Biography

Little Dragon is an electronic music group formed in 2006 and based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The band is made up of Yukimi Nagano (vocals), Fredrick Källgren (bass), Håkan Wirenstrand (keyboards) and Erik Bodin (drums). To date, they have released three studio albums: Little Dragon (2007), Machine Dreams (2009) and Ritual Union (2011).

Their first release was a double-A-side 7” single on Off The Wall (later signed to Peacefrog) that had two tracks: “Twice” and “Test”.

Nagano was born and raised in Gothenburg to a Japanese father and American mother. She grew up listening to American folk, but she always had an affinity for R&B. Keyboardist Wirenstrand spent his childhood in Smaland before moving to Gothenburg where hearing a lot of Swedish folk music. Later he got into electronic music. Bodin grew up hearing early hip-hop and jazz. Fredrik was influenced by experimental, noise and electro house.

Nagano and Bodin play live with José González. Bodin also drums with Peps Perrson, a Swedish blues/reggae artist. Swedish electronic jazz duo Koop’s albums Waltz for Koop and Koop Islands feature Yukimi Nagano’s vocals on several tracks.

The band collaborated with Gorillaz on two tracks (“Empire Ants” and “To Binge”) from their 2010 released album, Plastic Beach. Little Dragon also collaborated with Maximum Balloon (the solo project of David Andrew Sitek, producer and member of TV on the Radio), for one track entitled “If You Return”. In 2011, the band’s collaboration with SBTRKT on “Wildfire” was released as the lead single from his self-titled debut LP.

Sites: Discogs, MusicBrainz and YouTube