History
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. Band members in 1999 were Gustaf Norén (vocals, guitar), Carl-Johan Fogelklou (bass, backing vocals) und Samuel Giers (drums). 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 diputes, 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. There has been no official announcement of a new drummer. Since September 2011, Mando Diao is supported by Patrik Heikinpieti (drums) and Daniel Haglund (guitar, keyboard) at concerts.
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 broadcasted as live cinema event - Mando Diao live på bio in theaters and cinemas in Sweden, Germany and Switzerland.
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