Mando Diao
is a rock and pop band from Borlänge, Sweden. The band got their
breakthrough with the release of the album Hurricane Bar. Their main fan
base is in Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan. Band
members are Gustaf Norén (vocals, guitar), Björn Dixgård (vocals, guitar) and Carl-Johan Fogelklou (bass). Supporting musicians in the studio and at liveacts since 2011 are Daniel Haglund (keyboard) and Patrik Heinkipieti (drums).
The roots of Mando Diao date back to 1999 when Björn Dixgård (vocals,
guitar) and Daniel Haglund (keyboard) played in a band called Butler,
which they had founded in the middle of the 1990s. In 1996, Gustaf Norén
(vocals, guitar), joined the band. In 1999, Carl-Johan Fogelklou (bass,
backing vocals) and Samuel Giers (drums) became members and completed
the original band. The current line-up decided to take the project more
seriously. Björn Dixgård and Gustaf Norén locked themselves up in a
summer house and spent 14 months writing songs. They claim the Beatles
as their original source of inspiration. Allegedly, Gustaf joined the
band after he and Björn had talked all night about this band. The two
renamed their band Mando Diao, a name that appeared to Björn Dixgård in a
dream in which a man came up to him and shouted "Mando Diao!".
The now-renamed band made their first public performances in the clubs
of their hometown Borlänge in 1999. A local writer described them in an
article as the best unsigned band he had ever seen. This was soon
followed by a record deal with EMI Sweden. After the release of their
debut album Bring 'Em In in 2002, the band began touring Sweden and
other Scandinavian countries together with local bands as The
Hellacopters or Kent.
Daniel Haglund left the band in 2003, due to some minor disputes, and was replaced by Mats Björke.
With every album release, the band's international success increased; in
2007 Mando Diao appeared for the first time as headliner on a music
festival, the Live Earth concert in Hamburg.
After the recording of Above And Beyond - MTV unplugged, Samuel Giers
left the band in the beginning of 2011. Since September 2011, Mando Diao
is supported by Patrik Heikinpieti (drums) and Daniel Haglund (guitar,
keyboard).
In 2011, Gustaf Norén and Björn Dixgård began working on poems written
by the Swedish poet Gustaf Fröding, and setting them to music. The
result, their first album in Swedish, Infruset, was highly rated and
appreciated all over Europe even before the official release . On
October 28, 2012, the world premiere was broadcast as a live cinema
event - Mando Diao live på bio in theaters and cinemas in Sweden,
Germany and Switzerland.
Infruset has turned out to be the band´s most successful album in
Sweden: it has won a Swedish Grammis award, sold four times platinum in
Sweden. Due to their success, the band was awarded with the Swedish
Rockbjörnen, a fan award, as best livegroup in 2013. The album has been
in Swedish charts for 97 weeks from November 2012 until September 2014
and is the fourth in the list of "best albums o fall times" in Sweden.
The single Strövtåg i hembygden has been in the Swedish radio top ten
charts for 100 weeks in October 2014.
On October 16, 2014,Love Last Forever, the official song for the ski
worldchampionship 2015 in Falun (SWE), by Mando Diao, has been presented
to the public. In November 2014 keyboard player Mats Björke left the
band.