WERS 88.9 fm - Artist Interview: Peter, Bjorn & John

This Summer, Peter Bjorn and John have got nothing to worry about. The Stockholm-based trio graced the WERS Live Mix studio to lay down a few tracks in promotion of their latest album, Living Thing. Much darker than their sleeper hit, 2006's Writer's Block, the band insisted you won't hear any whistling on their newest effort. "You get two kinds of audiences, the ones that like the entire album and the ones that like the entire single," lead singer Peter Moren told Live Mix.

After the success of Block, the band came out with the experimental Seaside Rock, an instrumental album based on Swedish folk music. With the March 2009 release of Living Thing, the band returned to a more radio-friendly sound. "The biggest difference for this album is that we had a budget. We actually had some money during recording," joked keyboardist and background vocalist Bjorn Yttling. What’s clear on the album are the band's techno and hip-hop influences, a departure from the quintessentially indie rock sound of Writer's Block. Still, the songs did not lack catchiness during the live set, and audiences can still find the band collaborating with other artists like they've done before. "You always learn from working with different people and doing different things," said Yttling. "Then you take that back to the band and remember why that was so fun and good. You need both."

The band opened their three-song set with "Nothing to Worry About". The studio version of the track has a children's chorus à la Jay-Z's "Hard-Knock Life", which the band joked was an influence. For the live set, though, they dropped the sample, cut out much of the synthesized drumbeats and opted for a bluesy, simplistic version with a grittier effect. Lead singer Peter Moren played a harmonica solo toward the end of the song that caused the guys in the sound booth to nod their heads approvingly. The band followed with "It Don't Move Me", the second track off Living Thing. Slowed down and simpler than on the album, the song was still a gorgeous slice of techno pop. Moren's vocals were as sharp as the studio cut and percussionist John Eriksson utilized a drum pad to create unique beats. Peter, Bjorn and John finished their set with the title track off the album, "Living Thing". By far the peppiest song of the set (and of the record), the track shows an eclectic range of influences. Eriksson taps the edge of the bass drum while Moren sings a cappella for much of the verse. As the title track, the band explains that the lines in the chorus, "It's a living thing/it's a terrible thing to lose", are references to the trio itself. "It's like a creative monster that you can't control," said Moren of the band. "Instead of three persons when we come in the same room, it's, like, chaos, in a good way. Creative chaos."

-Cady Drell