The Story
Caribou is Daniel Victor Snaith, born in 1978 in Dundas, Ontario. He first recorded as Manitoba, until a lawsuit threat from punk singer Richard 'Handsome Dick' Manitoba forced a rename in 2004 — by which point he was already known for psychedelic, sample-thick electronic records made almost entirely alone. He is also, improbably, Dr. Snaith: a 2005 PhD in mathematics from Imperial College London, with a dissertation on overconvergent Siegel modular symbols.
Andorra (2007) — a sunburst of sixties-tinged psych-pop — won the 2008 Polaris Music Prize as Canada's album of the year. Then Swim (2010) turned toward the dance floor, its liquid, off-kilter house earning a whole new audience, and in 2011 he opened a second lane entirely with Daphni, an alias reserved for club tracks.
Our Love (2014) carried 'Can't Do Without You', the closest thing modern electronic music has to a group hug; Suddenly (2020) folded family life and grief into his warmest songwriting; and Honey (2024) came out swinging with some of the most direct dance music of his career.
Across every name change and stylistic swerve, the through-line holds: meticulous construction that never sounds cold, and a falsetto that makes even the most engineered track feel hand-made.
