Playing punk-infused rock with equal parts energy and melody, Norwegian indie punks Spielbergs started as a fun part-time project for three indie music veterans that soon became an international success. Channeling bands like Japandroids, Titus Andronicus, and No Age, the group won the attention of the music media with their debut EP, 2018's Distant Star, with its hard-hitting, guitar-centered attack supporting songs that were tuneful and loaded with pop hooks and singalong choruses. The success of their early material led to a powerful debut album, 2019's This Is Not the End, and Spielbergs added more studio savvy without diluting their strengths on the follow-up, 2022's Vestli.

Comprised of guitarist Mads Baklien, bassist Stian Brennskag, and drummer Christian Løvhaug, the trio formed in Oslo in 2016. All three had previously been in bands with varying degrees of success; Løvhaug had recorded with Dogpile and Team Me, while Brennskag cut an LP with the group Label. No longer interested in making music a career, Baklien and Løvhaug had gone back to school but still wanted to play occasionally for fun. When they met Brennskag, they found a collaborator who clicked with their ideas, and they began getting together once a week to work out songs at home. The weekly sessions rejuvenated their love of making music, and the band entered the studio to record a debut EP with Tord Øverland-Knudsen of the Wombats as producer and engineer. While the sessions went well, Øverland-Knudsen became increasingly frustrated with the trio's inability to settle on a name. One of their songs had the provisional title "The Spielberg Song," having been written after a viewing of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Øverland-Knudsen suggested Spielbergs as a band name, and it stuck.

Their debut EP, Distant Star, was released in April 2018, and it soon won enthusiastic reviews from critics and music bloggers. The EP was picked up by the British indie label By the Time It Gets Dark, and soon NME, Stereogum, and Kerrang! were all singing the group's praises. Spielbergs promptly headed back into the studio with Øverland-Knudsen, and their first full-length album, This Is Not the End, was available in early 2019. More good press greeted the LP, and it was nominated for a Spellemannprisen award, the Norwegian equivalent of a Grammy. Later the same year, the band released another EP, Running All the Way Home, and shortly before the COVID-19 lockdowns of March 2020, they were able to cut a single, "Go!," which came out that May.

Spielbergs struck a new record deal with another British label, Big Scary Monsters, for the release of their second full-length album, Vestli. Named for a suburban community where Baklien and Brennskag grew up, the record was the band's most polished work to date, incorporating strings and keyboards on several cuts, without sapping the energy of their earlier releases. ~ Bekki Bemrose & Mark Deming