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Molek FMMew: Comforted
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JUICE are massive fans of Mew – ‘Comforting Sounds’ was something of a coming of age song for us back in 2003. With their coming performance at Urbanscapes Satellite Show tonight, we wager we can all die happy after we finally watch our frengers live! Mew is a band with no contemporary, and that’s entirely because their music continues to be inventive, intricate and incredibly sublime. Pick up any album, be it be Half the World Is Watching Me or And the Glass Handed Kites, and your imagination will quickly be engulfed in wonder. Their songwriting eschews trends or zeitgeist, always going in unforeseen directions and odd time signatures, leading us through ethereal forests, triumphant arenas and throbbing catharsis. Here’s a little peek into Mew’s magic, via guitarist Bo Madsen.
First things first – why Mew? How did you guys decide upon that name?
One day when we were still kids, we were hanging at Jonas’s house and we needed a band name. We looked through the dictionary and there it was! Mew. We all liked it. Sounded like nothing else. We baked a cake to celebrate.
How do you guys describe your music?
We call it indie stadium rock.
It has been four years since your last release, No More Stories. How’s the new album coming along?
Very well thank you. We are in midst of the recording phase, and hopefully when we hit Malaysia, we will have finished it. It’s a very eclectic piece, I love it already.
Do you think you’ve had more freedom to explore and create, now that you’ve departed from your former label, Sony?
We always enjoyed total artistic freedom, so no. But it’s a good feeling taking all power back, there’s a lot more to being in a band than just making the music.
What was behind the idea of using images as track titles on No More Stories’ track #5 and #12? Is this something we will see more of in the new album?
We just try to have fun and be playful. We are just always trying to push the boundaries of being a lovely little pop art band, titles included.
We’ve heard about your collaboration with B&O Play for your new app, Sensory Spaces – could you tell us more about that?
Well it’s a music experience app. It will take you a little behind the scenes of how the music works and it’s also a little like a game. We had fun making it.
You’ll be making your rounds around Southeast Asia – from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore and Hong Kong after! What are you looking forward to from this tour?
Yes! We’re looking forward to so much. It’s our first time in KL, Singapore, and Hong Kong. We’re excited to meet frengers out there, get to play shows and we’d love to show off dance moves!
Nick Watts and Bastian Juel are touring with the band at the moment. Are they permanent fixtures?
They aren’t but we love those guys!
If you guys had to choose – which is your favourite song to perform live?
Hmm. Maybe something like, well right now, for me, perhaps ‘New Terrain’. We did a new version of it that’s really nice.
Mew performed at Urbanscapes Satellite Show on Thursday 31 October ’13.