The Swedes invade Toronto

Moreso than any other Scandinavian nation, Sweden has produced an astounding number of talented musicians from diverse musical backgrounds, many of whom have found varying degrees of international success. The Swedish music scene is as diverse as the burgeoning scenes of the United States and United Kingdom, an incredible feat considering its relatively small population of approximately 9 million.

One of the most recent success stories is that of indie rock group, Peter Bjorn and John who found their single "Young Folks" from the 2006 album Writer's Block on just about every prime time TV show montage scene in North America with its signature whistle also employed to sell everything from video games to polo shirts.

The band formed in Stockholm in 1999 and were immediately a hit with critics, but it wasn't until "Young Folks" that they were propelled into the mainstream.

In March 2009, Peter Bjorn and John released Living Thing, their official follow-up to Writer's Block - discounting 2008's instrumental album Seaside Rock which was a release limited to 5000 copies. Living Thing saw the trio embrace a more abrasive approach to their already dark take on pop-songwriting. One music critic from Pitchfork Media likened the album to Nirvana's In Utero, their significantly more aggressive and less radio friendly follow-up to Nevermind, which was perceived as a reaction to their new-found fame.

The band's drummer and vocalist, John Eriksson still sees their music as fundamentally pop despite the jarring and gloomy music found on Living Thing.

"While we were recording we had made each other mix CDs that had a bunch of music that we had listened to as teenagers. There was a lot of 80s synth pop on those CDs so that was a definite influence while we were writing the new songs. I still think that when we're together as a band we always write classic, retro sounding pop songs, when we are working on our own solo projects that's when we'll do more experimentation," he says.

Each member of the trio has a successful solo career: in 2008 Peter Moren released a stripped down, folk influenced album while Bjorn Ytlling produced fellow Swede Lykke Li's debut Youth Novels. Eriksson is currently working on material under the moniker Hortlax Cobra. He describes the sound as "dirty beat collages with string arrangements and synth." The name "Hortlax" comes from the rural town where Eriksson grew up before he moved to Stockholm.

While they keep busy with their own projects, Eriksson confirms that when the band concludes their tour of North America at the end of November - they roll into Toronto on November 11 - they will begin rehearsing and recording material for their sixth album. Since the band is celebrating their tenth anniversary, he explains that they've been discussing what direction they should follow in the future.

"We've been talking about what the band should do in our "teenage years" and have been recording some ideas on our own with the next record in mind. We hope to begin recording in April 2010. I haven't yet heard Bjorn or Peter's material that they've been working on so I'm excited to hear what direction they want to take with the group," he says.

As an exporter of English language music, Sweden ranks high in terms of the sheer number of artists and groups that emerge from the small nation. Eriksson believes that many Swedish groups achieve international successful because they've been exposed to English pop music from an early age.

"We've been listening to American and English pop music since we were kids, and I think that children who grow up in Sweden are more likely to be listening to that type of music than anywhere else in Europe. So we take a lot of influence from English pop music but I think there's still something distinctly Swedish about the music we, and maybe all Swedish musicians write and perform. It could be in the way we sing, but I believe it's almost indescribable.