Miike Snow

Wikipedia:

Miike Snow is a Swedish indie pop band formed in 2007. The band consists of producing team Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg (also known as Bloodshy & Avant) and Andrew Wyatt.

Early years

Miike Snow was formed in 2007 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Band members Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg were childhood friends who spent time playing in bands and working on various projects in studios throughout the city of Gothenburg. Karlsson used to be a member of Swedish hip-hop band Goldmine, who toured with The Fugees. After separate moves to Stockholm, they reunited in 2000. In 2004, whilst working on writing a pop album for Britney Spears, the pair met the third band member, American songwriter Andrew Wyatt.

Karlsson and Winnberg collaborated under the moniker Bloodshy & Avant, and enjoyed a significant amount of success as producers and songwriters. They have worked with artists such as Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Kelis, and won a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for Spears's track "Toxic".

The name "Miike Snow" is said to have come from one of their friends called Mike Snow, with the spelling of "Miike" coming from the Japanese film director Takashi Miike.

Miike Snow

Miike Snow is Miike Snow's eponymous debut album. It was recorded in Stockholm and released in the United States on 9 June 2009 by Downtown Records. A single for the track "Animal" was released on 17 February 2009. Upon a UK release of the song later in the same year, the track reached number 98 on the UK Singles Chart. The second single is called "Black & Blue". Both singles have made the BBC Radio 1 Playlist B-List.

The Guardian spoke highly of the band, saying Miike Snow's "coolly emotional pop suggests a-ha meets Animal Collective." In an interview for ClashMusic.com, Wyatt revealed their unexpected popularity, saying, "I don't think our project was that thought out when we started. We just wanted to make music together. Three people just messing about. I don't think we anticipated the level of attention that it's getting right now. We didn't even think about touring when we started the album."

Miike Snow have remixed tracks for Depeche Mode, Passion Pit, Peter Bjorn and John, Kings of Leon, I Blame Coco and Vampire Weekend. Their music has been remixed by Mark Ronson, Crookers, Peter Bjorn and John, Treasure Fingers, Tiga, Caspa, Style of Eye, Emalkay, Fake Blood, Benny Blanco, Savage Skulls, Netsky, Hood Internet and DJ Mehdi, amongst others. A remix of the song "Silvia" by DJ's Sebastian Ingrosso and Dirty South was released on 2 April 2010.

Their song "In Search Of" was originally a collaboration with Crookers for the song "Remedy". The band liked the end result so much that they decided to create their own version for their album.

In 2011 they won an European Border Breakers Award for their international success.

In 2012 the band toured the United States.

Happy to You

On 30 May 2011, the band announced via Facebook that they were working on a new album to be released in the fall.

On 30 July 2011, the band announced via Twitter that their new record label INGRID founded by Miike Snow, Peter Bjorn and John, Lykke Li, and Dungen was now open for business.

On 7 October 2011, the band announced via Facebook that they had begun mixing their new album, and that new music would be released by the end of the year.

On 29 November 2011, the band announced via Facebook that the album is complete, the videos are being shot, the artwork is being finished, and the tour dates are being planned.

On 20 December 2011, the band announced via Facebook that their second full-length album, Happy to You, is set to be released the week of March 26, 2012. They also said that there will be no upcoming information on the track titles, singles, or anything involving the Devil's Work.

The single "Devil's Work" is available on Spotify as of December 15, 2011 (original date not confirmed).

On 19 January 2012, Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe premiered Paddling Out, the first single from their sophomore album. Subsequently, the band released the song online and also announced concert dates for their North American tour. At the same time, the tracklist and album cover art of Happy to You were revealed via Amazon UK.

On 24 January 2012, another song from the album called "Black Tin Box" (a collaboration with Swedish singer Lykke Li) was presented at Pitchfork.

On March 9, Miike Snow visited Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show and debuted a new Happy to You song "Bavarian #1 (Say You Will)".

Paddling Out was released on iTunes on March 13, 2012.

On March 15, the video for The Wave (song), the second single from Happy to You, was released. It was once again directed by Swedish director Andreas Nillson, who also worked on the video for Paddling Out. Both videos form together a unified story about a group of unfortunate humans who were abducted to space in an experiment to create a perfect human named Jean Noel. After some pretty brutal chainsaw surgery that is performed on the latest abductee, the spaceship seemingly manned by classical-era twins crashes to earth and that's where the story of the second video starts.

Miike Snow remixing

Miike Snow remixes

Music videos

Television appearances

- 14 May 2012 - Made in Chelsea, E4 - "Pretender"

Notable live appearances

Soundtracks