Planet Notion - Petter and The Pix

Sweden gave the world Victoria Silvstedt and Neneh Cherry, who can cook a mean Jerk Chicken as well as rap. The Swedes also gave us half of Johnny Borrell’s Razorlight, but we’ll let that one slide; after all, nobody’s perfect. The biggest Swedish export though (other than Ikea) was Abba, with their sweet pop sound and a break-up album in the vein of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, where like, the people breaking up recorded together and sang about it. Genius! Anyway, Petter and the Pix are further indication of the Swede’s skill at producing commercial pop. Well, it’s more folk/pop really, a bit like ‘Peter, Bjorn and John’ who happen to come from Stockholm too. Can you see the pattern? Anyway, Petter’s been in quite a few bands over the years and even won the Best Swedish Jazz award in 2000 for his album ‘Far from Alone’ with Linda Svantesson. Then Petter turned into a recluse and headed to the mountains to practise the ancient art of Kung-Fu, returning a far tougher dude and forming new band Petter and The Pix. In 2006 he was introduced to a guy called President Bongo (seriously that’s his name) from GusGus who summoned his Bongolites to produce Petter and The Pix’s debut album ‘Easily Tricked’ on Gung-Ho! Recordings. The album features a pretty diverse range of folk-tinged beats, delving into everything from electro-backed sing-alongs to hazy synths, with a spot of reggae thrown in for good measure. I guess you could say its cuddly folk, the kind you’d use to seduce a young virgin, clad in white from head to toe and sipping a glass of baileys. Anyway, ‘Ol Petter, who started off on bass, is looking forward to breaking the UK scene and test-driving the… erm… talent… “I think the Swedish and UK scenes are similar”, he says. “We’ve been trying to copy you guys for quite some time and have got quite good at it. I’m really looking forward to testing out your live scene. And your ladies”. Check out their MySpace! Words: Dave Dryden