Fresh off of touring the world, the ‘Your Love 9PM’ Brit-nominated Swedish DJ/producer/singer-songwriter A7S returns with his anthemic new single ‘Dumb’, co-written with Tobias Danielsson (Noted) out on 14th July on FFRR.
‘Dumb’ is a high-energy dancefloor filler, with summery production, smooth electronic elements and a catchy hook. A7S‘ powerful vocals propel the track over his brooding melodic techno production.
A7S has a total of 8 billion streams to date – including 2 billion for ‘Your Love (9pm)’, which was the 6th most played track on global radio in the year of its release.
A7S – the stage name for Swedish producer and artist Alexander Tidebrink – likes to strike a balance between the light and dark. As a result, his music has a multi-layered edge. For example: On the one hand, the anthemic, sing-along hook on recent hit track ‘Nirvana’ is primed for strobe-lit unions in dark nightclubs. But strip back the dance-driven production however, and you land on a pensive song centred around a theme of being unwilling to give someone or something up.
“I want people to listen to the songs if they’re happy and even if they’re sad,” he says. “You can put them on on a bad day, or put them on when you go to a rave with your friends.”
This melancholic duality floods through A7S’ work, as he shades the dark with the light, and vice versa. See also: the subject matter underpinning his crowd-pleasing “la la la” melody on ‘Breaking Me’, which he released in 2019 (and has currently raked in over 5.7 billion streams globally with a global radio peak of number 4), or ‘Why Do You Lie To Me’ – a 2020 collaboration with Grammy winning ATL rapper Lil Baby and German DJ Topic.
Collaboration is proving to be a winning combination for A7S, such as his recent work with chart topping UK group Clean Bandit. ‘Everything But You’ feat. It further displays Tidebrink’s talent for writing dance pop smashes as well as club-centric heavier tracks. He followed it up with the unexpected club collab ‘On And On’ feat. Zimbabwe-born London vocalist S1mba – a track which showcased an altogether clubbier sound for A7S, this time relinquishing vocal duties and focusing on production for the song.
These club-ready hooks come from A7S placing infinite importance on melody. Having begun his career as a songwriter for global pop acts, he appreciates the need for a groove-ridden, brain-burrowing chorus that feels “universal”. One that “anyone can sing, wherever you are in the world, without knowing the lyric or the meaning”.
And now, finally, A7S is performing these tracks live. When the world was deprived of live music, Tidebrink was making and releasing music which was shared around the world – but he wasn’t ever able to sing them to live audiences, until now. On the road playing festivals across Europe and the UK this summer, it will now, at last, be possible to hear A7S play these songs live.
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TOUR DATES
17 June Poland (Warsaw) – Explosion Club
24 June Finland – RMJ Festival
22 July Sweden (Karlshamm) – One Wknd Only
26 July Sweden (Pitea) – Kitteltaltet
29 July Sweden (Smogen) – Amaze
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