Eriksrud, who is, like Berg, originally from Trondheim, has a background in classical and jazz piano, and went on to make EDM. Berg had been working for 20 years as an engineer and producer, and also for a number of years as a mastering engineer. Simen Eriksrud and Espen Berg are known as Seeb, after their initials and the success of ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’ was all the more momentous for Seeb because it occurred not long after a career change of their own. A Change Of DirectionĪs a result, a bemused Mike Posner found himself catapulted into the big time once again - as did the previously unknown Norwegian duo who reinvented ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’. People the world over are happy to dance to it, and in some cases, one presumes, take pills to it, despite the cautionary lyrics. The resulting outlandish mashup of Scandinavian and tropical, electronic and folk became one of the best-selling singles of 2016. However, some bright spark ran the EP tracks past an obscure Norwegian production and remix duo, who spotted hitherto unrecognised potential in ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’ and turned the song into a tropical house dance track. The song was dressed up in a relatively traditional, folky arrangement, featuring Posner’s voice and acoustic guitar, and his new record company was planning to release it as part of a four-track EP, which, it was widely assumed, would be a low-key affair. So Posner changed labels, and penned a rather sad, autobiographical ballad, ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’ in which he takes a pill, feels 10 years older when coming down, warns people, “you don’t wanna be high like me,” calls himself “just a singer who already blew his shot,” and repeats: “You don’t want to be stuck on stage singing / All that I know are sad songs, sad songs”. Posner did co-write two big hits for others, Justin Bieber’s ‘Boyfriend’ (2012) and Maroon 5’s ‘Sugar’ (2014), but his label shelved two solo albums because the material on them supposedly wasn’t commercial enough. However, instead of taking off, his career as an artist stalled.
In the same year his debut album 31 Minutes To Takeoff reached number 8 in the US. In 2010, singer Mike Posner enjoyed a couple of hits, amongst them ‘Cooler Than Me’.
Reinvented by a little-known Norwegian production team, a song about not being famous any more made Mike Posner more famous than ever. Production duo Seeb are Simen Eriksrud (with the glasses) and Espen Berg.