Miike Snow

Hailing from Sweden, Miike Snow is an alternative electro-pop/rock trio with a knack for tunes that are hooky, giddy, and danceable. After releasing their self-titled debut in 2009, they charted internationally with 2012's Happy to You and 2016's iii. The latter album spawned the platinum-selling Billboard alternative hit "Genghis Khan." While they continued to appear at the occasional festival in the years to follow, it was eight years before the band delivered new material in the form of 2024's grooving "I Was a Sailor."

Comprising writer/producers Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg, and Andrew Wyatt, Miike Snow are based in Stockholm. When the band formed, Karlsson and Winnberg were best known as the production duo Bloodshy & Avant. As such, they had worked with a range of international pop stars during the early 2000s, including Britney Spears, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, and Ms. Dynamite. Most notably, their production of Spears' 2004 chart-topping smash hit "Toxic" won a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording in 2005. Based in New York City, Wyatt had formerly collaborated in the groups Black Beetle and the A.M., with Joan Wasser and Michael Tighe, respectively. He was also an in-house producer for Downtown Records (Spank Rock, Amanda Blank) and a member of the band Fires of Rome, who made their full-length debut with You Kingdom You (2009). Founded in 2007, Miike Snow brought the talents of the three together in one group, and their commercial debut single, "Animal," was released on Downtown Records in 2009. A batch of promotional MP3s was also released and proved popular in the music blogosphere. Among this initial batch of songs were "Animal" and "Burial," along with remixes of these songs by DJ Mehdi, Crookers, Benny Blanco, and Treasure Fingers; plus, there was a Miike Snow remix of the Vampire Weekend song "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance." The trio's eponymous full-length debut was released later in 2009 on Downtown Records, and the group departed for a North American tour.

In 2012, they founded the indie label Ingrid with Lykke Li, Dungen, and Peter Bjorn and John before releasing their second album, Happy to You, on Downtown/Universal that March. It charted internationally, including a Top 20 appearance in Australia, a Top 40 slot in the U.K., and peak placements at 42 in Sweden and 43 on the Billboard 200. The group followed it up with iii (Downtown/Atlantic) in March 2016. The album was led by the singles "Heart Is Full" and "Genghis Khan," both of which landed on Billboard's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, with "Genghis Khan" reaching as high as number 12 during a 21-week run on the chart. The album itself returned them to Australia's Top 20, went to number 28 in Sweden, and peaked at 47 in the States.

Miike Snow toured throughout 2017, then surfaced at the occasional festival over the next several years. A song they played live in 2019 eventually got the studio treatment and became their first new track in eight years when "I Was a Sailor" was self-released in May 2024. ~ Jason Birchmeier & Marcy Donelson, Rovi