Per Sundin and the Swedish office who needed to work hard in order to not lose money on the song, the same applied to the other offices in Europe and the US. And if they did not deliver, Arash had every right to go to another label with the next song.

虽然被羞辱但是宽慰的是，环球唱片公司确认他们与实际上并不存在的一份出价相匹配。Arash Pournouri已经把这家巨型唱片公司带到了他想要的地方。现在，不仅瑞典办事处的Per Sundin需要努力工作以避免在这首歌曲上亏本，欧洲和美国的其他办事处也同样如此。如果他们不能交付，Arash有权利带着下一首歌曲去另一家唱片公司。

It was the record company that was in the shit, not him.

有麻烦的是唱片公司，而不是他。

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