Interview: Mew
"We're probably one of the biggest bands in Scandinavia today."

Mew seem to come from another world-- and no, we don't mean Denmark. On this year's epic And the Glass Handed Kites (a recent Pitchfork recommendation), the dream-rock combo explores realms most of us abandoned long ago at the onset of adulthood, while proudly hinting at its alternative rock, shoegaze, and indie influences. From their soaring atmospherics to their childlike lyrical content to their eerie animated backdrops, Mew seem intent on drawing you into their own odd universe-- and if you're willing to suspend disbelief for an hour or so, it's well worth the plunge.

The band is currently in the midst of an ambitious North American tour, opening for NME lovechildren Kasabian. In between shows, Pitchfork sat down for a chat with the impresario behind Mew-- vocalist, guitarist, lyricist, and visual artist Jonas Bjerre-- about fairy tales, J Mascis, and yes, that album cover.

Pitchfork: The record seems to take itself pretty seriously, but what happened with that cover art?

Jonas: Well, there's this company in Paris called M/M (Paris), and they are very avant-garde or cutting edge or whatever you call it. They've done a lot of work for Björk, and everything they've made we really like a lot. We decided to approach them to make the cover, and we simply left everything up to them so that [their] vision would be intact and uncompromised.

We thought it was a bit bold for a band of our type to put our faces on the cover. It's usually more of a pop thing, but the way they did it was so strange. And the way that our faces interact-- it kind of makes sense that our music is the same way, the result of all our combined chemistry together.

Pitchfork: So you're satisfied with the way it came out?

Jonas: Yeah. It took us a while to get used to the idea, but now I really like it. I think it's very artistic. I'm quite happy with it.

Pitchfork: What's a "Glass Handed Kite"?

Jonas: A lot of our lyrics are very abstract, and when we get asked about them we kind of try to rationalize them and explain them. But a lot of them come from a very subconscious place. If I were to make an attempt, I'd probably say that the kite is a symbol of our music, because it's very fragile, made of canvas that can be ripped apart very easily, but at the same time it soars very high, and I think that's true of our music as well. It has both of those sides: very fragile, and still very strong in points. But I think it's better to leave the image up for interpretation.

Pitchfork: You got J Mascis to sing on "Why Are You Looking Grave?" How did you manage that?

Jonas: We've kind of bumped into him over the years a few times. A long time ago when we'd just started the band, our old guitar player met him in Copenhagen, where he was doing a show and he'd lost his luggage. So Bo [Madsen] went with him around to some shops and got him some t-shirts and stuff, and he also gave him a Mew t-shirt which he played in that night, which was really nice for us. And then [Mascis] was playing a show in L.A. while we recorded there, so we went to see him afterwards backstage, and convinced him to come sing in the studio. We really like his voice, and I think it's a great contrast to mine.

Pitchfork: You're touring the U.S. right now with Kasabian. How are you received here, compared to back in Denmark?

Jonas: I think we're received very well; people seem very open to our music and generally we have a really good feeling about it. In Scandinavia we're a big band, so obviously it's a different scale that we play, but I think people seem really interested.

Pitchfork: Can you give us a sense of the scale you have in Scandinavia?

Jonas: We're probably one of the biggest bands in Scandinavia today.

Pitchfork: How many people come out to an average city show?

Jonas: Depends on whether it's a festival or a gig, but I would guess about 10,000, something like that.

Pitchfork: So this must be quite different.

Jonas: Yeah, but we're used to that. We've toured a lot in Europe and Asia, and it's very different. Some places it really takes off fast, and some places it can take a while longer. We enjoy playing tiny venues as well.

Pitchfork: Are Kasabian dicks?

Jonas: No, they're actually very nice people. You know, they party a lot, but they've been very nice to us, and I think we're very fortunate to be able to use our [visual] projections when we're the supporting band. They've been extremely generous with everything, so we're quite happy with them.

Pitchfork: I'm curious about the backdrops and projections. I saw your Chicago show earlier this month and those struck me, especially the one with animals playing violins. How do you come up with those?

Jonas: When I finished high school, I started working in film production, and then I just kept on doing it when we got signed, and made these visuals for the shows. It's kind of a fine dance because you don't want to take away [the images] that people [associate with the music], but I think in a live situation it's a different thing because people are watching the stage, and personally, I think it can get quite boring to watch a band play music, kind of the same thing again and again.

So it's a little bit of an emphasis on a few parts in the song, and a little bit of storytelling, and hopefully it will inspire people, and hopefully it will make the music have a deeper impact. And sometimes it serves a purpose, as with the animals playing violins. I always felt that when you went to see a band and they have strings playing and stuff like that, just people playing it, it seems a little flat. And I feel like even though we still have a keyboard player playing the strings now, it makes more sense when you see the violin-playing visualized like that.

Pitchfork: What's next for you guys after the tour?

Jonas: We have one gig in Russia [November 10 at Moscow's 33mm Concert Hall] after this, and then we are taking some time off to write a little bit for the next album, which we have to get started on. Because otherwise it's going to be years before the next one comes out. We try and write whenever we have the time.

Pitchfork: Is it usually a long process for you?

Jonas: Yeah, it takes us a while to write songs and record them. I think that we attempt to make music that has an immediate effect on people, but also has layers so it keeps your mind occupied for longer. And that takes a while; we're very meticulous when it comes to recording, and that takes a long time.

Pitchfork: Your music seems to draw some of its inspiration from fairy tales. Are you fans of Hans Christian Andersen?

Jonas: Oh yeah, absolutely. I think all Danish kids grew up with his stories, so they make an impact on most people. They're very melancholy. "The Little Match Girl" is my favorite-- do you know that one? It's very sad. That one, or the one about the Christmas tree ["The Pine Tree"]. The whole story is told from the viewpoint of the Christmas tree. It's cut down in the forest, which is a bit weird for it, but then it's brought into this warm home, and a loving family dances around it, and it's decorated and it feels important and amazing. Then it's left to wither in the yard.

Pitchfork: Would you consider Mew's music to be in that vein of melancholy?

Jonas: Yeah, I think there's definitely a very blue tone to everything we make. Personally, music like that has a much deeper impact on me than music that doesn't have that melancholy-- and I think our music has a happy part as well-- but it's about recognizing everything that's inside of you and putting all of it out, instead of narrowing it down to one thing. Music that has that kind of melancholy makes me feel better when I listen to it, because you can relate to it on a much deeper level-- or I can, at least. I think a lot of people feel like that as well.

Pitchfork: What's some of your favorite music, personally?

Jonas: When we were quite young, we grew up with 80s pop music like Prince and Pet Shop Boys, and when we got a little older we got inspired by alternative rock, or things like the Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth. And then I guess what we make now is kind of an amalgam of a lot of different things, but I would mention a band like MBV as one of my favorite bands.

Pitchfork: What's your favorite MBV track?

Jonas: "No More Sorry". The lyrics are really dark.

Pitchfork: What records are you into right now?

Jonas: I really like the new Animal Collective record [Feels]. I think it's a great record-- it has a lot of strange ideas, it's very imaginative. And Why?, which is a little bit hip hop-y but also very indie rock. They have a really different way of approaching music. We've been listening a lot to that, it's quite different from what we usually listen to, but we all really enjoy it.