In the first single called “Lay it down”, the chorus goes like this: “shut the f**ck up boy/you are starting to piss me off/get your hands off that girl/you have already had enough”. Is it the band’s hopes that this would be the “Anti-Douche Bag” anthem of the year?
(Laughs). Yeah, hopefully. I thought it was good that that was the first song that people heard because we want to surprise people and we want to surprise ourselves. That’s kind of the aim. The melody in themselves is classic pop song. The melody and words. It is important to do something unexpected. I think that was really smart putting that out first. Thats the funny thing about the album. There are a lot of things under the surface. There’s a lot of songs that have a happy beat but then when you listen to the beat its really kind of sad. But then you have the opposite, sad sounding songs with a happy lyric. Its good to work with the contrast. (Lay it Down) is a sad song. You’re not even sure that the protagonist is actually saying this rant. He might just think it.
“Nothing To Worry About” is the current single. I like the children’s chorus in it and the pulsating beat. What was the inspiration behind creating this record?
It was actually the last song we did on the record. We had a bunch of songs this time around. We even thought about making a double album at first. Then we decided to add this song at the end. Its kind of different than the other songs because its not that much of a classic pop song, its more of like a jam, a groove. The lyrics is sort of about slackers, people not taking care of themselves. Its saying get on with it, you can fix it. You don’t have to moan so much, you don’t really have a problem. But the idea behind the children’s chorus, that was a very last minute addition. We had the song but we felt that it lacked something edgy. We have a friend who has a school of rock in Stockholm, that basically teaches rock and pop songs to kids around 10-12 years old. We worked with them for the Seaside Rock album, so we got back with them and asked if they knew any kids that could sing really loud. Then we listened to the Jay-Z’s “Hard Knock Life”, with the Annie Sample. That was kind of the inspiration. We found three girls to sing on the chorus and it worked really well.
It is said that Kanye West was the first to release the song and he did it online on his blog. Is that true?
That is the case. I’m not the right person to ask how it happened. I don’t have Kanye’s email or anything. It was a promotional thing I guess. Someone sent him the song and obviously he liked it. And he liked our stuff before.
The video for the song is also very interesting. Please tell me how that concept came into play, that whole idea to incorporate an Asian gang dance battle.
We often come up with ideas for everything; the cover, the videos. But this time around we let a guy named Andreas Nilsson do it. He did a lot of videos for The Knife. He’s a really good video director from Sweden. He was going to Japan with his brother and they heard about these biker greaser gangs who hang around in parks on the weekends and they dance to rock music in parks. Its really strict. And they have a lot of rules. Its Japan. It’s weird. During the week they have normal jobs. A lot of people have thought that its been actors (in the video), something we made up. But its really a mini documentary. They should make a full one. They have 4 hours of the leader just preparing his hair. (laughs)
The band has several tour dates scheduled in the states for the spring. How would you compare your live shows to the whole album experience?
Its kind of a different show now from what it used to be for Writer’s Block. A lot of the new songs have a lot of keyboard, there’s more dance rhythms, and some synthesizers. But we see it as a challenge to not bring in outside musicians. We just do it as straight songs still, but we bought a synthesizer and we sampled some of the sounds from the record. But we play them, its not a backing track. We play them on the keyboard or the drum sampler. John has a stand up drum kit, a specially built drum kit so it stands up and plays. That’s a new thing. And we also have a new lighting engineer which is good. Its a really interesting show. We kind of start with the new rockabilly then we move on back to some more rock and roll. Its like the history of pop music show. I would like to think so because it covers so many styles. We try to be in the moment when we play. There’s always room for energy, improvising, and jumping around and playing guitar solos. A lot of people often get surprised that its so rock and roll. A lot of people listen to the album then see our show and say, “I didn’t realize it was so rocking”.
2009 makes 10 years that the band has been together. You all have had 5 albums with a few EP’s in between. Now you are able to do music without having to work other jobs. Do you think it has taken a long time to get to this point or do you think the band is on time with it’s success?
I think we are right on track. I think we are really in a good position now. I’m kind of happy that we’re a bit older, that we didn’t break through as 20 year-olds. I like to have a history to look back on. I haven’t had a lot of normal jobs, I’ve been to university and I’ve done a lot of stuff, rather than just play music. It gives you perspective on things. I love not being a new band. I like that we’ve done five albums in 10 years and we’re still getting better. That’s really a good thing.
Peter Bjorn and John’s album, Living Thing, will be released March 31, 2009.
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