FACES Mew Exclusive Interview From the Observatory

This is a story about a band who played at the Observatory in Santa Ana. They live in Denmark and have a huge following here in the states.

Elizabeth: I got responses like…it’s great to listen to them with headphones or have them in the background playing. It’s sort of the musicians music or music for nerds. It’s asymmetrical. The sound is progressive. After these responses, I was very intrigued and ran into the manager and asked for an interview. As I peeked around the corner, walking down the hall to the larger concert room of the observatory. I got the opportunity to speak to the lead singer Jonas.

Jonas: We just started our U.S. tour yesterday and I think the direction of our music is quite diverse in that we kind of wrote a bunch of songs and that’s it. We didn’t try to conceptualIze it to much. It’s a mixture of a lot of things we did as a band.

Elizabeth: How would you describe your music?

Jonas: I wouldn’t and don’t know how to describe it. It’s rock.

Elizabeth: Indie rock?

Mew’s 2015 full-length album “+ -.”

Jonas: Indie sounds so unambiguous. We kind of grew up together, in Denmark and started the band in the eighth grade. Copenhagen is a mellow town. We go out together with our friends for dinners and people entertain in houses which is different than England. It’s different that way. I don’t know how it is in the states.

Elizabeth: This is a story about a band who traveled all the way from Copenhagen to play in the states.

So what do you hope to gain from this tour?

Jonas: It’s our first tour in the U.S. for a number of years and so I hope to satisfy the people who hear our music and want to experience it live and gain some new fans and hopefully come back and do some more shows. You got to do the shows because that’s when it makes sense to make music because that’s when you see the reaction in real life, you know?

One time we were touring in Norway and a moose stepped in front of the bus and it stayed there and we had to wait for an hour. It just stayed there completely unafraid of the bus and engine, it seemed angry. Nobody dared moved because it was huge and just seemed angry. So we waited for a moose for like an hour-and-a-half maybe, to leave.

Elizabeth: An hour and a half?

Jonas: It was a stand-off, like it was staring us down.

I think the whole point for us in making music is, that the music is the way to express the things you can’t really put into words. Of course there are lyrics, but the lyrics are very open to interpretation, at least the whole mood of the songs is conveyed in something you cannot put into words. That’s how I feel about that and wouldn’t

Know how to summarize it in a message. That’s at least how I feel about it. I didn’t want to be a singer, but nobody in the band wanted to sing and somebody had to do it.

Elizabeth: You have a great voice. ( laughs)

Jonas: Well it’s pleasant to tour in the states and the crowds are very welcoming here. People are talking about it and it’s gratifying . . .  we should do it more often.

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