by Chris Nickson
It was in 2004 that Nephew broke through in Denmark, when the song "Movieclip" -- a piece that mixed Danish and English lyrics -- began getting national airplay. But they weren't newcomers; by then the group had already been together eight years, and had already come to the brink of breaking up once. The band was formed by four music students at the University of Aarhus. A year later the quartet reached the semifinals of the Danish Championship of Rock and began gigging, although Nephew were unable to secure a record deal, and their original bassist quit, to be replaced by Kasper Toustrup. They finally released their first album, Swimming Time, in 2000 on a tiny label. But in 2001 they decided they'd had enough, and would finish their career with a gig in Germany. But it went so well that they continued, and began working on new material -- one track being "Movieclip." In 2004 they signed with Copenhagen Records and issued USADSB, which reached platinum status in their homeland, with 40,000 copies sold. It was followed in 2006 by Interkom Kom Ind, and in 2007 by a live album and DVD recorded at the Roskilde Festival. They've also worked with producer Timbaland, giving him three tracks for his Timbaland Presents Shock Value CD and remixing his track "The Way I Are," which garnered them a small shot of fame.