Ten days before the one-year anniversary of Avicii’s suicide, the world gets its first posthumous production from the mourned hitmaker. “SOS” features Aloe Blacc and serves as the lead single from the forthcoming LP Tim. The album was roughly 90 percent finished when Avicii, born Tim Bergling, died in Oman. His friends and co-producers Albin Nedler and Kristoffer Fogelmark found themselves suddenly without a close partner, but they did have his notes, his voice in their heads, and their best intentions in their hearts.
“Afterwards, finishing [the songs] was…,” Fogelmark trails off in a press release quote. “I just get paralyzed by talking about it, but everything was about completing Tim’s version.”
Avicii used Fruity Loops to produce his music, and via that program’s save features, Nedler and Fogelmark were able to track and preserve his keystrokes and additions in exactly the order they were made.
“He had a completely different way of playing piano and keyboard,” Nedler is quoted. “As a result, his fingers would sometimes strike an unusual key, which added to his unique sound. Tim’s fingerprints are literally across the entirety of ‘SOS.'”
Bergling’s personal notes also included a desire to work with Aloe Blacc. The pair previously collaborated on “Wake Me Up,” and when Blacc received the offer to perform the vocals, he was incredibly moved.
“I feel like ‘SOS’ was a song that was probably ahead of its time for when he wrote it,” Blacc is quoted. “He wrote these lyrics obviously about some of his battles, and I think it’s a really important topic to approach and to share, especially with his visibility and his access to ears and hearts. To give people the words to be able to say ’I need help.’”
“SOS” is short and sweet at two-and-a-half minutes. It definitely bears resemblence to Avicii’s melodic structure and synth sounds, though the familiar parts are blended with some new elements and a different, almost dancehall-inspired beat. Listen to “SOS” and watch a behind-the-scenes video of the finishing process below, and look out for Tim out in full June 6.
