It didn’t take me 15 years, but I had a similar experience with the Norwegian band Kaizers Orchestra. I first heard one of their songs used in a Flash animation (Bak et Hallelujah) in 2003 and I just loved it, but I had no idea who it was nor did I understand Norwegian.

I listened over and over trying to hear the lyrics and transcribe what I was hearing as best I could until I got something close enough to correct that I could search for it. The song was from their first album and came out in 2001 so finally I got lucky a few months later and found a Norwegian site that had the lyrics.

I’ve listened to every album of theirs since and they’re still one of my favorite bands. I even got to see them live when they toured the US last year. It wasn’t a huge audience but me and few of the other obvious diehard fans in the audience were glad they came over here.