Swedish House Mafia's Sebastian Ingrosso is stepping up to defend David Guetta, after Deadmau5 called the French DJ-producer and other fellow EDM superstars "button-pushers."
"That's interesting that [Deadmau5] said that, because that's exactly what he does – but we don't," Ingrosso told Rolling Stone last night in New York, where the DJ played a set at a party for Samsung's Galaxy S III phone. "We've have four CD players, six hands, so we're going in and out all the time, otherwise we would be bored and take our fuckin' lives. I have never seen behind Deadmau5's booth, so I can't really say anything about it. He's a great guy and awesome producer. But, buddy, if you want to start talking about people pressing buttons – just pushing 'play' – then that would be another thing."
In Rolling Stone's new cover story, on newsstands Friday, the outspoken Deadmau5 (a.k.a. Joel Zimmerman) implied that some DJs, like Guetta and even his friend Skrillex, do too little work during their live shows. "David Guetta has two iPods and a mixer and he just plays tracks – like, 'Here's one with Akon, check it out!'" said Zimmerman. "Even Skrillex isn't doing anything too technical. He has a laptop and a MIDI recorder, and he's just playing his shit ... People are, thank God, smartening up about who does what, but there's still button-pushers getting paid half a million. And not to say I'm not a button-pusher. I'm just pushing a lot more buttons.”
While Deadmau5 didn't mention Swedish House Mafia in his comments, the group has faced similar criticism before. Last year, a video that appeared to show Ingrosso's groupmate, Steve Angello, performing a pre-recorded set at Amsterdam's Dance Valley festival went viral. "You have haters, you have people who love you. I try and focus on the people who love me and I don't give a fuck about what other people say," Ingrosso said. "Otherwise I would be bored and bitter all day."
Ingrosso also elaborated on his hopes that Swedish House Mafia might collaborate with Paul McCartney, describing the former Beatle, who stopped by the group's set at Coachella, as "the biggest musical legend today living on this planet."
"I think the Beatles made something that's kind of melancholic to sad and happy combined, and that's just amazing," Ingrosso said, adding that he sees similarities between the Fab Four and Swedish House Mafia's chord progressions. "I kind of analyze music a lot, and I think that what the Beatles have done is what we do today. [It] doesn't matter that we do dance music."
