Swedish singer-songwriter Peter Morén of Peter, Bjorn, and John just dropped his new album, SunYears, on August 21st. The album is a brilliant collaborative effort with a list of singers, co-writers, and instrumentalists curated from friendship and a genuine love of music. Since the success of 2006’s Young Folks, Peter has proven that he has grown alongside his audience, providing songs for every quiet moment and big milestone in their lives. He chatted with IINAG about SunYears:
Can you tell me about your creative process on this album?
I kind of went into it by accident because I recorded the first SunYears album. I started this project in 2023. That was finished for a while before it was released. I got in the zone, the creative zone. There was something about this project that made me want to continue. So I basically started writing and recording even though the first one wasn’t out. So the two were connected. There is a drummer named Kyle Crane who is on half of this record. He’s a busy guy; he plays with everyone. He has a project that I’ve sung on a couple of times, and he was in Stockholm for two days between tours, and he asked me, “should we do something?” and at that point I just started writing again and I had like five ideas that weren’t quite finished but I thought “yeah it would be fun to record with Kyle so I brought him and the bass player I usually work with, Andreas, and we did like five of these songs in two days, backing tracks with this record. It was just like a flow.
So there is a pretty big collaborative vibe on this album. How do these collaborations tell the story of the album?
It was a thing I started on the first album we made during the pandemic, so it was easy to get a hold of voices. It was an idea that I would incorporate into it. Since everyone was home, people answered and sang about stuff. So I wanted to do this with this new record because there’s something about when voices collide with different tones and timbres, and you find a voice that you like listening to through other records, and you think about trying to find the right voice for the right song. And if you can make that work, and if you’re like me and have written the song yourself, you can almost hear it in a different way. It is almost like leaving your own body, and you can appreciate it more; it is very moving and emotional. So it is really great because you know your own voice, and maybe it is nice, but you hear the words and melodies in a different light, and it is almost like a spiritual thing, so I wanted to incorporate it on this record too.
Is there a deeper meaning behind the album’s title, “The Song Forlorn”?
It comes from the title song, the last one on the record and maybe my favourite one if I had to pick one, even though I love them all. That is an interesting story, writing that song. My wife is from way up in northern Sweden, where the sun never goes up basically, at least not in the winter. In the summer, it is always up. We go there for Christmas because we want a proper winter. I usually go cross-country skiing at night because they have this track where they have lights, so you can see even though it is pitch black. I wrote that song on the skiing track, the melody and the words. It is a song about addictions, drug addictions, or sex addiction, and stuff that I can understand, even though I haven’t fallen into that trap. But I can understand the attraction of it. In the last part, I talk about my addiction to songwriting. If I have an idea for a song, it is playing in my head, and it might keep me up at night. I want to give every idea on my iPhone, every riff, all the attention I can to try to make the best of it. So that can be really focused and not pay attention to the real world. You put so much love and energy and time into making music, and sometimes you don’t get it back. There have been times in my life when I feel like maybe I should do something else, like go back to school and get a proper job, but I always come back to it. I start, and I can’t stop. It is just in my blood. And obviously, you think you’re getting better at it, and honestly, I just feel like I’m really enjoying myself. It doesn’t mean anyone else will like it, but at least it is something I’m proud of. I feel like I’m getting better at stuff, and meeting people twenty years older who feel like they’re getting good. So it is about how you keep going. It is a positive addiction and a spiritual thing. It is spiritual and almost soulful. It is a whole religion in a way. When I was a kid, I had some sort of childish faith in God. Sometimes I feel something supernatural. But music and nurture, being out in nature with some beautiful scenery, that is spiritual. That is how I feel about making music and collaborating with people. It fills that void for me. All the songs come from being middle-aged, your parents getting older, people you know dying, but you have a lot of memories that you can draw from. There are other songs on this album about how music keeps me going at my core, so that is why I felt like this song fit the title of the record. My wife thinks it is a really weird title, and so do other people in Sweden.
That is good though! It sparks interest. If there was only one message you wanted your audience to take from this album, what would it be?
From my perspective, it is like “relax, be yourself, find your voice. But that is maybe from my perspective. Hopefully, there is something that makes them emotional, both happy and sad. I really like the expression happy-sad, melancholy, but maybe some fun moments. I think an album should have a balance of different things. There are two kinds of schools. I grew up on Beatles albums, and they were varied. Then there is the other school, which is just one thing. What keeps it together for me is a lot of guitar and a lot of voice. I like doing different types of songs. When I was a kid and I bought records, I didn’t have much money, but I bought a few records. If I didn’t like it, I would keep playing it. I loved it after a while. Some things just take time. It is hard to do that these days because if you don’t like a record, you can easily move on to something else. I’m hoping people can let it sink in. Maybe you’ll only like two songs at first, and then later you’ll start to love a few more. Those are the best records I think.
