Song Exploder - Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks

Episode Date: September 21, 2016

In 2006, Swedish trio Peter Bjorn and John released their third album, Writer’s Block. For months and months after that, it felt like you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing the first single from that album, "Young Folks." It was on top 10 lists for song of the year in places like Pitchfork and NME. It’s been covered by James Blunt, and remixed by Kanye West, along with countless other versions out there. Now, ten years later, Peter Bjorn and John break down the song and how it all came together, and how it almost didn’t come together at all. songexploder.net/peter-bjorn-and-john  

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kei Kesh Hirwe. In 2006, Swedish trio Peter Bjorn and John released their third album, Writers' Block. For months and months after that, it felt like you couldn't go anywhere without hearing the first single from that album, Young Folks. It was on top ten lists for Song of the Year in places like Pitchfork and NME. It's been covered by James Blunt and remixed by Kanye West,

along with countless other versions out there. Now, 10 years later, Peter Bjorn and John break down the song and tell the story of how it all came together and how it almost didn't come together at all. I'm Bjorn, I play bass guitar in Peter Bjorn and John. We were working at a studio in Hornscht Hull, like a space that I had at the moment. It was pretty low budget, everything.

the record before we did in a proper studio and that record sort of flopped we thought we would take over Sweden and the world with that record but it didn't happen so we did this record more low-key and low budget in Bjorn's own little studio space I'm John and I play drums

we talked about actually splitting up during that period and we put out the first two records on small like one-man labels and done a lot of shows in Sweden and some in Norway, but nothing much happened, you know, and I think we were kind of tired. And yeah, we're talking about splitting up,

and then we said, okay, let's make one more record. But if no one wants to release this, like a proper label, then, you know, whatever. I'm Peter, and I usually sing, play guitar, and write songs as well. We all write songs. Bjorn had a piano piece, sounded a bit like a jazz, Duke Ellington thing.

Yeah, I played this stuff on piano, the little sort of melody and chords. I was working on a jazz album at the same time, and I just thought it sounded too much like Duke Ellington, or it just felt a bit like a rip-off. So we took out the chords, made it more clean, and made it feel more pop. Whistling seemed like a... a good way of like presenting a melody without making it either that way or the other way, you know.

Whistling is just like, oh, it's a pure note. It was a placeholder. The idea was to use it as a riff, but not whistling. I didn't remember it was talking about synth or keyboard or some other instrument instead of the whistling. But I think that sound of that whistle, and it's a bit out of tune. I think it's in some way actually connects to people because it's something everyone can do. It's not like a synth that cost like $30,000. It's like everyone can do a whistle.

The way it's recorded and the way it sounds sounds like a regular person doing it on the street. Since we recorded it in this little space, it was sort of a lot of acoustic problems. We're talking a lot about the drums, not using symbols. All the drum patterns are like without symbols. It was more being able to record it. It was just sounding better just doing kick drum and snare.

It's live, no loops, no like click or anything. I was like this was the beat I played when I wanted to show my father, like this is how an idiot would play drums. That's really interesting because I think it's got a super live feel and it's really funky. But idiots can be the most groovy people in the world. the lack of like ghost notes and stuff it's more like a drum machine sort of you can

do with two fingers you know you're sitting like doing on a drum machine but um that song deaf punk with robot rock that album was out and we were into that and we wanted to make like the intro of the song as the intro of robot rock it starts with like

just very dry tom tombs but we wanted to do that in a nerdy uncooled way. So it starts with the most ridiculous drum field we could ever come up with. We had this old framous bass that Peter had, which sounded really cool and distorted. It's a hollow body. It's a really weird one, like it's got a super big head. Like the body is pretty weird too. And actually for the video, the cartoonist who did all the paintings for the video, video, he uses that bass as the role model so you can sort of see it in the video.

There was only one string that was in tune, I think, the A string on the bass, which made it kind of easy to decide which string to play, but also it made sort of like jump around a little bit more than maybe a normal bass line would do, you know, just playing on one string. We borrowed the percussion from my old day job at a percussion ensemble. stole the bongos from there. It's two boots against the laminated floor into a spring reverb. And those boots also a bit cartoonish like creating a sounds for a cartoon movie or something. Low budget but cool. What are they called bells? Yeah, tubular bells. Yeah. Like a glissando with the sticks on the side of the tubular bells. Like a

Because you have to find stuff that sounds like symbols. I remember working on the lyrics pretty long time. We got some vocals down on the first verse and chorus. If I told you things I did before, told you how I used to be. Would you go along with someone like me? After a while we sort of like, oh, we want to make a duet. We talked about all sorts of people. singing the duet thing.

And we always said, like, we can't use Victoria from the concrete because we had just, on the record before falling out, we did a cover of a concrete song, Teen Love, and we hung out a lot with them, like, went to the same parties. It was sort of a scene here in Stockholm. It just felt like, you know, too obvious. But then in the end, I guess we realized that she would perfectly suit the song. It doesn't matter what you did. When we're hanging with, we could stick around and see this night through.

When we talked about the song and the lyric, we always talked about someone who's been through quite a few relationships and a bit burnt out and, you know, go into a bar and meeting someone new. And maybe this could be, you know, something. But they're kind of jaded. Usually when things have gone this far, people tend to disappear. No one will surprise me unless you do. I mean, you can hear that her voice would fit this jaded feel. What would you do if you would meet a person somewhere and how would you phrase it and how would you actually have a discussion with someone?

And that's the whole setup for the dialogue. It's not about young folks. So that was a big misunderstanding. It's called young folks and also has a sort of childish dance to it with the whistling and everything. And the video with these kids, It's made it probably a bit confusing, but this is not about young people. And we don't care about the young folks talking about the young style. And we don't care about the old folks talking about the old style too.

I remember that I recorded the whole thing, like the whole lyric, and I wasn't there when she did her thing. But when she came to the studio, it didn't work out at all because it was too low. The key was too low for her. We knew exactly how she sang, but we didn't know what key she sang in. So we pitched it. The whole song, yeah, I guess.

Yeah, we pitched the whole song up. I mean, not the drums, but the bass and keyboards and the other stuff, the harmonic stuff. The whistling got pitched up, so it's now humanly incredible that Peter can whistle at live because it's so high. Yeah, I can't always do it either. Yeah, and Peter came back and re-did his vocals, so it's always a hassle if you have to change the key.

But we pitched it up and then we kept it like that. I remember the feeling when we almost finished the song, like a moment of starting to move about and dance in the studio. We felt like, this is a groovy song. And a couple of days later, we burn it out on a CDR, and me and Peter played records on this club in the studio. Stockholm in a basement. And when we played this song, I remember like four or five people coming up to us and asking, what song is this? And like, it was the first big reaction we ever had

on the song. So at that point, we felt like, maybe we have something here. The first thing we did in New York was the Conan O'Brien show, like before we ever played the gig. So like, that's the first thing we did in America. And seeing that show broadcast later, the same evening in some, you know, dive-y pub at Lower East Side, that's when it sort of hit me. And that was like half a year later, because we were working all the time,

so you just couldn't really take it in. You don't realize that you're actually making it, you know? Still had to borrow money to buy an extra guitar at that point, you know. And it's standard now. It's like, there's like Latin versions and bluegrass versions, and that's quite an ecolence. accolade, is that what you say?

Is that the word? Yeah. And that's, I mean, that's a good feeling to be part of making a standard. Talking only me and you. Talking only me and you. And now here's Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John in its entirety. Visit songexploader.net to learn more about Peter Bjorn and John. On the site, you'll find the music video for young folks and a video of that 2007 live performance on Conan. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th.

It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length, and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishi Kaysh Her Way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists, and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product. of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks

that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Robe. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzoukis, Josh Moll. Melina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now.

You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishycage.com. Or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks. next time on Song Exploder, Fantagram. You can find all the past and future episodes of SongExploder at SongExploder.net or wherever you download podcasts. And you should follow Song Exploder on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for news, updates, and giveaways.

Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary story-driven shows. Learn more at Radiotopia.fm. This episode was edited by Christian Coons and me. My name's Rishi Kesh Hereway. Thanks for listening.