Mew Singer Jonas Bjerre on How ‘Visuals’ Is Different Than Any Album They Have Released

Char Little

Mew has been going strong for 20 years – and now that they are gearing up for the release of their seventh album, “Visuals,” the band has decided to switch things up. Lead vocalist Jonas Bjerre spoke with Entertainment Voice about why this album is different from anything they have done before. According to Bjerre, when making the first six albums, the group created the music before Bjerre did the visuals. But this time, they flipped the process by doing the visuals first.

“It was an idea to create something to inspire you from the beginning,” Bjerre said. “We had a few parts lying around that we’ve been kind of playing with for a while. We talked about kind of visualizing each song – giving some keywords to describe it. This has a lot to do with our live shows as well. I’ve been doing animation for the band for many years. I always thought it would be interesting to do it the other way around, and we did that. It felt very fitting.”

He went on to say the visuals heavily influenced the songwriting fans will hear. “It helped maintain a certain focus for each song. I always experience music quite visually. When I listen to music, it inspires images in my head, and I think a lot of people feel like that. It’s usually not this way. When I look at a painting, it doesn’t create music in my head. But I thought maybe if I explore it, something interesting could come out of it.”

Doing the visuals first isn’t the only thing that Mew did differently for the album. In the past, they have taken a three-to-four-year hiatus before recording again. (That certainly wasn’t the case as their last album “+-” was just released in 2015.) But Bjerre confirmed that the supporting tour for that album inspired them to come out with more music much sooner than even they expected.

“I had this feeling that everyone was enjoying being on tour. It’s not always fun and games. It’s actually tough sometimes. You sleep in bunk beds and it’s not always comfortable. But everyone was in a really good mood. You could tell everyone appreciated being on the tour. We just felt inspired and decided to make a second record. Usually, when we’re done on tour we need a breather, but we were so excited about these ideas for songs when we came back that we decided to go straight into writing.”

And that’s exactly what they did, diving into their personal experiences for lyrics on the album. Bjerre added that 2016 in particular was a “tough” year. So they hope that “Visuals” can provide some sort of “escapism” for those hear it.

“Obviously it has a lot to do with imagination and wishful thinking,” Bjerre said. “It’s important to maintain hope and dreams and know that love is the answer.”

Bjerre also revealed that one song, “Learn Our Crystals,” almost didn’t make it on the album. “That’s one of the storytelling ones,” he said. “It’s a hard song to describe but the verse came first. It was something I was playing around with. It has a really kind of awkward chord structure. It was actually pretty hard to determine where the roots were. It’s kind of like a dream but it still has a sort of very vivid storytelling element to it.

We actually almost gave up on it because it felt a bit stiff from the original idea. It wasn’t until we came up with this almost carnival beat for it that we got it to cushion a different way. All of a sudden it felt celebratory; especially when we got the horns on it and really got it sort of grooving.”

Bjerre also opened up about the first video, “85 Videos,” from Mew’s latest album. He admitted that he has been “obsessed” with the kaleidoscope theme as the video is similar to the art cover.

“There’s something really interesting about it. You can take any picture almost – like a messy room – and you cut out a snippet of it and turn it around and you get this flower. It’s like you take something chaotic and you put it into a framework and make it look different.”

Another big song on “Visuals” is “Carry Me to Safety.” It’s the last song on the album that closes out the journey for the audience who listens from beginning to end. Bjerre said that he wanted it to tell a story starting with the first song, which would act as an invitation for the audience. The last or final part of the story is related to the intense pressure to succeed.

“It’s almost taboo to abandon ambition,” he explained. “But sometimes we need to do that because ambition doesn’t always make you happy. Essentially, I think when you’re on your deathbed you’re not going to think, ‘I wish I worked more’ or ‘I wish I was more famous.’ You’re going to regret not enjoying it. And for what? To win a competition and be seen as a successful person? To be envied with your friends? That’s a lot of pressure on people.”

Candidness like this is just one of the factors that has helped Mew stick around 20 years after the release of their first album, “A Triumph For Man.” Bjerre added that since the beginning, they have been making music for themselves, and it just happens to work.

“I think ultimately it’s a little bit selfish. We’re concerned about what makes us excited first and foremost. And if people like it, that’s an incredible thing. I think if you start chasing it and think ‘let’s make a record that our fans will fall in love with,’ you’re never going to succeed in that. You might end up a lot worse.” Bjerre also revealed hopes for a potential North American Mew show soon.

“Visuals” is available on Apple Music April 28.