Whether you're a Peter Bj?rn and John music video enthusiast or an avid fan of "One Tree Hill," chances are you have seen the Shout Out Louds before. Straight out of Stockholm, the Swedish quintet first broke into the industry in 2003 with the Scandinavian release of its first album, "Howl Howl Gaff Gaff." It was not until 2005 when Shout Out Louds released the international version of its debut in North America that the band gained global acclaim - and a feature spread in The New York Times' arts section to boot.
"We didn't really notice the article at first," said drummer Eric Edman. "We knew it was kind of big when a big Swedish newspaper said we were in The New York Times, and my mom was pretty excited."
Since their breakthrough, Shout Out Louds have toured with a myriad of bands across the world, including The Strokes, The Rosebuds, and The Essex Green. Similar to the aforementioned bands, Shout Out Louds may abide by the same constraints of 1980s and 1990s indie rock, yet the band channels the unadulterated bliss of 1960s pop. Through deceptively simple tracks, such as "The Comeback," "Shut Your Eyes" and "Very Loud," Shout Out Louds establishes a distinctly peppy and crisp tone that distinguishes the band from its indie pop peers.
"Most of the songs from 'Howl Howl Gaff Gaff' are incredibly old," Edman said. "We've all been good friends since the beginning, some from kindergarten and mostly from high school. We never were musicians before meeting each other, so we've been learning together."
Apart from their work with the band, Shout Out Louds' members find time for a gamut of other musical endeavors. For instance, Shout Out Louds have also performed their celebrated song, "Please Please Please", on the television show "One Tree Hill" and were later featured on the "One Tree Hill - Volume II: Friends with Benefit" sound track, the incoming profits of which were donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Bassist Ted Malmros won a Grammi - the Swedish version of the Grammy Awards - for his directorial contributions to Peter Bj?rn and John's music video, "Young Folks," and keyboardist Bebban Stenborg contributed female vocals at the 2007 Coachella music festival for Peter Bj?rn and John. Bj?rn reciprocated the efforts of Shout Out Louds by co-producing their second album, "Our Ill Wills," which was released in the United States in September 2007.
"We were pleased to work with Bj?rn on three songs on 'Howl Howl Gaff Gaff,' and we wanted him to help out with our sophomore album," Edman said. "Last time, Bj?rn got a little grumpy towards the end of production, but this time, there was very good cooperation."
With the release of the album's first single, "Tonight I Have to Leave It," it was evident that Shout Out Louds were evolving stylistically and thematically. Employing such melancholic themes as death, betrayal and disillusion, "Our Ill Wills" marks a brave and ultimately successful departure from the bubbly joy of "Howl Howl Gaff Gaff."
"We're older and we're more experienced as musicians, so I don't think we deliberately tried to change the tone," Edman said. "We're just evolving"
