Why Taking Their Time Yielded The Best Outcome

In 2009, when Danish operatic indie outfit Mew released fifth LP, 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, they were a very different band. Not just wordier with their titles than now, releasing sixth album + - (Plus/Minus), but fundamentally different. Having, at the time, amicably parted ways with bassist Johan Wohlert, they had to learn to write songs as a three-piece.

However, in the years since that album’s release, Mew’s follow-up effort has changed shape time and again, originally scheduled for a 2012 release before the window blew out to 2015 – a development that was not without its problems for the band.

“We never planned for it to take so long,” frontman Jonas Bjerre explains. “I mean, we were planning to release an album in 2012, you know, but that didn’t work out. I think part of it is that we’ve become really, really caught up in the details of everything, and even before we have a finished song, we work all the bits and parts, and sometimes it’s a bit like a puzzle. There’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t pan out, and a lot of trial and error as well – it’s frustrating sometimes, because we don’t wanna be tucked away from the world for that long… So it’s a bit frustrating sometimes that we take so long. But it’s part of the band’s chemistry, I think.”

That chemistry had been totally rearranged and it was a change noted by Plus/Minus producer Michael Beinhorn, whom Bjerre credits with driving the band to bring bassist Wohlert back into the fold. “We started writing this album without him, and that was a little like returning to the No More Stories… process,” Bjerre admits. “It was very difficult making that record because we’re so used to being four people, and all of a sudden having to take on different roles individually was really a learning curve, and we just felt very early like, ‘We’re just doing the same thing again! This is No More Stories part two!’ because of the way we write the songs, and we didn’t want that. And then when Michael came over, our producer, he said, ‘You know, I really miss Johan in the room; I really think he brought something to the direction of the songs.’ That was kind of the last push we needed… and then when he came back, it got a lot easier.”

However, given that the extended incubation period also yielded collaborations with artists such as Bloc Party guitarist Russell Lissack and Kiwi chanteuse Kimbra, Bjerre concedes that the wait – which they don’t plan to replicate for their next effort, anyway – was a blessing in disguise. “I guess maybe it’s best the way things worked out… and maybe, I don’t know, but I think now we’ll do a new record very soon. But who knows? Maybe it’ll be 2020 before we put out the next one.”