Back in May of 2013, Nicky Romero had his first (and so far only) Mainstream Top 40 hit. "I Could Be The One" peaked at No. 34, due in part to collaborator Avicii's magic touch. It's the kind of feel-good romantic electro-house tune Avicii was best known for; one even the most casual Avicii fans can hear in their mind as soon as they read the title.
"He was not focused on anything else but just the vibe," Romero says. "He doesn't care about the latest plugins or the latest hypes. He could like switch off and only be focused on what’s important right now and just wanted to make music. That’s something that I really admired and really stuck with me since the beginning. If you were with him, it felt like nothing else mattered but that studio session, but that song, and that particular chord for example. He was really good at that. He was very focused only on music."
Avicii, 28, was found dead Friday, April 20, while on a resort vacation in the capital city of Oman, a country in the Middle East. Romero is about about the same age as his late friend was, and the two producers came up together at similar times and shared many of their first experiences on the international scale. To watch a brother in creative arms pass on so early, with so much yet to be accomplished, is perhaps the most difficult part for Romero.