Yukimi Eleanora Nagano (born 31 January 1982) is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She is the vocalist for the Swedish electronic group Little Dragon.
Career
Early career
Nagano first made a record at the age of 18 with Andreas Saag (Swell Session). She then worked with Swedish nu jazz duo Koop on the songs "Summer Sun" and "Bright Nights" (both from 2001's Waltz for Koop) and joined the duo on tour, which she says "opened a lot of doors for me both life and collaboration wise".[1] She collaborated with Koop again on "Come to Me", "I See a Different You", and "Whenever There Is You" for the 2006 release Koop Islands.[2] Nagano also contributed significant vocal work to the 2004 album Moving On by Hird, including the song "Keep You Kimi" and the title track "Moving On".[3]
Nagano is the vocalist of Gothenburg-based electronic band Little Dragon, which she established with her close high school friends Erik Bodin (drums) and Fredrik Wallin (bass) in 1996 while they were in high school. Håkan Wirenstrand (keyboards) joined the group later.[4] Nagano and her bandmates each applied to music college but were denied entrance, and instead continued to make music together while working side jobs.[5] In 2007, Little Dragon released their first single, "Twice", which led to the group being signed to the record label Peacefrog Records.[4] The band released their self-titled debut album on September 3, 2007, to favorable reception.[6] This was followed by Machine Dreams in 2009.[7]
In 2015, Nagano was featured, along with Little Dragon, on electronic music duo ODESZA's 2015 single "Light".[14] Also in 2015, Nagano and Little Dragon were featured on Mac Miller's GO:OD AM album on the last track titled "The Festival".[15]
In 2016, Little Dragon collaborated with De La Soul on the track "Drawn" and a music video for the song was released in 2017.[16][17]Season High, Little Dragon's fifth studio album, was also released in 2017.[18]
Other work
She and Erik Bodin have played live with fellow Gothenburg artist, José González.[1]
In 2011, Nagano was featured on SBTRKT's eponymous debut album with her vocals on the song "Wildfire".[19]
She is also featured on Raphael Saadiq's 2011 album Stone Rollin' on the song "Just Don't".[20]
Nagano was born and raised in Gothenburg, Sweden, to Japanese father Yusuke Nagano and Swedish-American mother Joanne Brown. She has a son, Jaxon, who was born in 2016.[24] Nagano's sister is the musician Sandra Sumie Nagano, whose eponymous album was released by Bella Union in December 2013.[25]
References
^ abKets, Marc (September 2007). "Feature: Yukimi Nagano". Retrieved 4 September 2017. The first record I ever recorded was with Andreas Saag, I was about 18 and it was shortly after that the Koop guys contacted me to feature on their album. A couple of years later I was touring with them all over the world so it opened a lot of doors for me both live and collaboration wise.
^ abcRathe, Adam (11 April 2011). "The Rise of Little Dragon". Spin. Retrieved 4 September 2017. The band formed 15 years ago in Gothenburg, Sweden. Nagano, 29, whose peripatetic father is Japanese and mother is American, was a freshman in high school when she met seniors Wallin and Bodin.