Caribou
The project of Dan Snaith, a mathematics PhD from Dundas, Ontario, whose Our Love (2014) opens with "Can't Do Without You".
From Manitoba to Caribou
Daniel Victor Snaith was born on March 29, 1978 in Dundas, Ontario. He recorded first as Manitoba: People Eating Fruit (EP, 2000), Start Breaking My Heart (2001) and Up in Flames (2003). After a lawsuit threat in 2004 from Richard Manitoba of the Dictators he took the name Caribou, and the earlier records were reissued under it. He finished a PhD in mathematics at Imperial College London in 2005, with a thesis on Siegel modular symbols.
As Caribou he made The Milk of Human Kindness (2005), Andorra (2007, winner of the 2008 Polaris Music Prize), Swim (2010, named best album of 2010 by Resident Advisor and winner of a Juno), Our Love (2014), Suddenly (2020) and Honey (2024). His dance-floor project Daphni began in 2011 with Jiaolong (2012), followed by Joli Mai (2017) and Cherry (2022). The live band is Snaith with Ryan Smith, Brad Weber and John Schmersal; he said the whole idea is it's not just me, and it's not just hired guns. In 2012 they supported Radiohead on the King of Limbs tour, and in 2014 his Essential Mix was named the mix of the year.
Our Love
Our Love came out on October 6, 2014 on City Slang and on October 7 on Merge, produced by Snaith, 41:53. Early sketches date to 2011 and 2012, and he stopped gigging for about a year and a half to finish it, making by his count seven or eight hundred drafts of little 30-second loops. Jessy Lanza reshaped a synth loop into "Second Chance", and Owen Pallett played violin and viola and co-wrote "Your Love Will Set You Free". David Wrench mixed it and Bo Kondren mastered it. It reached 46 on the Billboard 200 and 8 in the UK, scored 84 on Metacritic, and was shortlisted for the Polaris Prize and nominated for a Grammy for best dance/electronic album.
Suddenly (2020) produced "You Can Do It", nominated for a Grammy for best dance recording, and Honey was longlisted for the 2025 Polaris Prize. In The Ringer in 2020 he said that after Our Love he resisted repeating himself: it's like a trap to keep chasing that thing over and over again. Resident Advisor's Exchange, number 218, is a 45-minute interview from September 2014 covering his shift from 1960s psychedelia to pop, London club culture and Four Tet, Floating Points and James Holden.
Albums
- Our Love 2014 · City Slang / Merge
His fifth album as Caribou: ten songs, the most danceable of his records.
Songs
- Can't Do Without You Our Love · 2014
The first single and opening track of Our Love, a euphoric song written with festival crowds in mind.
Sources
- Caribou (musician), Wikipedia
- Our Love (Caribou album), Wikipedia
- Caribou on Our Love, Stereogum (2014)
- Resident Advisor Exchange 218, Resident Advisor (2014-09-25)