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___________

My procrastination.

我的拖延癥。

It needed to be explained to me very logically and caveman-esque for me to truly understand its nature and how it was harming me. ‘Ouch, pain. Why me pain now? Uncomfortable feeling. Future Tim deal with pain. Future Tim deal with pain better than present Tim because already there’s too many present pains more urgent to deal with.’

只有用穴居人的邏輯方式向我解釋，我才能真正理解它的性質(zhì)以及它是如何傷害我的?！鞍?，疼。為什么我現(xiàn)在會痛？不舒服的感覺。未來的Tim會處理疼痛。未來的Tim比現(xiàn)在的Tim更能處理疼痛，因為現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)有太多更緊急的疼痛需要處理了?！?/span>

___________

IN NOVEMBER 2012 Tim went back to Stockholm.

2012年11月，Tim回到了斯德哥爾摩。

Along the wharf on S?dermalm, where tourists strolled in the summer, lay the dark mirror of Riddarfj?rden bay, shiny and quiet at that time of year. In a yellow stone building right on the water, a former foundry, Salem Al Fakir had rented a studio.

夏天，游客們沿著S?dermalm的碼頭邊漫步，如同黑鏡一般的湖水在這個時節(jié)閃閃發(fā)光，顯得格外寧靜。岸邊的一棟黃色石頭樓房曾經(jīng)是一家鑄造廠，Salem Al Fakir在那里租了一間工作室。

Salem immediately saw that Tim was in high spirits when he came upstairs. There was a bustle in his body, as if he were a proud child who wanted to show off a shell he had just found.

Salem一眼就看出，Tim上樓時興致高漲。他看起來很興奮，就像一個驕傲的孩子，想要炫耀自己剛剛找到的貝殼。

‘So listen to this,’ Tim said, and asked Salem to pull up a song.

“聽聽這個，”Tim說著，讓Salem播放一首歌。

The room was filled with trumpet blasts, accordions and hand claps. The song was called ‘Little Talks’ and was made by Of Monsters and Men, a band from Iceland that Tim and Emily had been listening to continuously for the last few weeks. Tim had performed his own version of the song at his latest gigs – the ecstatic drive fitted perfectly in large arenas. At the same time, the music was distinctly acoustic, sounding like something performed by sailors with wooden spoons and tin plates while the sea rolled wildly outside the galley.

房間里充滿了喇叭聲、手風(fēng)琴聲和掌聲。這首歌叫做Little Talks，是由來自冰島的樂隊Of Monsters and Men創(chuàng)作的，Tim和Emily在過去幾周里一直在聽這首歌。在最近的演出中，Tim播放了他自己的版本——這首歌狂熱的動力完美地適應(yīng)了大型場館。與此同時，這首曲子還帶有明顯的原聲風(fēng)格，聽起來就像是海浪洶涌澎湃時，水手們在船上的廚房里用木勺和錫盤演奏的曲子。

The mix of the rustic instruments and the rumbling cheers was quite irresistible, Tim thought.

鄉(xiāng)村樂器和隆隆的歡呼聲的結(jié)合讓Tim覺得難以抗拒。

‘Wouldn’t it be awesome to try something like this?’

“嘗試一下類似的東西豈不是很棒？”

In the room was a new acquaintance of Salem Al Fakir, a tall guy with blond Viking hair and a friendly manner.

房間里有一位Salem Al Fakir新認(rèn)識的熟人，他身材高大，留著維京人的金發(fā)，態(tài)度和藹可親。

Like Al Fakir, Vincent Pontare had been marinated in music since childhood. His father, Roger Pontare, was one of the country’s big pop stars when Vincent was growing up; he himself had started playing metal guitar early in the guest house out in the ?ngermanland forest. When Pontare moved to Stockholm, it was to establish himself as a rapper in the hip-hop duo Verbal ’N’ Vincent, but after a couple of half-failed attempts as a solo artist, he had instead started to find his place as a songwriter in the background – a few years earlier he had co-written Swedish House Mafia’s smash hit ‘Save the World’.

像Al Fakir一樣，Vincent Pontare從小就沉浸在音樂中。在Vincent的成長過程中，他的父親Roger Pontare是該國的流行音樂巨星之一；而他自己很早就開始在阿格曼蘭森林的招待所里彈金屬吉他。Pontare搬到斯德哥爾摩后，開始在嘻哈二人組 Verbal 'N' Vincent中擔(dān)任說唱歌手，但在幾次半途而廢的單飛嘗試后，他轉(zhuǎn)而開始在幕后擔(dān)任詞曲作者——幾年前，他與瑞典浩室黑手黨合作創(chuàng)作了熱門歌曲Save the World。

It was Vincent Pontare who had rented out his studio space to Salem Al Fakir; they had noticed that they enjoyed each other’s company and started working together.

Vincent Pontare曾把他的工作室租給了Salem Al Fakir，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)彼此相處愉快，于是開始合作。

Now they both looked at their excited guest.

現(xiàn)在他們倆看著興奮的客人。

It was not entirely easy to understand what Tim wanted to get out of this Icelandic squall, which Vincent mostly thought sounded like some kind of plastic wannabe-country. But he picked up his guitar and started looking for a melody.

要理解Tim想從這首冰島小調(diào)中得到什么并不完全容易，Vincent認(rèn)為這首歌的大部分聽起來像是對鄉(xiāng)村音樂的拙劣模仿。但他還是拿起吉他，開始尋找旋律。

Tim’s search for a more rural soundscape came at just the right time. In recent days, Vincent and Salem had collaborated with Veronica Maggio, a singer who had become one of Sweden’s most popular. The three of them were working on an album set in an atmospheric and hazy landscape. Salem hummed a small melody he had just composed for ‘Hela Huset’ (‘The Whole House’), one of Maggio’s songs.

Tim對鄉(xiāng)村風(fēng)格的追求恰逢其時。最近，Vincent和Salem與Veronica Maggio合作，她已經(jīng)成為瑞典最受歡迎的歌手之一。他們?nèi)苏谥谱饕粡堃源髿?、朦朧的風(fēng)景為背景的專輯。Salem哼起了他剛剛為Maggio的一首歌Hela Huset創(chuàng)作的一小段旋律。

Tim shouted right away.

Tim立刻大喊起來。

‘Yes! There it is!’

“對！就在那兒！”

It was as simple as it was the last time Tim and Salem worked together while writing ‘Silhouettes’ in just one afternoon. Salem threw out the fishing line and Tim knew exactly when to bite. His ability to intuitively perceive that one second that sparkled, that could be built on, was astounding.

就像上次Tim和Salem一起創(chuàng)作Silhouettes時一樣簡單。Salem扔出了漁線，Tim清楚地知道何時咬鉤。他憑直覺感知到那一瞬間的閃光點，并能在此基礎(chǔ)上構(gòu)建，這種能力令人驚嘆。

While Vincent Pontare was strumming his guitar, he began to mumble sounds. For much of his teenage years, he had sat with dictionaries and studied English expressions to become a tongue-twisting rapper, something that had given him a gift for improvising words on the go.

Vincent Pontare一邊彈著吉他，一邊開始喃喃自語。在他青少年時期的大部分時間里，他都坐在字典前學(xué)習(xí)英語表達(dá)，為了成為一名繞舌說唱歌手，這讓他擁有了即興創(chuàng)作的天賦。

‘Bidaaaaaaaahh biii booooothaa!’

“Bidaaaaaaaahh biii booooothaa!”

‘Ah, there! There!’

“啊，那里！那里！”

Tim was even more excited now, when he heard a sound that formed a word.

Tim此時更加興奮了，因為他聽到了一個單詞的發(fā)音。

‘Shit, brother! That’s good!’

“天，brother！那太棒了！”

They continued to work, now with a vague idea about brotherhood, loyalty, blood ties. First and foremost, it was a feeling they were going for, sometimes the lyrics then came second: ‘Hey sister, know the water’s sweet but blood is thicker.’ Water is sweet but blood is thicker? Could you say that in English? It didn’t sound really smart when you thought about it, but what the hell – it fitted nicely with the melody.

他們繼續(xù)工作，現(xiàn)在有了一個關(guān)于兄弟情誼、忠誠和血緣關(guān)系的模糊想法。首要的是追求一種感覺，而歌詞則是次要： “嘿，姐妹，水是甜的，但血濃于水。”水是甜的，但血濃于水？你能用英語說一下嗎？當(dāng)你想明白它時，它聽起來并不明智，但管他呢——這句話與旋律非常契合。。

After an intro that was dominated by Vincent’s guitar playing and a driving bass drum, Tim drew up a drop that was clearly inspired by the Icelanders’ ‘Little Talks’. The cheering trumpet fanfare made ‘Hey Brother’ explode, Tim could already envision the rain of confetti at the gigs in front of him.

在以Vincent的吉他演奏和強勁的低音鼓為主導(dǎo)的前奏之后，Tim設(shè)計了一段明顯受到冰島人的Little Talks啟發(fā)的高潮。歡呼的小號帶動了Hey Brother的爆發(fā)，Tim已經(jīng)能夠想象到演出現(xiàn)場將會下起漫天的紙屑雨。

‘This is going to be fucking sick,’ he shouted.

“這會變得超他媽酷，”他喊道。

‘That’s for sure,’ laughed Vincent.

“這是肯定的，”Vincent笑著說。

Tim left the old foundry with feelings of happiness in his chest. He was at home in Stockholm, in a couple of days he would see his favourite comedian Ricky Gervais perform at the Globe Arena, and now he knew in which direction he wanted to go musically.

Tim離開舊鑄造廠時，心中充滿了幸福感。他在斯德哥爾摩感到賓至如歸，在幾天后他將在環(huán)球競技場看到他最喜歡的喜劇演員Ricky Gervais的表演，現(xiàn)在他也知道自己在音樂上想要走向哪個方向。

‘Folk-electronica, bro,’ he wrote to Arash before contacting his father to tell him as well about his new creative direction: ‘I think country music and house could be cool as hell!’

“民謠電子音樂，兄弟，”他發(fā)消息給Arash，在聯(lián)系他的父親告訴他自己的新創(chuàng)意方向之前：“我認(rèn)為鄉(xiāng)村音樂和電子舞曲結(jié)合起來會很酷！”

*

It was time to show the world who was really on top.

是時候向世界展示真正的領(lǐng)袖是誰了。

Tim and Arash had agreed that Avicii would not be yet another house producer who only made singles.

Tim和Arash一致認(rèn)為，Avicii不會成為又一個只會制作單曲的浩室音樂制作人。

He would record a real record, a full-length album.

他將錄制一張真正的唱片，一張完整的專輯。

That’s why Tim and Emily were in a taxi on their way to Universal’s main office building in Santa Monica. Tim was nervous. He thought that the man he was about to meet would surely be pushy and presumptious, and he didn’t really know what he was expected to say to a high-profile record label exec in the United States. Arash had assured him that Neil Jacobson was cool, but he was still one of the top decision-makers at Interscope, an imprint of Universal – a person with power.

這就是Tim和Emily正乘出租車前往圣莫尼卡的環(huán)球音樂主辦公樓的原因。Tim很緊張。他覺得即將見到的那個人肯定會咄咄逼人，自以為是，他真的不知道他應(yīng)該對美國一家知名唱片公司的高管說些什么。Arash向他保證Neil Jacobson是個很酷的人，但他仍然是環(huán)球音樂旗下的Interscope公司的高層決策者之一，一個有權(quán)勢的人。

Tim’s concerns were immediately dismissed. Neil Jacobson turned out to be a noisy and talkative big-city man from New York who showed Tim and Emily to one of those corner offices they had seen in the movies, where the big boss putts golf balls across the carpet while making life-changing decisions on speakerphone. Jacobson had ramped up the cliché even more because, in addition to the putter and the balls, he had a basketball hoop mounted on the door. Now he threw himself into his chair, wearing worn jeans and a shirt, and immediately took command of the conversation.

Tim的擔(dān)憂立刻被打消了。Neil Jacobson原來是一個來自紐約的大城市人，聒噪而健談，他帶Tim和Emily去了他們在電影里見過的那種角落辦公室，在那里，大老板一邊在地毯上打高爾夫球，一邊通過免提電話做出改變命運的決定。而Jacobson更加強化了這種陳詞濫調(diào)，因為除了推桿和高爾夫球，他還在門上安裝了一個籃球架?，F(xiàn)在，他穿著破洞牛仔褲和襯衫，撲通一聲坐回到椅子上，并立刻掌握了談話的主導(dǎo)權(quán)。

Jacobson talked about the model for songwriting that he had started to use, one that he was convinced would make electronic music mature and reach its full potential as pop.

Jacobson談到了他開始使用的歌曲創(chuàng)作模式，他堅信這種模式將使電子音樂走向成熟，并充分發(fā)揮其作為流行音樂的潛力。

Back in the day, he had received a number of instrumentals from a producer, demos that he played for artists and then asked which song they would like to sing on. The beat had always come first, the topline melody and the lyrics had been an afterthought.

以前，他曾從一位制作人那里收到過一些樂器伴奏的小樣，他為藝術(shù)家們播放這些小樣，然后詢問他們想在哪首歌曲中演唱。節(jié)拍總是第一位的，旋律和歌詞都是事后才想到的。

But because the production of a song – how the instruments sounded sonically – was so timebound, many house tracks had quickly become dated. A soundscape that was cool one summer could already feel painfully dorky the following year. Very few eternal classics had been produced in this way.

但是由于歌曲的制作——樂器的聲音效果——具有很強的時效性，許多浩室音樂很快就過時了。前一年夏天還很酷的音效，到了第二年就會讓人覺得非常乏味。幾乎沒有永恒的經(jīng)典作品是用這種方式制作出來的。

Neil Jacobson got the idea for changing the process from Will.i.am, producer of the group Black Eyed Peas. Jacobson had been the sounding board for the group three years earlier, when they sold platinum around the world alongside David Guetta, so Jacobson had seen the producer at work. Will.i.am wrote the melodies of the songs on his guitar. Only when the foundation was ready did he enter the sketch into the computer and start building the electronic costume around his stripped-down demo. In a way, he did a remix of his own acoustic song.

Black Eyed Peas團(tuán)隊的制作人Will.i.am激發(fā)了Neil Jacobson想要改變制作流程的想法。三年前Jacobson是該樂隊的傳聲筒，當(dāng)時他們與David Guetta一起在全球銷售白金唱片，因此Jacobson見識過這位制作人的工作。Will.i.am用吉他譜寫了歌曲的旋律。只有在基礎(chǔ)部分準(zhǔn)備好后，他才將草圖輸入電腦，并開始在簡化版演示錄音的基礎(chǔ)上建立電子外殼。在某種程度上，他對自己的原聲歌曲進(jìn)行了混音。

Tim Bergling listened intently. Neil put into words the philosophy he himself was already following. It was exactly this that had made the collaboration with Salem and Vincent so much fun – that the melodies, the beating heart of the songs, were at the centre.

Tim Bergling認(rèn)真傾聽。Neil用語言表達(dá)了他自己一直遵循的理念。正是因為這一點，Tim與Salem和Vincent的合作才如此有趣——旋律，歌曲跳動的心臟，才是中心。

This was exactly how he wanted to work.

這正是他想要的工作方式。

Neil had now gone so far as to ask all songwriters who contacted him to remove the rhythmic instruments completely from their sketches. The song should flow regardless of which production they would later choose to put on it. He had his computer full of such demos, which he called backwards songs.

Neil現(xiàn)在甚至要求所有與他聯(lián)系的詞曲作者在草圖中完全去掉節(jié)奏樂器。無論他們以后選擇哪種制作方式，歌曲都應(yīng)該流暢。他的電腦里有很多這樣的小樣，他稱之為 "反向歌曲"。

‘Think about how it’s done in Hollywood,’ he said. ‘Millions of dollars are spent to create a very specific screenplay before any other decisions are made. You see, without that fantastic groundwork there’s no great movie, no matter how many tricks you’re able to pull later on in the production.’

“想想好萊塢的做法吧，”他說，“在做出任何其他決定之前，要花費數(shù)百萬美元來創(chuàng)作一個非常具體的劇本。你看，如果沒有這些極好的的基礎(chǔ)工作，無論你在制作的后期能施展多少花招，也不會創(chuàng)作出偉大的電影。”

Jacobson noticed that film enthusiast Tim Bergling liked the analogy.

Jacobson注意到電影愛好者Tim Bergling喜歡這個比喻。

‘You are the director. But we have to be careful which screenplays we choose.’

“你是導(dǎo)演，但是我們必須謹(jǐn)慎選擇劇本?！?/span>

Tim already knew who he wanted to try this method with. ‘I wanna work with Paul Simon,’ he said. ‘And Stevie Wonder.’

Tim已經(jīng)知道他想要嘗試這種方法的人選了?！拔蚁牒蚉aul Simon一起合作，”他說，“還有Stevie Wonder?！?/span>

When they parted ways, Neil Jacobson tried to digest what Tim had actually said. Jacobson had been in the business for a long time by now, but the suggestions for collaborators still left him astonished.

當(dāng)他們分別時，Neil Jacobso試圖消化Tim究竟說了些什么。Jacobson在這一行已經(jīng)干了很長時間了，但關(guān)于合作者的建議還是讓他大吃一驚。

So far, the European house scene had grown properly within the box: Swedish House Mafia had worked with Pharrell Williams, Calvin Harris with Rihanna, David Guetta with the Black Eyed Peas. Sure, those were collaborations across unspoken borders – from the club towards the slick pop world, from Europe to the USA – but they were still ties between colleagues who were contemporaries.

到目前為止，歐洲的電子舞曲圈子一直在盒子里茁壯成長：瑞典浩室黑手黨與Pharrell Williams合作，Calvin Harris與Rihanna合作，David Guetta與Black Eyed Peas合作。當(dāng)然，這些都是跨越無聲的邊界的合作——從俱樂部到流行音樂世界，從歐洲到美國——但是仍然局限于同行之間的聯(lián)系。

Tim had wanted musicians like Paul Simon, a legend who made smart ballads in the 60s. Did Simon even know what house music was?

Tim想要Paul Simon這樣的音樂人，他是60年代制作時髦的抒情歌曲的傳奇人物。Simon知道什么是浩室音樂嗎？

The other requests Tim had made were not easy either.

Tim提出的其他請求也同樣不容易。

Mick Jagger said no; Van Morrison’s representatives were vague in their answer, giving a kind of half maybe. Neil didn’t even manage to get in touch with Slash, the guitarist in the hard rock band Guns N’ Roses. Nor with Stevie Wonder or Sting.

Mick Jagger說不行；Van Morrison的代表們的回答含糊，有點可能；Neil甚至沒能聯(lián)系上硬搖滾樂隊Guns N’ Roses的吉他手Slash，也沒能聯(lián)系上Stevie Wonder或Sting。

It was not particularly difficult to understand. Avicii certainly was on a fantastic run right now – ‘I Could Be The One’, a song he had done with Dutch producer Nicky Romero, had just gone straight to number one on the UK singles chart. But why would a rock veteran like John Fogerty care about that? For these contented men, whose career peaks were at least twenty years behind them, Avicii was at best an obscure Swede with a summer hit.

這并不難理解。Avicii現(xiàn)在無疑是如日中天——他與荷蘭制作人Nicky Romero合作的歌曲I Could Be The One剛剛在英國單曲榜上直接登頂。但是像John Fogerty這樣的搖滾老將為什么會關(guān)心這個呢？對于這些已經(jīng)過了職業(yè)生涯巔峰至少二十年并且心滿意足的男人們來說，Avicii頂多只是一個擁有夏日熱單的默默無聞的瑞典人。

It was therefore on a pure whim that Neil Jacobson asked another old-timer. They were on the fourteenth hole of the Bel-Air Country Club golf course. Neil’s playing partner for the day was a seventy-year-old from Texas, an idol of Jacobson. In the late 60s, Mac Davis had helped Elvis Presley reboot his career by writing the songs ‘A Little Less Conversation’ and ‘In The Ghetto’ for the star. After that, Davis had had his own career as a country musician, became a movie star and performed in musicals on Broadway. He wrote low-key lyrics about love and heartbreak, and Neil Jacobson thought that Mac Davis, in addition to having a short game that was impressive for his age, was one of the great songwriters in the country.

因此，Neil Jacobson純屬一時興起，詢問了另一位老前輩。當(dāng)時他們正在比爾艾爾鄉(xiāng)村俱樂部高爾夫球場的第十四球洞。Neil當(dāng)天的打球搭檔是一位來自德克薩斯州的七十歲老人，是Jacobson的偶像。在60年代末，Mac Davis通過為明星獻(xiàn)唱A Little Less Conversation和In The Ghetto等歌曲，幫助Elvis Presley重振事業(yè)。此后，Davis開始了自己的鄉(xiāng)村音樂生涯，成為了一名電影明星，并在百老匯音樂劇中演出。他用低調(diào)的歌詞描寫愛情和心碎，Neil Jacobson認(rèn)為Mac Davis除了擁有在他這個年齡段令人印象深刻的短打技巧之外，還是美國最偉大的詞曲作者之一。

‘By the way, Mac,’ Neil said just before teeing up, ‘how would you like to work with Avicii?’

“順便問一下，Mac，”Neil在準(zhǔn)備揮桿前說道，“你想和Avicii合作嗎？”

‘Well, I don’t know. Who’s that?’

“我不知道 那是誰？”

‘A young guy making electronic music.’

“一個制作電子音樂的年輕人?！?/span>

Mac Davis looked at his younger friend in disbelief. Davis was a troubadour, a storyteller, a man who could spend days finding the right rhythm of a rhyme. Although his sons liked that hectic dance music, it hardly seemed to focus on the lyrics.

Mac Davis難以置信地看著他那位年輕的朋友。Davis是一位吟游詩人，一個講故事的人，他可以花費數(shù)日時間找到正確的韻律。雖然他的兒子們喜歡那種狂熱的舞曲，但似乎很少關(guān)注歌詞。

‘Hey listen,’ said Jacobson, ‘this guy is twenty-three years old and made a boatload of money last year.’

“嘿，聽著，”Jacobson說，“這個家伙才23歲，去年就賺了一大筆錢。”

‘Okay,’ laughed Mac Davis. ‘Why not?’

“好吧，”Mac Davis笑著說，“為什么不呢？'

Universal had its own recording studios in Santa Monica. Neil Jacobson showed the way to a room with dim lighting and a pair of deep leather sofas. On the floor was a thick Persian rug, by one of the walls stood the mixing table that Dr. Dre used when he completed The Chronic, one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever.

環(huán)球唱片公司在圣莫尼卡擁有自己的錄音室。Neil Jacobson帶路來到一個昏暗的房間，里面有一對深色皮沙發(fā)。地上鋪著一條厚重的波斯地毯，靠著一面墻放著混音臺，這正是Dr. Dre在完成The Chronic這張偉大的嘻哈專輯時所使用的。

Jacobson introduced the veteran and the newcomer to each other before Mac Davis picked up his dark brown guitar and started singing ‘Black And Blue’, a sketch he already had, about a man who woke up hungover and heartbroken in his hotel room.

Jacobson把老手和新手介紹給彼此認(rèn)識，然后Mac Davis拿起他那把深棕色吉他，唱起了Black And Blue這首歌，這是他之前創(chuàng)作的一個草稿，關(guān)于一個男人在旅館房間里醒來，宿醉和心碎。

Tim Bergling listened with delight. He had received so many suggestions for lyrics in recent years that were full of breasts, buttocks and strippers. This was something completely different. Although this story was also about love and lust, it was characterised by bitter-sweet realism.

Tim Bergling聽得很高興。近年來，他收到了許多歌詞建議，這些建議充滿了乳房、臀部和脫衣舞娘。而這是完全不同的東西。雖然這個故事也是關(guān)于愛和欲望，但它充滿了苦澀的現(xiàn)實主義。

Mac Davis went on. He lowered the next demo a key, from D to C, to be able to play the melody faster and gradually build up to the higher notes. He had understood that this was how it would sound in this genre.

Mac Davis繼續(xù)演唱。他將下一個試聽的曲調(diào)從D調(diào)降到C調(diào)，以便更快地演奏旋律，并逐漸逼近高音。他明白這就是這種音樂風(fēng)格的特點。

The second ballad he had named ‘Addicted To You’. This too was a love story, of a person almost blinded by passion.

他取名為Addicted To You的第二首歌曲也是一個愛情故事，講述了一個幾乎被激情沖昏頭腦的人。

Tim entered the guitar sound into his computer and put on his headphones. He was working fast now, his fingers flying over the keys. Mac Davis was sitting behind Tim’s back and saw his face reflected in the blue light of the screen.

Tim將吉他聲音輸入電腦并戴上了耳機。他現(xiàn)在工作得很快，手指飛快地在鍵盤上敲擊。Mac Davis坐在Tim的背后，看到自己的臉在屏幕的藍(lán)光中的倒影。

After twenty minutes, the Swede took off his headphones and turned around.

二十分鐘后，這位瑞典人摘下了耳機并轉(zhuǎn)過身來。

‘What do you think?’

“你覺得怎么樣？”

From the speakers rippled music that sounded like a whole orchestra.

揚聲器里傳出陣陣樂聲，仿佛是一整個交響樂團(tuán)在演奏。

Not even by Elvis Presley had Mac Davis been so enchanted.

就連貓王Elvis Presley都沒有讓Mac Davis如此陶醉。

Tim and Emily had rented a house in The Bird Streets, the area in Hollywood’s steep mountains where all the streets were named after little birds: nightingales, thrushes, orioles, larks and swallows.

Tim和Emily在鳥街租了一棟房子，那里位于好萊塢陡峭的山區(qū)，所有街道的名字都是以小鳥命名的：夜鶯、畫眉鳥、朱鶯、云雀和燕子。

Just a few minutes away from the noise down on Sunset Boulevard was a completely different world. Up here the blocks were closed off, the plots rested hidden behind eucalyptus trees and hedges. If, on the other hand, you entered one of the houses, the whole of Los Angeles unfolded before your eyes.

日落大道的喧鬧與這里只有幾分鐘的距離，但這里是一個完全不同的世界。街區(qū)被封閉，地塊隱藏在桉樹和樹籬后面。然而，如果你走進(jìn)其中一棟房子，整個洛杉磯就會展現(xiàn)在你的眼前。

It was fucking mode.

這他媽的棒極了。

The owners of the house they rented were Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, a pair of twins who early on had co-operated with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, only to be outmanoeuvred. At least that’s how the story was told in the film that Tim had seen about the drama. The twins were fans, had asked Tim for lessons in the art of being a DJ.

他們租住的房子的主人是Cameron和Tyler Winklevoss，這對雙胞胎早年曾與Facebook創(chuàng)始人Mark Zuckerberg合作，但最終被擠出。至少在Tim看過的關(guān)于這個故事的電影中是這樣說的。這對雙胞胎是Tim的粉絲，曾向他請教如何成為一名DJ。

Now Tim was sitting with Bear curled up next to him on the sofa. He had become extremely attached to the dog, who followed him everywhere he went when he was at home.

現(xiàn)在，Tim正坐在沙發(fā)上，Bear緊貼在他身邊。他非常喜歡這只狗，當(dāng)他在家的時候，他走到哪里，這只狗就跟到哪里。

Tim wrote an email to Vincent Pontare. ‘Just did this with Mac Davis,’ he said, attaching the song about the newly dumped man in the hotel room. ‘Thought about us IMMEDIATELY, those times we sat and tried to come up with lyrics etc. This guy is a fucking genius as a lyricist!’

Tim給Vincent Pontare寫了一封郵件，附上了一首關(guān)于被甩男子在旅館房間里的歌曲，稱：“我剛和Mac Davis合作完成了這首歌，一想到我們曾經(jīng)一起坐著試圖創(chuàng)作歌詞的時光，我就立刻想到了你。這家伙真他媽是個作詞天才！”

Workwise, it was a treat to be in Los Angeles. Everyone was here, and the new acquaintance Neil Jacobson had already organised a meeting with childhood idol Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park while Arash had arranged for disco hero Nile Rodgers to be involved in the recordings. Even though most of the rock legends seemed to say no, it felt as if things were on the move.

在工作方面，來到洛杉磯是一種享受。所有的人都在這里，新認(rèn)識的Neil Jacobson已經(jīng)組織了一次與童年偶像、林肯公園樂隊的Mike Shinoda的會面，而Arash則安排迪斯科英雄Nile Rodgers參與錄音。盡管大多數(shù)搖滾傳奇人物似乎都拒絕了，但感覺事情似乎正在進(jìn)展中。

This was exactly what Tim wanted to do: be in the same room as other talented people, get ideas and energy on the spot.

這正是Tim想要做的：與其他才華橫溢的人共處一室，當(dāng)場獲得靈感和能量。

‘Damn what fucking mode it is here in LA!!’ he summarised for Vincent. ‘So fucking much talent, have been in the studio for like 12h per day! Shiiiit would have been so much fun if you all had been here too – we could have done some sick stuff then!’

“操，洛杉磯是什么圣地啊??！”他向Vincent總結(jié)道?！斑@里有太他媽多的才華了，每天在工作室待12個小時！該死的，如果你們都在這里的話，那就太有趣了——我們本可以做些瘋狂的東西！”

Another one of Neil Jacobson’s golf buddies was Mike Einziger. The thirty-six-year-old was the guitarist in Incubus, a rock band that around the turn of the millennium had triumphed with Californian punk mixed with metal and funk. Bare-chested and pierced like their contemporaries Korn, Slipknot and Limp Bizkit, Incubus had become big teen idols with music that was not always easy to categorise – but a house musician was probably the last thing Mike Einziger was.

Neil Jacobson的另一個高爾夫球友是Mike Einziger。這位三十六歲的年輕人是Incubus樂隊的吉他手，該樂隊在千禧年之交以加利福尼亞朋克與金屬和放克結(jié)合的音樂風(fēng)格取得了成功。和同時期的Korn、Slipknot和Limp Bizkit樂隊一樣，Incubus樂隊赤膊上陣、打著耳洞，他們的音樂并不容易歸類，但是Mike Einziger最不可能成為一名浩室音樂家。

He nevertheless said yes immediately when Jacobson asked. It was always worth trying out new creative paths.

然而，當(dāng)Jacobson問他時，他立即答應(yīng)了。嘗試新的創(chuàng)意道路總是值得的。

Tim took an Uber out to the guitarist’s house in Malibu and was taken aback that someone could have such a complete studio in his own home. Mixing tables, keyboards, guitars, everything you would need was there. But Einziger was not the only musician in the household – his fiancée Ann Marie Calhoun was a renowned violinist who during her upbringing in rural Virginia had played violin and banjo in her family’s country band. It just so happened that a few months later, in February 2013, the couple would perform at a gala celebrating bluegrass, the folk music that emerged in the meeting between American blues and joyous Irish fiddle playing. Einziger was rehearsing traditional songs such as ‘Whiskey Before Breakfast’ and ‘Groundspeed’, and had realised how challenging the music was. Bluegrass required a different attack on the strings than he was used to, and would need to be played both quickly and cleanly.

Tim坐Uber前往馬里布的吉他手家，他大吃一驚，沒想到有人能在自己家里擁有如此完備的工作室?；煲襞_、鍵盤、吉他，所有你需要的東西都在那里。但是Einziger并不是這個家庭中唯一的音樂家——他的未婚妻Ann Marie Calhoun是一位著名的小提琴家，在弗吉尼亞州農(nóng)村長大的她曾在家庭鄉(xiāng)村樂隊中演奏小提琴和班卓琴。恰好幾個月后，也就是2013年2月，這對夫婦將在慶祝藍(lán)草音樂（一種美國布魯斯和歡快的愛爾蘭小提琴演奏相遇后產(chǎn)生的民間音樂）的晚會上表演。Einziger正在排練傳統(tǒng)歌曲，如Whiskey Before Breakfast和Groundspeed，并意識到這種音樂是多么具有挑戰(zhàn)性。藍(lán)草音樂對琴弦彈奏方式的要求與他習(xí)慣的不同，需要演奏得既快速又干凈利落。

He hadn’t strummed his guitar for long before Tim pointed out a chord progression he liked.

他還沒彈多久吉他，Tim就指出了他喜歡的和弦進(jìn)行。

‘Oh! Keep playing that!’

“哦！繼續(xù)彈！”

Then the blocks were dancing up and down in Tim’s computer, and Einziger was wondering what his guest was doing with a particularly screaming synth sound that he smeared all over the various parts. It did not sound elegant at all, just rough and annoying.

然后，磚塊在Tim的電腦里上下舞動，Einziger好奇他的客人在做什么，他把一種尖叫的合成器聲音涂抹在各個部分上。它聽起來一點也不優(yōu)雅，只是粗糙而煩人。

Tim explained that he was drawing how the vocal melody would fit. Mike had never seen anything like it. When they wrote songs in his band, the singing itself was always more loosely defined than the actual melody – the vocalist rather came up with a rough idea of the melody and went into the recording booth making his own interpretation.

Tim解釋說他在畫出人聲旋律的配合方式。Mike從未見過這樣的情況。在他的樂隊里寫歌時，歌唱總是比旋律更加自由，歌手只是提出了大致的旋律想法，然后進(jìn)入錄音間進(jìn)行自己的演繹。

Tim was much more precise, wanted every eighth note to be already determined in the sketch. It was as if he could see the whole song in his head and just needed to draw it for himself.

Tim則更加精確，他希望每個八分音符都已經(jīng)在草圖中確定。就好像他能在腦海中看到整首歌曲，只需要自己畫出來。

A few days earlier, Tim had first met Aloe Blacc, a singer who belonged to the Los Angeles alternative hip-hop scene and had a minor hit with his song ‘I Need A Dollar’, which was the theme song for a TV series. Tim thought that Aloe Blacc’s dark voice would give the song a splash of soul and got in touch with him.

幾天前，Tim第一次與Aloe Blacc見面，他是洛杉磯另類嘻哈音樂圈子的歌手，曾以一首I Need A Dollar小紅了一把，這首歌是一部電視劇的主題曲。Tim認(rèn)為Aloe Blacc深沉的嗓音會給這首歌增添一抹靈魂，于是便與他取得了聯(lián)系。

Aloe immediately got in his car and drove out to the coast. He arrived well prepared, with sketches of lyrics that he had recently scribbled down during a flight. Together they found some particularly beautiful stanzas that could be built on:

Aloe立刻驅(qū)車前往海岸。他有備而來，帶著最近在飛行途中潦草寫下的歌詞草稿。他們一起找到了一些特別美麗的詩句，可以進(jìn)行改進(jìn)：

So wake me up when it’s all over

當(dāng)一切都結(jié)束時，請叫醒我。

when I’m wiser and I’m older

當(dāng)我更明智和年長時

all this time I was finding myself

我曾經(jīng)一直在尋找自己。

and I did not know I was lost

而我竟在不知不覺中迷失了自我。

Tim motioned with his hand how he wanted Aloe to sing. Pointing up and down with his finger until it sat perfectly. It was quite funny really: a metal guitarist making bluegrass with a soul guy who was shown exactly how he should do it by a house DJ.

Tim用手示意Aloe該如何唱歌。他用手指上下指向，直到Aloe唱得完美無缺。這真的很有趣：一位金屬吉他手和一位靈魂歌手合作演奏藍(lán)草音樂，而這位歌手還是由一位電子舞曲DJ親自指導(dǎo)的。

Around midnight, eight hours after they had met, Tim left Malibu and went home to Emily and the dog. In the taxi, he continued to work with his computer in his lap, already knowing that ‘Wake Me Up’ would be a world hit. There was no doubt about that.

午夜時分，也就是他們見面八小時后，Tim離開了馬里布，回到Emily和狗的身邊。在出租車上，他把電腦放在腿上繼續(xù)工作，他已經(jīng)知道Wake Me Up將會風(fēng)靡全球。這一點毋庸置疑。

*

The song ‘Hey Brother’, on the other hand, had been lacking a singer for a while. It was Nick Groff, a colleague of Neil Jacobson, who by chance found the man who would do the song justice. To find Tim’s demo in his computer, he typed in the keyword ‘brother’ and then got the soundtrack to the comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou? People in general didn’t know about the musician Dan Tyminski, but many recognised his voice – it was him who in the film gave voice to George Clooney’s character when he sang ‘I’m A Man Of Constant Sorrow’, a song that had become a big hit on American radio. Dan Tyminski was a well-respected bluegrass musician, whose full tenor voice was perfect for Tim’s song.

在另一邊，歌曲Hey Brother一直缺少一位歌手。Neil Jacobson的同事Nick Groff偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)了能完美演繹這首歌的人。為了在電腦中找到Tim的小樣，他輸入了關(guān)鍵詞brother，然后得到了喜劇電影《O Brother, Where Art Thou》的原聲帶。一般人并不知道音樂家Dan Tyminski，但許多人認(rèn)出了他的聲音——在電影中，他為George Clooney的角色獻(xiàn)聲，演唱了I’m A Man Of Constant Sorrow，這首歌曲在美國廣播電臺上大受歡迎。Dan Tyminski是一位備受尊敬的藍(lán)草音樂家，他的全音男高音完美地演繹了Tim的歌曲。

Tim began to realise that he might not need the biggest of stars – so far there had been even more surprises and excitement together with the slightly odd names, the ones you needed to be in the industry to know.

Tim開始意識到他可能并不需要最出名的明星——迄今為止，與那些略顯奇怪的名字合作帶來了給他更多的驚喜和興奮，這是需要在音樂行業(yè)中才能知道的。

One restless night, he randomly emailed Neil Jacobson.

一個不眠之夜，他隨意地給Neil Jacobson發(fā)了一封電子郵件。

‘U think anyone’s up for a session tonight?’

“你認(rèn)為今晚有誰可以參加會議嗎？”

Neil’s colleague Nick thought of a singer from Oklahoma whom he had met some years earlier. She had played her latest project, updated folk songs accompanied by a stomping orchestra. It had hardly been anything for the radio, but her warm voice had remained in his memory.

Neil的同事尼克想起了幾年前他曾結(jié)識過一位來自俄克拉荷馬州的歌手。她演唱了最新的項目，由管弦樂團(tuán)伴奏的最新民歌。這首歌幾乎不適合在廣播中播放，但她溫暖的歌聲一直留在他的記憶中。

When the record company called, Audra Mae was sitting in the car, on her way to pick up her sister at the airport. But the conversation sounded too strange and interesting to ignore – make some dance music with a Swedish DJ? Now, right now?

當(dāng)唱片公司打來電話時，Audra Mae坐在車?yán)?，?zhǔn)備去機場接她的妹妹。但是這次談話聽起來太奇怪、太有趣了，她無法忽視——和一位瑞典DJ一起制作一些舞曲？現(xiàn)在，就是現(xiàn)在？

When Audra arrived in Santa Monica, she and this tobacco-chewing Swede started talking about blues music. Audra Mae was mesmerised by a documentary she had just seen about the mysterious singer Robert Johnson. According to legend, he had sold his soul to the devil to be able to play the guitar sharper than anyone else. While Audra was sketching lyrics about Johnson’s fateful pact, Tim began working on a melody based on ‘Take Five’, a jazz song that, when written in 1959, had caused a stir because it went in a particularly complicated musical meter. It was one of his dad’s favourites.

當(dāng)Audra抵達(dá)圣莫尼卡時，她和這個嚼著煙草的瑞典人開始談?wù)撍{(lán)調(diào)音樂。Audra Mae被她剛看過的一部關(guān)于神秘歌手Robert Johnson的紀(jì)錄片所吸引。據(jù)傳說，他曾經(jīng)把靈魂出賣給魔鬼，以便比任何人都能彈得好吉他。當(dāng)Audra在勾勒有關(guān)Johnson命運的歌詞時，Tim開始創(chuàng)作一段基于Take Five的旋律，這首寫于1959年的爵士樂歌曲曾引起轟動，因為它采用了一種特別復(fù)雜的音樂節(jié)拍。這是他父親最喜歡的歌曲之一。

‘Man, I wish we had a trumpet or saxophone player here,’ said Tim. ‘I could ask if Neil would be able to find somebody.’

“伙計，我希望我們這里能有一個小號或薩克斯管手，”Tim說，“我可以問Neil能否找到人。”

‘What if we whistle it?’ Audra asked as she sat sunk in the brown leather sofa in the studio. ‘Or you know, I brought my kazoo, if you wanna try that?’

“要不我們吹出來吧？”Audra坐在工作室的棕色皮沙發(fā)上說道，“或者，如果你想試試的話，我還帶了我的卡祖笛？”

Audra Mae pulled out a wind instrument from her purse. It looked like a very small flute and fitted in the palm of your hand. Tim laughed when he heard the nasal sound that came as Audra blew into it. But why not? There was something enticing in the simplicity of the instrument; it felt like something that belonged by a campfire one late night.

Audra Mae從她的手提包里拿出了一件吹奏樂器。它看起來像一支非常小的長笛，可以放在手掌心里。當(dāng)Audra吹奏出那種鼻音時，Tim笑了。但為什么不呢？這種樂器的簡單性有一種誘人的魅力；它像是屬于在深夜篝火旁演奏的樂器。

‘Long Road To Hell’ became the first song Tim and Audra did together, but not the last. Tim asked Audra to sing the vocals on Mac Davis’s ‘Addicted To You’ and thought that she had exactly the voice he had been looking for. Adele may have been the immediate reference, but it was that underlying stuff that made Tim interested. In his ears, Audra had the bite and attack of Nina Simone or Etta James, voices he heard echoing on Linnégatan during his childhood.

Long Road To Hell成為了Tim和Audra一起創(chuàng)作的第一首歌，但并不是最后一首。Tim邀請Audra為Mac Davis的Addicted To You獻(xiàn)唱，并且覺得她的嗓音正是他一直在尋找的。Adele可能是他最初的參考，但讓Tim感興趣的是Audra的潛質(zhì)。在他聽來，Audra的嗓音有著Nina Simone或Etta James的咬合和攻擊力，這些聲音在他童年時代的林內(nèi)街上空回蕩。

‘Listen to her voice, ohhhh mannnnnnn brooooooo,’ he wrote to Arash. ‘You get goosebumps when she starts vibing. Listen to the second chorus, it’s totally sick.’

“聽她的聲音，天哪兄弟，”他寫給Arash，“當(dāng)她開始發(fā)揮時，你會起雞皮疙瘩。聽第二段副歌，簡直太棒了?！?/span>