One Eskimo

Kristian Leontiou fronts the atmospheric rock outfit One eskimO, whose self-titled first album surfaced in 2009. The London native had already launched a recording career years earlier under his own name, securing a major-label contract with Polydor before unveiling his debut solo full-length, Some Day Soon, in 2004. That United Kingdom release proved commercially successful, yielding the Top Ten single “Story of My Life” and attaining gold status thanks to additional chart entries. Dissatisfied with the trajectory of his solo path, Leontiou instead used the One eskimO alias for a featured turn on the track “Hope & Glory,” included on Faithless’s 2006 album To All New Arrivals. He soon set solo endeavors aside entirely, expanding One eskimO into a four-piece that also featured Pete Rinaldi on guitar, Jamie Sefton handling bass and horns, and Adam Falkner on drums.

The completed lineup issued its first commercial offering, the independently released single “Hometime,” in 2007 via Little Polar Records; the song later appeared in a Toyota Prius television campaign in the United States. Two years afterward the band followed with the single “Kandi” and the four-track Debut EP, which reached American listeners in 2009. During the same period One eskimO supported Tori Amos on her Sinful Attraction Tour across North America, and the group’s self-titled album arrived later that year.