Loney Dear

Apparently, lightning does, in fact, strike twice. In exactly the same way that indie chamber folk auteur Jens Lekman was discovered — his homemade CD-Rs falling into the right hands — Lekman's Swedish compatriot Emil Svanängen ended up signed to a respected American indie label when someone in Sub Pop's Seattle offices happened upon the talented singer/songwriter's early homemade discs through the Internet. Hailing from the small city of Jonkoping, Sweden, Svanängen first began recording homemade, overdubbed tapes of delicate, folkish indie pop (with shades of acts like Belle & Sebastian, Neutral Milk Hotel, and the Magnetic Fields) in the early 2000s. As Loney, Dear, Svanängen self-released three homemade CD-Rs through his website: River Fontana Redux, Citadel Band, and Solange. As buzz developed through MP3 blogs and other new media manifestations, Sub Pop offered Svanängen a contact in 2006. The first proper Loney, Dear album, Loney, Noir, was released in early 2007, as Svanängen put together a full-band lineup of the group for his first international tour. Dear John arrived in 2009, followed by Hall Music in 2011, the latter of which found the multi-instrumentalist mining even more ornate instrumentation, inspired by recent tours with various orchestras in Sweden.