It’s been a big year for Little Dragon front woman Yukimi Nagano, the band indulging in both South By Southwest and Glastonbury appearances with a brand new album on the way. Only now does Nagano have a chance to catch her breath and reflect on the state of affairs. “It’s been really, really good actually. We’ve really felt everything growing, we’ve had a lot of support and we’ve already started playing some of our new songs live,” she explains. “People have been interested and curious and the response has been real good. I think it’s going to be a good year.”

Little Dragon presently appear among the ‘it’ bands of Sweden’s prestigious music scene, the country boasting an illustrious history in exports of all genres. They nation have displayed the knack to produce everything from pop-icons (Ace Of Base) to indie-darlings (Jens Lekman) with a flourishing heavy metal scene for good measure. Nagano is lost for words when approached for the secret to the Swede’s success. “I don’t know what it is! I’m going to be completely upfront: I don’t know what it is,” she confesses. “Maybe it’s just that creative people influence each other somehow. As a teenager, a lot of people were in bands and that was kind of what people did. You played in a band. That’s maybe one reason why there’s so much music coming out of Sweden. It’s hard to know exactly why. I don’t think it’s the bad weather!”

It’s difficult to know exactly where Little Dragon’s aesthetic fits into Sweden’s wide spectrum of music, an element that, according to Nagano, has both its pros and cons. “It’s definitely something that we feel proud of,” she says of the band’s diverse sound. “It’s both been to our advantage and also sometimes to our disadvantage. It’s definitely nothing that we planned to do... we didn’t have a meeting and decide we were going to be hard to define! We’ve been influenced by so much different music ourselves. You have that in you, it’s there and you sort of can’t help those influences being in the back of your mind and coming out your way, in your music and in your creativity. It’s a mix of us together and all of our influences that makes it that way.”

Meanwhile, their new album - titled Ritual Union - continues the band’s trend of fluid creativity. “The only direction we usually have in the studio is to create music that inspires us and make something that feels good and that captures moments when you feel inspired,” Nagano reveals. “It’s quite an intuitive thing. It’s not so much about any kind of goals that we have, it’s more about being spontaneous in the studio.”

Nagano, as the band’s primary writer, inevitably took much inspiration from her bandmates in penning material for Ritual Union. “I think the guys made music that gave me images and pictures that helped my imagination and the writing process. I think there’s everything from songs that are more like chants that have emotional expression, to abstract, to more straightforward love songs. The music usually comes first and it puts me on a path somehow and gives me ideas.”

The result of Little Dragon’s recent endeavours are set to be shared with the world, the release of Ritual Union imminent. As Nagano reveals, the album offers a departure from the band’s previous work. “The sound is more minimal. It’s more organic in a sense, a lot of live drums - more than Machine Dreams. I think it has a simplicity to it. The second album was more layers and soundscapes and synthesisers and so on. This one has a bit of a raw sound to it.”

No thanks to guitars, however, as Little Dragon continue to defy convention in shunning any use of the infamous six-stringed instrument. “It’s kind of a definitive decision in a very joking way,” Nagano explains of their aversion to guitars, “but honestly it’s because no one can play guitar very well. I’m sure if someone was good at it, we’d have more progressive guitar playing. I love a lot of music with guitar, so it’s nothing that we’re sort of ‘anti’. I think generally we’re more inspired by synthesisers. If we had a guitar we would probably want to change the sound so much until it didn’t sound like a guitar anymore... and what’s the point of playing a guitar if that’s what you want to do, you know? I think the possibilities are wider with synthesisers.”

Having supported Gorillaz on their 2010 Australian tour, Little Dragon are set to make a return to our shores with a spot on this year’s Parklife bill. Nagano is happy to shed a little light on what the band’s shows are all about. “Live, people can expect something different. We definitely play everything live, we don’t use backtracks. We sample all of our sounds so there are a lot of possibilities for many mistakes and equipment wanting to challenge us in every way possible... but we’d rather have it that way than feel locked in with any back track. People can expect something different, an uptempo dancy vibe!”

With Parklife just around the corner, Little Dragon are looking forward to jetting over to Australia. According to Nagano, it’s no wonder, either. “ I think we’re doing what we love,” she declares. “We’re waking up every morning, getting to play shows for people who appreciate our music, so it’s a really good life.”