Liner Notes: Peter Bjorn and John, 'Living Thing'

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PETER BJORN AND JOHN are best known for the relatively straightforward indie-pop tune "Young Folks."

But the trio's music is generally much stranger than that hit everyone was whistling in 2007, owing to the odd combination of sounds (and influences) the Swedish group uses to create its catchy pop songs. As we wrote in Express' main feature on PBJ, bassist-singer-producer Bjorn Yttling is also a jazz pianist and John Eriksson is a classically trained percussionist. But it's the deep influence of Jamaican music that might surprise some fans.

"I love reggae and I love the dub stuff," said guitarist-singer Peter Morén. "I think it's been an influence for a long time but we never really talk about it. But usually in the live shows, we always have sections where we improvise and ad lib, and I always do some mouth drumming and the sound engineer plays around with sound effects. And the way I play guitar was influenced by reggae and older soul and funk; more spare, less notes, but very precise and rhythmical."

That deft manipulation of sound, textures and rhythms is what gives Peter Bjorn and John's new album, "Living Thing," such, well, vibrant life. It's a pop record though and through, sure, but it sounds like few other indie-rock records because of the way it's constructed with a minimalist-meets-kitchen-sink mentality.

Morén credit much of "Living Thing's" sound to the vinyl- and digital-only 2008 album "Seaside Rock," which was an instrumental experiment.

"We always wanted to do an instrumental record," Morén said, "and it just seemed like the perfect time to do it after that bit of success to loosen up and just do whatever we felt like and surprise people — and surprise ourselves. It was a great atmosphere in the studio, and we did anything we felt like — we played saxophones and violins and instruments we can't play. We wanted to have that school orchestra naivety of that [Langley School of Music] record.

"'Seaside Rock' was crucial for 'Living Thing,' in a lot of ways," he continued. Not just letting off pressure, but also playing around with beats and sounds and just experimenting. There's some funky grooves, there's some Krautrock, there's some Caribbean things, and it all shows on ['Living Thing'] even though it's more pop."

Enchanted by the unique sounds on the album, Express asked Morén to give us a track-by-track tour of "Living Thing." Click here to stream the entire album while reading Morén's commentary.

"The Feeling"
With the choir singing over and over again, it's a bit like a Negro spiritual. And it has that doo-wop quality to it with those low voices. We always argue about the track listing of an album, but that just had to be the first song because we've created some tension and it's really different. There was no other way to start the album.

"It Don't Move Me"
It's an older song, written during "Writer's Block," but at that point it sounded like a Kinks song, like a garage song. But we were talking about the '80s influence, we molded it a bit more toward Depeche Mode. We listened to [Depeche Mode's] "Master and Servant" and picked the big piano, and it became a completely different song. But it's still the same melody.

"Just the Past"
Another piano intro, and it's funny because that melody at the beginning, that is actually the first song I ever wrote — when I was five years old — just that melody. Then it was called "I Saw a Cat" in Swedish "Jag såg en Cat." It was a really short melody I did on the electric organ at my parent's house. ... It just shows your should never forget your old ideas. We had the rest of the song, and it sounded great, but we just needed that little intro melody, and I thought of that old song.

"Nothing to Worry About"
That was the last song recorded for the record. We had this period when we were thinking of doing it as a double record because we had so many songs; it was hard to decide what to have on it. But this song like it fit in and it was something the record needed. We recorded the rest of the song and then we thought that the chorus needed a bit of edge, and we thought about Jay- Z's "Hard Knock Life" with the "Annie" sample, and we went back to that and listened to it and that was what we needed. We have a friend ... who runs something called School of Rock — like the movie — where he teaches kids to sing pop and rock songs, and it's actually some of his kids who sing on the record. [It's the Langley School of Music influence as well] That's true. Because we performed "Seaside Rock" [live] just once, in Stockholm, and for that performance we used some of his pupils on percussion and saxophone and stuff. It's nice; it's cheap to use children; they don't need a lot of pay. They're happy with the credit. [Laughs]

"I'm Losing My Mind"
That's a crazy song. It's one of the three songs that we rehearsed before we started recording because they were the most rock songs; the other two were "Living Thing" and "I Want You." They were the guitar songs on the record. The funny thing about this song, there's actually no bass; it's only guitars. I used this pedal so you get two octaves. The other funny sound on that song is the bottles: we clang a lot of empty wine bottles. That idea was nicked from an old African record I had where they're playing on a lot of bottles

"Living Thing"
The lyric is sort of about our band, which makes it a good title track. It's about some problems we had in the past, and maybe still have, where you don't really talk about issues. You know you're good old friends and you have this really precious thing together, but you still have some communication problems and issues. Then I nicked the chorus from an Electric Light Orchestra song, "Living Thing." It's the same lyrics but it's not the same melody; the melody is more like a Paul Simon / African song. But the [chorus] lyric is straight out of ELO. ... I haven't asked, so maybe I'll get sued by [ELO's] Jeff Lynne and meet him court. [Laughs]

"I Want You!"
That's also an older song that was approached during "Writer's Block," and now it sounds completely different. Both "Living Thing" and "I Want You" have that reggae thing, and they're a it dubby/. Also, the way I use the guitar, with a lot of echo effects — that's actually where you use the guitar like percussion, too, where you hit the strings and create this effect. It's really sparse; it's basically bass, guitar and drums and some percussion things. And it's John signing. When he's singing, it becomes a bit naive and childlike. I really like when he's singing. And the lyric, too, is kind of — it could be a kid who wrote it [laughs]. I love that song; it's one of my favorites.

"Lay It Down"
John wrote that one, too, but I'm singing it. That was actually he first song that was out on the Web before this album came out — even though "Nothing to Worry About" was the first official single. I thought that was really great because it's almost like you don't know what to expect and here we are and we're going to curse. [Laughs] But at the same time, it's sort its' of a sad song because basically about a good friend who's cheating on his girlfriend and you're friends with both of them and you can't really talk about it. So, maybe this is like an interior monologue and you're shouting out to your friend in this song.

"Stay This Way"
I think that's my favorite song on the record. It's fragile and delicate but it still has this old-time soul — a bit of Motown, Four Tops feeling to it. And it uses that John Cage technique on the violin strings; they're also on "It Don't Move Me" and "Just the Past." Then I play a weird keyboard solo, which was influenced by a track I found on a Luaka Bop collection: "Better Change Your Mind" by William Onyeabor [from "World Psychedelic Classics, Vol. 3: Love's a Real Thing."] It's an African song from the '70s; if you like reggae stuff, you should listen to it. It's amazing. ... And John and Bjorn do the backup vocals and they send shivers down my spine because it's such an emotional song to me. ... Most of the songs when you write a lyric, it's emotional, but, of course, love songs are always more emotional. It's about my girlfriend.

"Blue Period Picasso"
That's a completely different lyric, but in another way that's maybe the lyric that I'm most proud of on this record. Most of the songs are about personal experiences and things you've been through in your life, but this i s like a pure fairytale. I saw this Picasso painting at the museum in Barcelona, and I just thought it felt a bit out of context between his earlier period and the later things where he became famous for the cubist things. This blue period — the melancholic monochrome paintings — felt out of line, so I pictured a painting falling in love with a visitor and urging [her] to walk out of the museum. It's just a pure story; I've never written like that before. ... And the music is funny, too, because the chords and the melody are very '50s rock 'n' roll — like a Paul Anka song or something. But then we walked to do something like Young Marble Giants, so the bass sound is very plunky and funky, and John is hitting a matchbox for the snare drum. Then there's some synthesizers. It also sounds a bit like mid-period Prince where it's very minimalistic. I like that.

"4 Out of 5"
It's maybe my favorite where Bjorn's signing. It's a bit different than me of the other songs because it's not this spare because it's got this guitar going on the whole time; a bit Velvet Underground. But it also has the really weird backup vocal, and also some reggae percussion — like mouth percussion. It's really slow, weird beats.

"Last Night"
Another John song — and I think it sounds a bit Phil Collins. [Laughs] Because we use this really huge '80s reverb on a lot of the songs. ... But once again, it's not normal drums; we beat on a lot of things int he studio: film cans, note stand, just whatever objects. But then you put effects on it and it sounds really huge. Then there's basically just some synths and piano and John singing. But what I like about that song especially is that it sound very melancholic and blue and spooky, but the lyric is actually one of the happiest ones on the album — a happy love song. I like contrasts like that. Like "Living Thing," the title track, that might sound like the happiest song musically but the lyric is kind of bleak and negative. I like when you put things together that shouldn't fit together.

» Related feature: "Grown-Up Folks: Peter Bjorn & John" [Express, Weekend Pass, April 30, 2009]

Photos courtesy Peter Bjorn & John