Peter Morén from Dalarna in the North of Sweden and Björn Yttling from Västerbotten (even further to the North) had been playing music together for 8 years when in 1999 they met John Eriksson who came 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 & John, not due to lack of better names, but because it felt the right thing to do, as band names are often ridiculous, so why not just go for your own names? First they thought that they would recruit a bass player but after the well known saying, '...3 is a crowd ', decided they had more than enough, so keyboard player Björn began playing bass. Live the band have learned to use the smaller format to its advantage and in the studio, overdubs were the way to go.
Initially any fan/press attention they got had to do more with Björn's past production CV, as well as the other members guest appearances on other more well known bands records.
This began to change when in 2002 the home recorded self-titled debut album was released and songs like "Matchmaker" and "People They Know" became favourites with the indie-rock crowd.
2004 saw the follow-up with the more complete, mature and darker "Falling Out". The track "It Beats Me Everytime" became a hit on Swedish radio and the album was released Stateside the following year.
Their sound on here could be described differently to fellow Swedish bands The Concretes (who were more punk) or Shout Out Louds (who were more frantic), and certainly as catchy as the most tuneful of the UK post-post-post-punk merchants. "Falling Out" established Peter, Bjorn & John as a group to watch out for.
In 2006 they embarked on the second phase of their careers. The new album "Writer's Block" (recorded in Björn's studio in Hornstull, Stockholm) is the first to showcase all three members as songwriters with each taking on lead vocalist duties, and sees the band go into a new musical direction. The first single from the album, "Young Folks", features the vocal talents of Victoria Bergsman from The Concretes and has been hammered even before it's official release.
