Salem Al Fakir and Vincent Pontare are the Swedish Grammy- winning songwriting and production duo behind a litany of hits for artists including Madonna, Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta, Axwell /\ Ingrosso, Katy Perry, Ghost and Sia. Under the name Vargas & Lagola, the Swedish artists experiment with their own melodic alt-pop, which infuses shades of '70s Americana and Nordic melancholia.
On October 11, their newest single 'Forgot To Be Your Lover' is out on all platforms. The track is an energetic, pulsating love story with a sophisticated glaze of nostalgia. The guitar-driven production is built on a lush mix of retro and future sounds, with a distinctive electric guitar flirting with traditional American roots-styled music.
The theme of the song comes from their shared experiences in heartbreak – ”what’s love, what’s love baby, if I forgot to be your lover,” they sing on the track – as they look back and question destructiveness in past relationships.
"It's a story of neglected love, as well as reflection of what love really means if one person drags the other one down in the gutter," the duo say about the track. "We wrote it while searching for a melancholic piece in Vargas & Lagola's musical puzzle. With it, we created our own space to experiment with and express what’s on our minds".
Choosing "Vargas & Lagola" because they thought the names sounded like those of Quentin Tarantino's messed up brothers, for the guys that project has become one in which they experiment with their own sounds and collaborate with worldwide icons. In 2017, the same moment as Vargas & Lagola blazed onto the alternative pop scene with their own project, they shared the #1 spot as Sweden’s most streamed songwriters for songs including Avicii's 'Without You' and 'Waiting for Love'. They’ve been awarded with a Swedish Grammy for 'Composer of the Year' and performed their co-written hit 'More Than You Know' with Axwell /\ Ingrosso at Coachella. After working closely with Avicii for several years, Al Fakir and Pontare played a key role in finishing up the 2019 posthumous Avicii album 'TIM' and are featured artists on three of the album songs. Read all about how they handled this very sensitive task in The Guardian, LA Times and SPIN. On December 5th, Vargas & Lagola will perform at Avicii's Tribute Concert in Stockholm.