Figurines

Childhood friends vocalist/guitarist Christian Hjelm, bassist Andreas Toft, and guitarist/vocalist Claus Salling Johansen launched the Danish indie rock band Figurines during the mid-'90s. They first rehearsed at a neighborhood school where all three handled guitar before Toft switched to bass and Johansen shifted to drums. Early shows took place throughout their Aalborg hometown, leading to the five-track EP The Detour that the group captured in fall 2001. Cut across a single weekend, the release sold out fast and prompted a deal with Danish indie Morningside Records. Drummer Kristian Volden, known as Volle, entered the lineup by year’s end, freeing Johansen to return to guitar.

The resulting quartet embraced a lo-fi approach that echoed Modest Mouse, Pavement, and Built to Spill while beginning work on its debut album Shake a Mountain in December 2002. Balancing sessions on weekends around college, high-school, and job obligations, the band finished the record for an April 2003 release that earned enthusiastic Danish press. Extensive national touring followed that year, highlighted by a Roskilde Festival appearance, and the album’s single “Bright” reached the top of the Danish alternative charts by late summer. International editions of Shake a Mountain arrived in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria during spring 2004.

The follow-up Skeleton surfaced in April 2005 and yielded the successful domestic singles “The Wonder” and “Silver Ponds.” European roadwork occupied spring and fall 2005, after which the Control Group arranged the album’s North American rollout the next year, complete with fresh cover artwork; it reached Canada in January and the United States in April. Figurines maintained an active schedule across Europe, Canada, and the United States, including a 2006 South by Southwest appearance in Austin, Texas. Keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Mads Kjærgaard later became the fifth member. The self-titled Figurines album surfaced in 2011 and featured the single “Hanging from Above.”