YOU SAY FRANCE & I WHISTLE

Biography

You Say France & I Whistle was born out of the frustration of having played in too many "cool" pop bands without any love. In their cold Swedish environment, the band members wanted to share some colourfulness that could spread throughout people. But when every stage had a smoke machine it wasn't that easy to reach out. Though with a little bit of creative playfulness and a lot of hugs the band has since then succeeded to find a mixture of loving warmth and energetic frustration that seems to be able to reach out to almost anyone.

Major accomplishments:

The band has played over 100 shows in Sweden and around Europe.
The band has played six of the biggest festivals in Sweden; Peace & Love, Hultsfred, Umeå Open, Malmö festival, Euro Pride and Popaganda.
The band has filled up Debaser Medis, the biggest rock club in Stockholm.
The band has played live on the biggest TV morning show in Sweden.
The song "Can you feel it", written by You Say France & I Whistle, got performed by One Night Only in a worldwide Coca Cola campaign.
The band has several other songs placed in commercials for, amongst others; GAP, Orbit Gum/Wrigley, Mc Donalds and Viasat.
Tiger Jeans Sweden chose the band as one of the hottest Swedish indie acts for their Dressing Room Sessions.
The band has played in Milan Fashion Week for the french fashion company Costume National (C'N'C).
The music video for OMG has got over a 100 000 views on MyVideo.de, one of the leading video sites in Germany.

Sounds like:

The Cure, with more happiness
Shout Out Louds, with more energy
Vampire Weekend, with more rock
Arcade Fire, with more pop

Band members:

Claes Carlström - Lead Vocals, Guitars, Keys, Percussion, Accordion and improvised dance moves.
Ida Hedene - Lead Vocals, Keys, Melodica, Cowbells, Washboard and great yoga exercises.
Patrik Marcus - Lead Vocals, Guitars, Keys and Crowd surfing.
Petter Wesslander - Drums, Percussion and Screams of both joy and frustration.
Christian Wester - Bass, Backing Vocals, Banjo, Mandolin, Ukulele, Tambourine and Hamburgers.

Timeline

The band was formed in 2006 and contains five members, all from a suburb outside of Stockholm, Sweden. The first demo was released in March 2007, dressed up in a cloth cover handmade by the band members in an effort to renew the packaging of CD:s. The first gig was out on a porch on a tiny street party arranged by some neighbours. After the band started performing in various clubs around Sweden, it did not stop them from playing in unusual places such as shop windows, small apartments and public toilets.

The first EP was released in 2008, also covered in cloth. The band made an art exhibition in search for new ways to release and represent music, where every song on the EP had a visual representation created by the band members. That year the amount of gigs played grew rapidly and the band played at some festivals for upcoming bands. At that time, YSF&IW started to develop their live performance, and with great live music came also a huge amount of teddy bears and other various stuffed animals as prop on stage. The colourful animals represented their music and quickly became one of the band's mascot. People often partied and danced with the funny creatures during live shows.

In 2010 the shows spread throughout Sweden as the reputation spread. The buzz had taken YSF&IW to a new level: no more chasing gigs - the band got booked. In April the band headlined at the biggest rock club in Stockholm instead of New Young Pony Club, in front of 700 dancing people, and in that same summer they played at two of the biggest festivals in Sweden (The Peace & Love Festival and The Malmö Festival). Later that year the band played on the national TV4 morning show and Tiger Jeans Sweden chose YSF&IW for their Dressing Room Sessions campaign.

In 2011 the french fashion company Costume National (C'N'C) invited YSF&IW to Milan Fashion Week to play on their fashion show, where bands like the Killers and the Kills have played before them. After that the band released their EP "Angry Boy" on their own label, You Say Corporate, in Europe, and went on a 10 day tour in Germany. Around that time the music video for the song "OMG" got over 100 000 views on MyVideo.de, the song "When Lovers Die" peaked at 17 in the Indie Disco Chart and "OMG" got plenty of air play in many radio stations around Germany.