Kaleo (band)

Best friends since attending elementary school outside of Reykjavik, band leader JJ Julius Son, drummer David Antonsson, and bassist Daniel Kristjansson began playing together at the age of 17 before adding guitarist Rubin Pollock to the mix in 2012. They named the band Kaleo, which means "the voice" in Hawaiian, and started their career with a handful of well-received shows at the 2012 Iceland Airwaves music festival, which was the band's first major public appearance.[6] Kaleo gained fame after covering the song "Vor í Vaglaskógi" which received heavy rotation on Icelandic state broadcaster RÚV's radio station Rás 2 and was featured on the station's top 10 list.[7] This song is also featured in the first episode of the TV series Trapped. By year's end, Kaleo had signed with Sena, the country's main record label. Their self-titled debut went gold in their home country, spawning five number one hits and inspiring their first European tour.[8]

In 2014, the band gained further attention with their single "All the Pretty Girls", which garnered over 87 million streams on Spotify.[9] In early 2015, they signed with Atlantic Records[10] and subsequently relocated to Austin, Texas.[11] Throughout 2015, Kaleo received increasing attention in the United States. The band's South by Southwest (SXSW) debut in 2015 garnered press from Esquire's "40 Bands You Need to Hear"[12] as well as NPR's "The Austin 100: SXSW 2015 Feature and All Songs Considered SXSW 2015 Music Preview". "All the Pretty Girls" peaked at number 9 on Billboard's Adult Alternative Songs chart.[13]

Another three singles were released to promote their upcoming major label debut album A/B: "Way Down We Go", "No Good", and "I Can't Go On Without You". The single "Way Down We Go", was released on August 2015 and gained critical acclaim. The single was certified gold in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Ireland, South Africa and Germany, Platinum in Russia, Australia and the United States, and triple platinum in Canada. The single "No Good" was released shortly after and was featured in the promo for HBO's Vinyl.[14] The fourth single, "I Can't Go On Without You", was released on 18 February 2016.[15] The album was released worldwide later that year on 10 June 2016.[16]

The album peaked at number 16 on the Billboard 200,[17] and the band embarked on a tour, the Handprint Tour,[18] in order to promote it. The tour began on 11 September 2016 and concluded on 30 November 2016. The band embarked on a second tour, the fall Express Tour,[19] which started on 25 August 2017 in Anaheim, California and ended on 25 November in Moscow, Russia.

• No Good

- Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance