.::. MEW .::.

All pop stories start somewhere. Some start in bars, some in clubs, some in moshpits. For Mew, this particular story starts with the end of the world...... The end of the world on celluloid that is. Brought together at school whilst making a film on the destruction of nature, Jonas Bjerre, Bo Madsen, Johan Wohlert, and Silas Graae formed a friendship over the earth's demise that was destined to flourish. Although the end result was somewhat clumsy, the bond built on their shared interests in music and film was to lead to the creation of Mew. "It took a while to get the band together and to begin with we didn't know what we were doing, but that's turned out to be our greatest asset," vocalist Jonas explains, his talking voice every bit as fragile and understated as the one you'll hear on the records. "We didn't know how to play other people's songs so we thought we might as well play our own. We knew almost immediately that we were onto something." As did everyone who heard and fell in love with their music. Mew's armoury of tunes began as straightforward homages to their own heroes (Dinosaur Jr, My Bloody Valentine) but swiftly blossomed into a sound that was uniquely Mew. Their chances of clinching a deal in Denmark however seemed remote, as they found themselves to be musically out of step with a record industry obsessed with plastic pop and Aqua. So Mew took the initiative and formed their own label, Evil Office, and set about releasing their own material. In setting up Evil Office Mew were doing more than taking matters into their own hands. Johan remembers the feeling that they were "making a stand that the Danish industry had failed. We learned loads and, most importantly, it gave us the opportunity to sign to anybody else, should we get an offer." With a live reputation like Mew's (fuelled by Roskilde appearances, support slots and their own headline tours), it didn't take long for Epic to pick up on the buzz. Am I Wry? No, Mew's first limited edition single released in September 2002, is typical of their hefty catalogue - more hooks than most bands can muster across an entire album and a theme of development and progression rarely heard outside classical music. That Jonas's lyricism is the work of a classic pop storyteller is in no doubt ("Am I Wry? No" and "156" are about the same, failed relationship), but the depth and strength of the music itself tells yet another story. On stage the Mew experience extends even further with Jonas' own short films (put together in Denmark's Video Filmlab studios while the rest of the city sleeps) drawing out each song's essence, embellishing its individuality and adding a third edge to Mew's... historia completa »