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 They're B-B-Back!
What’s with the Scandinavians and the well-crafted, sugarcoated pop? Is it the 20 hours of summer sunshine every day? The joyfully minimalist design aesthetic? From ABBA to Ace of Base to Annie, the northern reaches have a knack for churning out toe-tapping, radio-friendly pop confections, and Denmark’s reigning kings are a duo named Junior Senior.
The pair is Jeppe Laursen (“Senior,” who is tall and gay) and Jesper Mortensen (“Junior,” who is short and straight). Not necessarily known for deep lyrics, the duo sprung onto the European music scene in 2003, when they released their first full-length album, D-D-Don’t Stop The Beat. That summer, the catchy single “Move Your Feet” climbed to number three on the U.K. charts and made its way stateside, charting in the U.S. and showing up on the soundtracks to a slew of movies.
“Everyone likes to dance, everyone likes to have fun, everyone likes to smile,” says Laursen about the characteristically upbeat Junior Senior sound. “It’s not that we are some extraordinarily happy people that we are able to create this music. It just comes down to what we like—there’s not a big plan behind it!”
Their follow-up album, fittingly titled Hey Hey My My Yo Yo, was released in 2005 in Europe and Japan (where it hit number two on the charts), but Junior Senior decided to up the ante and include a new seven-song EP bundled with the album for its recent stateside release.
The pair, who currently live on opposite sides of the world (Laursen in L.A., where he is dating superstar gallery owner Javier Peres, and Mortensen in Denmark), came together and traveled the U.S. while recording Hey Hey, getting choice guest stars to cameo, including Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson from The B-52’s.
“We always like female vocals,” says Laursen. “Not necessarily the typical ‘gay diva’ type, but we really like harmonies, like The Velvelettes, a Motown girl group. So there’s that generation [on the album], and then we have Kate and Cindy, who are sort of New Wave, and then we have Le Tigre, too, who are kind of new-new.”
And unlike this year’s is-he-or-isn’t-he U.K. starlet, Mika, Junior Senior aren’t afraid to acknowledge their gay/straight tendencies. On “Itch U Can’t Skratch” off the new album, the pair trade off and sing “Give me a boy so I can / Give me a girl so I can / Have fun.” It’s simply part of who they are, and in the Junior Senior world, everyone’s invited to the party.
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Instinct Online 
