Jonas Bjerre sang a surprising track during the Oh No Ono show last night at Store Vega in Copenhagen. Do you guys remember when was the last time that I Should Have Been a Tsin-Tsi (For You) was played live? A long, long time ago, for sure. As a venue, Store Vega is something where Mew might play in the near future. The reason is simple. They used to play at KB Hallen a lot, but it burned down a few months ago.

“I like Store Vega, its wooden walls and the idea of the place. They have all these halved floors in the building, making it difficult to find your way. They are rebuilding KB, I think, but it will probably take a long while. It had recently become a protected building, for its architectural style and history.”

Quite recently, Jonas had composed music to a Danish/Malaysian short film called Girl in the Water. Over the years he has written so many film scores that pretty soon he would have to consider releasing a compilation album with all them bits and bites.

“It’s a good idea, collecting various film music and putting it out at some point. A lot of this stuff (in Girl in the Water) is a whole other discipline than the Skyscraper stuff though, some of it is a lot more atmospheric than melodic. It’s a challenge sometimes to omit melodic content as it overwhelms the scenes.”

Skyscraper soundtrack is now getting a Japanese release (December 21st) with three bonus tracks:

- Running (Oh No Ono Remix)
- Jon’s Window Pane Daydream (Blue Foundation Remix)
- Waste It (Silo Remix)

Apparatjik has also released new music, but you need an iPad for that, don’t you?

*****

Mew are flattered that the young singer Birdy has covered Comforting Sounds. That track also tends to be the kind that many would like to use in a finale (before and during end credits) of a given show/film. The song was used in the pretty solid comedy series Eastbound & Down, and now recently on Jonah Hill’s terrible animated project Allen Gregory. They only used 40 seconds worth of it, but it was not the best show to use a great track like that. At all.

“We certainly have a say, if it’s something we don’t want to do we say no. There are different rules though, depending on the media. If say, Danish Radio or UK’s Sky Networks wanted to use a Mew song in a trailer for a sports event or as backing to what is deemed ‘regular, non-commercial programming (is there really such a thing these days?)’ then they can just go ahead without asking. But they’ll have to pay us some money, of course. But TV shows, films and commercials, they have to ask.”

Fans are eagerly awaiting for Mew to start writing new material. It’s not here yet, but getting closer.

“I’m afraid I have nothing concrete to tell you. Christmas is coming up, I don’t think anything will happen before new years.”

Soon…

…if you are into that sort of thing. Other than that, Lolmew got creative once again.

You must have watched the music video for There’s a Cloud in My Brain by Jonas Bjerre earlier today…

On this music video…

“It was made by Louise Bruun (who also made the collages for the film) and an editor by the name of Sidse Kjær. I was just filmed singing and they put the whole thing together with edits from the film. I really wanted to make some videos myself too, but time just vanished, so I think this will be the only video for the soundtrack.”

On the Green Flame Forest -project…

“I know most of the people who are running the project, I am just singing along on the chorus in one of the songs. It’s a really good project, I think it’s gonna surprise a lot of people.”

On exchanging ideas with Bo and Silas…

“It’s not really any different from what we always do, I mean we always send stuff to each other, even when we’re not actively writing, just ideas and thoughts and sometimes little pieces.”

Here are some photos taken from the Skyscraper soundtrack’s vinyl. As you can see, the order of the tracks is slightly different from the CD, as Jonas Bjerre has told before. Apparently the vinyl is limited to only 200 copies, but we have no confirmation on this yet.

Thanks to Ally Winford.

PS: Hopefully you didn’t miss this recent interview.

I could dream of travelin’ to some far-away place
In your arms it’s better
And through my window pane the world looks brand new
It’s our place if you’ll come with me

Oh, it’s hard sometimes
when the world pretends to know
where all this will go
It’s hard to be one of them
when you’re like me
In all this I know

One day we’ll swim in the red sea
Where you’re the one who will salvage me

I could dream the city lights and long avenues
In your arms it’s better
And I won’t need a sweater for cold winter nights
In your arms I’m better

It’s hard to be one of them when you’re like me
My sultry princess

Out of time
Let it go
And the edge of the stair looks like you
So numb to the bleeding
I got some
but you’ve run out of time
Let it go
And the edge of the stair looks like you
So numb to the bleeding
I got some
but you’ve got nothing there

*****

These were the last lyrics we publish, the rest can be found from the booklet itself. All lyrics are there!!!

Vote for the track Spill the Beans here. Just click on the heart and you’re done.

Even if I knew what words to say, I’d forget that day
when you smiled at me, you know?
I can see a glimpse of where we are, in the fading patch
on my wallpaper, you know?

There’s a cloud in my brain
I don’t feel the same
And out there’s nowhere near
what it’s like in here
With your head in the clouds
nobody hurts you
No one’s wasting their time
thinking about you

And they run it by you every day, wanting to make sure
that you stay this way, you know?
And even if I knew what words to say, I’d forget that day
when you smiled at me, you know?

The way love looks
trying to piece us back together
The way love looks
hiding behind the bus stop

There’s a cloud in my brain
Things don’t feel the same
And out there’s nowhere near
what it’s like in here
With your head in the clouds
nobody wants you
No one’s wasting their time
caring about you

So, Amazon is soon ready to sell Songs and Music from the Movie Skyscraper digitally. You may listen to some very short snippets from all tracks here, and iMusic lists the CD and vinyl on their online store. Price difference is minimal, and the very reliable iMusic ships outside Denmark.

You have probably noticed that the Danish music magazine Gaffa wrote an article on Jonas Bjerre with seven new photographs by Casper Sejersen (just click on the smaller thumbnail to enter the gallery). If not, check it out here (as it is on the printed version). They also gave the album four stars out of six – not that bad, really. Gaffa Shop has the vinyl and CD both priced at 139 DKK. Another major music magazine Soundvenue also has a new story on Jonas, but that magazine doesn’t come for free (it costs 60 DKK). If you are lucky, you may still win the album from the magazine’s website. Competition ends on September 6th.

It’s me in window lift hand to wave
And we’ll make it if we try
It’s you in middle of careless bed
And we’ll make it if we try
Don’t cry, this will be easy…

Hey! Hey, tell me
Hey! Hey, tell me now
Tell me about what you did
Hey! Listen
Watch the ghost on VHS in my mind

You are not where you’re supposed to be
Don’t you see, don’t you see what should be?
No, you are not, not even close to me
Well, you’ll be where you’ll be in a dream
Each night you dress in white and everything you do
blocked out this citizen from growing up with you
I know you wanted this, but I am just a boy
a boy so pitiful and easy to destroy

And it’s a long way down from your skyscraper
It makes a perfect sound, little skyscraper

Green, it’s green, it’s green, it’s green
It’s red, it’s red, it’s red, it’s red
It’s a waste of your energy
No waste at all!
Where were you when the light changed?
Green, it’s green, it’s green, it’s green
(I like change)
It’s red, it’s red, it’s red, it’s red
It’s a waste of your energy…

We have talked about the Danish movie Skyscraper for months and months, and it’s finally getting released (outside the film festival circuit) this September in Denmark. Soundtracks are often released a couple of weeks before the movie itself, and that is also the case with Jonas Bjerre’s Songs and Music from the Movie Skyscraper (out on August 15th). I often like to listen to the score before I see the movie, so I was happy to get a review copy for this one. As a fan of Mew, I may not be the most objective reviewer, but I just can’t see any negative reviews coming up either…

Let’s keep in mind that half of the tracks are instrumental, and because this is a soundtrack review, we should start talking about the ones with no vocals first. The 40-minutes-ish long album kicks off with a calm track called Colours (mainly a piano-based piece) and it sets the mood pretty well. Later Colours is reprised as the closing track as well, in a very different variation. The latter (Slide Version) is quite David Lynch-ian (not referring to Angelo Badalamenti here, but more like the 1950′s hit track Sleepwalk from Santo & Johnny), and it could’ve fitted perfectly on the movie Blue Velvet, for example. One more version of the song (Bell Version) was made, but Jonas didn’t put that on the album in the end.

Twins is an instrumental with Agnete Hegelund singing choir. Remember Julee Cruise’s beautiful voice (with extra-echo) and the red curtains in Twin Peaks? I get that feeling here, or is it just the similar title at work? Anyway, Agnete has a pretty voice. By the way, all titles refer to characters and events in Skyscraper, and they are not in the same order (standard for soundtracks; for avoiding spoilers). On this record, there’s plenty of piano, but guitar is also constantly present. Picking Up All the Oranges doesn’t sound very Danish to me (what does Danish sound like, really?). It’s more like Mexican, if anything… composer Gustavo Santaolalla could have used something similar on the movie Babel, I suppose. Edith (together with Colours and a few other tracks) are also accompanied by some background noise which is not necessarily a bad thing. Some cars just happened to pass by Jonas’ apartment window before Becky Jarrett (of Symmetry fame) sang choir on Edith. A cute little track, as many of these are. Short and cute. There’s a positive feeling throughout the album. Mew are more melancholic than this in general.

One of the best instrumentals, Ben & Jon (with some vocals by Jonas) feels like a continuation of the chorus of Saliva, with the requisite happy clapping beat and tempo. Another version of Ben & Jon (with different tempo and scale) was made, but it didn’t make onto the album. If you are a fan of Mew’s older stuff, some comparisons are inevitable. Well, In a Small Town is quite reminiscent to And the Glass Handed Kites -era intermissions. Now… I seem to be comparing this and that to this and that, but this soundtrack is wholly original (just like Mew always are). I’m just trying to give you the big picture here. OK?

Nearly every track is used in the film, some with just less vocals. You can’t distract the film’s own dialogue too much, you know. As I have not seen the actual film yet, just trailers, there’s very little I can say about the tracks fitting the film. Although referring to the story all the time, some of the lyrics are just more abstract than others. Not surprising with this songwriter.

There’s a Cloud In My Brain is probably the most straightforward song on the album, definite single material, and it’s not even in the movie. Also, large parts from Waste It and The Story of a Would-be Traffic Light were not used in the film. Instead they have a different instrumental continuation. As of now, the latter is my favourite track on the album. It’s very Mew -like, it begins from a completely different place than where it ends, and it contains more than one or two melodies within its five minutes. Also, some marching drumming (as in Louise Louisa) occurs – how many instruments can Jonas play? Maybe not a trumpet. Bo Rande plays that on Spill the Beans.

Kids Don’t Fight was the first track to be released, but it’s not even close to being the best one here, in my opinion. I find myself concentrating on There’s a Cloud In My Brain, The Story of a Would-be Traffic Light, Running and Until Tomorrow Finds You (with an unbelievably beautiful melody!!!) the most, but no tracks can be skipped. It’s a true album in that sense. The order of the tracks has been planned carefully. Jonas knows you probably want to listen to the songs rather than the instrumentals, so in many cases the minute-long melodies feel like continuations or intros to the songs around them.

Jonas wrote these tracks, on and off, over a two-year period, and it shows. Melodies are aplenty. I congratulate him for creating such beautiful tunes once again. I wouldn’t be surprised if he won some Danish film awards (score and/or song) early next year. If I think about Jonas’ previous solo stuff and Apparatjik (which I am not a huge fan of), I can honestly say that this is easily his best yet. As title suggests, the lyrics in The Story of a Would-Be Traffic Light switch the lights from green to red. Jonas’ album is green. It’s OK to go.

Tero Heikkinen

PS: We don’t give stars on MewX. They are for dummies (like myself quite often) who don’t bother reading the articles, but just stare at the numbers.

“I went to great lengths getting a proper vinyl mastering done, nowadays most labels just take the 44.1 kHz / 16 bit CD master and record it onto vinyl… which is a travesty. It completely negates the advantage to the analogue format. The order of songs is slightly different on the vinyl because I had to split it up in two more or less even parts (side A/B) and also because the inner circles on a vinyl have less spectrum bandwidth and so you should not put tracks on there that are full of rhythm and bass. The vinyl also has more dynamics than the CD, although I did go easy on the CD too, I hate how mastering has become a battle for loudness, it kills all the feeling in music in most albums today, in my opinion.” -Jonas Bjerre

As you should know by now, Jonas Bjerre’s soundtrack album for Skyscraper is being released on August 15th. Here are some more details for you, and a longer review coming in a few days. Let’s start with track listings, okay?

01. Colours (01:24)
02. Waste It (04:03)
03. The Story of a Would-be Traffic Light (04:53)
04. Kids Don’t Fight (02:43)
05. Twins (00:53)
06. Fireflies in Central Park (01:01)
07. Until Tomorrow Finds You (04:56)
08. Picking Up All the Oranges (00:59)
09. Edith (01:58)
10. Like Something Out of a Dream (00:34)
11. Ben & Jon (01:31)
12. Running (02:56)
13: Spill the Beans (02:29)
14. In a Small Town (01:34)
15. There’s a Cloud in My Brain (03:19)
16. Squirrel Made Safe (01:44)
17. Jon’s Window Pane Daydream (02:48)
18. Colours (Slide Version) (01:25)

Released via Jonas’ own company Pluk and distributed by A:larm Music, Songs and Music from the Movie Skyscraper will be available on CD, digital download (with digital booklet), and on limited edition vinyl. All vocals are by Jonas, but Becky Jarrett collaborated on the song called Edith where she sings choir, as does Agnete Hegelund on the song Twins. Bo Rande plays trumpet on Spill the Beans. Director of the movie, Rune Schjøtt is credited as executive producer, cause obviously he was involved in what direction the music took. Mixed by Finn Jansen (who has previously worked with Mew) in his studio Rörström in Copenhagen.

Jonas recorded the album from January 2009 to June 2011 with long breaks in between. Sometimes he recorded on a Mew tour bus, hotel rooms while touring, and his own place in Copenhagen, but the most focused recording session took place at Sune Wagner’s studio in Brooklyn.