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[title]Fresh off the release of their latest album ‘Visuals’, Mew bassist Johan Wohlert talks to us about their new album, their influences and more.
A lot of publications have different names for the music you guys put out. How would you describe your music?
I’d call it ‘art rock’ in a way. The music we put out is sort of artistic. I also think it’s atmospheric, melodic and a little bit melancholic as well.
Your latest album, ‘Visuals’ will be released by the time you come to KL. What can we expect from this album?
Actually it’s close to what I just said. Expect something that’s really artistic, melodic and a little melancholic but also very positive. The tempo is very upbeat and there are a lot of really strong melodies and good choruses.
How different is the album compared to the last one, ‘+-’?
The big difference is that here, the mood is a little lighter and the songs a bit shorter.
Photo: Stefan "Stisse" Gustafsson
Is there a particular reason why your latest album is called ‘Visuals’?
We’ve always used visuals in our live shows. Also, I think it just kind of makes sense this time around because we really want to tie in the art work and the title of the album with the live experience; it’s always been two separate things. This time around, it was time to merge the two worlds. We’ll be performing with a lot of visuals at the KL show. Apart from that, our music also has been described as very visual too; it’s very soundtrack-y and soundscape-y.
What was the process like in making the album?
Basically during our tour in 2015 we had a lot of demos floating around in the band. As soon as we were done with the tour we started working on those ideas and quite quickly we had a lot of material. We just started recording it on our own back home in Copenhagen and we ended up producing the record ourselves. We really enjoyed that.
Mew has been around for about ten years now. Can you tell us a bit about your early influences?
The band grew out of discovering alternative rock in the ’90s. Before then we were listening to ’80s pop up until My Bloody Valentine emerged. After that, the Pixies. They were all very big inspirations for us.
What about now?
These days we have our own style. We don’t listen to My Bloody Valentine like we used to. We don’t have to look for inspiration anymore since we’ve developed our own sound. These days we’re inspired by our own work instead of other people. Like for our past few records, we would listen to our own music and how to move on from there.
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