Last month, Danish group Mew played their first US shows in six years at SXSW in anticipation of the release of their long awaited sixth full length record +- (Plus Minus). Larry Heath had the opportunity at the festival to sit down with Johan Wohlert and Jonah Bjerre of the group to talk about getting the band back together – with bassist Johan returning to the band for the first time since departing in 2006. We talk about working with American Producer Michael Beinhorn again – the pair having previously worked with him on the acclaimed And the Glass Handed Kites (2005). We talk about working with Kimbra and Russell from Bloc Party. But perhaps the most important question of all was: when will the band finally be coming to Australia?
Thanks so much for joining us and welcome back to SXSW. You’ve played it before quite a few years ago haven’t you?
Johan Wohlert: That was back in, what was it? 2006?
Jonah Bjerre: No, we played here last time in 2009 right when the last record came out, which was obviously a long time ago now.
So that was a little bit ago, I guess what we’re here to talk about is the fact you’re back with a new record. It’s been a few years in the making, tell me a little bit about when the process started for making this record.
JB: We took a little break after the last record, which we’d never done before, but we toured for quite a long time and we just needed a break. We slowly got into the idea of building our own studio, which didn’t really pan out so well for us. We didn’t really get our place to sound that good for drums so there was a little bit of messing about before we really got into it then we pretty quickly fell back into the same roles that we’d had on the last record, which we did without Johan because he left in 2006, I guess, and so it was quite difficult back then to write as a three-piece all of a sudden. We kind of just started repeating ourselves a lot. I think that the album was turning into kind of No More Stories part 2 in a way, in the way the songs were settling. We invited our producer over and we’d talked to Johan over the years about writing together again and stuff like that. So then when Michael called us over and said guys you’ve got to call Johan, you need that in your chemistry.
And that was who he was used to working with as well?
JB: Exactly. I think it only kind of works like a band, as a four-piece. The records sound more like a band playing and less like a cloud of idea. But it was quite a long process to make the record and write and record everything. We get caught up in the details of things, you know.
And that’s always been the case.
JB: Yeah, it has been. But this is the record, I mean the record of records.
JW: Yeah, I came back on board after, I think the guys had been sort of at it for maybe a little less than a year, coming up with ideas and writing songs. I think the record really took shape and found its direction after the producer came over, and I sort of re-joined and we got that sound again, which is like you could hear the songs and what the nature of them were straight away in the practice space. That’s where we all kind of thought ‘ah okay, hmm this is the kind of record we are making.’
And do you think getting Michael back on board was a catalyst for things falling back into place, you coming back on and everything? Was that the defining factor or is that sort of simplifying it a bit too much?
JB: Well we had a lot of talks about creativity, it was very philosophical in the beginning when he came over. And yeah, he’s a great producer, very talented and he definitely helped us hone in on what the album should be because we always have a million ideas and often times we work on parts and it never sort of pairs up with anything. So there’s a lot of trial and error going on in the writing process. But yeah, I think he was quite instrumental in getting us on the right track.
And I imagine along the way, going back to the beginning of this process, there would’ve been a lot of music that was written. How do you end up deciding what goes on the record? Is it what feels right at the time or do you get to a point where there’s a much more concerted effort to say this is how we’re starting the record, this is the middle, this is the end of the record?
JB: We’ve done some albums which have been quite conceptualised in the way the songs string together and the order. I think we wanted on this one to have each song be more of its own thing. Just because we felt like that at the time. You know, every album is just a picture of where we’re at as a band. This one, each song has its own direction and sound so it’s the most versatile album we’ve done so far.
JW: Yeah, it maybe draws comparisons with The Fringes’ album from about ten years ago, which was also pretty concise and the songs were not strung together throughout the record and there was a strong pop element in that record. The melodies were quite clear and I’m not sure if it was consciously but we kind of captured a little bit of that vibe on the new record, I think.
And what’s it been like playing them live, and playing them together again?
JW: It’s been really fun and I think a lot of the new material works really well live, which is something we considered as a sign of quality to the songs that we needed and wanted them to be fun to play. We often have to go touring mid process and it gave us, again, something new and we got to try out some of the songs in a live setting. This is usually quite brutally honest so you get a pretty clear idea of what feels good or not so good, so that also played a part in just getting the songs to a point where they felt like they were working, you know. It’s still very Mew and not your average, straightforward rock record but it’s just got a little bit more of a groove and not that many time signatures all over it. So it’s a little bit more just ploughs along gently.
JB: Except it does have one song, which is probably the most progressive song we’ve done which is like eleven minutes long.
JW: It’s long but musically, it’s not that demanding, it’s not like odd time signatures all the time.
JB: It’s not like math rock.
JW: No, it’s more like Pink Floyd – just big and long and epic, you know?
I can’t imagine you fitting that into the sets. That would probably take up half your SXSW performance slots.
JB: We actually haven’t played that song live yet but I look forward to figuring out what we’re going to do with it
JW: I don’t think it’s going to be that hard, it’s just long.
JB: We’re going to have to do a lot of singing.
I haven’t heard the song but it sounds like it’s going to be an epic way to end a show.
JB: Absolutely. It’s a big one.
And one of the talking points sent to me about the record as well was that Russell from Bloc Party was involved. How did he come on board?
JB: Well, we toured with Bloc Party in the states a few years ago and we got along with Russell and liked his way of playing. Bo had actually been talking about wanting to play with him for a number of years, then we talked about for this album opening up a bit more in the writing process, which is a bit unusual for us and having people come over, just friends of ours. And we had Russell come over and write a song with us then we had Nick, our keyboard player for many years, come over a write a song with us, so we had a few more people involved in the writing process at least to a certain extent. That was quite new for us and a very positive experience. But yeah, we asked him to and he came over for three days then came back when we had the recording and it was great.
And after the release of the record you look like you have quite a bit of touring all over Europe and all over the place, but is Australia on the cards for this writing cycle?
JW: Yeah, I think we have to. We get a lot of love from Australia, which is pretty cool that if you take into consideration that we haven’t been there. It’s something that’s quite a priority for us. It might not be the big commercial move but it’s something that just feels like it got to be done and it’s something we feel like we personally have to do. I think it’s just a matter of slotting it in at the end of some Asian dates maybe or something like that so it’s not too costly for us.
JB: It’s quite a lot of travel.
JW: Very, very long travel as you know.
JB: I’m really hoping we can get to perform with Kimbra there. She’s featured on the record and obviously she’s from New Zealand, she’s based in LA now but it would be cool to hook up with her for some shows.
That would be amazing. And what was it like teaming up with her?
JB: It was great. I mean it happened through our old producer who also mixed our album and he produced her last album. It started out with him, she sent me one of her songs, which I really liked and I sang on that. So I said as a trade-off she has to sing on ours as well and so we sent her a few things. We have a song with her singing a lot lead as well, almost like a duet. It’s really cool. She’s amazing.
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+- is released through Liberator Music in Australia on April 27th. Pre-order it on their official website: http://www.mewsite.com and watch their latest single “Satellites” here:
Interview and Photo by Larry Heath. Transcript by Debbie Carr.
