Possibly the country’s most well known musical export since Abba, Swedish trio Peter, Bjorn and John are of course best known for their single ‘Young Folks’, which peaked at number 13 in the UK singles chart when it was re-released in 2007. maddog phoned John, one third of the eponymous band, on the eve of their first UK tour date at the London Scala, to say hi and chat about the Swedish music scene...

A sassy duet with sultry voiced Victoria Bergsman from The Concretes with an infectious whistling chorus, Young Folks was used on a number of adverts, TV shows and films. The track came from the brilliant Writers Block, an album of catchy, intelligent pop songs inflected with 60s melodies and Peter Morén’s distinctive Elvis Costello-esque voice. Outside of his guitar and keyboard duties, fellow band member Björn Yttling has also been a respected producer in Sweden for a number of years, mixing the albums of numerous Swedish bands, (and recently some international ones), including the excellent Youth Novels; the debut of prodigious young talent Lykke Li. This mixture of international acclaim feeding back into an involvement in their native music scene has seemingly made them ambassadors of Sweden’s burgeoning creative scene.

The band formed in 1999 when drummer and percussionist John Eriksson met Peter and Björn at a party in Stockholm. John recalls: “the thing that connected us was a record by a group called Lilys [a Washington D.C. Shoegaze band] called ‘Better Can’t Make Your Life Better’, which we’d all been listening to. So at that point we thought perhaps we should make some kind of music together.” As simple as that… Indeed, the casual way in which the band met is expressed in their name: “We had a lot of suggestions like Small Oranges, The Rock Poppers, The Frantic Cat Woman, and Slaughter Magazine,” John reveals, “but then we thought whatever name you come up with will put some kind of label on the band, so by calling ourselves by our names it left us open to whatever kind of music we wanted to do.”

It’s also an incredibly unpretentious name that makes the three members seem closer and more equal within the band, whilst so many other bands become defined by their lead singer. Musically these guys are tight and it doesn’t seem to matter what unexpected direction they decide to go off on, which they often do, as they always manage to take the audience with them. A good example of this is their most recent album Seaside Rocks, a bonkers experimental work made up of an eclectic mixture of instrumental tracks, which includes a recording of Peter’s Grandfather recounting the story of a fishing trip that made me smile from beginning to end (even though I didn’t understand the words).

“It was a reaction to two and a half years of touring and a reaction against our big hits,” says John. “I think it was necessary to do something completely different, as they say in Monty Python. It was like going into a toyshop – we play on everything! We can’t even play the Saxophone, Trumpet and Violin – but we did anyway, just to have fun. It was also a good preparation for this record, because it taught us how to record sounds in a studio and how to create feelings through sounds.”

He is, of course, referring to their imminent album, Living Thing, which is equally experimental. “It’s in the same kind of ‘mind’ as Seaside Rock, but these are regular pop songs with lyrics and a lot of catchy melodies. It’s another step towards… I don’t know what!” John laughs. “This is our best album so far with 12 tracks that could be singles, and with a really surprising sound. On this new record I think we are really inspired by the rockabilly music of the 50s, but played on a space ship or something! That combined with old school hip hop, or early techno, or Nina Simone, or a John Cage string quartet – it can be anything.” That’s quite an eclectic list of influences, and if it came from anyone else I’d put it down to outrageous boasting, but John is the least arrogant person I’ve ever spoken to and I have every faith the band can pull it off.

For Nothing to Worry About, the first single from Living Thing, the band are joined by the vocal talents of a couple of Swedish School girls, who belt out the confrontational chorus, which is harshly synthesised, mixed with Peter’s own voice and blended onto a pumping back drop of electro drum beats. For the video the band enlisted the talents of Andreas Nilsson, who makes videos for the Bjork-esque electro-pop group The Knife. John explains: “he was in Tokyo with his brother on vacation and they found these guys in the park who, every Sunday, drink a lot of booze and have this dance routine, rockabilly style. So he asked them if he could follow them around for a couple of days. It’s nothing ironic, because for them it’s serious – I think it’s lovely but at the same time very funny. They are the perfect example of how we want our fans to look!” The video is certainly one of the most charming things I’ve ever seen: a Japanese biker gang sporting greased hair and leathers, performing a dance routine complete with fisticuffs. It’s all the more charming knowing it’s not staged in any way.

At a time when the Swedish music scene is becoming increasingly rich, leading many to claim that there is a ‘nya vågen’ (new wave), it’s interesting that John feels that the band has more of a kinship with The Beatles than with any Swedish groups. Like The Beatles they manage to constantly adapt themselves, whilst at once being both endearingly poppy and courageously innovative. Perhaps that is the main contributing factor of their music successfully crossing over into the UK. Yet John is eager to give the Swedish scene (whether it is a wave or not) it’s dues, recommending a number of female singer-songwriters including Fever Ray, the solo project of Karin Dreijer Andersson from The Knife, and Jenny Wilson, who he describes as the “Swedish Nina Simone”, along with Indie Punk band Paper. Peter, Björn and John are undoubtedly the tip of a very large ice berg, and if there is anything lurking under the waves nearly as good as them then there’s clearly rich pickings in Sweden for music fans (and the good news is most of it is in English).

www.myspace.com/peterbjornandjohn

Words > Dean Bowman