UK/FILE: Peter Bjorn and John whistle their way to the top of music charts as they lead the Swedish pop invasion

"Young Folks" was arguably the most ubiquitous song of 2006. With its whistle-happy hook, it became the soundtrack to a number of advertisements around the world and was remixed into more than 60 versions, including by Kanye West. If it seems the infectious "Young Folks" came out of nowhere to storm radio, television and indeed the internet last year, then it seems appropriate that it experience another outing. For all its radio airplay, television commercials and even cameo appearances on hit television drama "Grey's Anatomy", the whistling song was re-released by popular demand in Britain in September 2007, reaching the top 20 in the UK music charts. Influential British music magazine New Music Express, NME, named it the second best song of 2006, runner-up to Hot Chip's "Over and Over". But Peter, Bjorn and John are not overnight sensations. They formed in 1999 and by their own admission, took a while to get noticed. Peter Moren, does vocals, plays guitar and whistles. His bandmates Bjorn Yttling is a respected producer while John Erikkson plays drums. Moren said they were as surprised as anybody by their chart success. "Our first two albums just came out in Sweden and we toured small university clubs in Sweden and didn't make any money at all. (We) had to have daytime jobs and everything. Up until recently, last year. So it's been a big big departure so we didn't expect anything really (laughs)," he said. Despite the song's popularity, the band remain an indie-pop trio with flawless harmonies and catchy melodies. Yet Moren defended the group's commercial success, blaming the lack of record sales as impetus for artists looking for other ways to make a living. "You get all of these requests and sometimes you say yes to things, you say no to things, and you lose track of things you say yes or no to and some of the things don't happen. I don't really watch television that much. If I do, I watch it in Sweden. It's just a way to get the music across to a lot of people who normally wouldn't normally listen to it. And especially since music sales are going down, it's a way to finance a musical career so I don't think it's a bad thing," he told Reuters Television. The trio had technology to thank for bringing their music to a wider audience. "Of course part of the reason is internet because a lot of those bands at first don't have distribution or record deals all over the world but people still write about them, especially in America, there's loads of bloggers. That's what happened to us, people started writing about it before the actual record was in the shops," said Moren. PB and J, as they are affectionately known by their fans, join a wave of Swedish pop artists beating their British and American counterparts at their own game and on their own territory. Swedish acts like The Shout Out Louds, Jens Lekman, Jose Gonzalez and The Concretes, whose former vocalist Victoria Bergsman, sang on the "Young Folks" re-release, have become regular fixtures on both the U.S. and U.K. music charts. One reason for this, said Moren, is the Swedes' command of the English language which was taught to them at an early age. "I think why British and American people take it to their hearts is because we're very much influenced by British and American music but might sort of have a fresh angle on it. If you listen to German or Spanish bands it's totally different. Swedish people are quite good at English for being not English (laughs). We never have dubbed t.v. it's all subtitles so you learn how to pronounce all the words at a tender age when you're a kid." The band will continue to tour North America until late January and then finally take a break in early 2008 after non-stop dates for nearly two years. They also hope to make an album of instrumental songs and work with other artists. They are working hard to avoid the "one-hit wonder" label but they also say commercial success isn't as important to them as making music that they can be proud of. "You can't really think about singles and hits, we're not going to do that anyway. We're just going to record the best possible album we like ourselves. And if no one's going to buy it then I'll just get back to other stuff and keep doing music (on the side)".

ITN Source | November 15, 2007

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