The Tiny

by Margaret Reges The Tiny vocalist and founding member Ellekari Larsson was well on her way to becoming a professional ice skater until a serious slip at age 14 sealed her fate. She hung up her skates and devoted herself to music, performing with various Stockholm-based punk and ska outfits throughout her teens. In 2002, a friend introduced her to cellist and Royal Academy of Music dropout Leo Svensson, and the two hit it off immediately. They got to work fleshing out some of Larsson's previously written songs, recruited upright bassist Johan Berthling, and started gigging in the Stockholm area. In a bid to dig the band out of the demo-trasket ("demo swamp"), Larsson sold her flat in Stockholm and booked some recording time at a local studio. She secured a distribution agreement with V2 Music Scandinavia and the group's first album, a warm, spare chamber pop effort called Close Enough, was released in Sweden in April 2004. The Tiny's second album, Starring Someone Like You, was released two years later on DetErMine, a label Larsson started with her friend and fellow Scandinavian, Ane Brun.