ΛVICII ◢ ◤ Norway · @AVMusicNorway
6th Jun 2018 from TwitLonger
Timeline of Heaven by Avicii
Hey, all! There seems to be a lot of confusion around the different vocal versions of Avicii's "Heaven" and which of these versions will be released. I will do my best to write a timeline to help answer any questions people may have.
TIMELINE:
Early 2014 - Tim is in the studio with Chris Martin at The Bakery and The Beehive in North London, England. Here they are recording "A Sky Full of Stars" and an early version of "Heaven" (as shown in the documentary Avicii: True Stories) : https://bit.ly/2sCTlAZ
28 February 2015 - Tim plays an unfinished and shortened version of "Heaven" at Future Music Festival Sydney. Coldplay community picks up on it first. Social media goes wild and a lot of speculation begins : https://bit.ly/2LpQJgS
1 March 2015 - Tim plays this version yet again at Future Music Festival Auckland : https://bit.ly/1ENl9CG
3 March 2015 - Tim writes on Twitter that the Chris Martin track (Heaven) from his sets is just an mashup of an old demo vocal and super unfinished. He further writes that he can't wait for everyone to hear the real stuff they did together :
https://bit.ly/2JCl4M5 , https://bit.ly/2Je9AyE
27 March 2015 - Tim plays the full version of "Heaven" at Ultra, now with a completely new vocal : https://bit.ly/2xP2Oua at 43:57
June 28 2015 - Tim showcases "Heaven" in his newest Levels podcast (Levels podcast 37). He confirms that the singer is Simon Aldred from "Waiting For Love" and that Chris Martin co-wrote the song, but that they were instead doing another track together, which turned out to be True Believer. He confirms that he and Chris together got Aldred in at the last second to do new vocals for the track, most presumably days before Avicii's Ultra show : https://bit.ly/2kRfiYP at 9:03
Tim continues to play this version of the track over the course of his 2015 shows.
October 9 2015 - Tim writes on Quora that there was no time or room for "Heaven" on "Stories", hinting that the track still isn't finished : https://bit.ly/2Jmrdsl
In March 2016 Tim decides to go on a roadtrip with his songwriting friends through the United States to start on his new album just weeks prior to his Ultra show. He names this roadtrip "The Crowning of Prince Liam" and livestreams some of the studio sessions on youtube.
15-17 March 2016 - Tim and his team are now present in a studio in Austin, Texas. Producer and musician Carl Falk starts fine tuning, mastering and doing additional production on "Heaven". Through the livestreams it's made apparent that singer Simon Aldred has re-recorded his vocals to give the track a more emotional punch. Carl Falk spends two days recording electric guitar solo's for the track, as well as fine tuning the instrumental and making the song sound as best as possible. Tim's friends record background vocals for the track along with a different sound engineer. On the 17 of March, Carl Falk showcases the finished version of "Heaven" to Avicii's team, and makes small last minute changes after suggestions from singer Sandro Cavazza and producer Sebastian Furrer. Unfortunately the livestreams for 15th and 16th of March have been deleted or put on private, but the one for March 17 is still up : https://bit.ly/2Hqb1Eu at 5:34 to 2:02:27
19 March 2016 - Tim plays the new version of Heaven that Carl Falk worked on. New vocals, an electric guitar, different sound effects and more are present in the track : https://bit.ly/2xUskxQ at 30:23
Tim continues to play this version of the track through the rest of his 2016 shows, till he retires from touring on the 28th of August 2016.
22 December 2017 - Nicky Romero plays one of the demo versions of "Heaven" by Avicii, featuring the Chris Martin vocals, to make tribute to Tim who's not touring anymore. You can tell this is an early version of the track, without a proper mixdown, too much reverb on the vocals and missing a lot of elements that producer Carl Falk had put together during Tim's 2016 roadtrip. The "we go be bird we'll fly" verse is also missing from this version : https://bit.ly/2kWqNhr
A few days later Nicky Romero confirms during a radio show / podcast that Avicii had sent him some tracks a while back for feedback, but it's uncertain when Tim sent him these tracks and if he already had Heaven from before.
20 April 2018 - Tim "Avicii" Bergling passes away.
To honor Tim, Nicky Romero plays the same version of "Heaven" that he had first played during a concert in December a few months prior during some of his 2018 shows, and says during Kingdsay that it will probably never be released : https://bit.ly/2HoDBGv
May 2018 - An early version of "Heaven" leaks online, featuring the Chris Martin vocals. It's a tiny bit different than the version Nicky Romero played, but still suffers from the same problems. No proper mixdown, no master on the track, too much reverb on the vocals and so on : No link will be provided.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
What the future of track is, is uncertain. There has been no confirmations, but it seems very obvious to me that Tim wanted to release the version with Simon Aldred. The 2016 version of the track sounds most complete, and it's mastered, which the Chris Martin version is not.
Many people point out "but it has a new verse", but during the Crowning of Prince Liam livestreams you could hear Simon Aldred singing the same verse: "Beaten and bathed in blood, I'm hit by I'm hit by your loving drug, and now you could come to raise me up". There was a reason Tim didn't include this verse to begin with, maybe because it slowed the track down? Who knows. Only time will tell if the track will be released.