| Peter Bjorn and John Peter Moren from Dalarna in the North of Sweden and Bjorn Yttling from Vasterbotten -- even further to the North -- had been playing music together for 8 years when they in 1999 met John -- from Norrbotten -- which would you believe it is yet even further to the North! The following year they started a band and simply called it Peter Bjorn and John -- not due to lack of better names -- but because it felt right. Band names are often ridiculous -- so why not just go for your own name? First they thought that they would recruit a bass player but after the well known saying "3 is a crowd" thus more than enough -- the keyboard player Bjorn began playing bass. Live the band have learned to use the little format to its advantage and in the studio well let's just say they have been known to do overdubs...! Initially all the press they got had to do with Bjorn's production CV and the members different guest appearances on other more well known bands and artists records. But soon that would change. In 2002 the home recorded self titled debut album was released and received comments from the press regarding "superior sound beds" and "upcoming classics" while songs like "Matchmaker" and "People They Know" became favorites with the indie pop crowd. Rough Trade in London even penned "nothing else sounds as good in Swedish pop right now" and were probably not completely mistaken. 2004 saw the follow up with the more complete, mature and darker Falling Out. "It Beats Me Everytime" became a Swedish radio hit and the album was released Stateside the following year to press acclaim. AllMusic.com gave the album 4.5 stars and wrote: "very close to the best indie rock -- no, just plain music -- being made in 2005. More punk than the Concretes, less frantic than Shout Out Louds, as catchy as the most tuneful of the UK post-post-post-punk merchants. Falling Out firmly established Peter, Bjorn and John as a group to watch out for. Strike that. They are a band that has arrived in all senses of the word." Now in 2006 and 2007 PBJ embark on the second phase of their careers. The new album Writer's Block (recorded in Bjorn's studio in Hornstull, Stockholm) is the first to showcase all three members as songwriters and taking on lead vocalist duties and sees the band take on a new musical direction.
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