Lusting for Peter Bjorn and John at W Hotel's Wonderlust Live

Last night, W Hotels in New York hosted whistling sensations Peter Bjorn and John at their Lexington Avenue location as part of their W Wonderlust Live show series. Since May of 2008, W Hotels, Sony BMG and Mastercard have been offering their chi-chi guests semi-intimate concert experiences for the not-so-semi-expensive price tag of $549. To get folks prepared for another agitated-pop album from Peter Bjorn and John (Living Things is out on March 31st), a few lucky members of the media (yours truly included) were invited to enjoy a vamped and energy-laden performance from these sweet and humble Swedes. For 30 minutes, Peter sweated and jumped, Bjorn played his bass at every height level, John swayed in cadence to each beat of the drums and the crowd bobbed their heads along with Parker Posey, The Tings Tings and Julia Stiles. But people got downright giddy when Au Revoir Simone's Heather D'Angleo joined the boys to sing their party trick, "Young Folks."

Before they took on a ballroom outfitted in a concert ensemble, I talked with bassist Bjorn Yttling on his 10 year anniversary with the band, the first two albums that everyone somehow missed and going corporate:

People don't seem to get that you've been around before your album Writer's Block. Is that frustrating?
It's okay. I think there's far more important stuff to educate people than how long we've been around -- like the AIDS research questions and the different stem cell problems. It's not a huge problem... Better later than never.

After Writer's Block, you guys seemed to stray in style with Seaside Rock. What were you trying to accomplish with this album?
My biggest point was having us in the studio again. Because it took a longer time than we expected, with all the touring, we just wanted to get us in the studio. But not necessarily do a follow-up [album]. But then [Seaside Rock] evolved into this nice instrumental project and we kind of put more energy into it than we might have expected. So it turned our really well. I'm happy. We also go to play around with some new ideas.

Did Seaside Rock affect how you approached making Living Thing?
Yeah it did. We had an anything-goes mentality in Seaside Rock. And then we kind of did that. It felt like that was a good thing to left off some steam on that record. And on Living Thing, we were really focused in making it very sharp.

After 10 years, how much longer do you see yourself working with the band?
We've said that five records is the top limit for any band. But let's do this tour and we'll see if we might make another one.

And then what are you going to do after you split?
Just count money...

Live a life of luxury?
Exactly. La vida loca.

Tonight's performance is rather intimate. Do you enjoy theses smaller crowds?
It depends on the crowd. We had a really small crowd once and it wasn't that fun. I don't care. You always feel the warmth. Even if it's like 5,000 people and you're in Mexico, it doesn't matter. It's not the amount of people, it's how they react.

And does the fact that tonight is more corporate affect how you’ll perform?
Depending if everyone's drunk or not. It's not about the room; it's not about the signs on the wall. It's all about how the people act.

Photographs by Yael Salomonwitz and W Hotels Worldwide/Charles Eshelman