I Am Kloot

Manchester, England provides the home base for oddball pop trio I Am Kloot, whose lineup comprises vocalist/guitarist John Bramwell, drummer Andy Hargreaves, and guitarist/bassist Pete Jobson. Bramwell drew on his experience promoting gigs to recruit Hargreaves and Jobson from their prior groups. Their debut single, Titanic/To You, surfaced only a week after the band’s first performance at the very venue where Bramwell had organized shows. Another single appeared in early 2000, after which the group signed with We Love You, an offshoot of Wall of Sound. June 2001 brought a two-part single for Morning Rain, and Natural History reached stores before the year ended. The trio next secured a recording contract with the Echo label and enlisted producer Ian Broudie for their self-titled second album, which arrived in summer 2003. Broudie applied his signature production style, broadening the I Am Kloot sound into an ideal setting for Bramwell’s finely observed lyrical vignettes. The band completed its first U.S. tour in 2005 to support the long-delayed American release of I Am Kloot, and shortly afterward issued its third European album, Gods and Monsters. Fourth album I Am Kloot Play Moolah Rouge followed in 2008, with 2009’s B collecting B-sides, rarities, and unreleased material. Sky at Night, produced by Craig Potter and Guy Garvey from Elbow, appeared in 2010; it became the band’s most commercially successful release, peaking at number 24 on the U.K. albums chart and earning a Mercury Prize short-list nomination. Let It All In, the group’s sixth album, came out in early 2013.