On a chilly night last September, a little-known Miike Snow took to the stage of the Cambridge club T.T. the Bears to play an opening slot for British singer-songwriter Jack Peñate. To a less-than-lively crowd of only a little more than 200, the band crammed keyboards, drum machines, guitars and all onto the tiny stage of T.T.’s for its first Boston show.
Now, less than six months later, the men of Miike Snow are back in Boston on their first headlining tour to play a sold-out show at The Paradise Rock Club. For a band that has yet to make a full transcendence to the mainstream, its fan base continues to rapidly, well, snowball.
“We’re committed to letting as many people see this live as we can,” frontman Andrew Wyatt said in a phone interview with The MUSE. “It’s been growing and it really has been in a word of mouth manner.”
Boston is just another city on the tour that has been met with unexpected enthusiasm. The band has sold-out three shows in New York, as well as gigs in Chicago and San Francisco. Playing larger venues, Wyatt said, lets the band experiment not only with their music, but with creating a complete stage-show.
“A big part of [the show] is our lighting structure. We create a whole alternate universe,” Wyatt said. “It’s nice that we’re playing 1,000- to 1,500-seat venues where we can create that type of world.”
Appropriate, since it was the dreamy landscape of the band’s eponymous 2009 debut that caught the attention of both fans and critics. Spin Magazine called the album “cotton-candy psychedelia,” while NME said it was jam-packed with “dazzling pop tricks.”
“We’re living in a time now that is post-Animal Collective,” Wyatt said. “Everything was washed-out, reverb, psych music and I think that we’re maybe an alternative to that.”
And it’s kind of hard not to be, considering the Miike Snow trifecta is rounded out by Swedes Pontus Winnberg and Christian Karlsson. Better known as Bloodshy &’ Avant, the duo have produced the likes of Britney’s “Toxic” and tracks for Madonna and Kelis. Despite the pop-backing, Wyatt said the band isn’t trying to “speak or stray from any particular movement.”
“I think our music has been kind of generated purely by instinct,” he said. “That being said, it’s nice to be in a band where the instruments are clear and the musical ideas are protruding.”
With a 2010 that is being rounded out with a European tour and slots all over the globe on the summer festival circuit, Wyatt said time on the road has given the band plenty of time to work on a follow-up.
We have the concept for the next album, Wyatt said, adding that he couldn’t elaborate. We all have pieces of musical ideas and lyrical ideas that we’re going to introduce. It’s a good time to be in pop music in general.
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