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Whistle maniaSweden’s Peter Bjorn and John tackle a difficult
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“We wanted to create something spooky, a bit sci-fi,” says Peter Morén, discussing Peter Bjorn and John’s new record, Living Thing. “More champagne, less beer.” Named after an ELO song—which the trio transforms completely with their cover version, stripping it of all ’70s fat and fromage—the new record was inspired by the ’80s new wave and synthpop of their childhoods, and by the “funk and reggae vibes” they began to explore on their instrumental album, which was released somewhat under-the-radar last year. “Seaside Rock was really important, a bridge between Writer’s Block and Living Thing,” says Morén. Making a low-key follow-up to their breakout 2006 record allowed the band to have fun and play around in the studio rather than feel pressured to produce another hit. “When we started [Living Thing], what we really aimed to do was finish off what Writer’s Block started, working with just a few elements on each song. ‘Young Folks’ is like that, it’s just basically bass and drums and bongos and singing.” And whistling. For those who don’t recognize the title, the song to which Morén refers is the ubiquitous whistling song, a mainstream hit for the trio that came seven years into their career, on their third album. It’s something of an anomaly in their catalogue, and even on the record from whence it came, which is relatively stacked with indie rock guitars. “I’m still amazed by this,” says Morén of the song’s success. “It’s very spare and minimalistic, and maybe a lot of the other stuff on the radio—I don’t remember what was on the radio, I never really listen to radio—but maybe a lot of over-produced guitar rock and maybe some gangsta rap, and then ‘Young Folks.’” As with most leftfield hits, the ascension of “Young Folks” was a fluke, according to Morén, the result of the rise of MySpace and music blogging, and one key business decision by the band. “Music was spread in a different way than it used to be, and I think that helped us a lot, but also, for that third record, we had a proper record label with some muscles. The first two records were on one-man indie labels in Sweden, so we did most of the work ourselves, so that makes for a difference too. I know that, these days, you kind of say you don’t need records labels, and maybe you don’t, but we obviously did.” Whether or not they’ll be able to match their past success is more a matter of luck than talent—several songs on Living Thing equal “Young Folks” in sheer pop catchiness, but let’s see if that translates to the charts and the radio. But not only has “Young Folks” been “good for the bank account,” it afforded the trio time to make Seaside Rock together, and to spend some time apart. There are solo side projects by both Morén (“Dylan-esque,” he says) and John Eriksson (“ambient electronic”). Morén toured fairly extensively last year, and released his debut album, The Last Tycoon, just two weeks ago. Perhaps most importantly, the song has done wonders for the under-appreciated art of whistling, a point with which Morén agrees, with tongue in cheek. “Yeah, now we’ll go down in history beside ‘Wind of Change’ by Scorpions.” WITH CHAIRLIFT AT LE NATIONAL ON |
