Avicii was working on his ‘best music in years’ before his death

A&R executive Neil Johnson worked with the EDM star throughout his career

An A&R executive who worked closely with Avicii throughout his career has revealed the star was working on new music before his death.

The DJ and producer, whose real name was Tim Bergling, died yesterday (April 20), aged 28. His body was found in Muscat, Oman. A cause of death is currently unknown.

Asked about the status of Avicii’s next album, Geffen Records’ Neil Johnson told Variety: “We were working on it and it was his best music in years, honestly. And I know because I [A&Red] all of his albums. He was so inspired. He was so psyched.”

He continued: “We had done a month of grinder sessions. We had to actually put end times on the sessions because Tim would just work for 16 hours straight, which was his nature. You had to pull him out. It’s just a tragedy. We have this incredible, magical music.”

Johnson explained that he had “no idea” what would happen to the album following the star’s death. “I’m going to sit down and talk to the family once everybody has a chance to take a breath,” he said. “I’ve never actually had this happen with an artist I’ve worked with before and this closely. So, I don’t know.

“We’ll try to get some advice from the family and everybody’s going to put their heads together and try and do what we think Tim would want us to do.”

Johnson added that there were “a few” features on the record, but said he would rather not confirm specific names.

Since Avicii’s death was confirmed, the likes of Calvin Harris, Madonna, Skrillex, Deadmau5, David Guetta, Diplo, Steve Aoki, Dua Lipa, and more have paid tribute to the late performer.

Harris described him as “a beautiful soul, passionate and extremely talented with so much more to do”. Deadmau5 said that “nobody can deny what he has accomplished and done for modern dance music”.

“A real groundbreaker and influencer to all your peers… You are the only one to always make timeless songs,” Diplo wrote. “You were the gold standard . You made me want try and make dance music… I know you had your demons and maybe this wasn’t the right place for you sometimes, but we need to protect true artists like you at all costs because there are not enough left and we are losing too many”.

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