Mew

"I'm really, really hung over right now," Mew's guitarist Bo Madsen announces in a croaky voice, "It's eight o'clock in the morning here. We were rehearsing at a friend's house in his living room and he had a lot of people over...So that's where I'm at right now - excuse me if I get a little bit influenced by whatever."

Having released their album 'And The Glass Handed Kites' late last year in Europe and earlier last month in Australia, Mew are currently on tour in Finland for the Ruisrock Festival in promotion of the record.

"It was such a big achievement. A lot of journalists have labelled it as a head-fuck prog album or whatever, and to be honest, I understand that!" Madsen laughs. "I mean, the first time even I heard it I was extremely overwhelmed by it. It was almost too much! It really felt like you were standing on the edge of a cliff because there is so much information to digest and I see it as kind of an attack on the listener. But I think people appreciate it."

They most certainly do, considering the loyal and somewhat rabid fan-base Mew have managed to acquire over the years not only in their native Denmark, but all over the world...But things weren't always that rosy for this eclectic (now) trio.

"When we started out Denmark wasn't exactly ready for us," Madsen cynically chuckles, "We came out around the same time that Aqua did, remember Barbie Girl? Yeah, it was, like, the week before or after that and that was the big thing over there at the time - there wasn't really a rock scene. But we stuck at it and in the long run I'm convinced that we've prevailed and that originality always wins in the end. I mean, nobody is listening to Aqua anymore, are they. The Denmark scene is actually quite good at the moment - I think right now is definitely the best it's been in my lifetime. The bands are all striving to be as original as they possibly can, whereas before they would try to sound like the bands from America. Denmark is finding its own ground."

Madsen also adds that constantly being in competition and compared with Swedish bands hasn't really helped out the Danes either. Using the UK as an example, Madsen points out that the Brits "Would much rather prefer their own shit music than anything from abroad that is way better. As for the Swedish bands - well, they've just had a better reputation for a long time, starting with Abba! Denmark hasn't been discovered yet but it is getting recognised more and more - we just haven't had the connections and the reputation."

Mew is certainly helping in this respect. The guys earned themselves the title of Album Of The Year and Band Of The Year in 2003, and are currently MTV Asia's most Buzz-Worthy band as of January this year. They also recently took home four statuettes at the Danish Music Awards.

But, as with all things, fortune tends to take a swing for the worse every now and then, and in Mew's case this meant the departure of their long-time bassist Johan Wohlert two months ago.

Madsen says, "It was quite a scary thing when it happened...There has always been a sense of family within this band because we all went to the same school and hung out since we were six years old! Well, we didn't quite get the band together until a bit later on, but we've known each other for a fifth or sixth of our lives, which is incredible now that I think about it."

Despite such a significant loss, Madsen and the rest of Mew are optimistic about the band's future, "I have to ay that right now we're probably in the best place we've been in a very, very long time. We have a live bass player and he's very good, he's a very sweet guy who loves the band But we're keeping it a three-piece right now. It's taken ten years to get the band to the stage where it's at now and to bring somebody completely new in right now would mean we would have to change the way we write stuff. So he is a member as far as our live shows go, but as far as anything else concerning Mew goes, we will remain a trio."

Nina Bertok

'And The Glass Handed Kites' is out now through SonyBMG.