It was September 2011 and what is now known as the Cure Insurance Arena in Trenton, NJ. Avicii, named Tim Bergling, is about to headline a sold-out show. The apex of his rise as a DJ/producer and the seemingly neverending growth of EDM are on a collision course. At this point, I wasn’t as familiar with it (in fairness, there was a lot of electronic music to keep up with). “You haven’t heard of “Levels?” a friend asked me. When I heard it for the first time, I got why the self-proclaimed “melody freak” was a phenomenon. It was simple, infectious, and effective with a well-timed Etta James sample. Berling could have followed this path repeatedly, but the documentary “Avicii – I’m Tim” shows he was searching for something more in a genre that implored big drops and to catch the listener’s ear in five seconds.

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Conventional DNA within the documentary as friends, family, fellow artists, and colleagues comment about the late Berling’s state of mind and what they saw. Writer/director Henrik Bruman intersplices Berling’s own words within the timeline to guide the story’s purpose. The central theme is in the title itself – there was Tim Berling, a kid who grew up in Stockholm, Sweden, within a span of five blocks. While he always loved music, Berling claimed he didn’t have the “endurance to play” guitar. Thus, he started messing around with the program FL Studio, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Within Tim was the love of creation, untouched and untainted by the wants and expectations of the music industry. As Berling’s career began to take off, Avicii was born – the persona or the side of him that embraced all of what comes with being one of the most wanted acts in electronic music. In the early part of “Avicii – I’m Tim,” Bruman gives a breezy glimpse at early hallmarks within Berling’s career – from meeting his success-at-all costs then manager Arash Pournouri to his infamous 2012 Ultra headlining set where he premiered his 2013’s debut album “True” to confusion and boos in front of fans expecting drops instead of a bluegrass/electronic mix. In the end, Berling’s instincts would prove to be right; people eventually warmed up to the set, and it set the stage for “Wake Me Up” to be the highest-charting dance track of the 2010s.
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Pursuing happiness and artistry is often at confrontational odds against what the machine asked of the artist and the man. Thus, there was a constant war between where Tim started and Avicii ended. As the documentary notes, Berling spent the last years trying to deconstruct his purpose (and if he could find his way back to it).
For what it’s worth, “Avicii – I’m Tim” lightly touches some points in the 2017 documentary “Avicii: True Stories.” Berling’s bout with pancreatitis is mentioned due to excessive drinking as the pressures from his extreme tour schedule mounted. “True Stories” gives a more precise view of Berling’s health struggles and the pressures from management to keep the engine going (he played over 800 shows!) That’s not to say “I’m Tim” is trying to sterilize those parts of the story. The kinship between Berling and Pournouri ends naturally in “I’m Tim,” whereas “True Stories” paints Pournouri in a slightly more controversial light. It is reported that Pournouri did stage two interventions with Berling’s family (one is discussed in “I’m Tim) and claimed to have canceled two world tours out of concern. There’s an overlap between the two chronicling studio sessions where Berling got to show some of his genius in his element and the fact that something was missing. Berling’s struggles with depression and anxiety are present and mostly likely exacerbated by being inside an industry that is constantly future-focused with no allowance to be present.
“I was a lot happier before I was famous than after I was famous,” Berling says in a voiceover. If there’s a question to be asked after viewing “I’m Tim,” is it possible to keep the reason for your passion pure when it no longer is just your own? Before his untimely death at the age of 27, it felt like Avicii had fallen away, and Tim was beginning to reintroduce himself into what his vision beyond the spoils of “work” was. When we reach our personal pots of gold, sometimes we look back and wonder if everything we lost on the way was worth it. Songs like “Levels” and “Wake Me Up” will have a lasting legacy, as will Berling’s creative insistence on pushing boundaries whenever possible. Folktronic is what they call it. The sadness comes when you realize that in this world, to live within your artistry is to endure the cost of being afforded that opportunity freely.