And the group was still hard at work on more new music: In June 2019, the members were in the studio with A$AP Rocky the day before he turned himself in to Swedish police following an alleged street brawl (and was subsequently held in detention for two months). Still, the group dragged its feet on releasing singles \u2014 it still felt the album was unfinished.<\/p>\n
Then, everything stopped. The COVID-19 pandemic struck \u2014 and the Swedes, in a way, got what they wanted: much more time to work on the music. \u201cNow we laugh about the early ideas,\u201d says Angello. \u201cWe\u2019re like, \u2018Holy s–t \u2014 we were supposed to put that out?\u2019\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n
The pandemic may have had some silver linings for artists,<\/strong> but the Swedes weren\u2019t immune to its many downsides. Sweden never fully locked down and only recommended wearing masks in December \u2014 a controversial approach that has led to a death rate three times higher than its Nordic neighbors, though still lower than many other European countries \u2014 and in late March 2020, Ingrosso caught the coronavirus. He was sick for three months. \u201cI had fever for 100 days,\u201d he says, and wore a pulse oximeter \u201clike all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n In a world gone totally virtual, the trio\u2019s nascent relationship with Columbia suffered, too. \u201cWe want to be in the room,\u201d says Angello. \u201cWe\u2019re on these FaceTime calls once in a while, and for us that means zero, you know?\u201d Swedish House Mafia returned its advance \u2014 about $5\u00a0million, according to one person familiar with the deal \u2014 after the split, which a Columbia representative calls \u201cmutual and very amicable.\u201d In November 2020, the group parted ways with Laffitte as well. \u201cThe relationships all got disrupted by the inability to gather together,\u201d says Laffitte, adding that everything was positive \u201cuntil the world stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n Swedish House Mafia\u2019s bonds, on the other hand, slowly strengthened. The members gathered most days in either Axwell and Ingrosso\u2019s studio in downtown Stockholm or Angello\u2019s in the wooded outskirts of town. They made mood boards. (Quoth one: \u201cIf you want different results, try something different.\u201d) Angello tinkered with his collection of custom synthesizers. (\u201cThe creative process is a little longer because we\u2019re not super keen on software and presets of sounds,\u201d he explains.) And sometimes, they just sat together, listening to music, including their collection of white labels dating back to when they started out. \u201cWe were going back in time, like, \u2018Where did we come from? Who are we?\u2019\u00a0\u201d says Ingrosso. \u201cAnd just started to dig deep.\u201d<\/p>\n