JULY 4, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Björn Yttling: The "B" in Peter, Bjorn, and John
Björn Yttling is standing in my studio manhandling a Moog. He's not getting what he wants out of my old Realistic MG-1 that I've had since high school, but that's no surprise as it's been in the corner for years sucking up dust. He's got a determined look on his face, searching for a way through the noise to get at this beautiful melody that's he's working on. In about two minutes the old bird is singing sweetly — it's a minor miracle. Peter Björn and John — Peter Morén, Björn Yttling and John Eriksson — are at my place for a few days, rehearsing songs and demo-ing for a new record. They're winding up two years of touring for the ridiculously successful Writer's Block. You know, the record with that infectious whistle-laden song, "Young Folks"? C'mon, even your mom has heard it in the supermarket. We've got keyboards and drum machines on every surface and drums and amps strewn about. Even the piano is mic'ed, going into the PA with a ridiculous amount of reverb. They're completing songs and solidifying arrangements. Over the course of three days I hear the same set of songs played fast,slow,beats changed, different instrumentation and different feels. Björn has the band looking at the songs from every angle. It's a rehearsal-heavy pre-production ethos. Björn tells me that he's psyched to be in L.A. because the time difference keeps his cell phone quiet so he can work. Björn is a powerhouse keyboard player/arranger who has been at the core of several great Swedish bands. He's played and toured with The Caesars, Nicolai Dunger and Dungen, as well as producing records for The Concretes, Shout Out Louds, Robyn and Lykke Li. With a fantastic ear for what makes a song tick, records that he works on feel timeless yet sound like they've been beamed in from another planet at times. Never losing the thread of what weaves serious hooks together, his arrangements are deceptively simple but can turn on a dime and head for Sun Ra territory. Just check out Yttling Jazz, his side project that sounds like Raymond Scott bouncing around inside a Mingus pinball machine. Somewhere in the four days that he was in L.A. — in between Björn heckling bands at the Knitting Factory and getting 86'ed and banned for life from one of Steve Aoki's scenester Djnights-we sat down in my dining room to talk it up.
