So long brother: Avicii’s manager posts heartbreaking farewell, “you were part of my heart”
Avicii’s one time manager Ash Pournouri, who discovered him as 18-year-old schoolboy Tim Bergling and put him on the road to superstardom posted a heartbreaking farewell on Instagram after the Swede’s death at 28.
“Shock. Grief. Anger. Rage. Apathy. Despair. Misery. Pain. Pain. Pain. I don’t even know what this feeling is called.
“You were my family. My brother. My Friend. My ally. Part of my heart. Now that’s gone.
“I’ve never experienced deep sadness like this. Nobody will know what we went through together.”
Pournouri, at the time a club promoter who’d given up a law degree to blaze the trail in Sweden’s small EDM scene, first heard Bergling on a number of blogs and called him for a meet-up over a coffee to give him some advice and contact names.
In 2012 Pournouri appeared at the Electronic Music Conference in Sydney and recalled how Avicii “was so nervous about meeting me that he brought a friend.”
Avicii parted ways with Pournouri’s company At Night Management in December 2016 around the time he gave up touring.
Avicii’s passing was mourned by artists of all genres, from Madonna to Ruby Rose and Harry Styles to US band OneRepublic playing ‘Wake Me Up’ during a concert in Mumbai in India, while Armin Van Buuren paid his tribute onstage at The State of Trance in Sydney before 12,700.
A Dutch church has paid tribute to Avicii by playing three of his songs, using church bells to recreate three of his songs, ‘Wake Me Up!’,’ ‘Without You’ and ‘Hey Brother’.
De #domtoren speelt #avicci #utrecht pic.twitter.com/ZZAJfYXqVw
— Tineke Tijhuis-Boot (@tinekeboot) April 21, 2018
Even the US military paid tribute to him, in its magazine Task & Purpose acknowledged Avicii’s video for ‘Hey Brother’ which featured the tale of the two sons of a Vietnam veteran.
Around the world, fans rushed out and bought his music.
In America, Nielsen Music reported that his song sales leaped 6000% the day after while his catalogue generated 25,000 downloads and sales increased by 12,000%.
The three biggest sellers on the weekend in the US were ‘Wake Me Up!’, ‘Levels’ and ‘Hey Brother’.
Streaming sales will become available later this week.
Australian sales were not immediately known.
Sadly, Avicii was working on a new album which Geffen Records’ veteran A&R executive Neil Jacobson described to Variety as “incredible, magical music” and “his best music in years, honestly.”
The producer and label exec had spoken to each other two days before his death, where he had put together a wish-list of names he wanted on the record.
Jacobson declined to name whom they were.
Update 23/04/2018: CNN reports that police have ruled out “criminal suspicion” in Avicii’s death.
The DJ’s cause of death has not yet been revealed.