MIIKE SNOW with PENGUIN PRISON at Sound Academy (11 Polson), Tuesday (May 1), doors 8 pm, all ages. $26. RT, SS, TM. See listing.
Many of the strict divisions between underground and mainstream music have broken down in the 21st century, but there’s still something novel about the Miike Snow story. The condensed version goes like this.
The Swedish production team Bloodshy & Avant (aka Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg) met NYC singer/producer/songwriter Andrew Wyatt and started the band for kicks. It’s resulted in two critically acclaimed electronic pop albums and a rapidly growing cult following.
So far, nothing odd. But now consider that Karlsson and Winnberg are better known for writing Britney Spears’s massive hit Toxic and Wyatt for helping pen Bruno Mars’s Grenade.
“We all started out playing in bands, and people came to each of us asking if we could write something for someone else’s album,” recalls Wyatt from a tour stop in Oakland. “I tend to say yes and try new things rather than saying no and shutting the door. One thing leads to another, and the next thing you know you’re doing this thing.
“People get hung up on social identifiers when they talk about different types of artists. We don’t worry about that so much. We just do what we do. We write songs, and certain principles run through all types of songwriting. A song is a song is a song, and that’s why people can cover them in so many different ways.”
Wyatt comes across as Zen about his craft but equally calculating and precise about the mechanics of songwriting and performance. When asked about the current Miike Snow live band, he happily goes into detail about their custom modular synths and the gear they bought from disco producer/film composer Giorgio Moroder.
Asked about songwriting, he discusses modern popular music’s focus on variations of timbre rather than chord progressions. He will, however, admit that some aspects of mainstream pop have little to do with the love of songcraft that attracted him.
“There are enclaves of pop songwriting that are toxic, if you pardon the pun. There are people who are just worried about making money and only want a hit song. We’ve been fortunate enough to somehow sidestep that. If there’s something transcendent about what you’re doing, it will track with listeners. There are definitely dark spots in the pop world, but I think we’re on different paths than a lot of the people who do it.”
Miike Snow’s 2009 self-titled debut album was made with no expectation of success but with the benefit of years of experience. Recording the follow-up, 2012’s Happy To You (Downtown/Universal), was a less casual affair that included a larger cast of guests in an attempt to see how far the band could stretch its sound. In the end, though, the formula for their melancholy late-night pop stayed the same.
“The sound of Miike Snow is essentially the three of us getting together in the studio and just seeing what happens.”
Interview Clip
Miike Snow’s Andrew Wyatt talks about the band’s current live show, and the role of loops in their songwriting.
benjaminb@nowtoronto.com | twitter.com/benjaminboles
