Ewert and The Two Dragons is an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

indie-rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produce ...

band. The line-up consists of vocalist Ewert Sundja, guitarist Erki Pärnoja, drummer Kristjan Kallas, and bassist Ivo Etti. Their debut album ''The Hills Behind The Hills'' was released in 2009. The follow-up '' Good Man Down'' was recorded at the beginning of 2011 and was released in April on I Love You Records. The group's third album, ''Circles'', was released in 2015 on Sire Records. They have gained recognition in the

Baltic states The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...

as well as in several other European countries.

History

Ewert Sundja, Erki Pärnoja and Kristjan Kallas are friends who first started playing together in 2008. The band name came from a movie that Sundja was a fan of. After a while the band got used to it and decided to stick with it. Although the name states that there are three people in the group, the band describes one of the dragons to have two heads. For the first concerts, they mostly played covers of

The Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Police ...

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

Jeff Buckley Jeffrey Scott Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott Moorhead, was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by ...

and others. Soon the trio decided to use their own material which resulted in the release of their debut album ''The Hills Behind the Hills''. The album was recorded in three days at the summer cottage of Ewert Sundja's in-laws and was released in October 2009. When they started to perform live, Ivo Etti joined the line-up. In May 2010, the band started their first Baltic tour and gave concerts across the Baltics — in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

Sigulda Sigulda (; german: Segewold, pl, Zygwold, russian: Сигулда) is a town in the Vidzeme region of Latvia, from the capital city Riga. Overview Sigulda is on a picturesque stretch of the primeval Gauja river valley. Because of the reddish Dev ...

, Liepaja and Klaipeda. In May 2010, the band was the opening act of

TED TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depa ...

xTallinn conference. On 17 July 2010, the band gave a concert at the Positivus. On 25 September, the band signed a record deal with Latvian indie label I Love You Records. Second album ''Good Man Down'' was released on 5 April 2011 and it has since then received critical acclaim in Estonia, Latvia, Finland, France and Sweden. The album was one of the best-selling records in Estonia in 2011. The first single off the album, "(In The End) There's Only Love" was popular in all three

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

countries and became a breaking point in the band's career. It was premiered in Estonia by Mart Normet on Raadio 2 and in Latvia by Toms Grevins from Radio 101. The track was picked up by Estonian commercial radio stations in mid-2011 and peaked Uuno Radio Top 25 chart in September.

Renārs Kaupers Renārs Kaupers (sometimes anglicised as Reynard Cowper; born 1 September 1974, in Jelgava) is a Latvian pop/rock singer, instrumentalist, and songwriter who is the vocalist of the band Prāta Vētra (known internationally as Brainstorm). Bio ...

from Brainstorm mentioned his fondness for the group in many of his interviews and in August 2011 Ewert and The Two Dragons played the song together with Brainstorm at the Freedom Song event at the

Tallinn Song Festival Grounds The Tallinn Song Festival Grounds ( et, Lauluväljak) are the grounds on which the Estonian Song Festival is held every five years. History of song festivals In 1869 Johann Voldemar Jannsen established the Estonian Song Festival while the natio ...

. Since 2011, Ewert and The Two Dragons have performed in various European countries, also at the festivals like

Popkomm Popkomm was an international trade show for the music and entertainment business during the 1990s and 2000s, and also integrated a congress and festival. It was held in Cologne for most of its existence, later moved to Berlin with entries from at ...

(Germany), Waves Vienna (Austria),

Eurosonic Festival Eurosonic Noorderslag is an annual four-day music showcase festival and conference held in January in Groningen, Netherlands. The first three days of the festival (Eurosonic) feature artists from all over Europe, the last day of the festival (No ...

2012 (Holland) and Lost In Music (Finland). In November 2011, they had sold out shows at the Nokia Concert Hall in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

and Palladium in

. Ewert and The Two Dragons were the winners of the

Tallinn Music Week Tallinn Music Week (TMW) is an international new music showcase, city culture festival and networking event for music and creative industry professionals, held every spring in Tallinn, Estonia since 2009. Operated by Tallinn-based company Shiftwo ...

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

"Go Change The World" award of 2011. The band won three awards at the Estonian Radio2 Annual "Hit of the Year" Ceremony: Best New Act, Station's Favourite, and The Hit of The Year Award for the song "Good Man Down". Estonian National Television station voted "Good Man Down" as the best video of 2011. The band was nominated and won five Estonian Music Awards in 2012. The awards included Best Band, Best Video, Song of the Year, Best Rock Album & Album of The Year. In summer 2012 the band signed a worldwide publishing deal with

BMG Rights Management BMG Rights Management GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label. BMG was founded in October 2008 after Bertelsmann sold its ...

Germany. Ewert and The Two Dragons are a winner of the 2013 European Border Breakers Awards. The European Border Breakers Awards honour the best new music acts in Europe. The award ceremony takes place at the

Eurosonic Noorderslag Eurosonic Noorderslag is an annual four-day music showcase festival and conference held in January in Groningen, Netherlands. The first three days of the festival (Eurosonic) feature artists from all over Europe, the last day of the festival (N ...

music festival in Groningen (NL).

Members

* Ewert Sundja – vocals, keyboards * Erki Pärnoja – guitar, backing vocals * Ivo Etti – bass, acoustic guitar, backing vocals * Kristjan Kallas – drums, percussion ;Additional live members * Aarne Ots – trumpet (2011–present) * Johannes Kiik – trombone (2011–present) * Indrek Varend – saxophone (2011–present)

Discography

* ''The Hills Behind the Hills'' (2009) * '' Good Man Down'' (2011) * ''Circles'' (2015) * ''Hands Around the Moon'' (2018) * ''Live at the Arena'' (2021)

Awards and nominations

Estonian Music Awards

, - , rowspan="3", 2012 , rowspan="2", ''Good Man Down'' , Album of The Year , , - , Best Rock Album , , - , rowspan="1", "Good Man Down" , Song of The Year ,

Radio 2 Hit of The Year

, - , rowspan="1", 2011 , rowspan="1", "Good Man Down" , Hit of The Year ,

European Border Breakers Award

, - , , 2013 , , Good Man Down , EBBA ,

Estonian Music Awards

, - , rowspan="1", 2016 , rowspan="1", "Circles" , Rock Album of The Year ,

References

External links

*
Ewert and The Two Dragons Facebook page

Ewert and The Two Dragons Myspace
{{Authority control Estonian indie rock groups Estonian folk rock groups Musical groups established in 2009