Boys with Toys

Lo-Fi-Fnk explore the city with synthesizers and electric drumkits.

By Jack Oatmon

From Annie to The Knife and on through The Legends, Scandinavia likes its pop and it likes it with generous doses of twinkling analog synthesizers and uplifting vocal melodies. Lo-Fi-Fnk, the latest installment in the Swedish synth-pop invasion, comprised of Leo Drougge and August Hellsing, is no exception to that assertion. That said, the band retains its unique qualities amidst the catchy choruses and toe-tapping electronic drumbeats that it shares with its contemporaries.

Leo Drougge, singer and bass player, says that individuality is what interests them about other bands. "We're really into unique music, like right now we listen to a lot of Paul McCartney. It really fits nowhere," he says. He admits, though, that they themselves "…try to make music that could fit anywhere," rather than nowhere. "It's not a very commercial ambition," he says, just an attempt to find a place for their sound. The music is indeed outside certain well-manicured patterns, such as the general tendency of dance to be obsessive about clean, meticulous production. "We called the band Lo-Fi-Fnk because when we started we wanted to make dance music, but more lo fi."

In fact, the wide-eyed musings of Leo Drougge's lyrics combine with August Hellsing's assertive synthesizing to form a brilliant sound that navigates the youthful urban experience with an idiot savant's unfettered grace. The atmosphere of discovery and experimentation that permeates the band's first full-length album, Boylife, makes a good analogy for their current status, touring North America's dance music hotspots for the first time. "Pretty much everything is new for us," says Drougge. "Actually the audiences have been a bit over our expectations, because we haven't released anything outside of Europe and we haven't got a label in North America, so we're really impressed that we get people singing along with the lyrics and stuff like that."

Getting released in North America is a growing aspiration for the duo. "We hope so, because then it gets easier for people to find out about our music so not just the nerds know."