Jonas Bjerre of Mew on New Album, Letting Go and Taking the Show Back on the Road

Stephanie Hernandez

Danish alternative rock band Mew, are set to release their sixth studio album “+ –” in late April. The four- piece group has been making some of the most innovative and inspired indie rock since their debut, “A Triumph For Man” back in 1997. Mew Kicked off 2015 with a performance at SXSW and is now in preparation for an extensive European tour in promotion of their first album since 2009. With all this and the excitement for the release of their latest album building, It’s safe to say the boys of Mew are going to have quite the year. Amongst all the bustle, frontman Jonas Bjerre took the time to talk to Entertainment Voice about the group’s writing process, visual language and the desire to come back to America.

How was the switch between working on a major label and making music independently been? How has the change affected the music you are producing?

I am not sure it has had much, if any, effect on the music as such. We have always made the music we wished to make, and I suppose we should count ourselves lucky with the relative freedom we’ve had throughout our career. But I think it’s a natural and necessary step for us, and I think it has a great deal of impact on how our band and its music is presented to the world, and it feels a lot more communicative and involved. We are very excited about our new collaborators!

Mew’s lyrics are very visually inspired, what goes into your writing process both lyrically and instrumentally?

We pretty much grew up together, creatively; we were doing creative stuff together before even having the notion of being a band. It was based on our friendships and our common curiosity really, rather than especially wanting to be musicians that really came from just having fun together. And I think we sort of developed our own musical language, we reference visual things often, when we talk about music. To me, the lyrics are very connected with the sounds and rhythms, and so the lyrics become just another expression of the music, like the dynamics of the drums. At the same time, they do carry some kind of imagery, adding to the visual side of the song, and meaning, even if it’s clouded and open to interpretation. Mostly the lyrics come to me as we are standing there, playing, writing, but sometimes they don’t, and then I usually spend a long long time on them. It’s an either/or situation.

What is the most difficult part of the record making process?

I guess the hardest part is when you’ve had this idea in your head about how something is going to sound and feel, and then when you actually put it to tape it becomes painfully apparent that it just doesn’t work. And you have to go back to the drawing board with a particular song, and sometimes you simply have to let it go, even if you put a gazillion hours into it.

Your latest album is set for release in the Unites States late April, what inspired the record and do you have any plans to bring the show to America?

We are very excited to tour America again, and will certainly be spending a lot of time there! We just played a bunch of shows at SXSW and had an amazing time. Well this album took quite a while to make, we took a break after touring the last one, spent some time on other projects, then after having started writing together again, we started feeling like we were repeating ourselves a bit, falling back into the roles each of us had had to assume when writing the last one as a three-piece, and when our producer, Michael Beinhorn pointed out to us that he felt the band core was lacking a bit, that was the last little push we needed to call our old bass player, Johan, and ask if he wanted to come and write with us. Then everything fell into place, Johan rejoined the band, and the songs took on a more direct and focused form. I think that whole experience was an inspiration in itself. I also think we’re getting better at letting each other take reign of ideas we individually feel strongly about, without losing sight of the nature of our band, so this album is probably the most diverse and versatile album yet.

“+ -” comes to us almost six years after your last record, “No More Stories” in 2009. Why did the group wait so long to release another album?

I guess I mostly answered this one in the last answer. We have always taken a long time getting the albums right, which has been frustrating at times, for us as well as people who are waiting for new music from us… We always promise each other to do the next one faster, but so far, we’ve been breaking that promise consistently. Here’s hoping the next one will indeed be quicker to make!

You are currently on a European tour, is there any country in particular that you are looking forward to playing? If you could play any venue anywhere in the world where would it be and why?

Actually in Singapore right now, but will be headed out to Europe next month. I’m just really excited to play some of the countries we haven’t visited as much as we should have. One show that comes to mind is a show in a tiny place in Paris we once played, very intimate, and a great crowd, and somehow everything just congealed into a magic night. Hmm, any venue… I think we’ve played a lot of great ones. Madison Square Garden would be kind of amazing, ha ha. I don’t know…I do like smaller venues a lot. The band standing a bit closer together and a more intimate feeling with the audience. But I also love playing big shows, because somehow it fits the music so well, and it’s just super great for our egos!

What can new fans who have not had a chance to see Mew live expect from your live performances?

I would say, a band who is fully invested in what they are doing, not much irony, focused on creating an emotional atmosphere around the music. We’ve had a lot of visual aspects to the live shows as well, as I’ve been making animated projections for the shows for years, but in recent years we’ve been doing the show more stripped back, just with lights, as a change. But I have a feeling the visual aspect is going to come back into the show, maybe even more so than before. Will have to wait and see.

What is the group looking forward to the most on this current album release and tour?

It’s just extremely rewarding to finally get to release this music into the world, as I feel like we’ve been keeping it in some dark cave for a long time now. It’s been really gratifying playing live again, and the audience has responded so well to the new material, which gives me a tingling sensation that can’t really be described. What we look forward to the most, is just touring, because that’s when you are really face to face with people responding to your music and it becomes very real, what you are doing. Can’t wait to play the US again! And hopefully on this album we’ll get to visit countries we haven’t even played in before.

Don’t miss Mew’s new album, “+ –” available on iTunes April 28.