Avicii - I'm Tim

Should I sit like this?

Okay, let's go.

"This film is based on hundreds of hours of recorded life of Tim,"

"from the first picture taken of him to the last,"

"along with new recordings with his friends, colleagues, and family."

Hello, tell us your name.

Avicii

Give it up for Avicii!

Timeless music. That's what I want to make.

That's what I'm trying to make.

- Perfect so far! - This is crazy!

Yeah.

My whole life I've been obsessed with melody. Melody is the most important thing to me.

"And I judge and..."

Melodies that originated hundreds of years ago,

in various shapes and forms.

Hello.

I feel like music is washing over me.

If someone asks you:

"What's your story? Who are you?"

How would you answer?

The shortest answer.

I am...

"Tim."

"Avicii: I am Tim"

Look at this.

This is a hand, right?

- I saw the sex now. - Did you see it? Really?

It's getting exciting...

- Wow... - I can't keep the camera steady.

Hello. Yes...

Hello...

- Oh my God! - Oh my God! The little...

Yeah. Hello, little Tim.

I had an excellent upbringing, for sure. I have the best parents in the world.

They always made sure to support me in everything I did.

I never had to ask for anything.

Certainly, I'm very lucky with that.

And I lived protected

So I never had to fear anything.

- There! - Your mom is filming us dancing.

- Look! - Yes.

Rewind the tape!

Do it yourself, Tim.

You're good at it.

I grew up in Stockholm.

My whole childhood, until I was 19,

I spent it in five housing blocks.

All the schools I attended were in one area of Stockholm.

I used to...

From first to sixth grade, in my childhood,

I didn't have many friends.

I had low self-confidence.

So I busied myself with teasing people and being teased

from an early age.

I was the class clown.

I told jokes that made fun of others.

- Listen... Tim? - What?

What?

Then I changed during a summer vacation,

because I realized that many of my classmates didn't like me,

because I heard from other teachers that people were afraid.

Not afraid of me, but afraid that I would say something about them

or do something like that to them.

And I hadn't imagined that before, because I didn't intend to say anything to hurt anyone,

all that happened was that my confidence was low.

And that changed me completely in my childhood.

So during the summer vacation, I started treating everyone very kindly.

At first, no one believed me.

Then gradually I kept trying to treat everyone kindly.

I've been interested in music my whole life.

My whole life I've loved music and listened to all kinds of it.

I tried playing the guitar.

I didn't have the patience to practice it until I was reasonably good.

I realized that my job when I grow up, whatever it is, I want it to be creative.

That's all I knew.

We're done.

- The time... - Stop filming me.

Stop filming me.

Then a friend of mine introduced me to FL Studio.

I had never seen music software before.

And I remember downloading it, and it was amazing.

It wasn't like playing guitar or piano,

because you can draw the notes.

So the user has to learn

which notes sound harmonious and which ones don't.

And that became the most important thing in my life.

We went to Östra Real.

It's not a private school,

but it's often among the most arrogant schools in Stockholm.

"(Filip Okesson 'Phlegm'), Tim's friend"

The social image is important: like your taste in clothes,

and the identity of the people you spend time with.

Tim looked like any computer-obsessed kid.

Like a video game nerd.

A socially awkward genius, honestly.

A mutual friend suggested we meet.

I was a big fan of house music, and Tim was good at producing music.

We booked a whole weekend, which he was supposed to spend at home alone.

I brought my laptop, and that's where it all began.

After that, I think I spent time with Tim every day for a few years.

Tim was shy and very nervous.

He and I were almost polar opposites.

I was energetic and attention-seeking and a bit reckless.

I always used to try to push the boundaries a little.

But we bonded anyway.

- Wow! - Yeah.

It worked out.

Before Tim moved into his own place,

we used to hang out in his small bedroom.

And I can assure you, the smell of sweat and farts was...

immense.

We'd spend, like, nine hours there, eating pizza and drinking Diet Coke.

And when Klas or Anki came home,

we'd lie and say there was a free period at school or that a teacher was sick or something.

We skipped school a lot.

They used to wait until we left the house.

They'd go in the direction of school, but hide in a cafe and wait.

Klas Bergling, Tim's father

And as soon as we left the house,

they'd come in and make music instead of going to school.

We used to talk about everything,

even things that are embarrassing to tell other close friends.

We spoke with complete honesty and openness.

And if other people joined us, we'd hang out on the roof.

Otherwise, Tim didn't see daylight.

All my life, I've been a night owl.

All my life.

At night, no one bothers me.

I spend my time working,

then I send my work to various house music blogs.

And back then, I never thought

that music was a serious career.

Since I can't sing, I didn't have a real career opportunity.

And around that time, I met Ash.

Avicii and Ash go hand in hand.

I owned a few nightclubs and stuff, and I knew the scene well.

Arash Pournouri, Ash

Partner, Producer, Songwriter, Executive Producer, Manager - 2008-2016

Hi, I'm Ash.

The blogs were very important.

They allowed free listening and finding worthwhile content.

Then I started following a number of producers,

and on my list was someone called Avicii Feelgood.

He messaged me on Facebook saying:

I'm a party organizer in Stockholm, and I can help you.

The two of them sat in the house producing music together,

for fun, nothing more, no further ambitions.

Tim even told me: "I'm happy to release a few songs

and learn music production at parties with my friends."

Things like that.

He was very direct in his speech, he told me:

"If you let me help you,

I'll make you one of the biggest DJs in the world within the next year."

We gave him a year

to focus on music production and see what happens.

"Anki Lidén, Tim's mother"

But he didn't...

He had to live on vermicelli and spaghetti.

Spaghetti and meatballs and vermicelli.

I started telling him, "We're going to make it."

I was 18 years old, and it blew my mind.

And from that moment on, he started managing me.

- Listen to this track. - You already showed it to me.

No, this is new.

We started doing remixes of various artists' work

in parallel with producing our original music.

We evolved with every remix we did.

Add a beat to the melody, then break down the rest of the song and double its energy.

That was the most fun thing for us.

Amazing!

Whenever we came up with an idea or a seed of an idea, we sent it to Ash.

We sent him every day four or five emails,

asking for his opinion.

The first step was that he would reply to us by email.

And if we tried to defend our choices, he would call us.

It's funny to remember all the times we argued with him:

"No, you're wrong, man!"

But he was right, of course. He knew the recipe for success better.

To my surprise, he kept his promise. After a year,

Everything went as he said it would.

Hi, I'm Avicii,

I'll be playing at the Techno Parade on September 19th.

See you there.

I went from being a little kid in school

to doing live shows.

- What's your DJ name? - Avicii.

Avicii. Got it.

Planet Sono

I probably spent more time with him in his teenage years after school

than anyone else.

I was on his tours every day.

Welcome to France. Welcome to Paris.

He taught me DJing.

And I don't mean the artistic side of it, that's the easy part.

Good evening, Toulouse!

Ready for Avicii?

He taught me the mindset needed to be a DJ:

the importance of reading the crowd.

DJing, in my opinion, is like taking the crowd on a journey.