PB&J;'s Peter Talks Album, Tour, Trash

Pitchfork: Do you like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?

Peter Morén: Nah, it's too sweet. I like desserts, but the peanut butter-- I'm not so sure about that. I'd rather have a proper dessert and a proper main course. Peanut butter and jelly's a mixture.

Pitchfork: Did you purposely configure your bandname so its acronym would be PB&J?

Peter: [laughs] It wasn't on purpose. The thing in the beginning was, we couldn't pick a proper name but then some friend said, 'Why don't you have your own names?' So we started to think about that and after a while it seemed like a very good idea. Because a lot of bands have a pre-formed attitude or formula through their name-- you can tell what kind of music they play just by the name. I wanted to avoid that and also have a down-to-earth feeling about the whole thing-- that it's just us and our songs, and not a whole big package of attitude and image.

Pitchfork: It seems like a lot of great music is coming out of Sweden these days.

Peter: We have this tradition here of picking up, early on, things from other countries-- like a lot of the jazz musicians went here early on, before they were known in other territories. And also I think the Beatles did their first tour here outside the UK, so I think things come here quite early and that may have something to do with it. Also, we have this [federally-funded] music school where you can learn to play an instrument quite early on.

For me, personally, we come from really small places in the north of Sweden, and you have far between the houses. There's a lot of deserted, beautiful nature, but not too many friends to hang out with, so you're really bored and you want to have something to do. And for us it was music.

Pitchfork: What have you been listening to lately?

Peter: I've been listening a lot to M. Ward's new album [Post-War], and Yo La Tengo, the new one [I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass] quite a lot.

Pitchfork: Is there anything out there you hate, that you can't stand?

Peter: Yeah, there is, but I'm not sure I should mention it. It's this Swedish band, I don't know if you can guess-- they've been reviewed on your site, called I'm From Barcelona. I can't stand them! The lyrics are terrible! Terrible, terrible lyrics, and it's just too, too happy, and there's no depth at all. And also the idea that they have 29 people on stage and they don't do anything. They don't sing any harmonies, they just stand around like it's a football crowd or something. It's just to lose money, I think.

Pitchfork: Haha, they're pretty popular in Stockholm and Sweden, right?

Peter: Yeah, they've been playing them a lot on the radio... I guess we're in the same league here. Perhaps they are a bit more popular.

Pitchfork: So I suppose a co-headlining tour is out of the question, yeah?

Peter: Yeah. [Laughs.] We had this decision among us. We never put down Swedish bands, but for once we were like, we can put them down. We don't know them. They're probably really nice people. But there are a lot of good bands in Sweden who never get proper appreciation.

Pitchfork: Who's not getting their due?

Peter: Especially this band called the Bear Quartet. They're from the north of Sweden, a town called Luleå. They've been around since the early 90s and they made like 13 or 14 albums here that are not known anywhere else. And they're not so big here either, but they keep on experimenting and making different stuff all the time, and really good lyrics and songs. I really like Love is All, though, and it's nice that they get some boost. Also, Jenny Wilson. Really really good.

Pitchfork: How do you feel about the warm reception your band's been getting? A lot of people seem to really love this record.

Peter: That's the thing I've been thinking about now. In a way, you have this secret ambition all your life to be able to live off of music, but when you're 30 years old like me and you've had a lot of different jobs and gone to university, it's not something you expect. But then, suddenly, it happens. We've always been thinking that we should be able to-- not out of big egos-- but that we should be able to get across to a lot of different countries, because our music isn't particularly Swedish.

Some of the bands that are popular in Sweden and are quite good-- and sing in English even-- sort of have this Swedish style, and we don't really have that. We are influenced by, basically, American and English stuff. There's nothing to hide; it's true. Universal pop music. We listen to everything from 50s rock'n'roll to new wave and 80s stuff and new stuff, and put it all in the bin.

Pitchfork: You hooked up with ex-Concretes vocalist Victoria Bergsman for "Young Folks"-- how did that come together?

Peter: Well, we had known the guys and girls from Concretes for a couple of years or more, and we all live in Stockholm. We had the idea of making this specific song a duet, so we wrote the lyrics from that point of view and then we had to pick a duet partner, and [she] was the first that came to mind. So we stuck with that and it turned out good.

Pitchfork: Do you think you'll work together again?

Peter: In a way. She's done some solo demos [as Taken by Trees], and Bjorn and John [Eriksson] are playing on them. Since Bjorn is a producer, he's probably going to do her album, I think. Nothing is decided yet, but I don't think she's going to be on our next album. It was just a duet and we're not bringing in any more members in this band.

Pitchfork: Who usually writes lyrics for the band?

Peter: Well, like "The Chills"-- that was John's song to begin with, but I wrote the lyrics, and also the "Young Folks" single is basically Bjorn's melody, and I wrote most of the lyrics to that one. But most of the songs really are [the sort] that you do by yourself, and then we arrange everything together. You can have a song at home, with your guitar, and then it ends up sounding totally different. Everybody has the same input in arrangements and playing, so the songs can develop. So it's really a band in that sense. It's not a leader and two followers-- it's three leaders.

Pitchfork: Who does the whistling on "Young Folks"?

Peter: That's Bjorn [Yttling]. He put that down just to remember the melody, and then we stuck with it because it sounded good. I guess in the beginning we were supposed to put some synthesizer there. There's a lot of things that happened like that-- happy accidents. We kind of experiment a lot in the studio and switch instruments around. Since we've been recording this album in our own place and didn't have a [record] deal when we made it, we didn't have a tight time schedule, so we just took our time and enjoyed ourselves.

Pitchfork: In terms of composition, is Writer's Block divided roughly in thirds?

Peter: Yeah I think so, it's divided quite... [laughs] socialistically or democratically. But it was just the songs that turned out best, and we didn't have a lot-- we actually only recorded 12 songs.

Pitchfork: Are you working on the next album yet?

Peter: No, not at all. We've never been in this situation before where we actually don't have any time to record. We've never been touring so much before. There's a lot of demand, and we don't really have the time. I think it's going to be quite long before we actually get around to recording anything new because we have to cover all the territories before. It's a bit crazy, but it's very fun to feel appreciated.

Pitchfork: You've been touring the UK and Europe-- do you know when you'll get to the U.S.?

Peter: We haven't had a deal yet for the album, so we're kind of working on that. But I think we're going to go over for some promotion or something some week during January. And then, probably a proper tour in the spring or early summer. And hopefully then the album will have a proper release over there.

Pitchfork: Have you had offers from U.S. labels yet?

Peter: Yeah, we've had a lot of offers, but we want to pick the right one. So not hurrying it too much.

MP3: Peter Bjorn and John: Young Folks [ft. Victoria Bergsman] [Infinite Mixtape #37]