walking upstream…
Topic
Tobias Topic taught himself Logic Studio as a teenager in Solingen, Germany, and built a following on YouTube before he'd ever performed live — a producer-first career he's kept since, saying he relies on singers "because I cannot sing. I can only produce music." He calls his sound "melancholic dance music": festival-scaled house tracks built around a plaintive, heartbroken vocal rather than a straight club drop, carried on a rotating cast of guest voices (A7S, Nico Santos, Robin Schulz, ATB) since he never sings a note himself. "Breaking Me," his 2019 collaboration with Swedish singer A7S, turned that formula into an international crossover hit and set the template — soft verses breaking into a widescreen, radio-friendly house chorus — that carried through "Your Love (9PM)" and "Why Do You Lie to Me."
the sound in question
2019
Breaking Me (feat. A7S)Topic
walk the tributaries ↓
Avicii2010s · Progressive house / EDM / Folktronica
Topic has named Avicii directly as an inspiration, and it shows in the pop-first architecture of his own drops: a folk-tinged, vocal-led build that resolves into a big, hands-up melodic hook rather than a pure club-functional bass drop.
listen: upstream & heresource: Topic names Dr. Dre, Timbaland, 50 Cent, Eminem, Swedish House Mafia and Avicii as influences (Music Unplugged interview) ↗
2013
Wake Me UpAvicii
2015
Home (feat. Nico Santos)Topic
listen forListen for the acoustic-guitar hook and swelling pad under the vocal in "Home," building to an arena-size chorus the same way "Wake Me Up" builds off its banjo riff into a full pop hook.
Swedish House Mafia2010s · Progressive house / EDM / Electro house
Topic has cited Swedish House Mafia among his direct inspirations, and their festival-scaled, widescreen approach to house music — one soaring vocal hook repeated over a huge synth arrangement — is the same shape Topic reaches for on his own biggest anthems.
listen: upstream & heresource: Topic names Dr. Dre, Timbaland, 50 Cent, Eminem, Swedish House Mafia and Avicii as influences (Music Unplugged interview) ↗
2012
Don't You Worry Child (feat. John Martin)Swedish House Mafia
2021
Your Love (9PM) (with ATB & A7S)Topic
listen forCompare the key-change lift into the chorus on "Your Love (9PM)" with the same widescreen, arena-size build in "Don't You Worry Child" — both save one enormous emotional swell for the final drop instead of stacking multiple small ones.
Timbaland2000s · Hip hop / R&B / Pop
Topic has named Timbaland among the hip-hop producers who shaped him, and the influence reads less in the drum sounds than in the collaborator-first model: Topic never sings or raps on his own records, instead building tracks as a frame for guest vocalists and rap features, the way Timbaland built beats around other people's voices.
listen: upstream & heresource: Topic names Dr. Dre, Timbaland, 50 Cent, Eminem, Swedish House Mafia and Avicii as influences (Music Unplugged interview) ↗
2007
The Way I Are (feat. Keri Hilson, D.O.E. & Sebastian)Timbaland
2020
Why Do You Lie to Me (feat. A7S & Lil Baby)Topic
listen forListen for how Lil Baby's ad-libs sit inside Topic's piano-and-dance-beat instrumental on "Why Do You Lie to Me" — a rap feature layered over a pop hook, the same cross-genre pairing Timbaland used putting rap verses over glossy pop production like "The Way I Are."