Of all the near-perfect things to emerge out of Sweden over the past few decades, from IKEA’s meatballs to Peter Forsberg’s playoff beard, perhaps the country’s most impressive import has been electro-pop. Icona Pop may have ruled the Scandinavian summer with a neon-coated dance-floor assault of big beats and glossy production, but Niki & the Dove have added a bit of mystical enchantment to the crowded pop landscape. More Zola Jesus or Florence + the Machine than Robyn or Alina Devecerski, the duo of vocalist Malin Dahlström and producer Gustaf Karlöff are a bit of an odd shape, not only in Sweden but in the global electronic music landscape. “I don’t know if we fit in, but that’s not a goal of ours, either,” says Dahlström by phone as the Niki & the Dove tour van crosses the state line into Alabama. “We’ve not ever made music that fits in anywhere.”
The band formed in 2010 after Dahlström wrote the purring single “DJ Ease My Mind” and asked longtime friend Karlöff to produce it. Their debut disc, Instinct (Sub Pop), released in May, is more like romping through a colorful forest at sunrise than traversing a nightclub at last call. And Dahlström has a mean Stevie Nicks thing going on vocally. “Me and Gustaf, we love pop music and our aim is to make the best pop music we could ever make, but we also have to make experimental sounds,” she explains in her thick Swedish accent. “What’s so good about Niki is that we both have the same vision of what we want to accomplish artistically. The best pop music has a depth to it.”
Just don’t ask Dahlström for an explanation of the band’s moniker. “If you talk too much about something, you empty its meaning, and eventually it means nothing to you,” she says with a laugh. “Some things are better as a mystery.”
SEE THEM LIVE: NIKI & THE DOVE + COLOR CHANNEL | BRIGHTON MUSIC HALL, 158 BRIGHTON AVE, ALLSTON | SEPTEMBER 29 @ 8 PM | 18+ | $12 | 617.779.0140
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