Eric Prydz

Eric Prydz is a Swedish house DJ and producer. Producing since 2000 Prydz is best known for his commercial house covers of old pop songs. Yet at the same time he has established a reputation for underground, quality progressive and tech house productions under the aliases Cirez D and Pryda.  Prudz runs two record labels Pryda Records and Mouseville.

Early Years: 2000 to present

After leaving school early to start a business with a friend Eric Prydz started prducing dance music and DJ-ing in clubs in his home town Stockholm. He had his first single released in 2000 and by the end of 2003 had had over 10 singles released. 

It was in 2004 that Prydz had his breakthrough release ‘Call On Me’, a pumped-up dance remake of Steve Winwood’s 1982 hit ‘Valerie’.  Originally put together for Prydz’s friends, ‘Call on Me’ was released on Ministry of Sound’s Data Records, the track put the melody and vocal of ‘Valerie’ on an upfront commercial house rhythm part and bass.  Filtering the main melody and vocal to full effect ‘Call On Me’ was a huge international mainstream success with over 4 million sales.  The track gained notoriety for its video featuring a gym room full of leotard-clad women gyrating suggestively to the beat.  Prydz distanced himself from the video, claiming to have neither approved of, nor cleared it. 

Though Prydz had broken through to the mainstream he has continued to try to maintain his underground credentials.  To this end he launched two record labels in 2004: Pryda Recordings and Mouseville, and to accompany them two release aliases: Cirez D and Pryda.  Prydz uses Cirez D to showcase a high tempo techno influenced house sound.

Thus the same year ‘Call On Me’ was being hammered on music TV stations across the globe he also released tracks such as the full-on tech house of ‘Control Freak’ (Mouseville, 2004) and the filtered French disco house of ‘Woz Not Woz’ (CR2 Records, 2004) with fellow Swede Sebastian Ingrosso.
In 2006 Prydz returned to the radio friendly mainstream with ‘Proper Education’ (Pryda Recordings 2006) his remake of Pink Floyd’s seminal 1979 track ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ (Harvest, 1979).  ‘Proper Education’ is less upfront than ‘Call On Me’, with a repetitive electro bassline instead of a pounding dance floor feel.  Nonetheless the same approach of heavily featuring the original instrumentation and vocals helped ensure global success once again.  Following his publicly stated frustrations about the ‘Call On Me’ video, Prydz had a very hand-on role in the video for ‘Proper Education’, ensuring that raunch was replaced with strong eco-friendly message that was even endorsed by Greenpeace.

In 2008 Prydz scored one of his biggest success to date with ‘Pjanoo’ (Pryda Recordings, 2008).  Unlike his previous commercial succcess, With over 18 million YouTube views so far, ‘Pjanoo’ doesn’t feature any sample of old hits, but instead delivers an Ibiza style feel-good house track with a big piano line, electro bass and disco strings. 

Prydz was due to release an album in 2009 but delays with the record label delayed release until 2011.

Though Eric Prydz will always be best known for his music TV friendly commercial house hits sampling old pop songs, Prydz continues to pride himself on being a prolific producer of much more underground and far less commercial progressive house and tech house music under his aliases Cirez D and Pryda.  It’s a difficult balance but one that Prydz has s far managed to pull off successfully. 

Eric Prydz has a fear of flying and largely only plays European shows.  He had to cancel dates in Australia and New Zealand in 2008 due after suffering panic attacks prior to boarding a flight.