Her Little Dragon has Yukimi Nagano in need of a den...
Band’s lead singer is juggling parenting and touring but still keeps her spirits High
Touring with a two-year-old has been Yukimi Nagano’s biggest challenge since Little Dragon stepped back onto the gigging circuit after a three year hiatus. The Swedish electro outfit released their fifth record, Season High in 2017, and have since toured it extensively with Jaxon, Nagano’s young son in-tow.
“It’s different. I guess It’s not as rock ‘n’ roll for me anymore,” Nagano, 36, laughed when asked about her most recent touring experience.
“It’s like two different worlds clashing together – one minute you’re on stage and the next you’re changing a diaper or something, but you know.. it’s the life we’ve chosen. Plus having a child with you on the tour bus makes you feel like you’re in the circus.”
While Nagano has remained quiet on questions about Jaxon’s dad, rumour has it he’s well-known and respected in hip-hop. In any case the youngster has a large touring family. “I wouldn’t ever want to be without him but there are challenging moments for sure,” Nagano said, “like eating every meal at a restaurant with a little kid isn’t always fun.”
Speaking of fun, Little Dragon’s fifth album is all about it.
Celebrating two decades together, they drafted in producers Patrik Berger and James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco to help with Seasons High. The result is an 80’s inspired synth laden throwback to the golden age of pop.
The introduction of the Berger and Ford to the process stemmed from challenges that Little Dragon have faced in the recording studio.
Over the last number of years, they’ve appeared on amazing work from the likes of Kaytranada, Flume and De La Soul, but have always been slow to reciprocate.
Nagano insists they remain open to collaborations, but hints at a collective focus and or obsession within their own work.
“It all depends on the music,” she said.
“We sort of let that dictate things, if we feel a song is perfect for a certain artist then yea, why not ask them.
“But you know we still have a lot to explore within each other, and we’re actually still learning how to work with each other.
“That seems kind of wild because we’ve been making music together for a while now, but somehow we’re still changing and we still find it exciting, so thats cool.”
A familiar trope with Little
Dragon is that they are ‘the band that almost made it’.
2009’s Machine Dreams was followed up with the extremely successful Ritual
Union, which brought huge commercial success.
While subsequent releases have brought quiet admiration and no shortage of critical acclaim, the reaction has been nothing like the feeding frenzy that greeted the release of their third record.
The band have tried to let go of
superficial pressures of staying on trend and relevant in an industry that can at times be, as described by Nagano, incredibly neurotic. “You know it can be all about staying relevant, you hear words like that all the time, I mean personally I don’t feel that pressure whatsoever anymore.
“In the past I did, and we let it take a lot of energy from the band, but you kind of come to a point where you’re like, ‘people get neurotic and nervous for no reason, and we’ve come this far without compromising on making the music that we wanted to make, and we’re going to continue to do that’.
“Creativity should be that absolute first priority and if people can’t deal with that and we can’t make money out of it then we gotta figure something out, there’s always a pressure to make money”.
“But yeah our main goal is to make something inspiring, and so far it’s worked – everyone makes enough to live off of what we do”.
The band have a jam-packed summer tour ahead, including big dates in Ireland both north and south of the border.
Little Dragon are well used to an Irish crowd having played here several times before and are looking forward to gigs in Belfast and at the Beatyard Festival in Dun Laoghaire.
“We’ve always felt the love here,” said Nagano. “The crowds are always so expressive.”
Fans looking to catch Little Dragon this summer can do so at the Beatyard Festival in Dun Laoghaire on the August Bank Holiday Weekend.
tickets are available available at www. the-beatyard. com and www. eventbrite. ie