Peter Morén, who puts the Peter in Peter Bjorn and John, is releasing his first solo record tomorrow on Touch and Go records - The Last Tycoon is a bedroom folky affair with liberal amounts of acoustic guitar, strings, and piano, including some songs Peter wrote when he was 19 and others that he wrote much more recently. His tour to support The Last Tycoon is relatively short, considering that he’s covering Europe and the US in a brisk month (if DC-ers want to catch him, their best chance is traveling to NYC on April 21st).

Thomas of local popular song band Bellman Barker and the most qualified PB&J fan we know exclusively talked to Peter by phone about the recording process, the beginning of the talkies, and playing acoustic guitar in pizzerias.

What brings these songs together on one record? I’ve heard that the songs on The Last Tycoon were written over a long period of time - one of the songs was written when you were 19 and others are more recent. How do you think the new songs hang together with the old?

Well, there’s really no point in doing a solo record if it’s too similar to the band - especially not now, when the band is still functioning. So I deliberately wanted to do something very low key, and a bit folkier, more acoustic, because I play a lot of acoustic guitar at home and like that kind of thing. And I wanted to stretch out lyrically maybe, maybe try a wordier - more words - approach - I like that as well. So that’s what took the songs together. It started with the song Le Petit Coeur, that we actually practiced with the band, but they wanted to take it in another direction. But I had this very clear idea of how I wanted it to sound, the way it ended on the record with strings and this melancholic chanson vibe. So it started with that song. And then when I had that I started thinking about older songs that I had never recorded - I have an idea that if you remember a song from way back it’s got to have something good about it. So the oldest song is Missing Link and that, of course, fits in, because it’s got that fingerpicking, like, Paul Simon vibe about it. And then after that I started to write new songs in the same vein. But I mean, obviously you could have played these songs poppier or more Peter Bjorn and John, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to… We started recording everything live, like acoustic guitar and vocals and then afterwards started to think about overdubs, so it’s a different way of recording than I’m used to, but - yeah, I like the way it turned out.

I’ve read that you wanted this album to sound like a Bert Jansch record - are there other Swedish artists that are maybe unknown to folks in the US that you would count as influences?

Well, Bert Jansch is British, of course. [Editorial: DOH!] He’s like a classic folk artist from Britain. And the main inspiration from him was that, on his earlier records it’s all guitar and vocals and a very special guitar playing style. So that’s kind of what I wanted to do at first, was just to do guitar and vocals. But then, of course, I started to put in strings and all different things, so it didn’t end up that way, but that was an initial inspiration.

But I would say, lyrically, I do have some Swedish inspiration, like Jenny Wilson (http://www.jennywilson.net/ and http://www.myspace.com/loveandyouth) and a girl called Frida Hyvönen (http://www.fridahyvonen.com and http://www.myspace.com/fridahyvonen). They both kind of reminisce about childhood and stuff that went on earlier in their lives. That’s something that I do a bit on this record too - like taking up awkward situations from the past and then putting them into songs. So maybe not musical inspiration, but at least the inspiration of doing that came from these women. But musically, I would say, it’s mostly like older British and American music and maybe some 80’s music, like I love the Go-Betweens (http://www.go-betweens.net) and stuff like that - yeah, more like folkier, like folk-rock.

I assume that the record title refers to the unfinished F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name - why that title?

Well, I say the movie adaption of it quite a few years back and I just remember the title and I thought it sounded so good. Also, sort of the theme of the movie, like the character of this director, like this Hollywood tycoon, who sort of has some private problems and can’t really mix business with his personal life, and also the end of an era - the end of the silent movie era and the beginning of the talkies. All these things are maybe not stuff that I write about essentially, but, we’re also at the end of the era now. And I’m thinking very much about the end of the album format and you know all the packaging with the cover - but I mean, maybe that’s old fashioned, since everyone’s is just downloading certain songs. So, I don’t know, it’s not really a big theme or anything, but, I also write a lot about failure and problems [laughs] so… It’s sort of fun to have that title because it’s sort of pretentious and pompous but the music is very low-key and home-y, so it’s kind of ironic and funny to have that title to this very spare album.

That’s funny - I read that Fitzgerald considered naming his novel “The Love of the Last Tycoon” because he wanted to fool people into thinking it was a kind of movie-style melodrama. You had two producers on this record - Tobias Froberg, who is going on tour with you in the US and Daniel Värjö. Was that part of a plan or by accident? What did each bring to the project?

I guess, to begin with, I didn’t really have a clear idea that this would be an album even - I just wanted to start to record some songs. And Tobias records all his records in his apartment - he has all of his equipment there and a lot of guitars and keyboards and even some drums in his tiny apartment. So he just volunteered to record some songs, and we’re just good friends. I mean it doesn’t even feel like you’re producing together, it’s more like, yeah - I mean it wasn’t like a big plan or anything, we just started to record and then he basically went out on tour for a long period, and then I was away on tour. So it was a very spread out recording process, because you do a day here and a day there and then go out on tour and then go home so, I mean, I’ve been working on it on and off since early 2006, but if you put the time together it’s probably only a month - it’s not like a long process. But it’s been spread out. So the reason I started to record with Daniel was because Tobias was away so much and I just wanted to record some more songs. But he’s also a really good friend, and we listen to a lot of the same music. So it was very easy and easy going. And the great thing was that - I don’t have a lot of equipment, I mean, I have a couple of guitars - but they have lots of equipment, so we just played around with things, during the recording.

When you record a song, do you typically come up with the arrangement ideas yourself, or do you just bring the vocal and guitar idea and really rely on others for the arrangements? How did you work it for this record?

It’s been really different from song to song. I mean, like with Le Petit Coeur, I had a very clear idea in my head of how it was supposed to sound from the beginning, and it’s actually exactly like it sounds, like the vocals are very close and intimate, and then strings and the piano, and the rimshot on the snare, which I was thinking would be like an Al Greene record or something. So that was really in my head. But then on other songs I had no idea, you know, I had a guitar riff and the song, but I didn’t know how to play it like Social Competence and Twisted - they just evolved during recording, so we just put on different things as we went along. So it’s really different from song to song.

And also, you end up taking away things, because, as I said, the initial idea was to have it very very spare so, we put on things and ended up taking away things, which often happens [laughs]. So, yeah, it’s different from song to song, but it was definitely an open atmosphere for experimentation.

You must be looking forward to touring on this record. But I also heard that Peter Bjorn and John have already gone into the studio to begin work on a new record. What’s your schedule like?

We’re starting to record with the band again in May, so I have a window to do some gigs. We started recording [the new Peter Bjorn and John album], and we also finished an instrumental record, which is all done, so the one that we’re working on now is really like the next record after that, so we’re way ahead of time.

Y’all have all kept very busy! Your last record didn’t come out that long ago…

Not in the States, but in Sweden it came out in May 2006, so it really feels like an old record. Bjorn is always busy - he’s like a total workaholic. He’s producing records with other people. John, I think, has been taking it a bit softer, because he has to quit his job, because we’ve been able to live off this band, so I think he needs some time off [laughs].

Any chance that the songs you’ve been playing in more stripped down arrangements will show up in a Peter Bjorn and John live show?

Uh, I have no idea - I don’t think so, because they haven’t really been in the process at all - they haven’t even heard it actually, I’m going to give it to them next week [laughs]. So I don’t really think so I mean, we have a lot of other songs that we want to play. But I do think that this is not my last solo record - I’m planning to do something more, but I don’t really know when, maybe in five years, you never know, so…

Actually I wanted to ask you about that - for fans of PB&J, your solo stuff seems pretty different. I was wondering if putting out this kind of spare, folky acoustic record was something you always wanted to do - or was this record a departure for you as well?

Well everything is a reaction to what you do beforehand - and even with the earlier Peter Bjorn and John records, we always tried to do something different from the last time to make it fun and interesting for yourself. But basically, as a kid growing up in a small village in Sweden, I started out playing by myself on a guitar, at private parties and pizzerias [laughs] you know - covers mainly, on an acoustic guitar of course. So it’s not like a total departure, because it’s the way I’ve always been playing by myself and the way that I’ve been writing songs. So there’s a couple of songs on the earlier albums that are probably very much in the vein of this album, it’s just that it’s executed differently. Like on Writer’s Block, the song Paris 2004 or Objects of my Affection, they could have easily been on this album, because they’re kind of folky too, I would say. It’s just that they’re played with a rock band. That’s the main difference. And if you have a melody and chords and lyrics, you can play a song in a thousand different ways - they could all be synth-pop songs, I mean, it just about how you play them.

But definitely, you should always do what you dream of - I mean, I want to do a more punk rock record too, and I want to do a kids music record too - music for kids, you know? So you should always try to do the stuff that you’ve been dreaming of doing, you know - I mean, ‘rest on your laurels’ - that’s boring.

When you get your children’s record together, you should definitely come by DC and play on Pancake Mountain, a children’s TV show that’s filmed locally and typically features some really awesome bands.

I think that’s going to be in Swedish though, so it might be hard to get [laughs].

I’m not sure the kids are listening too close too the lyrics - they mostly dance around. But yeah, the Swedish bit might complicate things. You’ve said that the inspiration for The Last Tycoon record is largely folk. But what are your other influences - what have you been listening to in the last few years?

Well, I always go back and forth between genres - I mean, obviously, recording this solo acoustic album I listened to folkier, more singer-songwriter things. But I always listen to things from the New Wave era and the punk era - I always go back to that stuff too, like the Talking Heads. And the last three or four years, I’ve been listening to a lot of Brazilian and African music, em, it’s hard to remember names but the whole Tropicalia movement with Caetano Veloso (http://www.caetanoveloso.com.br/index.php) and Gilberto Gil (http://www.gilbertogil.com.br/index.php?language=en) and a lot of Afro-funk from the 70’s and a lot of 80’s indie-pop and synth-pop, and newer stuff too, and rockabilly [laughs], so you know, whatever is good. I always find it hard with people ask questions like that because I find that when I listen to music at home, I go from one thing to another.

Basically I mostly listen to pop music - for me, all these genres, whether it’s soul or new wave or folk or whatever, it’s still songs - it’s still pop music. I don’t really listen to classical, I listen to some jazz. But basically, what I see as pop music, which is a pretty wide range. So, it’s hard to answer.

Someone recently compared your singing style to John Lennon. Do you take sides in the McCartney/Lennon debate?

I mean, growing up, when I was very small, I was a huge Beatles fan - almost fanatical. I bought all the records - this was when I was 8 or 9 years old. But I guess that for a long time, Lennon was my favorite - like the solo stuff and especially Plastic Ono Band. But I also like a lot of the McCartney stuff too - like Ram and those records. But nowadays I don’t listen that much to it - occasionally I take out a record and, like ‘yeah, it’s still good!’ [laughs] But mostly you just have it in your head because I listened to it so much growing up - I try to listen to the new stuff [laughs].

Don’t we all?

want more?
go: here and here

 Send to a Friend