

However, in what is undoubtedly a sad and tragic story, there are a few touching moments: the pure joy of a song hook coming together exactly as he wanted it hanging out at home with Liam the puppy Chris Martin sharing a tale of being brought back to the very start of his Coldplay career as he forgot how to tune his guitar one night. That’s got to be hard for anyone, especially an introvert who was clearly suffering from both physical and mental afflictions. With this being a 90 minute+ film there must have been hours and hours of cameras up close and personal in all aspects of Avicii’s life – both on and off stage. Until we have one pointing right at us, many of us underestimate the uneasy feelings cameras can induce.

He was undoubtedly an introvert – coming alive most in the studio, either working alone or with just one or two other like minds, with the orchestra playing inside his head for hours on end. While the final film is accomplished, one has to ask if Avicii even wanted any of this to happen in the first place. With all that being said, watching ‘True Stories’ was still harder than I expected.

It’s an ongoing process I’m still working on today, but taking some time to examine who I really am (and sitting with the discomfort that can sometimes bring) has undoubtedly helped me recognize the strengths, struggles, needs, and values in others. Self-management was something I was poor at back then. If we want to better develop these connections with others, we should first strive to better connect with and understand ourselves. More than that, it should be in the remit of being a human. To do that certainly should be within the remit of someone who has consciously committed to help guide another person’s career and livelihood. That’s not unreasonable – being trained as a counsellor wasn’t part of my job description, nor was it expected.īut I could have been more in touch with those other people’s emotions and understanding what was going on for them. I certainly lacked the formal education and training to know how best to handle that situation and others like it. Today I look back on those thoughts with a feeling of shame. I remember even thinking a couple of times what a hassle the whole episode was. It was that I took very little action to really understand what was going on.Īside from cancelling a couple of gigs, my main commitment was to apathy: imagining and, frankly, hoping, it would just blow over. It wasn’t I pushed them to keep going, or ignored there was a problem. While I was one layer removed (the artist’s manager was their primary go-to contact), I didn’t deal well enough with the issues at hand. One client of mine had a particularly difficult time on tour in the summer of 2013. Looking back, there were a few occasions where I should have noticed people were struggling.

Secondly, this story exposed the gaps in my own awareness and empathy for those I had worked with during my time in music. Watching ‘True Stories’ this past weekend I have no doubt I absorbed it with a far deeper insight than I would have done before beginning my coaching venture.Īs someone working as a talent agent in the music industry (and specifically electronic music) up until around the time Avicii announced his retirement, the film resonated strongly with me for two reasons in particular:įirstly, I had made the acquaintance of, and in some cases worked directly with, a number of the people in his circle.
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In the months preceding the film becoming available again, I had been investing much of my time and energy into building a professional coaching practice focused on supporting the career journeys of people in the creative industries – particularly those in music, media and entertainment. Originally released in 2017, the documentary film ‘Avicii: True Stories’, charting the career and personal life of Swedish DJ and music producer Tim Bergling aka Avicii, reappeared just before Christmas 2018 after a few months off screens following his death.
