On September 26th, Bo Madsen visited the Danish radio program AK24syv, where he was interviewed by René Fredensborg for half an hour. This rather little known interview came with some nice anecdotes, revealing facts about why it takes Mew quite some time to record a new album, as well as a loose schedule for the release date. We’d like to highlight a few bits from the interview, which can be heard in full length here (Danish only).
First single to be released
Bo wanted to underline that the 2-minute version of Making Friends (from Sensory Spaces) you’ve now heard is not an official single but rather something to give to fans while they wait for the actual stuff. They have now recorded the song in its entirety with new lyrics and all. “We will come with a single later this year or the beginning of next year. It comes with a video as well”, Bo reveals. It is not known if the song is something we’ve heard before live, such as Klassen, Boy or the bit we currently like to call Koor, but a personal guess would be that it’s going to be the new studio version of Making Friends. So when is the new album going to be released? Just after Silas the Magic Car – chosen by Bo – was played on the radio program, the host said that the new album would come out next Summer, which wasn’t commented on (nor denied) by Bo. It will take as long as it needs to take and as they are still in recording stages, add a lengthy period of time for mixing, mandatory logistics, and you know that it will still take months and months.
For people who love various Mew anecdotes, some funny moments were shared during the interview as well. In the beginning Bo took a trip down memory lane: ”I have had a radio program once with Jonas from my orchestra and with a guy named Oliver. We were called ‘Bentson, Bentson and Bentson’ and we played two hours of radio every Monday. It was a pirate radio broadcasted from our teenage rooms, 100 meters in each direction.” Yes, Bo likes to call Mew an orchestra and that’s a fitting description for this particular band. A constant theme of the interview was the pace Mew normally works in and Bo reflected that quite funnily as well: “I think we have just become better at doing things. When you’re younger everything means everything and you can discuss for four hours if the stickers should be white angel/black background or black angel/white background, and we don’t really do that anymore.”
To pursue the perfect sound
As this interview was conducted a month ago, the focus was the collaboration with B&O and Mew going independent after a decade of sitting at the table with the big guys. “It doesn’t give us more freedom to have left Sony, but we’re forced to think about things more now, [things] that previously happened automatically […]. In that way I think we might also make some better decisions.” This seemed like the main argument for Bo to leave Sony behind. He did underline that he did not regret working with Sony and that it was the right decision back then. Having complete freedom (which they had under Sony contract as well but with certain deadlines) might be one of the reasons why Mew once again have spent their time working on the new album. There’s an example that is very telling. “I just came from the studio where we’ve spent nine days just to get the right sound for the guitar”. These were just soundchecks and they still had not found quite the right sound. Working to perfection with sound is what Mew have always done, because only that way they are able to enjoy listening to their own music. According to Bo this is also why they chose to work with the people they do, such as B&O and Michael Beinhorn (known for his work especially with guitar sound) – they’re audiophiles as well. “The plan with this album is to have even more collaborations than before”. Let’s see who else they are going to collaborate with.
While we wait for the album, Mew have become more active on social medias, to let us know that they are working on the record. A good example of this is their official Instagram page where they post photos (see above) regularly. If you are not familiar with it yet, check it out behind this link.
Frederik Voss
México, los ansía.
Los amo.