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Little Dragon

Future Classic presents

Little Dragon

8:00pm, Wed 15 December, 2010
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Event Details

Little Dragon are touring Australia for their first time, the band will also be playing as a part of the Gorillaz on their Australian tour this December.

Little Dragon are based in Gothenburg, Sweeden and consists of It consists of Swedish-Japanese singer Yukimi Nagano (vocals, percussion) and her close high-school friends Erik Bodin (drums), Fredrick Kllgren (bass), and Hkan Wirenstrand (keyboards).

It was the mid-nineties ,Yukimi was 14 , Fredrik and Erik were 16 when they met for the first time at Gothenburg high school. Around the same time Hkan had moved to Gothenburg from the deep dark woods of Smland. After several failed attempts to get into the music university Hkan changed direction and began to study enviromental issues but was also playing in different bands one of them being a reggae band that Erik was drumming with and Fredrik playing bass.

As with Hakan, Yukimi also tried and failed several times to be accepted into any music schools. Whilst being rejected by music schools Yukimi accepted the invitation to record as guest vocalist with Koop on their "Waltz for Koop" album and eventually traveled the world touring with them. Yukimi guest vocalled on a variety of other projects but in the end felt she would suffocate if she didnt start making her own music.

The money Yukimi was earning from playing with Koop became the foundation of the soon to be studio of Little Dragon which at the time was also there home. In the early days Yukimi and Erik were deeply influenced by American RnB so the first songs they made were copies of styles they liked mostly in that slow sluggish tempo. After a year or so of infinite numbers of copies of those slow sluggish songs they got tired of the sound and decided to start afresh.

Letting go of some of those inspirations they decided to create just whatever. Erik would start with some drum beats and Yukimi would sing melodies to them and that process gave birth to songs like "Test" and "Forever".

Hkan had a very big grey computer where he would make beats and songs in his bedroom and eventually Fredrik started making music as well. Yukimi started writing lyrics and recording vocal ideas on all the guys tracks. There were no deadlines, no money and no pressure. Soon there was a mountain of half-finished songs. Finally a close friend Christoffer Berg got a hold of the songs and was interested in releasing a special edition single on vinyl on his and Daniel Nords label Off The Wall.

Yukimi would easily loose her temper in the studio out of pure creative frustration for various reasons, and earned the name Little Dragon. When the opportunity to release a single came by the group decided to choose Little Dragon as the band name. The single got good reviews and became Rough Trade single of the week. Yukimi and Erik were also singing backup vocals and percussion with singer songwriter Jos Gonzalez. Peacefrog who also released Joss music got a hold of the Off the Wall single and proposed an album deal.

2007 Little Dragon released their self titled and very first debut album on Peace Frog Recordings full of songs made at the Seal Colonie. Artwork for the cover was made by Yukimi's father Yusuke Nagano. The album was well received in many corners of the world and got a lot of support from the radio station KCRW in Los Angeles.

Little Dragon still had a mountain of songs and were ready with their second album already in 2007. After playing live around the world the band decided to change things around a bit for there second release - and decided to make some more uptempo songs that people would dance to.

Machine Dreams became an album of olds songs and new ones reshaped into a more electronic soul/pop blend and was released in 2009. The artwork was made by Hideyuki Katsumata, a Japanese artist the band met through Myspace.

Yukimi Nagano and Fredrik Wallin are currently on the road with the Gorillaz as special guests performing both Empire Ants & To Binge off the critically acclaimed Gorillaz Plastic Beach album. Little Dragon is the only group featured twice on the spring 2010 release from the Gorillaz.