Swedish trio are leaving the whistle behind: 'We had to ban it from the new album,' Peter Móren says.
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Tim Kash
<P>Based on the strength of a whistled refrain, <a href="/news/articles/1566077/kanye-west-to-join-peter-bjorn-and-john-onstage-in-sweden.jhtml">Peter Bjorn and John became everyone's favorite band</a> in 2007. Two years later, they've returned with a brand-new album — one that features absolutely zero whistling. </P><P> </P><P>"We had to ban it from the new album," <a href="/music/artist/bjorn__peter/artist.jhtml">PB&J's</a> Peter Móren told MTV News. "We <i>did</i> use it on the last album. We put out an instrumental record last year — <i>Seaside Rock</i> — and we have whistling on that, but not a lot of people noticed. But it's not on the new album. It hasn't been banned from the gigs, though. Not yet." </P><P> </P><P></p><div style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;"><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:369918 </P><P>" width="256" height="223" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashVars="configParams=instance%3Dnews%26vid%3D369918 </P><P>" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="."></embed></div><p> </P><P> </P><P>So if you were a fan of the group's ultra-ubiquitous "Young Folks" (you know, the one with the whistle), you're probably going to have a hard time getting into <i>Living Thing,</i> their new album, which hit stores last week. And, of course, that was intentional, because Peter Bjorn and John are officially over the whistle. </P><P> </P><P>"There's always pressure to make something different, but that's not because of that song; that's because you want to change your sound around and do new stuff," Móren said. "But that would've happened regardless of success. We would've changed anyway." </P><P> </P><P>So they drew inspiration from a couple of rather, uh, disparate sources — like <a href="/music/artist/jay_z/artist.jhtml">Jay-Z</a> and <a href="/music/artist/metallica/artist.jhtml">Metallica</a>. It might seem odd, but all it takes is one listen to <i>Living Thing's</i> infectious first single, <a href="http://newsroom.mtv.com/2009/03/17/peter-bjorn-and-johns-new-video-just-might-save-us-all/">"Nothing to Worry About,"</a> to understand how it all fits together. </P><P> </P><P>"We listened to Jay-Z's 'Hard Knock Life' with the 'Annie' sample, and we needed clear, bright voices going straight through little radios," Móren smiled. "So we recorded with a children's choir. Plus, you know, cheap labor." </P><P> </P><P>OK, we'll buy that. But what about Metallica? How did a trio of Swedes usurp the sheer riffage of one of hard rock's heaviest? Well, rather easily. And with reggae. </P><P> </P><P>"Every album is important. It's hard to see the progression from album to album; you're looking forward 10 years, when you have 10 albums or something, and you can see how everything happens gradually. And I think <i>Seaside Rock</i> was an important part of that," Móren said. "If we would've gone straight from <i>Writer's Block</i> to <i>Living Thing,</i> it would've sounded less interesting. Because that was just letting off steam in the studio. [It was] a bit like 'Some Kind of Monster,' the Metallica [documentary], but rather than bringing in the psychotherapist, we played around with riffs and melodies."</p>
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