Featured Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images / Candamo Film
Topics: Music, Documentaries, Film
Mia Williams
Topics: Music, Documentaries, Film
A new documentary exploring the late DJ Avicii has revealed tragic new details about his last few days before his death.
Avicii - real name Tim Bergling - took the music industry by storm in 2011, releasing groundbreaking hits such as 'Levels' and 'Wake Me Up' to the world.
But sadly, the Swedish musician struggled with crippling anxiety and when he was just 28-years-old in 2018, he took his own life.
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New details have now emerged surrounding the final days that led up to his passing in a documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The film, Avicii: I'm Tim, features the artist himself giving a narration taken from a past interview about his career, as well as ‘never-before-seen tour footage and behind-the-scenes glimpses of his creative process'.
According to the synopsis, it ‘honours his brilliant and peaceful nature, highlighting the impact of his innovative music that blended genres and pushed boundaries'.
Throughout the documentary, Avicii admitted to suffering from anxiety, saying that he was ‘killing’ himself with his non-stop touring schedule.
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Jesse Waits, the managing partner of a Las Vegas nightclub that was close to the artist, told filmmakers: "I realised he was taking painkillers.
“I grew up with a family that did drugs and I saw when people do opiates their eyes change. The pin, the little black parts of their eyes.
"His eyes were wide open like a zombie, he was not there. At the dinner, his demeanour changed and his eyes dilated.
"That changed everything, those pills change how you act and how you feel. You wake up feeling like s**t and have to have another one to feel good.
"For him it was to suppress his anxiety but it just created more anxiety.”
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I'm Tim, directed by Henrik Burman, details where Avicii grew up in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, and was so shielded from the outside world that he spent most of his first 19 years in a five-block radius, which included his school.
As well as the artist himself from old clips and interviews, the film also features interviews with his close family and friends, and his close peers within the music industry such as Coldplay's Chris Martin and American musician Nile Rogers.
They also emphasised the toll that his touring took on him, and the impacts of becoming famous before the age of 20.
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His schedule would often mean he played gigs in two cities in one night, and performed more than 800 shows in six years.
Despite the film premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 9, there has currently been no confirmation of when the documentary will be released more widely.
But this isn't the first film on Avicii's life and legacy - with Avicii: True Stories making its debut in 2017.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.