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KALEO

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Icelandic band fronted by JJ Julius Son, whose enormous blues-rock rasp turned 'Way Down We Go' into a decade-long soundtrack fixture — desolate landscapes, stadium volume.

KALEO's core, singer and guitarist JJ Júlíusson, drummer Davíð Antonsson and bassist Daniel Kristjánsson, were childhood friends from outside Reykjavík who began playing together at seventeen. Guitarist Rubin Pollock and harmonica player Þorleifur Gaukur Davíðsson joined in 2012, when the band took the name Kaleo, Hawaiian for "the voice".

The band's early profile in Iceland grew from a cover of "Vor í Vaglaskógi", which received heavy airplay on state broadcaster RÚV and later featured in the television series Trapped. Signed to the label Sena, their self-titled debut album went gold at home, spawned five domestic number-one singles, and led to a first European tour.

In 2015 the band signed to Atlantic Records and relocated to the United States. The single "All the Pretty Girls" drew more than 87 million streams and reached number nine on Billboard's Adult Alternative Songs chart, building an audience ahead of the album A/B (2016).

A/B has sold more than one million copies worldwide. Its single "Way Down We Go" was certified platinum or higher across several countries and reached number one on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart, while the follow-up single "No Good" earned the band a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance in 2017.

Since then the group has released Surface Sounds (2021) and Mixed Emotions (2025), alongside the early Glasshouse EP (2013), with the same five-piece line-up in place since Pollock and Davíðsson joined in 2012.

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