Miike Snow

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 lead singer Andrew Wyatt.

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 the track "Toxic" by Britney Spears.

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.

In an interview, Andrew Wyatt explained that the group hoped to create "something that is gaudy, bright, shimmery, and the vocals are loud at a time, when it’s really the cool thing to have shit loads of delay on everything and sound psych-avaunt-insightful. I think there is a part of us that is an alternative to that by not having our lyrics be that hard or super coded. I think that there is a certain aspect of being fed up with the faddishness."

Miike Snow is Miike Snow's eponymous debut album. It was recorded in Stockholm and released early on 12 May 2009, by Downtown Records. A single for the track "Animal" was released on 17 February 2009. Upon a United Kingdom  release of the song later in the same year, the track charted in the UK Singles chart at. 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 a recent interview with ClashMusic.com, lead singer Andrew 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."

The tracks "Animal" and "Plastic Jungle" were played in episodes of the American TV series Gossip Girl during the fall of 2009. The songs "Burial," "Silvia," and "Animal" have also been played on MTV's The Buried Life. During an interview with Eleanor Conway of Virgin's Red Room over the third release of their single, they joked that the song "Silvia" might be based on Queen Silvia of Sweden. The song "Silvia" is notable for featuring the phrase "coup de grace" as a failed rhyme for "trace," rather than the woman's name of the title.

Miike Snow have remixed tracks by Passion Pit, Peter Bjorn and John, Kings of Leon, Coco Sumner, 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.

The song "Sans Soleil" is playing in the background at the end of the pilot episode for the FX Channel's new series Justified, and on the 15th episode of NBC's Chuck in the show's third season.

Miike Snow is currently on tour in the United States and the United Kingdom for 2010.