13 May 15-21, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | Talking Bout the Young Style Peter Bjorn and John celebrate 19 years of “Young Folks.” BY GRANT ALBERT B ack in middle school, the after- noon announcements would come on during fourth period, introduced with a song lick guar- anteed to hook even the most at- tentive of tween/teen ears: Boom-tss boom-tss clap-tss boom-tss clap. Like clock- work, almost the entire class would bang their knuckles on the wooden desks, mimick- ing the drum pattern that leads into the iconic whistled intro to the Peter Bjorn and John hit, “Young Folks,” off their 2006 watershed album, Writer’s Block. The song was everywhere: on your friend’s MySpace account, on the iPod touch you shared earphones with during lunch. The whistling lick lived in your head rent-free. The bongos reverberating in the backdrop, surging guitar chords, bopping bass, and the suave, rebellious chorus that instructed us to pay no mind to the older generation — this was a teen anthem: And we don’t care about the young folks Talking ‘bout the young style And we don’t care about the old folks Talking ‘bout the old style too And we don’t care about their own faults Talking ‘bout our own style All we care ‘bout is talking Talking only me and you Nineteen years and 600 million Spotify streams later, “Young Folks” still makes you want to play air drums and rally against someone. Gen Z? Society? Spotify? It really doesn’t matter whom. As one YouTuber ob- served, “This song hasn’t aged at all. Still feels fresh after all these years.” The Swedish trio hopes to rekindle nostal- gia and feel-good moments as they tour Writ- er’s Block for its 19th anniversary. To that end, they’ll perform the album in its entirety at ZeyZey in Little Haiti on Saturday, May 24. “We haven’t even premiered this set yet,” Björn Yttling tells New Times. “We are going to play in Sweden before we head to the U.S. It’s been really fun to listen back to the whole al- bum, play those songs, and put it together as a coherent piece. I like the album — it holds up.” Yttling and Peter Moré met in high school in Sweden. “It was almost only us that liked Manchester music — the Stone Roses, and stuff like that. We began playing music like that with a drum machine,” Yttling says. The two moved to Stockholm in the early aughts, where they met John Eriksson and formed Peter Bjorn and John. Moré is the lead singer-guitarist; Yttling plays bass, key- boards, and backup vo- cals; and Eriksson is on percussion. The trio produced music going back to Forbidden Chords in 2001, but they were without a major hit. The band told the Guardian in 2018 that, but for “Young Folks,” they proba- bly would have packed it in. “We were definitely going to quit,” Yttling reiterates to New Times. “It was more like, if no one cared about this album, we were going to fold and not fight for this. We were lucky that it happened.” “Young Folks” was an instant hit, leading to a world tour and spots on the late-night talk circuit. They told the Guardian that “Young Folks” was to have been a jazz song but gravitated toward a pop sound between the guitar riffs and unabashed whistling. Swedish singer Victoria Bergsman added vo- cals to the track, portraying calm suspense between her and Moré. “We had a couple of mics and a drum kit we had bought on Craigslist,” they say in The Guardian article. “This was not gear for mak- ing a hit record, but that’s our sound, I guess.” They produced the rest of Writer’s Block with a messy blueprint. The band had little money or resources, Yttling proposed record- ing everything on a “tape echo machine,” which didn’t allow much room for screwing up and re-recording. “We used a piano for the choruses on the tracks; we stomped boots to emphasize the rhythm, and we used whis- tling,” he says now. Of course, Writer’s Block is more than “Young Folks.” There is “Amsterdam,” with its catchy stomping, whistling, and hooks: “Baby went to Amsterdam/She put a little money into travelling/Now it’s so slow, so slow.” “The Chills” exudes the classic mid-2000s indie synth sound and swelling percussion. “Roll the Credits” features endless strum- ming, indie sway — and whistling. Yttling was living in New York during the album’s zenith and recalls hearing the songs played all over the city. “It was a good thing to hear it every- where — and hear the deeper cuts,” he says. For better or worse, there was no algorithm then to guide us. “It was what our friends told you to listen to,” Yttling adds. “When we came to the States in 2007, people already had the album, and the shows were already sold out. That was mainly because of MySpace. It was basically ‘streaming’ on MySpace.” He remains proud of the album’s breadth, though he’s quick to concede that he and his mates owe their fame to one bongo-laden tune. “It opened a lot of doors. And through that door is a bunch of other doors. But you have to get through the main entrance.” Yttling says that in addition to Writer’s Block, the ZeyZey show will showcase songs from 2020’s Endless Dream, which suffered the misfortune of a lockdown-era release. “In terms of new music, I don’t think this time,” he adds. He does, however, promise new music from Peter Bjorn and John and a jazz album he’s releasing later this month. Hearing Peter Bjorn and John play Writ- er’s Block 19 years later to a crowd of fans and newcomers is a better nostalgia trip than whipping out a digital camera. The trio re- mains as motivated by that album as ever. “I think between 20 years old and 30 is where you have a lot of time,” he elaborates. “Thirty to 40, that’s fine. But after that, it’s just disappearing. So, just go for it.” Peter Bjorn and John. 8 p.m. Saturday, May 24, at ZeyZey, 353 NE 61st St., Miami; 305-456- 2671; zeyzeymiami.com. Tickets cost $42 to $78 via shotgun.live. [email protected] ▼ Music Peter Bjorn and John take to Miami to celebrate a landmark album. Photo by Johan Bergmark THE WHISTLING LICK LIVED IN YOUR HEAD RENT-FREE. 1/4H
