"We made a demo and it was amazing; we had a blast," said the DJ/producer and Refune Records head, a few hours prior to his second night headlining New York's Roseland Ballroom solo -- his first time in NYC since Swedish House Mafia played a sold-out Madison Square Garden in December. "Ellie is a great artist... her voice is amazing. Skrillex, enough said, he is Skrillex."
Ingrosso admitted that he and Angello were "scared" before the session, but had a bit of extra time to prepare. "Ellie and Skrillex came in 30 minutes late, and we had already started with a melody. Skrillex freaked out, he loved it, and after a few hours we wrote the song."
Ingrosso said the "no pressure, just fun" session was orchestrated by Interscope A&R Dave Rene, who has become a matchmaker of sorts for EDM artists, the major label behemoth, and pop stars. At Ingrosso's request, Rene secured OneRepublic singer and hit songwriter Ryan Tedder to add a vocal line to "Calling," Ingrosso and DJ/producer Alesso's originally instrumental underground hit. The new track, "Calling (Losing My Mind)," was released March 13 on Atom Empire, an Interscope imprint managed by the EDM-focused Atom Factory department of the same name, which also released AVICII's massive "Levels."
"Dave is the face of putting people together with love and seeing what happens," says Ingrosso. "I think he's the most loved guy in EDM."
Ingrosso had nothing but love for his "dubstep" collaborator too.
"Skrillex is one of the best guys out there, so down to earth," he said. "He's exactly what that side of EDM needs. He's got so much love in him, he will always take care of his friends, and he loves every single kind of music. I think he's a genius."
As for the fate of their collaboration, Ingrosso wasn't sure. "I think it's going to be for [Ellie's] album, but in this business you don't know until you see it on iTunes."
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