Music
The Danish art-rockers talk going indie and exclusively play two new tracks in a stripped-back set.
In 2013 highly respected Danish art-rockers Mew announced they were parting ways with long-term label Sony. “We’re building a setup in which our own label Evil Office will become the headquarters for all activities”, said frontman Jonas Bjerre at the time. “We want to be able to take chances.” As they tour sixth album +- (check out exclusive performances of the opening tracks in the players below), we caught up with the singer to talk about the benefits of being an independent band.
Watch Mew exclusively perform a stripped-back version of Satellites in the player below.
Freedom is pricelessI have to say I never felt stifled creatively by Sony. But I think you can hear the sense of freedom on this album. Even when we were on Sony we always had our own label, Evil Office, to release our music in Denmark. It was important to us to feel a bit cool and underground! I think Sony looked at the map and saw how tiny Denmark is and thought, ‘Okay, let them have that’. When we were 21 we sold all the rights to our music for a ridiculously low sum to a legendary book publishing company here in Denmark called Exlibris, who released our debut album. Now we understand we need to own our music – why should someone else own our songs? We had to pay a lot more to get them back, but it was worth it.
There are no indifferent linksI think the times have changed for major labels. Many had sub-divisions that handled different kinds of music, but now they’re really just for big mainstream pop artists. A lot of the people we were working with at Sony at the start left or got laid off. Toward the end there were really only a couple of radio promoters, and when you’re in competition with Shakira… So the biggest advantage for us in our new set up is working with people who really get, and focus on, our kind of music.
Watch Mew exclusively perform a stripped-back version of Witness in the player below.
You can break the 'Write, record, tour' rule
This was the first record when we did live shows while in the recording phase. That was something we could just decide ourselves. While we were in the studio we got an offer to play some live shows and we thought, 'Hey, it might be cool to try some of these songs out even though they’re unfinished'. We’d like to do this more in the future: not just have this long period of time writing, then recording, then promoting, then touring. Mixing it up a little bit can give things more vitality.
The barrier between you and your fans dissolves
We’re a band that takes so long to make a record. Every time we put out an album the world has changed. It’s a little bit like waking up in the future when we come out of the studio after six years. Social media really helps with that because you can reconnect with a lot of people very fast. It’s fun to have that direct communication with fans. In the old days, you had to send this stuff via loads of other people, and they decided when the message could go up.
Cool ideas actually become reality
We’re just working on a video for [+- album track] The Night Believer where fans can send in a picture of themselves and appear with their voices in the song. It’s a cool idea our guitar player had, and it’s happening. On Sony you’d have a spontaneous idea on the tour bus, then have to clear it with lots of people. The machinery was too big and most of the time it didn’t happen. We also put out a song app with Bang & Olufsun. We thought, how can we put this out as a single in a way that doesn’t feel boring? Majors can be conservative. When you think of all the possibilities of technology and the internet, what’s actually being done is very boring. There’s a lot of pressure on labels now to think of new ways to make money, which is why it’s so surprising that they don’t.
+- by Mew is out now. Buy it here.
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