Jonas Bjerre of Mew
Formed in 1994 near Copenhagen, Mew issued a couple of albums in Denmark before turning international heads in 2003 with Frengers, though it was 2005's And The Glass Handed Kites (released in the U.S. the following year) that solidified the group's status as one of the dreamiest bands around. Singer Jonas Bjerre can sometimes sound like Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant and at other times reminds listeners of Pale Saints' Ian Masters, but the band doesn't really have a musical contemporary—unless you consider Radiohead to be a newfangled prog band, in which case you can go ahead and lump Mew into that category alongside Muse and The Mars Volta. Mew recently completed its latest (curiously titled) masterwork, No More Stories Are Told Today / I'm Sorry / They Washed Away / No More Stories / The World Is Grey / I'm Tired / Let's Wash Away. In advance of Mew's opening for Nine Inch Nails tonight at Terminal 5, The A.V. Club caught up with Bjerre to talk about what it's like to be in a band that plays by a different set of rules.
The A.V. Club: You guys have a pretty unique sound—what influences you?
Jonas Bjerre: It kind of came in waves. It started out when we were just kids listening to what our parents listened to—the Eurythmics, Prince—and then when we kind of discovered alternative rock, I think via Nirvana we looked back and found bands like My Bloody Valentine, Pixies, and Dinosaur Jr., and that was really inspiring for a while. Then later on we kind of found our way back to more left-of-center pop music—Prefab Sprout is one of my favorite bands. I think they make really intelligent pop music. So it was kind of a wide range of things.
AVC: So many young bands just end up emulating the groups that they like. How did you avoid that?