There are musicians in every city. Every block, every street and every community grows and pulses as music scenes merge and continue to build. It takes something special to break open the walls and pull together all types of personalities and gain an eclectic but die hard fan base. You must have the “it” factor.

The band Little Dragon entered my world as an accident. I stumbled on their myspace page a few months ago, and found myself returning every couple of days for a fix of their amazing sound. The singer, Yukimi Nagano has a voice that soothes the soul while tickling the eardrums. The band, tightly knit and visually intriguing, deliver songs that reach deep into your bones and beg you to be present.

Although they have not yet made it to NYC to play, they have been doing tons of shows everywhere from California to Sweden, where they are based. Yukimi gave me scoop on what’s behind the group and what drives the force…Fall in love here.

TRACE: How did Little Dragon come together to become the masterpiece it is growing into?

Yukimi: We met in highschool and have been doing music since forever it feels like! The name Little Dragon came about later when we realized we needed a name 4 years ago.

T: What do you feel inspires you to make such original creative music?

Y: We inspire each other very much. We try to keep our ears and mind open for new things. We easily become restless and bored so we try to dive as deep as possible into the magic world of music to find something new!

T: Who comes up with the concepts and form of the songs and videos?

Y: We are all part of everything! A song cant really be done until we all has put our hands on it. We like to jam and improvise while creating new music. For the videos we had directors coming with ideas. Like, for the video for Twice it was Johannes Nyholm (who has a supertalent!) who directed us how to make the puppets alive.

T: I love the track “Forever”. What inspired the lyrics and will there be a video? I’m dying for one..

Y: I guess its about love, dreams and expectations and feeling a little chained down by life trying to find balance between light and shadow. It would be great with a video for Forever but right now we dont know when it will happen. We have endless ideas for videos for all our songs though.

T: Why no shows in the NY?

Y: It just didn’t happen yet! But we can’t wait to come over to play for the New Yorkers!!!

T: What do you have in store for the rest of 2008?

Y: To put the songs together for the next album! We have all the tracks pretty much done!