MUMBAI: FADES AWAY’, the last track on AVICII: TIM, Tim Bergling’s posthumous album, came out of sessions with Tim, Carl Falk, Joe Janiak and Joakim Berg, the lead vocalist/writer for one of Sweden’s most successful rock band’s KENT. The original track featured Noonie Bao, but is being performed today in Stockholm at the Avicii Tribute Concert for Mental Health Awareness featuring MishCatt. A newly record version with MishCatt is available starting today.
The track was written by Avicii (Tim Bergling) Carl Falk, Joakim Berg and Joe Janiak. Berg tells the story of the song coming together:
This was the first song that came out of the sessions with Tim, Carl Falk, Joe Janiak and me in the spring of 2018. Tim and Joe met for the first time this day, and Tim just loved Joe’s voice and vibe from the start.
We talked briefly about 60s & 70s bands and artists being quite comfortable working in pop but still having this otherworldly weirdness about their songs. How they made giant leaps in mood and feel within just one song.
This conversation unintentionally seeped into Fades Away.
Carl started toying around with a climbing chord sequence on a synth with a piano sound and Joe sang along with Tim directing the rhythm. That became the verse and the rest was very fast. I had some chords and the beginning of the melody to the fades away part before the drop and it has a very 60's feel chord/melody-wise and is kind of weird but pretty. Tim and Joe finished the melody and came up with the words.
The drop part with the staccato strings was originally played by Joe and Carl on two acoustic guitars, Tim had the stacc melody down on keys and then he was making Carl play a super fast, very specific rhythm with hard accents that was really difficult to play but sounded quite amazing and was hilarious to watch.
Tim just loved the "don't you love it, how it all just fades away" part of the lyric.
It may now come across as a sad song, but for us in the studio, writing it, we felt it was uplifting and light hearted.
We wrote it in a bright mode, sort of carefree, and there were lots of laughing and joking, so for me Fades Away will always be a positive song, a simple message about accepting changes, the passing of time and making the best of what you have.
– Joakim Berg
When Tim Bergling passed away on April 20, 2018, he was close to completing a new album. He left behind a collection of nearly finished songs, along with notes, email conversations and text messages about the music. The album AVICII: TIM was released in June to universal critical acclaim.
The Avicii Tribute Concert for Mental Heath Awareness will be livestreamed around the world and features 25+ of the original singers on Avicii’s biggest tracks, including Aloe Blacc, Adam Lambert, Dan Tyminski, Rita Ora and surprise acts, will come together with a 34 pc band to perform a two hour headline set of his original music.
The main concert (9pm - 11.15pm local time CET) will be livestreamed on:
- Avicii's official YouTube, Facebook and Instagram (Globally)
- SVT (Swedish TV), YLE (Finnish TV), SR (Swedish Radio), Fun Radio (France), Evolution Radio (US iHeart Radio), Firelane (US AMP Radio), Block FM Radio (Japan), EBU (European Broadcasting Union), and more…
Produced by The Tim Bergling Foundation, all net profits from the Avicii Tribute Concert for Mental Health Awareness will go to supporting organizations which address mental health needs and suicide prevention for young people. The 55,000 seats sold out within 30 minutes of going on sale in September.