Looper are a Scottish indie-pop band, fronted by
Stuart David, former
Belle and Sebastian bassist.
The band formed in 1998 for a show at the
Glasgow School of Art and released their first single "Impossible Things" on the
Subpop label a few months later.
Originally consisting of Stuart and his wife, Karn (who was mainly responsible for visual elements in the live shows, such as video projections,
super 8 films, kinetic sculptures and photographic projections), they soon became a fully fledged band, adding Ronnie Black (guitarist) and Scott Twynholm (keyboards) to their lineup.
Their first
album,
Up a Tree, was released in 1999 on the
Sub Pop label in the U.S. and by
Jeepster Records in the rest of the world. It was followed in 2000 by
The Geometrid on the same labels. After touring the U.S. for three months with
The Flaming Lips in 2000 they signed to
Mute Records for five albums. They recorded and released one,
The Snare, and then walked away from Mute, shocked by the conservative approach of the once cutting-edge label, which sold itself to
EMI during Looper's tenure.
Since then, Looper have been releasing their music free to the public at their Looperama website, funding this experiment by licensing the use of their songs in high-profile
Hollywood films and ad campaigns, including the film
Vanilla Sky and a
Xerox advertising campaign. Other films their songs have appeared in include
The Edukators,
The Girl Next Door,
Out Cold, and
Dog Park.
Their most recognizable...
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