Laakso is a Swedish indie-band with Finnish influences, vocal harmony and harmonic guitar-work. The band consists of Markus Krunegård, Lars Skoglund, David Nygård and Mikael Fritz.

During the fall of 1999 in the lunch canteen of a university outside of Uppsala, Sweden, Markus was humming to a Belle & Sebastian song so as David could hear him. It was enough to convince them that the chasm between the indie-nerd that didnt care enough and the vegan who wanted only to demonstrate could in fact be bridged. A year or so later they moved in together and formed LAAKSO. The name LAAKSO and the fact that the band exclusively sang in Finnish when they first formed is due to Davids both parents and Markus mother all coming from Tornedalen (Tornionjokilaakso, Laakso meaning valley).

After resolutely searching amongst the students of Uppsala they found Micke, a dungeons and dragons fanatic from Gotland (an island off the East cost of Sweden) who liked Guns & Roses and loved to play bass; and Jonathan the drummer. Jonathan developed stage fright and was replaced a few days before the recording of the debut EP - Long Beach by Lars, a carefree lad with a passion for funk.

Things developed at a steady pace and LAAKSO made new friends. David and the Citizens and The Concretes were probably the most meaningful meetings. The first indirectly lead to a recording contract with the small independent Adrian Recordings and to Luger becoming their booking agency. The second meeting lead to the love affair between Laakso and the producer Jari Haapalainen (Ed Harcourt, Moneybrother, Kristofer Åström, The Concretes and Nicolai Dunger who also appears on the new LAAKSO album).

Since then Jari has accompanied them into the studio for all their recordings - from Long Beach EP via the debut album I Miss You, Im Pregnant and the single Aussie Girl to their second release My Gods and finaly to the new album Mother, Am I Good Looking?.

Six years have passed since LAAKSO first became a quartet and a lot has happened and changed as things should when you make progress.