Peter Bjorn and John, finallyfree of Writer's Block

Wed 6th Sep, 2006 in Features

I seem to be stuck in a trance, watching JTV on a Saturday morning, waiting for my favourite song to come on to make my hangover disappear. If I could only hear this song today, all the pain of yesterday will be gone. Finally, it comes in at number one and I erupt into a round of applause as the infamous whistling introduces Young Folks. Finally, Peter Bjorn and John have been awarded.

Peter Mören first started playing guitar by himself when he was 10 years old. “The goal was always to write pop songs, so as soon as I knew three chords I started, even before I could tune the guitar.” If there was one song that he wished he could’ve written, it would’ve been Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone. “What if I’d written that two years ago instead of Dylan writing it in 1965,” he says. “What would the world be like? Can you imagine?”

Mören and Björn Yttling had already been playing in bands together for eight years, after meeting at high school, when they met John Eriksson in 1999. “It was while eating seafood at a party, so we didn’t begin making music together straight away.” Mören reflects.

The following year in Stockholm, they formed Peter Bjorn and John, simply naming the band after themselves. (With Peter on vocals, guitar and harmonica; Björn on vocals, bass and keyboards; and John on drums percussion and vocals.) They remain heavily influenced by bands like Brian Eno, John Cale, Sonic Youth, New Order, The Chills and The Beach Boys, just to name a few.

Things started slowly. All of the press they got had to do with the members impressive resumes and a few guest appearances on friends albums. As the years went on, so did the acclaim. And soon, London’s Rough Trade were mentioning “nothing else sounds as good in Swedish pop right now” in relation to the band.

This year saw the release of their third album, Writer’s Block. It’s the first album to showcase all three members as songwriters and they share the lead vocalist duties while taking on a new musical direction. The band members differing writing approaches made the album even more impressive. “Mostly the music [comes first when writing], but some words are often there in an early stage as well. I’ve begun writing lyrics first on a couple of occasions in later years, but I don’t think the others have,” he says.

Yttling and Mören live in Hornstull, where Writer’s Block was written and recorded. Björn’s studio doubles as handy rehearsal space in the basement of the bar Sjöhasten (The Seahorse) where the band often host their own club night called ‘Lucky You’. The club night hasn’t contributed to the success of the band at all, but as Mören says, “it’s fun and doing things together apart from the band is important.”

So, how did that song that Australia seems to love so much come about? “The original melody was a slow jazz-instrumental Björn had written on the piano,” Mören says. ”Then it evolved to this funky thing. I’m not sure how. I came up with the idea of making it a duet, and we wrote the lyric around that. It doesn’t have any special real-life background, but of course everybody recognises the situation of meeting somebody new in a crowded club or bar. You’re nervous and at the same time can’t wait to learn more about this person. And you see nothing else. Totally drawn in. I’ve been there as well. It was kind of hard to get the right feel of a conversation going, the cinematic quality, but I think we succeed.” And succeed they did.

While the world laps up Young Folks and falls in love with the thought of falling in love again, Peter Bjorn and John look set to become a success. But will that success disappear once the hype of the single dies down, or will it stick around? And will the band care if they’re known as a one-hit wonder? “In one way yes, especially as it’s not at all my favourite song by the band,” Mören says. “But then I rarely like hit singles any way. I’m more into the album tracks or the combination of different styles which makes a band interesting. In another way, no. if we will be remembered at all, that’s good. There is so much music around, that you really can’t blame people if they don’t have the patience of giving every band the deserved extra attention. And hopefully we’ll find some hardcore fans, who like the rest as well.”

The rest of the year sees Peter Bjorn and John touring Europe. They hope to be heading out to this big brown land early next year. “Really looking forward to that,” he says. “Never thought it would happen for us. So far away from home.”

Peter Bjorn and John’s album Writer’s Block is out now through Shock