TIGER STRIPES:

The talented producer and multi instrumentalist Mikael Nordgren is living
proof of how global the whole dance music phenomena has become since it all
started back in the days. Raised not in some urban capital area, but in a
small village in the midst of rural Sweden, Mikael had to search harder than
most people to find the music that eventually would have him release cutting
edge dance music on prominent labels such as Wave, Ibadan, King Street, Slip
´n´Slide and Raw Fusion. You can thank the house music diaspora for that...
From the tender age of 10 Mikael started this journey by learning to play a
variety of instruments including bass, guitar, drums and piano. Heavily
fascinated and triggered by the house music boom that eventually had reached
Sweden in the late 80s, his first steps as a songwriter were heavily
inspired by the sounds of Inner City and S´Express. At the same time he also
discovered the funky soul and jazz sounds of the 60s and 70s and these are
all influences that still can be heard in his eclectic approach on dance
music - inspired as much by Albert Ayler and Roy Ayers as Derrick May or
Underground Resistance.

Nowadays Stockholm based and recording under his aliases Tiger Stripes,
D´Malicious and 12th Floor gives Mikael the opportunity to release stuff
ranging from heavy tech house sounds to percussive Afro house, as well as
some discofied broken beats thrown in the mix.

His biggest influences are the underground disco sounds of the late 70´s and
early 80´s and that led to Mikael contacting the undisputed king of boogie -
Leroy Burgess - while working on his first label signed house project
Slippery People in the year 2000. Leroy was immediately impressed by the
soulful garage sound of the song that would be called 'Sweet Thing', and flew to Stockholm to work with Mikael. The result was so fine that their collaboration extended to more songs, not every one yet released. Also as Slippery People, Mikael recorded the storming garage monster of 'Wish I Never Knew' together with the legendary New Jersey diva Adeva.

After that Mikael left the Slippery People project and moved on to began
experimenting with more techy house sounds and soon came into contact with
legendary producer Francois K and the Wave label. There he released his
debut as D´Malicious with the seminal 'Dark Tradition EP'. His sound,
inspired by the soulful techno of Detroit´s finest, was immediately
appreciated by a wide variety of DJs worldwide such as Laurent Garnier, Carl
Craig, Derrick May and Matty Heilbronn. Since then Mikael has released two
more 12 inches on Wave, 'The Loup Garou EP' and 'Alive/The Last Song on
Earth' and are soon to have a full-length album.

Under his Tiger Stripes alias Mikael has found a truly unique sound. In
tracks like "Spirited Away" and "The Vulture" Afro rhythms, guitars
and electronic sounds come together like never before.
Mikael recently worked together with legendary NYC producers Kerri
Chandler & Jerome Sydenham in the studio. Kerri and Mikael have written two
songs together and Mikael´s also playing the guitar on Kerri’s own song
"Mental Moonlight Fiesta".

Together with Jerome, in 2005, Mikael produced "Stockholm - Go Bang" a track
that has received great success and is getting rotation from djs like Carl
Craig, Osunlade, Roger Sanchez as well as Pete Tong.
He has also done remixes for labels like King Street, Slip´n`Slide, Southern
Fried and Positiva. Songs from artists like Blaze, Antonio Caballero, Koop
and King Britt have been re-shaped by Mikael into techno anthems and
soulful-dance-bombs.

Besides producing, Mikael´s also been running Sweden´s premier house club Go
Bang! since the autumn of 2001. Inviting dj´s such as Kerri Chandler, Dj
Gregory, Marshall Jefferson, Rolando, Osunlade, Matty Heilbronn and Maurice
Fulton he has provided the expanding Swedish house community with pure
quality sounds.

His own fine dj skills are also to be mentioned and Mikael has traveled
around the globe playing in Japan, UK, US, Italy, Finland, Lithuania,
Estonia, Denmark and Russia. His greatly appreciated sets vary from
electronic to more soulful house sounds, depending on what the club promoter
wishes. Although Mikael is best at ease when he can blend these genres together in his truly unique way.