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HistoryThe 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, and the single "Strövtåg i hembygden" has been in the Swedish top ten charts for one year in November 2013.
It is also Mando Diao´s first album which has entered the Norwegian charts.
Due to their success, the band was awarded with the Swedish Rockbjörnen, a fan award, as best livegroup in 2013.
RecordingsIn September 2002, their first album Bring 'Em In was released in Sweden.
It contains early demo versions of their songs, partly recorded in the basement of keyboardist Daniel Haglund.
In 2003, the album was released internationally by MUTE label, along with their debut single Sheepdog.As of 2004, the band is hailed enthusiastically by the music press as one of the most sanguine newcomer bands of the year.
Their second album Hurricane Bar was released in March 2004 and became an immediate international success.
Their third album, Ode to Ochrasy, was released on August 24, 2006 and again was praised by the international music press, being unanimously described as the band's best album.
By the end of 2006, the band released a DVD called Down in the Past, a documentary of the band's history, accompanied by rare interviews, concert snippets, backstage videos and unreleased songs.
Ode to Ochrasy was released in the UK through the Nettwerk label on April 2, 2007, in a previously unreleased format including 4 bonus tracks.
On October 26, 2007, the band released their fourth album Never Seen The Light Of Day.Their fifth album, Give Me Fire, was released on February 13, 2009.
The album's first single, Dance With Somebody, was released on January 9, 2009, and became the most sold single and most popular song of Mando Diao so far.
The Malevolence Of Mando Diao 2002 - 2007 is a collection of B-sides and previously unreleased songs and was released on October 12, 2009.
On November 12, 2010, the recording of their MTV Unplugged performance, Above And Beyond - MTV Unplugged, was released as CD and DVD.
In December 2011, the band published Ghosts&Phantoms, a Christmas calendar for download, containing 24 non-released songs.
Due to the calendar's success, Ghosts&Phantoms was released as vinyl LP limited edition.
Mando Diao's Greatest Hits Volume 1 album was released on January 6, 2012, representing a collection of the band's best known songs.Infruset, was released on October 31, 2012.
It is the band's first album in their mother tongue, ten poems of Swedish poet Gustaf Fröding set to music.
The album Infruset Guld, containing new Swedish songs and studio versions, was released on June 5, 2013.A new album called Aelita will be released in April 2014.
Their first single "Black Saturday" was released in Sweden on January 11th.TouringMando Diao has been touring all over the world, though their biggest following is in Germany, Japan, and their homeland Sweden.
In 2004/2005, they started a tour with appearances at big music festivals in Germany, Austria and Hungary.
The band supported The Bravery on their tour in 2005, along with the Los Angeles band The Colour.
On their 2006 European tour, they were supported by Razorlight and Johnossi, and for the British leg of the tour they were a joint support act for the Dirty Pretty Things along with Larrikin Love.At the end of January 2007, Mando Diao were widely covered in the Swedish media because of an incident at their live concert on January 27, 2007.
They were performing at the Amplified festival at Norrlands Opera House in Umeå when a part of the floor the audience was standing on collapsed, leaving at least 25 fans hurt.
Five people were taken to the hospital with injuries such as broken arms and legs.
According to the management of Norrlandsoperan, the hall had been checked, but they had never thought the floor, consisting of several moveable parts on concrete girders over a three meter deep hole, wouldn't hold the 170 people in the room, since the fire department had given them approval for 800 people.
After this unfortunate event, Mando Diao stayed in Umeå in case they could do anything to help the injured fans.
They also visited the hospitalized fans personally.Mando Diao appeared April 29, 2007 at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and on July 7, 2007 they performed at the German leg of Live Earth in Hamburg.
Since the summer of 2007, Mando Diao has had support from a horn section consisting of renowned Swedish jazz musicians Nils Janson and Nils Berg.Björn Dixgård toured Europe solo during the end of 2007.On November 3, 2008, the band played one US date for the "Give Me Fire" tour with the Capshuns and We Barbarians at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.On September 2, 2010, they recorded an MTV Unplugged concert at Union Film-Studios in Berlin, featuring guest appearances by Daniel Haglund, Ray Davies, Klaus Voormann, Juliette Lewis and Lana Del Rey.
The concert was released on CD and DVD in late 2010.Following the unplugged album, an acoustic tour was started in October 2011, with concerts taking place in Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg.In the summer of 2012, Mando Diao had appearances at four open air festivals in Croatia, Italy, Czech Republic and Hungary.Mando Diao has been touring Sweden in the winter of 2013; a Swedish summer tour, "Folksparkturné", has been following in the summer of 2013.CaligolaAs of late 2011, Björn Dixgård and Gustaf Norén have a new side project with the Salazar Brothers, called Caligola.
The project's first single, "Sting of Battle", was released on December 27, 2011, followed by the first album, Back to Earth, on February 24, 2012.
The second single "Forgive Forget" was certified gold in Germany in May 2012.In 2012, they appeared on the 10th track of Paul van Dyk's album Evolution, titled "If You Want My Love".