Soon, record labels and management companies were hitting the band up on their MySpace page, much to the shock of the group. It really just happened naturally,” muses Henrik. “People thought we had this social media strategy, but we didn’t even have a Facebook page or Twitter at the time. That calling-card video – Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” – spread like wildfire simply via word-of-mouth. (He never sang in a band, though, until Dirty Loops.) The only reason we even made a video in the first place was to have something to show bookers to get gigs just to play for fun,” laughs Jonah, who began singing in parents’ church choir at age 1 and playing the piano at age 11. “We thought the combination of fusion and pop was so unsexy that no one would ever listen to it,” laughs Henrik. Though the guys were having a blast putting some jazzy bass slaps and a funky sound on “Just Dance” or transforming “Circus” from a simple pop ditty to a fun fusion concoction, they didn’t think others would get their unique vision. We like the contrast of genres,” explains Henrik, who cites the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea among his favorite bassists and Tribal Tech among his favorite groups. If we chose a jazz song and did our thing, it wouldn’t be that different. “We chose these songs to cover because we knew we could do something very different to them. Rather, it was their distinctive approach to taking a pop song, and, well, “loopifying” it that resonated with everyone. It wasn’t just Dirty Loops’ clever choice of covers or exemplary musicianship (R&B/pop superstar Brian McKnight even called them “the most musical” band he’s heard) that sent the band on their rising musical trajectory. It felt like freedom to us,” explains Henrik, a session bass player since age 16, of Dirty Loops’ beginnings in 2008. We started doing covers just as a fun creative outlet for ourselves. We were doing a lot of session work and we were creatively bored. “The reason we initially started Dirty Loops was just for fun and for a creative outlet. Swedish producer/songwriter Andreas Carlsson signed the group to a management deal producer/songwriter David Foster signed the group to his Verve Records and brought them on his tour of Asia in 2012 and the group has a long list of famous fans that includes Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Adam Levine, Dallas Austin, Rodney Jerkins, Brian McKnight, and Avicii. The group’s videos have now garnered a total of 19 million YouTube views to date, and their first original single, “Hit Me,” has just entered theTop 10 in Japan.ĭirty Loops’ viral covers – which also include Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” Britney Spears’ “Circus,” Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack,” and Rihanna’s “Rude Boy” (re-imagined as “Prude Girl”) – drew the attention of some of the biggest names in music today. Meet Dirty Loops - They are longtime friends and music school classmates Jonah Nilsson (vocals/keyboards), Henrik Linder (bass), and Aron Mellergardh (drums) who hail from Stockholm, Sweden and have made name for themselves with their twisted pop covers beginning with their take on Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance.” That video, which was made in the winter 2010 while the three band members attended Royal College of Music in Stockholm, became wildly successful with over 100,000 YouTube views and 10,000 Facebook shares in the first two month’s of release… without any promotion or social media savvy. Every once in a while a band comes around that defies definition, a band so inimitable in its approach to music that it turns a genre on its head and leaves one wondering, “ WHAT WAS THAT?!” Well, that’s exactly what Sweden’s best kept secret, Dirty Loops, has done with their debut album, Loopified.