Courtesy of Peter Björn and John

Together, Peter Morén, Björn Yttling and John Eriksson form the Swedish indie-rock trio Peter Björn and John. Best known for the most whistled track of 2006, “Young Folks” catapulted the band to the top of the charts in the U.S. and the U.K. With Peter Morén on vocals and guitar, Björn Yttling on bass and keyboards and John Eriksson on percussion, “Young Folks” featured singer Victoria Bergsman, not one of the three Swedes.

The track was recently sampled on a Kanye West mix-tape, which has caused the band to release Re-Living Thing, a hip-hop-and-rap remix album featuring GZA, 88 Keys and Wale.

Their show in Tucson will feature their three newest singles “Lay It Down,” “It Don’t Move Me” and “Nothing to Worry About,” songs from their fifth full-length album released earlier this year Living Thing.

Below, John Eriksson answers questions about their looming album, their past singles and growing up listening to Swedish radio.

AZNB: Who are we talking to, what you do in the band and do you truly care more about the old folks or the young folks?

JE: John Eriksson (drummer, composer, tennis player, recently producer and sometimes some kind of singer in PB&J): I care about 1. Poor folks. 2. My folks. 3. All folks. 4. No folks (a.k.a. animals).

You’re celebrating your 10th anniversary as a band by going on a nationwide tour. What’s going to be special about this tour and really separate it from all your other tours? Will there be singing and cake and party hats?

JE: In every city there will be one or many secret surprise guests such as dancers, singers, saxophone players, rappers, folk-rock artists, celebrities, stand-up comedians, magicians or wrestlers. Every night we will also try to play some rare songs and there will be a special ‘Birthday Light Show.’ We haven’t seen it yet but someone said something about a balloon filled with beer.

Your single ‘Young Folks’ was released to critical acclaim in 2006. How do you feel when you play that song in particular and does it ever become a burden to have to play a song that everyone expects to hear at your concerts? Do you ever go without playing it? Do you think it has become your ‘Freebird?’

JE: ‘Young Folks’ is like a bird of its own. And that bird is teaching people around the world to listen to us. We like that bird a lot since that bird made it possible for us to have this band as a full time job so of course we play that ‘bird song’ on almost every concert. The only time we don’t play it is when there is too many cats in the audience.

You’re from Sweden so it is interesting whether your primary influences were from there or England or the U.S. What were some bands that interested you as musicians and do you think geography had any influence on your music?

JE: When our parents grew up, the Swedish radio played a lot of music from the U.S/U.K. so we are very much influenced by that culture. The Swedish national culture isn’t that strong and when you go to France, Spain or Finland (for instance) it is very clear that they have a much higher percent of ‘domestic’ music. Some of the biggest artists in Sweden are singing in Swedish though and when we were kids we listened to ‘those artists’ as well. The first cassette I bought was with a girl called ‘Carola’ who won the Swedish Eurovision song contest. Then I became a hard rocker, of course, and started listening to Van Halen, Quiet Riot and other cool music.

When Kanye West rapped over a re-edit of your song ‘Young Folks,’ it started a tradition of hip-hop artists working with you. What made you decide to continue collaborating with other hip-hop artists including Drake on his song ‘Lets Call It Off’ and GZA, 88 Keys and Wale on Re-Living Thing, a remix of your album Living Thing both released this year.

JE: Just before the hip-hop project with Mick Boogie we had been looking for someone to do something out of a PB&J ‘rap-track’ that we recorded for Living Thing. Peter did a lot of takes but we wanted to let someone else try it. At first we talked about asking Max von Sydow (the Swedish actor) but than we realized that he couldn’t rap. When the idea about a PB&J hip-hop remix album came up we were all in. We wrote down a list of MCs and rappers that we liked and the curator Mick Boogie had his list and organized the whole thing. It turned out great, but we still haven’t finished the PB&J ‘rap track’ yet.

How does it feel to be sampled and have you ever thought about dedicating some time to just making hip-hop music?

JE: To be sampled is one of the nicest things that can happen to a musician I think. I would never in my life sue anyone for using my sounds, it is just an honor to have recorded something that other musicians want to use.

The singles from Living Thing are really great and really catchy, especially ‘It Don’t Move Me.’ Tell us a little bit about writing your newest album, keeping it more acoustic and organic and how your sound has continued to live and grow.

JE: This time we actually had a master plan. The key though was ‘less is more’ and we forced each other to take away all the things that weren’t necessary. We produced the album together and we wanted to create a modern sound but with a classic feeling.

We worked on the acoustic sounds so they would sound electronic and we created electronic sounds that sound acoustic. We sort of created our own world of sounds and then we worked a lot trying to find a special and tasteful suit for each song. And (as always when we make music) the album turned out to be a mixture of all kinds of stuff.

Whistling has seemed to work for you in the past. Have you ever felt like whistling on any other tracks besides ‘Young Folks?’

JE: People might not notice it, but there is whistling on a lot of our songs. Go back and check: ‘Amsterdam,’ ‘Objects of my affection,’ ‘Ancient Curse’ and ‘Needles and Pills,’ for instance.

You just released your fifth full-length album, you’re on a major tour across the U.S. and you’re celebrating your 10th anniversary as a band, but what else is on the horizon for Peter Bjorn and John?

JE: This tour will be the last North American tour for a long, long while. We might be back in 2011. Now we are gonna start rehearsing new stuff and a new album might be ready after the summer. So come to the concert in Tucson and give us a hug!

Is there anything you’d like to say to Tucson?

JE: We love the desert and we love dessert.

Peter Bjorn and John play the Rialto on Tuesday, Nov. 17. Opening the show is fellow Swedes El Perro Del Mar. The show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $23.