When the winter of 2010 descends upon us, and critics & connoisseurs alike start to narrow down lists for the “Best Dance Song of the Summer,” the supreme banger “One (Your Name)” by Swedish House Mafia will indubitably be frequently mentioned. SHM is made up of a sonically advanced trio of House DJs/producers (namely Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso), and simply put, these audio merchants do not fuck around. “One” is the penultimate dance cut; play it at a dive bar, club, barbecue, lounge or rave and the results should be exactly the same – people getting crunk and going completely ape-shit over this up-tempo electro gem with synth riffs so sharp they could slice right through Buju Banton’s dreadlocks. The remix featuring Pharrell Williams makes the track even hotter, and when you throw in the rapacious official video for the song, it’s a done deal.

“We made the track ‘One’ at Record Plant studios in LA after a 4 month break from seeing each other,” the Scandinavian trio explains. “It was our first record for EMI. You will see how we made it in our upcoming documentary that comes with our album. Pharrell had been in the studio with Steve and Sebastian in Australia and we chopped up the vocals, laid it on ONE / sent it to him…and the rest is history.”

The trio has been friends since their school years and with regards to how they got their mob-leaning group name, they’re not really quite sure. “Other people just started calling us Swedish House Mafia, and it just stuck – none of us can really recall when it began.”

And even though their current single is several notches above most music you will hear in the coming months, we all know that one dope single does not a career make. SHM understands that concept extremely well, and they already have another smash lined up to follow their present release.

“There is a new single coming with an amazing rapper called Tinie Tempah,” SHM reveals. “He’s huge in the UK and performed with Snoop at Glastonbury, and he has also remixed Diddy, so he has some love in the USA from the rap community. His bass lines are SICK. “

The official Swedish House Mafia LP drops in September, and accompanying it will be a comprehensive DVD helmed by Chris Larson (who also co-directed the “One” video) – it’s supposed to be an all-inclusive documentary which breaks down the high-velocity lives of the band.

“Yes, the DVD was 2 years in the making,” the trio divulges. “We filmed so much and Chris is a genius at film. He took our YouTube presence and made it with as much care as we made the records. He just nails how we are, how we feel, the emotion that goes into what we do. So he put together a documentary of how we got here – from SHM just taking touring seriously to us signing with EMI and making ONE. But it’s not a geek piece – it’s a full-on lifestyle film of how life is in our career.”

For the last question of our sit-down, we ask the trio a question that didn’t involve music, touring or production – we queried the trio about their favorite places to be and this is what they said.

Steve: LA. I love it.
Sebastian: Sweden - I love the energy of the people I work with there.
Axwell: Sweden. I love the country, my boat there, and my family.

There you have it – Swedish House Mafia, invading an eardrum near you sooner than you think.

Words by Geo Hagan with photos courtesy of SHM