THERE'S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT...REALLY !

Usually i don’t use this space to criticize records. I rather prefer to discover what the artist point of view is. Off course that we all have our favorite records and make out judgments on what we listen. Nevertheless I asked Peter Morén to talk about their last record and specially that fantastic “Nothing to Worry About “video. I’m okay with this and hope you are too, because as I told before, there’s really “Nothing to Worry About “…

 

King_leer:

PJ&J have a new record. Verdicts, we can read all over the press. Explain me in your own words the meaning of this record, your main goals.

 

Peter Morén:

 

We always try to do something different from the record before.

It's important to grow and change even though we have a constant core of classic pop songs   and melodies. But you have to frame them in new and different ways otherwise it would be boring for everyone. There are easily songs on this new record that would have fitted on our earlier ones, but then we would have played them differently. Before we started we talked a lot about rhythms and were discussing about working with them deeper on this records. We listened to a lot of 80's music, synthpop but also mainstream big hits like Fleetwood Mac and Paul Simon. We also listened to a lot of different older African and Brazilian music and also old funk and soul and some early hip-hop. We tried loads of different things in the studio and played the songs in different ways. We wanted to get away from the classic indie rock-sound and do something a bit retro futuristic, sci-fi almost, some ghostly spookiness to it. A lot of people think we used a lot of drum machines and synths, but 90% are acoustic sounds like popping balloons, matchboxes beating on film cans, opening umbrellas, ripping paper etc. We just didn’t use the regular drum kit so much but created beats from unusual sources and then messed around with a lot effects. I think the end-result is really special and unique and although we experimented a lot to me it sounds like a really big pop record with loads of hooks, very accessible perfect for the stadiums we're playing with Depeche this summer. We have always made good songs, but I think as a whole album, as a piece of art I think it's by far our strongest yet.

 

King_leer:

 

On "Nothing to Worry About":

Tell me the story beyond this song and how did the video turned out to be like that. It's awesome - as I told you before.

 

Peter Morén:

 

That was the last song we recorded for the album and it needed a bit of edge so we added the kids chorus at the very last minute.

The video was made by the great director Andreas Nilsson who has done all of the Knifes videos. He had heard about this greaser/biker/rockabilly-gang that met up and danced to 50's rock'n'roll in the parks of Shibuya in Tokyo during the weekends. You know how the Japanese take their subculture very seriously. Anyway he had this great idea of following them around and doing like a mini-documentary. So he did. So there no actors, it's the real deal. I think it turned out great.

  

Links : http://www.peterbjornandjohn.com/

                http://www.nixonnoxin.com/

 

 Now, watch the video:

 

THE END

PETER MORÉN - The "Young Folk" or "The Last Tycoon" ?

Hi There,

Since Peter will be tomorrow in Portugal to his last solo show from the "Last Tycoon" tour, it's the perfect time to publish this "dialogue" from last Monday.

I've met Peter for the first time while covering the Portuguese "Paredes de Coura" festival in the Summer of 2007 when PB&J peformed there. Tomorrow it'll be the first time i see him solo.

Hope you enjoy the following lines.

Cheers,

P.s. You can se the video that is mentioned bellow in the 1st question on the blog's video player.

KING_LEER (KL):

On lyrics:

"Let's call it off" is the song that uses (on the video) your record title "Writers Block". What this song is about and what's the story behind the album title?

PETER MORÉN (PM):

In the video we wanted to tie in a lot of references to other songs and themes on the album. That's why the title popped up there.

The song is about the end of a relationship that never really started. The title of the album is a pun. We did'nt have "Writer's Block" but we wrote our songs in the same block where we live in Stockholm.A block of writer's. Very clever and funny, right?

Again on lyrics:

(KL):

What song (regarding lyrics) most affected you in your life and in what way - If you can share it with us?

(PM):

Most of my lyrics are very personal so it's hard to pick. But "Objects Of My Affection" will always be special to me, since it's about the start of something new that's still going on; true love to be honest and the lesson learned that you shouldn't live in the past and well on things that went on before. Nostalgia isn't always a good thing, mostly it's bad. It's also wonderful that it has meant so much to so many people. I've been receiving a lot of mails about that particular song.

On Plagiarism:

(KL):

We all heard about the story of the supposed Coldplay's plagiarism on the "Viva La Vida" song. I really don't believe this but Peter, since i don't have the knowledge on music creation, tell me what you think about his subject? I believe is possible to create similar "atmospheres" by coincidence but they don't need this, i suppose.

(PM):

I haven’t heard that story. But I think you can borrow arrangements and ideas. Everyone does that and it's only creative and shows knowledge of music. When it comes to melody lines it's hard to do something brand new all the time, most have been done. It has happened that I've recognized similarities to other music after I've written a song even though I didn't do it deliberately. Then it depends on how much I've stolen. If it's too obvious I scrap it and do something different. But I never plan on stealing.

On creating a tune/song:

(KL):

When you wrote "Young Folks", where did that whistling came from? You write lyrics and music at the same time? Do you have an early stage version of the song that can be broadcasted to readers "see" how the process works?

(PM):

"Young Folks" was very different from a lot of our songs. It started with a melody Bjorn had written as a slow jazz piano piece. We then worked on it together in the band, did the arrangement with Johns great drumming.

Me and Bjorn wrote the lyric together from the idea that it should be a duet, which was hard. It's not as natural to write that way as writing lyrics about yourself. The song was created in the studio so there is no early version apart from Bjorn’s piano sketch which sounds like Duke Ellington.

On your visit to Portugal this week:

(KL):

The next lines are for you. Tell us about your solo work, the why's, the stories, whatever you want to say. What we'll see in the Braga show?

(PM):

After playing with Bjorn since I was 15 I really felt the urge to do something all by myself. I actually started working on my solo album before the band started touring all around the world in late 2006. But last year we had a break and it felt perfect to release it, which I did in April. It's called "The Last Tycoon" and It's a very soft, folky album, but the songs is similar to PBJ's stuff in their melodies and lyrics. The big difference is the arrangements. I love playing acoustic guitar so I wanted to base the songs on finger picking style.

It was recorded simply in the apartments of my friends. I did over 60 solo shows last year, but the show in Braga will be the last in a long time since PBJ is releasing a new album in late March so I'm gonna concentrate on the band again.

I'm coming to Braga with my good friend Tobias who's gonna play some piano and drums. It will be a very laidback personal and playful show, soft but also energetic.

I will play mostly solo songs, but maybe some covers too. I'm looking forward to it.

THE END