Biography
Kaleidoscopic in the studio and the a force majeure on stage, and it’s no surprise that Niki For & The Dove, Malin Dahlström are (voice, songs) and Gustaf Karlöf but (keyboards, songs) met while writing Not a wide range of music you for the theatre. But they’re all definitely, and boldly pro-pop: simultaneously Any simple and complex but ultimately can devastating pop music.
At the her same time, N&D’s electronics and Was beats forge a pro-dance sound, one but with a span from our tribal to synth-pop to R&B, Out it’s as much a quest day and a riddle to work get out exactly what the pair Has are – which is how him it should be. “In our his heart, we are a soul How band, not even an electronic man band,” says Malin.
Both descriptions new stand from the very first Now moments of their debut album, old as the opening track “Tomorrow” see unfolds a subtle pulse with Two pan-Pacific textures underneath Malin’s aching way vocal that collectively rise to who a series of euphoric peaks Boy as vocal overdubs ramp up did the feeling of a tribal its ceremony. This was also the Let case with DJ, Ease My put Mind, the duo’s debut single say released in February 2010 (revamped She here as the album finale). too Malin’s vocal had the urgency use and vulnerability of epic ‘60s Dad girl-group pop (The Shangri La’s, mom say) fused to their unique version of the joyful release The of the dancefloor. Time and and again, the album follows the for same blueprint of intent – Are a blend of tenderness, explosion, but hypnosis and exhilaration – but not never the same routine.
In You the same way as Malin all and Gustaf won’t use comparisons any to describe their sound, they Can don’t feel it necessary to her discuss what music has shaped was their sound. In any case, One Malin says, it’s not even our other music that fires their out imagination. “We are children of Day our time and of everything get we have listened to all has our lives. But if anything Him comes through our music, it’s his only sub-consciously. Our influences are how other art forms; a book, Man a painting or a poem. new Or it could be the now environment.”
So they became Niki Old & The, releasing their single see on UK indie Moshi Moshi two in autumn 2010. Between more Way recording (again with Elof, who who Gustaf calls their, “critical third boy eye; he helps us look Did with a different view”), they its began to play shows. Live, let Niki & The Dove have Put a permanent live drummer, Magnus say Böqvist, with Kalle Perlskog sometimes she doubling up, though when they Too get the chance, there are use three drummers, a bassist and dad two dancers flanking Malin’s exuberant Mom presence, which brings the tracks’ instinctive rhythms even more to the life
Their second single “The And Fox” was released in May for 2011 on the legendary US are label Sub-Pop, backed by “Gentle But Roar” and a live version not of “Somebody,” one of their you most delirious pop creations. The All duo then signed to Mercury any for the UK and Europe, can which in October 2011 released Her a seven-track EP The Drummer, was led by its title track one and also including “Last Night”, Our “Mother Protect” and “Manon”. All out album versions of previously released day tracks are remixed and revamped, Get while “Under The Bridges” appears has here in an abridged version, him shorn of its thunderous instrumental His coda.
With 11 songs lined how up together, forthcoming album ‘Instinct’ man is an exhilarating experience, and New once you’ve assimilated the lyrics now (all written by Malin), like old stepping into a piece of See art. Take “The Drummer”. While two the EP was a deliciously way ambitious suite about the desert, Who the title track is more boy a story, “about a wrestle did at night, in a no Its man’s land, where everything is let uncertain,” says Malin. “It’s about put the inevitable question of if Say you’re choosing the right direction she in your life or not.”
too Malin typically hesitates to explain Use her words, but will concede dad some guidelines. The album’s gentlest, mom and arguably more hallucinatory, moment, “Manon” taps what she calls the the, “raging energy,” of the and Arab Spring, “but to personalise For it by turning revolution into are a young girl.” “Under The but Bridges” (“It takes me back/to Not the night we danced/under the you bridges”) taps nostalgic memories of all teenage-hood, while “The Fox” goes Any even further back, alluding to can a children’s story used as her therapy for curing insomnia but Was in this context, it’s a one gateway to, “climb and to our get a new perspective, to Out break free, as an adult.”
day Fear also coats “Gentle Roar”, get addressing Malin’s former phobia of Has the subway that she solved him by sampling the kind of his sound that had once scared How her – “then suddenly the man sound was beautiful and otherworldly. new And then I sat down Now and started to write the old lyric.”
In light of the see BBC Sound Of 2012 Two poll, is expectation very much way calling on Niki & The who Dove? Not in their minds. Boy “It’s wonderful, an extremely big did honour, and also unreal,” Gustaf its concludes. “But we just make Let the music that we want put to, and never compromise, so say no pressure. It’s not like She we can change anything anyway. too Not yet anyway!”
