The stickiest whistling of the 21st century was conceived in Sweden, nurtured in the collective musical subconscious of three Stockholm musicians, shaped by their distinct creative personalities and love of New Wave, alt rock and '60s pop, and born several years later in a catchy, charming pop ditty, "Young Folks."
By that time, Swedish trio Peter Bjorn and John — singer/guitarist Peter Morén, singer/bassist/keyboardist Bjorn Yttling and singer/drummer/percussionist John Eriksson — had enjoyed some minor fame, but still worked day jobs to support themselves. "Young Folks" was the first single off their third album, 2006's Writer's Block, and by mid-2007, the song seemed to be everywhere — sampled by Kanye West, covered by Pete Yorn, used in TV shows ranging from Grey's Anatomy to Gossip Girl and in ads by Budweiser, Napster, American Eagle Outfitters and AT&T, among others.
"It changed everything," de facto leader Peter Morén tells me from a hotel in Utah a few weeks ago in the midst of his band's current gig opening for Depeche Mode. He says that up until that point, they did the band for fun. "But now we do the band for money and other stuff for fun… no, no, it's still fun," he laughs, adding, "It's just not something that we really expected."
International stardom allowed the trio time to focus fully on their music and try out new things, like 2008's vinyl- and digital-only release, Seaside Rock. The mostly instrumental concept album about Sweden didn't exactly fall flat, but it left a few people scratching their heads at its minimalist feel and smattering of spoken-word monologues delivered in three separate Swedish dialects by honest-to-goodness Swedes.
Critics and fans blew off Seaside Rock, looking at it as an experiment and not an indication of where the band was headed musically. The expectant buzz surrounding the "official" follow-up to Writer's Block continued unabated.
But when Living Thing finally came out this March, it wasn't the bright and sticky gem so many had already half-created in their imaginations, but a dark, stripped-down synthified dance album that to Pitchfork.com sounded like "a noble but flawed attempt by Peter Bjorn and John to test the fortitude of their songwriting using the most barren and broken of arrangements." The UK's Guardian didn't pull any punches: "Peter Bjorn and John haven't lost it, they've deliberately thrown it away."
According to Morén, the album isn't really a big departure at all. "Living Thing is a continuation of something that we started with Writer's Block." Morén refers to the less-is-more approach on that album's "Amsterdam," "The Chills" and "Young Folks"; little or no guitar, few chords, lots of bass and drums, melodies delivered solely by vocals. With Living Thing, Morén says, "We kind of took that to a new extreme, and did it on a whole album rather than just three songs."
The focus really wasn't on the songwriting since, Morén says, that process has essentially stayed the same. "It's more about how you arrange and produce it." To come up with ideas, the trio exchanged mixed CDs that included "a lot of stuff from our childhoods, like the mid-'80s, the hits of that day, some Fleetwood Mac and Paul Simon, but also Depeche Mode, and some synth stuff like OMD and Ultravox. And then there was a lot of African and Brazilian music, and some funk and hip-hop, too." Morén says these records inspired much of Living Thing's vocal effects, the '80s-style reverb, the rhythms and the percussive elements.
Spare, dark and edgy may not be exactly what people wanted, but the album has plenty of solid tracks — the chorus of the bouncy fun "Lay It Down" contrasts high and candy-coated vocals against rough-and-tumble lyrics, "Hey, shut the fuck up, boy / you are starting to piss me off"; the brooding "It Don't Move Me" is carried along by a deep and menacing piano-driven beat; and "Stay This Way" is a bittersweet slice of tasty doo-wop complete with a melancholy stylophone solo.
Recently, well-known DJ/producer Mick Boogie, the man responsible for last year's Jay-Z/Coldplay Viva la Hova mixtape mashup, approached PBJ about putting together a hip-hop remix of Living Thing. Several producers and rappers — up-and-comers combined with heavyweights like GZA, Talib Kweli and Three 6 Mafia — were invited to produce alternate versions of the album's songs. The resulting Re-Living Thing was released August 27. "I'm not a hip-hop freak in any way," Morén says, "but it has such a nice vibe to it — people did something completely new with our songs and it actually works!"
Morén admits the band recorded a song with rapped lyrics for Living Thing. "But, uh, I can't rap. It sounded too bad." Morén says he'd be willing to record it with the right person. "Maybe we can collaborate with them and put this song out, with a proper rapper, you know? That would be fun."
So far, Morén says the tour with Depeche Mode has been great, though opening for such a big-name act and having to endure an extended tour schedule "is kind of a departure, because we like to do short tours, and go home, hang with our girlfriends, and go back out fresh."
The band's support sets are obviously much shorter than the average PBJ headlining gig. "You don't have time to play a lot of songs, or jam, or, you know, have the spontaneous experience. You would have to try to be quick and to the point, and at our own shows it's a bit more playful."
While they'll focus on songs from Living Thing, you can expect to hear the hits. "We play 'Young Folks' and we usually play 'Object of My Affection,' because that's a good set ender."
If you slacked on getting tickets to the band's Thursday night headlining gig in Orlando and aren't enough of a Depeche Mode fan to see PBJ open for them at Ford Amphitheatre on Friday, don't fret; Morén says the band plans on returning to the U.S. for a headlining tour in November and then again in February or March. "I think we are going to cover quite a lot of territories."
This article appears in Sep 2-8, 2009.