23. Peter Morén of Peter Bjorn and John
Approaching the 20th anniversary of the album which shot Peter Bjorn and John from Swedish indie obscurity to global mainstream success, Sarah sits down with Peter Morén and her trusty podcast co-host Björn Yttling as they prepare to take this very album – “Writer’s Block” – on the road. Over the course of an hour, they let her in on plenty of band dirt from the past 30 years. From touring with their “Indian” rock band in the early 90s pre-John, to the dogmatic approach they use to write and record albums, to how they decided on Peter Bjorn and John as a name (and how to really spell it), and on to that hot midsummer day in 2006 when Victoria Bergsman quickly recorded her vocals on “Young Folks.” That epic track that would change it all. The conversation rounds off with reflections on future hopes for the band, how they maintain a healthy relationship to that viral track while writing album after album, and a decision on which of the three would qualify as the biggest brother in the band. Who could it be?