Since the vast majority of Mew’s fanbase is located within the Nordic countries where they are wildly popular, it seemed like it could be an interesting contrast to give everyone a picture of what it is like to be a Frenger living in America, where Mew is practically unknown. Naturally there are musically hip cities in America which have heard of the band, at least enough to book them in small clubs where they play for up to 300-500 people, but for the most part no one has any idea who they are. Using that as a baseline, you can imagine how frustrating it is to try to explain to people what Mew are all about (and maybe you experience this where you live as well, if you’re not a European living north of Germany!) A typical conversation involves many of the same questions: What is the music like? Where are they from? Do they sing in English? Why have I never heard of them? How on earth did you ever find out about them? After years of answering these questions I had sort of resigned myself to the fact that I was living in a bubble of fandom all to myself and maybe it would always be that way. Aside from myself I only knew of one other person who knew of Mew, whom I did not specifically introduce to their music. For a country with a population of over 300 million people those are some pretty bad odds, but this is definitely a solvable problem, especially now that Mew have gone independent and have the freedom to share their music with the world in whatever way they choose.

So you’re probably asking yourself how I discovered Mew in the first place. The simple answer is that back in 2006, when And the Glass Handed Kites first came out in America, I heard The Zookeeper’s Boy played on my local radio station in Seattle, and it was instant love. I need to stress how significant this detail is because the station, KEXP 90.3 FM, is an independent, non-profit station run solely on donations from the community. There are no commercials, so there are no advertisers to please, which means the DJs are free to choose whatever programming they like, including things that are not played anywhere else. They are the ones responsible for breaking some of the biggest acts in modern times, including Nirvana, Death Cab For Cutie, and more recently Of Monsters and Men, so it’s obvious the sort of influence they have on the global music scene. (This is a special case, though, since nearly all radio stations in America are run on advertising budgets and programmed by software instead of humans.) KEXP brought Mew to the Seattle consciousness. Mew even played live on the station twice, once at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas in 2007, and once from the studio in Seattle in 2009. There’s definitely a lot of love from both sides happening there.

Once I knew who Mew were the rest was all research I did on my own over the internet, simply because there was no other option. I was able to buy Kites and Frengers from my local record store, which at that time was Sonic Boom Records in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, the Scandinavian district in the city. (Bergen, Norway and Reykjavík, Iceland are considered “Sister Cities” to Seattle.) But those two albums were all that was available to us in America, and they were really difficult to find at that, which meant everything else would have to be imported at significant cost. I was pretty poor at that time so I had to leave the dream of owning more of their music until later on when I could afford to order it from Europe. The worst part was, since I didn’t know anyone else familiar with the band I had no one to sympathize with my plight, or help me track things down. Talk about isolation!

By the time 2009 rolled around No More Stories was getting some airplay on KEXP and Mew came through on their tour to play a live show at a very small venue in Seattle called Neumos. (I don’t know exactly what the capacity of the place is but I would be shocked if it could hold more than 300 people.) The sound quality was poor and I was quite far away from the stage, but I finally got a chance to see this magical band which had transformed me in ways I could not properly express to people around me. Jonas looked so shy and vulnerable on stage that I was actually too embarrassed to admit to my then-husband that I wished I could take him home with me and take care of him! Seeing them live for the first and only time was the pivotal moment when my feelings for the band shifted from deep appreciation to passionate adoration. They were my band.

And they remained “my band” until the past year or so when I became very active in social media. I started to notice that there were other people out there who were just as passionate about their love for this special band, and they were from all over the world. I started connecting with them, sharing stories and photos, and finally getting an opportunity to be a proper “fangirl.” It was absolutely mind-blowing to be able to form these connections after years of isolation in my own private fandom. Finally I had found my people! This is something I can and never will take for granted.

The story doesn’t end here though. As with any journey, there is much left to be seen. Hopefully now that I’ve made such significant connections with my worldwide Frengers, I can help spread the word across America to get Mew out there because they deserve to be more than just “my band.”

(Incidentally, I did eventually scrape together enough money to begin importing physical media. The majority of the new Discography section on mewx.info is composed of scans I’ve taken from things I have on a shelf next to my computer. Yes, it was absolutely worth the time and effort to amass such a collection, which I’m willing to bet could be one of the more complete collections out there today. And owned by an American at that!)