After nearly three years since the release of their universally acclaimed 2011 album Ritual Union, Little Dragon have returned with their highly anticipated fourth album, the futuristic sounding Nabuma Rubberband, out now via their new label Because Music (Justice, Metronomy, Django Django).
During their impressive career this Swedish 4 piece have collaborated with their fair share of big names including Big Boi, members of TV On The Radio and Gorillaz. We asked Little Dragon to give us a run down on some of their massive collaborations, they ended up telling us about SBTRKT’s mini golf prowess.
Gorillaz
“Damon heard one of our songs through his wife. We then got invited to come over to the studio to hang and vibe out. It was nice to see someone working in a similar way to us. We listened through beats, played ping pong & drank juice, then got down to “business”.
Some of our favourite Gorillaz tracks are ‘Dare’ and ‘Clint Eastwood‘.”
Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio/ Jane’s Addiction/ Maximum Balloon)
“Dave heard about us from his assistant who played one of our songs on repeat. We got invited to open up for TVOTR on their east coast USA tour. They are such sweethearts and we had a great time together, lots of jokes, smokes & juice. Dave later sent over a beat that we played around with & wrote some vocals to.
Our favourite tunes from his work with Maximum Ballon would be ‘Young Love’ and ‘Pink Bricks’. Our Favourite TV On the Radio tracks would be ‘Wolf Like Me’ and ‘Staring At The Sun‘.”
SBTRKT
“We meet the guy at a mini golf tournament outside Kent. He had mad skills with the ball so that obviously got us curious. When he then nailed the last hole with a blindfold we knew this was a dude to be reckoned with.
We didn’t hear anything from him for a while until a strange package appeared at our studio.It was the filled with delicious cookies & a banging beat. We ate the cookies & played around with it, then sent it back with some Swedish gingerbread cookies. The rest is history.
Our favourite SBTRKT song would be ‘Hold’ feat. Sampha”
Big Boi
“We actually meet his impostor at a shabby bowling lane one misty night in Rome. He introduced himself as Big Boi and said he wanted to collaborate but there was something quite suspicious about him.
It could have been his Italian accent but, heck, we never heard the man speak before. When we then mentioned this in an interview we got contacted by the real Big Bois attorney Mr Cane. He was on the hunt for the italian Bigboi- Then one thing led to another.
We hung around in Stankonia studios, drank juice, got elevated and smoked cigars. At some point we must have made some music but none of us have any memory of this. The funny thing is that he sometimes slipped out some Italian phrases.
Our favourite Big Boi tunes are ‘Shutterbug‘ and most of the Outkast catalog”
Dj Shadow
“Apparently one of us gave him a cd long time ago, he threw that away as most artists (except us) do.
He then found one of our little 7 inch vinyls misplaced in the country music section and thought it was the best looking country vinyl he had ever seen, boy was he bound for a surprise. He must have been fond of it somehow ’cause he invited us for a big sushi feast in San Francisco. Super nice guy.
Our favourite Dj Shadow track? ‘In Flux.'”
Nabuma Rubberband is out locally via Warner Music.
