Something must be in the coffee in those Nordic countries, because if you thought Bjork, Sigur Ros, Mum, and Mew all hailing from the same area was a coincidence, now there's Under Byen, a band of Danes with a similarly spacious and eerily beautiful sound. Under Byen (pronounced Oh 'nah-boon) formed in 1995, but are just now offering their music in North America (their third album Samme Stof Som Stof was recently released on Toronto's Paper Bag Records.) Led by the pinup worthy Henriette Sennenvaldt, the eight member group offers solid proof that we should be paying close attention to any music originating from the frozen north.

Under Byen recently completed a brief tour of the States and are currently entrancing crowds in Europe. Junkmedia spoke with Nils Gröndahl, who plays violin, saw, and lapsteel, to learn more about the band and what makes them enestående. (That's Danish for "unique.")

You've been together as a band since 1995 but are new to American listeners. What are five things we should know about you?

We’re good at making fun of ourselves and the pathos in our music. We did a remix for Rammstein on request. We’re three girls and five guys. This is our third album. For each album we’ve made a limited LP remix record remixed by different electronic musicians. We think of ourselves as a pop band.

Since it's safe to assume that most Americans don't speak Danish, for us, listening to your music is all about texture, mood, and atmosphere. How important do you think lyrics are to the overall listening experience? What, if anything, are we missing by not being able to understand the words?

Well, actually a lot of the Danish listeners don’t get our lyrics either. Henriette’s lyrics are somewhat stream of consciousness. When doing our first outside DK releases we gave it some thought whether to translate and include the lyrics in the booklet but we kind of figured that we wanted people to be able to create their own meaning about what the songs are about through the atmospheres we create with the sounds. In a few weeks time we’ll put out a book containing translations of selected lyrics so that people can understand the lyrics if they feel the need to.

You use a lot of instruments not found in the usual rock band inventory like clarinet, marimba, accordion, and a saw. Why have you made those choices? And why no guitars?

It’s not really choices we’ve made. When the band started out we wanted some “romantic” sounding instruments like cello and violin, but on this album, they’re – at least to me – just as eerie as romantic. When we’re doing recordings and writing songs we just try out different sounds that suit the songs the best. We all like the guitar; we just don’t have any guitarist in the band at the moment although Anders did some guitar takes on this album. On the next one we might include three guitarists for all I know.

I listen to a lot of new music and though there's a lot of great work being done, it's not often that I hear something that makes the hairs on my arms stand up. Your CD grabbed me from the first note. What kinds of music or art give you that feeling?

Thank you! In the band we listen to a lot of different stuff, from classical to noise. Now and then we’re emotionally moved by music but it also depends on your state of mind when you’re listening to music. Some of us are into art in all its shapes but when it comes down to it, I believe that nature is sublime not art.

The video for "Af Samme Stof Som Stof" is almost psychedelic in the way it combines film with animation and plays with perception. Can you tell me about how it came to be and who directed it?

The director Jimi Holstebro had done some animation for our piano player, Thorbjørns, solo performance, and we liked his style so we asked him to combine animation with footage. We don’t like to appear ourselves in our videos, but in our lyrics as in videos we try to create a room where people can focus on the music, scenery and put their own meanings into the art.

There seem to be a lot of great bands coming out of Scandinavia lately – you, Mew, Serena Maneesh, Mi and L’au, not to mention Sigur Ros and Mum. What is the music scene like there and what is it about your part of the world that inspires such introspective, atmospheric music?

The music scene is pretty strong, I feel. It’s not like we know all the other bands personally, but I guess we share the same approach to making music. It’s hard to tell if we share the same inspiration or if there’s a certain Scandinavian sound. It’s nothing we give any thought to when we’re making albums, but I guess our nature, cold winters and so on inspires us. But how that’s reflected in the albums is hard to answer.

You've only played a handful of dates in the States. Are there any plans for a more extensive tour?

We hope to come back for a few shows in the spring but we’ll see. It’s a rather big production and having ten people flying over is not cheap.

Thank you for your time. Is there anything else you'd like to say?

You’re welcome. Yes, Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

Illustration by Laura Siragher