Snapping Back

It's kinda cold. But half of Little Dragon are insisting they conduct interviews outside to soak up what they perceive as a warm Austin morning. Drummer Erik Bodin and keyboard player Håkan Wirenstrand leave bassist Fredrik Wallin and singer Yukimi Nagano doing their round of SxSW promo chats inside. So maybe it was a mix of chattering teeth and heavy Swedish accents that made it seem like Wirenstrand just used the term “three-way cum”. “What?” asks a bemused Bodin who was concentrating on his late breakfast until this point.

Wirenstrand, it seems, was illustrating his connections to Sweden's hardcore punk scene (“in the '90s, in the north”). He laughs, “My brother was singing in a punk band called Three-way Cum.” Best to take his word on that; trying to fact-check on Google is just not going to happen.

You see though, Little Dragon may come off like the hip kids name-checking all the right heritage R&B and electrofunk influences for these times but, like all music nerds, they dabbled in a lab-load of genres before getting to the point of their new space-soul set Nabuma Rubberbands. “We were listening a lot to Swedish experimentalists,” notes Wirenstrand. Bodin adds, “I think we all have different paths to get to where we all are now. Playing in a folk band, when I was a child and a little bit of classical music. And, I was listening to whatever my older brother was listening to, AC/DC. Now as I'm getting older I really like to listen to those, they have a nice energy.”

It's no wonder that outside of Little Dragon its members can collaborate with such a wide range of artists, from Gorillaz and SBTRKT to Frank Ocean and José González. Most recently though, the influences bandied about ahead of Nabuma dropping were Janet Jackson and Prince. What? No Neneh Cherry? She's Sweden's first lady of soul-hop. “At the time [the '90s, when Cherry was a chart star], I was too young but now lately I've been listening to Buffalo Stance and Manchild,” admits Wirenstrand. Bodin adds, “It might have been an influence subconsciously.”

It's been a long three years since Little Dragon's breakthrough third album Ritual Union cemented their role as leaders of Generation Sync (their songs have been used on TV, games and ad campaigns). The deals, tours and collabs made three years between albums fly by – despite some time-wasting with Big Boi when the Outkast member replaced Little Dragon's contribution with a guest spot from Kelly Rowland. “There was a lot of, ahhh, crap,” says Wirenstrand, “Definitely.” But he means in the artistic sense.

He continues, “I mean, you try almost different things and ideas. I tend to be pretty fast and doing a loop, then come up with a melody. And when you're done… 'Ah, this is shit!'”