Interview

Per Gessle on Carina Bergfeldt’s talk show on SVT

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Per was a guest on Carina Bergfeldt’s talk show on SVT on 21st October. Actresses Lena Olin and Tora Hallström were the first two guests on the program, then Mr. G was the fourth, right after opera singer and actress Marianne Mörck.

You can watch the episode online HERE all around the world! Per’s part starts 27m 37s in.

Carina introduces PG as a music icon and before he enters, there is footage from his career shown, starting with him singing Flickorna på TV2 cut from Parkliv! 1981. Fun fact is that Parkliv! was directed by Tora’s father and Lena’s husband, famous director Lasse Hallström. Then comes a shortcut to an old TV report where the reporter tells Per „your lyrics are very much about sex” and Mr. G’s reaction is „well… are they?” Then comes a little Roxette and part of the news from 1989 that they became No.1 in the US. Per says „one of our dreams was to become No.1 in the US. That we have achieved.” From Sweden only ABBA and Björn Skifs succeeded with that before Roxette. Then comes a snippet from PG Roxette’s The Loneliest Girl In The World video.

Carina welcomes Per and the audience is very happy to have him on the show. Earlier on the program they talked about riders, lists of requirements. Carina is curious if Per can beat bathtub and Thai food. Mr. G says he is bad at riders. He doesn’t have any riders anymore, but rather anti-riders, what shouldn’t be in the dressing room. There shouldn’t be candy, because he would eat it up. He has no requirements at all, really. In the past, he tested the organizers a bit, if they could obtain expensive wines, but only one of them could do that, in Switzerland. Mr. G is still good friends with him. [Everyone laughs.] Carina says that considering them being world stars with Roxette, they could have asked such things as Madonna, e.g. repainting the dressing room. PG says they didn’t ask for such unnecessary things. „We came from small towns”, he says. Marianne pats Per on the shoulder and says „good boy”. [Everyone laughs.] Carina asks if Gyllene Tider had any list of requirements. Per’s reply is a no.

Carina informs that Gyllene Tider goes on tour again and asks Per how many times they will retreat. Mr. G tells 2019 was the last time, but then came this terrible pandemic and he had some second thoughts. It felt natural to go on with this band. He missed them. Per started writing songs and felt they sounded like GT songs. It’s a fantastic, lovely band. „I’m so happy that we are still alive and kicking. It’s wonderful.”

Carina says GT is a „democratic band” and is curious what it means. „It means that everyone agrees that I decide.” [Everyone laughs.] Carina says „so you are the president” and Per says „exactly”. Per says they have been working together for so long and they try to make decisions together. No one can be replaced and everyone has to have their say.

Carina asks if Per is as democratic at home as in the band. PG first thinks and then suddenly says of course he is. Haha. „When does your wife get annoyed with you?”, Carina asks Mr. G. Per says „often, I think”. He is quite busy and obsessed with his work. He works a lot. He is in his own little bubble and Åsa says he is giving birth all the time. He carries on his songs and projects and he is his work in a way. It has always been so.

Carina asks Per if he is fond of order and tidiness. Mr. G says he is, it’s good. Marianne asks Per if he is virgin. Per replies no and asks back if she is. Marianne explains she meant Virgo in astrology. Per laughs and says he understood that [everyone laughs] and says he is a Capricorn. Marianne thanks for the answer and explains it’s a sign of Virgos that they are cleaning and cleaning and deal with theatre an music. Marianne is a Virgo. Tora is Gemini, a typical Gemini according to her mom. Marianne asks for changing topic. Carina asks Per how we should imagine order in his home. PG explains he has always liked order and tidiness around him. Vinyls are in alphabetical order, photo books are here, music books are there, magazines are over there, in order. Yellow shirts are here, white shirts are there. Carina asks if Per is cleaning all the time. „Absolutely”, he replies. He always checks if there is a ring left by the glass on the table and he cleans it. Marianne asks Per if he has her number. Per says he got it earlier. [Everyone laughs.] Marianne also explains what order means to her. While she says she can find Christmas greetings from 1997 under her dining table, because she never sets the table (because she doesn’t have guests) and she eats in bed or in the bathtub, Per is not impressed. Haha. Marianne shares the info that on the other side, she prepares the tax declaration in advance and she makes notes of taxi bills with date, how long the way was and to where she went and why she was using a taxi. Here Per nods approvingly. Marianne says she shouldn’t share this info, but she has a collection of almost 40,000 Kinder egg figures and she will sort them out when she gets old. She thinks it’s fun. [Everyone laughs.]

Carina asks Per about what he is collecting. Mr. G says he is not a collector, but over the years there has been a lot of stuff and he has a collection of everything from records to guitars. He is getting old, he says. Carina is curious how many guitars Per has. He replies „way too many”. He doesn’t know, maybe a hundred. Carina says a little bird told her that he has exactly 125. „Was it my wife?”, Per asks. Carina tells she knows they are sorted in a very well organized way with photo and text. Per confirms. He says you have to keep track of your stuff. [Everyone laughs.] Guitars mean a lot to him. Some of them mean more than the others. He has written a lot of songs on them. Each guitar has its own personality and sounds in a special way. He has his favourites of course, which he plays every day, but others he doesn’t even know they exist.

Carina says she has understood that Per knows his life through his records, so she has prepared a test with some single sleeves. She wants to know what year it was released and what guitar was played on it. Per is happy to do the test. First is Joyride. It was released in 1991, recorded in 1990. It wasn’t Per playing the guitar, it was Jonas Isacsson and he played a red Arvidson guitar. Carina asks how life was in 1991. Per tells they had their first big world tour in 1991-1992. Those were crazy times, an 18-month long tour, 2 million people came to see them. Years 1988-1995 for Roxette were absolutely amazing. They travelled around the world several times and it was awesome to be part of the success.

The next sleeve shown is Neverending Love. It’s 1986, the first Roxette single. It’s not him playing the guitar, it was MP from Gyllene Tider and it was certainly a Stratocaster. Per explains he doesn’t play that much on the albums. [Everyone laughs.] Carina is curious about the story behind Neverending Love. Mr. G tells he was asked to write a song for Pernilla Wahlgren who had just been signed by a new record label and he wrote a song called Svarta glas. The record label refused to use it, which then felt tough, but Per translated it into English and that became Roxette’s first hit. Everyone is impressed and cheers Per. Mr. G thanks for that.

Carina asks the others if they have a special favourite Roxette or GT song. Lena points at Per and says they are approximately the same age. She says one of her favourites is „Jag vill känna din kropp emot min” [När vi två blir en]. It hits right in one’s romance and heart. Lena tells when she and Per once met in New York, Lena told Per she loved Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång). It also hit her right in the heart and it really touched her. There are many other songs, but these two are her favourites. Marianne asks Per if it was him who wrote a song that he wants to sleep with the girls on TV2. [Per’s facial expression is priceless here. Haha.] Carina corrects Marianne: „turn on” the girls on TV2. Marianne says she said it in an older way. [Everyone laughs.] Per also laughs and confirms it was him. „What were you thinking when you wrote that?”, Marianne asks. „It was kind of nice”, Per replies. „Maybe you meant to turn the TV on?”, Marianne asks. „Yes, that was the case.”, Per replies. „Is that a post rationalization?”, Marianne asks. Per replies: „Absolutely not. It’s your fantasy that carries you away.” [Everyone laughs.] „Is that right? You’re getting a little shy, I see.”, Marianne says. [PG’s facial expression is priceless here too. Everyone laughs.] Per says „it’s tough”.

Carina continues with Per’s new album under PG Roxette. Per goes on with Roxette without Marie. Carina asks Per what Marie would have thought about the album. Per thinks she would have liked it, because it’s kind of a cousin to Look Sharp! and Joyride. The style and the sound are very much the late ’80s, early ’90s. Marie really loved that kind of music. Carina asks how it was to make this record without Marie. „At first I didn’t want to do it, but then time passed by and I felt I wanted to go on with Roxette. But it doesn’t work to replace Marie, so I tried to find another form. I used my own voice, but also worked together with the two girls who were in Roxette’s band during the past 8 years when we were on tour. They have taken a step forward and sung when needed. I haven’t thought much more than trying to make a good Roxette record.”

Carina tells Good Karma was the last album Per recorded with Marie before she passed away in 2019. Carina is curious about how the recording session was. Per explains it was complicated. Marie was in a quite bad condition, but at the same time it was awesome that she was an Amazon in the way that she wanted to work all the time. They didn’t stop touring until 2016 and the album was recorded in 2015. It was an amazing session, but it wasn’t easy. Carina asks Per how he and Marie talked about life back then. Mr. G says when they talked about life, they rather talked about the past, the fantastic journey they did together. All their adult life they have dedicated to Roxette. They went through so many things together. They always felt like siblings, the same way as them 5 are like brothers in Gyllene Tider. When you go through so many things together, it’s like that. It’s an amazing feeling to be able to have that relationship in good or bad. Carina asks what Marie has thaught Per. Per says it’s a tough question. Marie gave him self confidence. She always made sure that what Per does gets a little bit better than it is.

A new tour is in sight, a new album is coming, as well as a Gyllene Tider movie and a Roxette musical. A lot is happening. Carina thanks Per for coming on the show.

Mr. G stays sitting on Carina’s sofa with all other 3 guests until the end of the program, so you can see him during the talk with the fifth guest, soccer player Pawel Cibicki and also watch him enjoying music while Hannes feat. Waterbaby play one song live.

Stills are from the TV show.

Hallandsposten interview with Per Gessle about Gyllene Tider’s new album and tour in 2023

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Jan-Owe Wikström did an interview with Per for Hallandsposten after the news about Gyllene Tider’s 2023 comeback came out. It all started with a newly purchased guitar, Mr. G says.

I bought a new guitar just over a year ago and when I do that, plug it into the amplifier and start playing, it usually automatically turns into a new song. And this one definitely screamed for Gyllene Tider.

In connection with the upcoming shooting of the Gyllene Tider movie, which is planned to be released in 2024, Per, MP, Göran, Anders and Micke Syd have also met more often than usual. Per told the guys he had written two damn good GT songs and wondered if they should record them. No one said no, so it spurred him on and he wrote ten more.

Almost a year ago, Per and MP went to the Tits & Ass Studio and recorded them. Then in spring the rest of the band joined the recording in Sweetspot Studio in Harplinge. The result is: twelve songs that Per is very proud of and satisfied with.

It’s catchy, uptempo, 2.30 and breathes vinyl and it’s the best GT record we’ve made. A completely different energy compared to “Samma skrot och korn”, which was made to play live.

The previous album was recorded in twelve days at Studios La Fabrique outside Saint-Rémy de Provence, down on the French Riviera. Now it was on home soil with the band themselves as producers.

The difference was that back then everything should be ready when we left. Here, we have been able to listen to and change and screw things up because we own the studio ourselves.

After all, everything is so easy with this band. No prestige, no egos but – magic. I can’t put my finger on it, but Anders and Micke play together in a different way than with other musicians, I sing in a different way in Gyllene Tider, MP’s guitar sounds a certain way, Göran’s organ… yes, everything becomes Gyllene Tider.

The record was ready in spring 2022 and it will be released in spring 2023. And yes, the title of it is Hux flux. Just like one of the songs’ title and the name of the upcoming summer tour.

While Per already during the recording of Samma skrot och korn in France felt that the band was too good to stop even then and the same feeling emerged during the tour in three of the other members, Micke Syd was adamant that this would be the dignified farewell. Per explains they respected and bought it and also thought it would be like that.

But while I never want to recklessly put myself in a hopeless or possibly fatal situation and I never say never, I understand how Micke thought. He is a good, spiritual guy who lives in the moment and then felt that we would finish on top when everyone was alive and in good health. At the same time, Micke is the one who is out the most and plays GT songs in various contexts, so when the record and tour came up, he was almost the first to say yes.

Per also believes that the corona pandemic probably affected everyone more than you think.

Yes, I can only speak for myself, but it gave you a different perspective on everything. You are more thoughtful, appreciate what you have and it became a different way of thinking, a different pace. Like, for example, my acoustic tour. I don’t think it would have come off otherwise. Not now anyway.

On 7th July next summer, Gyllene Tider will be at Brottet in Halmstad again for the premiere of the Hux flux tour. They booked the venues last summer because nowadays you have to be out in good time. Partly for the ticket sales vis-a-vis other artists, partly so that the venues are free.

If Malin-My Wall and Dea Norberg will join the band like the last tour, Per doesn’t want to reveal.

And of course there might be more than one concert at home in Halmstad and maybe the grand finale won’t be in Ullevi in Gothenburg.

Of course, it depends on how big the interest is, and then the neighbouring countries will come into the picture as well. But we are heading towards a recession, so the goal is for the tickets to be as cheap as possible, even though the costs are triple. Rather that people can afford it and that it becomes a public celebration.

And this time the word farewell is not mentioned…

Per Gessle interview about PG Roxette on Göteborgs-Posten

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Per Gessle had an interview day in Halmstad and replied to Johan Lindqvist’s (Göteborgs-Posten) questions in a video call. Roxette is back with a new single, an upcoming album and certainly also a tour. There are the initials PG in front of the band name to indicate that this is something different than it was before.

For Per Gessle, it’s an obvious choice to continue. He sees it as managing Roxette’s legacy and mentions the Bohemian Rhapsody movie about Queen, Fleetwood Mac’s sudden TikTok hit with old Dreams and ABBA’s project with Mamma Mia! and the new avatar show in London as inspiring ways to keep old bands and songs relevant.

Per says:

75% of everyone who listens to Roxette on Spotify is under 45, which is absolutely fantastic. I’m proud of what we have created and of course want the music to live on.

He continues:

Roxette is thirty years of my life, so it would be strange if I didn’t want to continue. What is important to point out is that it’s definitely not about trying to replace Marie. It’s not possible.

PG says that British journalists asked if, for example, Belinda Carlisle was relevant for the job as a Roxette singer. She wasn’t. It’s Helena Josefsson and Dea Norberg who share vocals together with Per. There are also other well-known Roxette musicians in the band: Jonas Isacsson, Clarence Öfwerman, Magnus Börjeson, Christoffer Lundquist.

Who is missing is drummer Pelle Alsing who passed away in December 2020. It’s drum machines that do the work on the upcoming album, Pop-Up Dynamo! which will be released in September. It will be PG Roxette’s debut album, but it’s clearly inspired by Roxette’s biggest records from the past.

I wanted to write a positive uptempo record but it’s the most difficult thing there is as a songwriter at my age. When you’ve been doing this for so long, you simply know too much and have already used all the tricks in the book.

Per continues:

A really good pop song should come by itself, it’s not possible to sit down and write a “Dressed For Success” or a “Joyride”.

After all, Per Gessle picked up the pace and flow and when the first songs were written, they continued with trying to produce the music so that the new record would sound like a sibling to Look Sharp! and Joyride. Clarence Öfwerman and Magnus Börjeson were able to bring out suitable sounds from the latter’s collection of synths from the ’80s and ’90s.

Per, who is excited about how it turned out, says:

It may sound like 1991, but there must be a modern touch. It should be heard that it has been done now.

He doesn’t count on commercial success:

It’s my kind of pop music, take it or leave it. I really don’t expect a new US No. 1.

The fact that Roxette, or rather PG Roxette, is no longer at a level where football stadiums are sold out also gives Per Gessle artistic freedom.

As it seems right now, he is leaning towards taking down Roxette’s joyride for a quieter ride, a continuation of the acoustic tour that started out as a test at Hotel Tylösand last summer and then grew into a sold-out concert hall tour across Sweden.

Per says:

It’s one of the funniest things I’ve been through. I didn’t really feel comfortable at all playing acoustically and talking so much to the audience, but I dared and it turned out great. I am so proud.

He continues:

I’ve learned that I can trust what I have done all my life. It may sound strange considering that I was playing at Ullevi, but you are really walking the plank when you do acoustic gigs.

Per Gessle says that during the concerts he discovered things in his own old songs he hadn’t thought of before. Not least how the Gyllene Tider lyrics he wrote as a 20-year-old got different meaning when the arrangement of the music was changed and they were sung by the 63-year-old man.

So instead of playing in half-size ice hockey rinks, it’s appealing to do the upcoming PG Roxette tour in an intimate format.

We will decide before midsummer, but it would be completely magical to play songs like “Queen Of Rain”, “The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye” and “Things Will Never Be The Same” with lap steel and double bass.

Per Gessle interview and “The Loneliest Girl In The World” premiere on P4 Extra

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Svjetlana Pastuhovic did an interview with Per Gessle on Swedish Radio on 2nd June. PG was guest of the day on P4 Extra and he talked about PG Roxette, the debut single, Marie, Roxette, the Roxette musical, Gyllene Tider and songwriting. The interview starts at 28:39 into the program. Listen HERE!

Svjetlana welcomes Per and introduces him as a small town guy who showed great interest in music at a very early age. His nerdiness led him to success and worldwide fame. Now he returns to one of his biggest successes, Svjetlana says. Per thanks for having him on the show. Svjetlana is uncertain, maybe „return” is not the right word when it comes to PG Roxette. Per tells one can say it’s a new chapter in Roxette’s history.

PG can be pronounced the Swedish way or if you want to make it sound cool, the English way, Per says. He laughs. Svjetlana asks Per how HE pronounces it. PG then pronounces the initials the Swedish way. The debut single is out the next day (3rd June), but Swedish Radio got the chance to play it for the first time on radio and they are very happy about it. Svjetlana asks Per how he feels about it. Per tells the whole PG Roxette project is a new chapter, as he already mentioned and it’s based on him and the old Roxette band. He brought in several people who helped him e.g. with the singing and production. It took about a year to record the album and it was much fun. He looks very much forward to release it. Per got very good response from those around the world whom he already showed the songs. It feels great.

Here they premiere the The Loneliest Girl In The World. Svjetlana tells she becomes happy when she hears this song. Per says it’s nice to hear. He tells it’s an ear candy. The album comes out in September. Mr. G tells he tried to write an uptempo album and it’s a challenge to write such pop songs. Especially when you are getting older, because it’s something that you do very easily when you are 20. It becomes harder when you get older, because you have written so much and you become too sophisticated in your writing when you know all the tricks. Svjetlana is curious what Per means by this, if it means you get more serious when you get older. PG tells pop music builds very much on instant energy and it’s just there when you are younger. When you have written hundreds of songs, you learned all the crafts very well and it’s hard to write these 3-chord pop songs when you get a bit older. Per thinks Svjetlana probably has also noticed it regarding other artists that the finest and fastest songs they wrote in their twenties. Svjetlana asks PG if he was struggling with this a bit. Per tells he had the idea that he would make a sibling to Roxette’s albums they recorded at the end of the 80’s, beginning of the 90’s, so he tried to think about how he was working back then. Then he sat down and spent time with writing. Actually, it went very well. The Loneliest Girl In The World was the third or fourth song he has written that immediately felt it had a great chorus.

Svjetlana wants to know if it was an obvious choice to go on as PG Roxette. Per tells it wasn’t obvious at all, because it was really tough when Marie passed away in 2019, so he didn’t really know what to do with Roxette. He knew there is the legacy of Roxette that someone has to take care of. Also, he devoted 30 years of his life to Roxette and he has written almost all the Roxette songs and it would have felt weird not to go on with Roxette in a way. He has the ambition to take PG Roxette on tour and play the old Roxette songs. There is a huge amount of people around the world who still like those songs.

Svjetlana tells Marie was ill for many years and she is curious if Marie and Per talked about the future of Roxette. Per asks if Svjetlana means about the future without Marie. Svjetlana says yes, because Marie was ill for a long time, however, when she got better, they went on tour together again. Per tells Marie was ill for 17 years before she passed away. She never really got better, but despite the doctors’ advice, she went on tour between 2010 and 2016. It was fantastic that she did that. In 2018 Per went on a European tour that was called Per Gessle’s Roxette and Marie had no problem with that. She thought like Per, that someone has to take good care of the legacy. If you look at other artists who kept their audience, they worked actively, e.g. Queen with the Bohemian Rhapsody movie or ABBA with the Mamma Mia! musical and movies and now also with the Abbatars in London. Per thinks you have to work actively to keep the legacy alive. You just have to let it go on and who else could take better care of the legacy than Per himself. It’s not about replacing Marie with another singer – even if Per worked together with several female singers on this record. Dea Norberg and Helena Josefsson appear the most on this album. Both of them worked with Roxette as backing vocalists on tours. But there are other female singers as well, so it has Per and his songs in focus.

Svjetlana asks how it was to look back on the 80’s and 90’s, those crazy times when they were touring so much with Roxette. Mr. G says it was crazy indeed. They had their peak for 8 years between 1988 and 1995. They were touring all around the world, they had 4 US No. 1s and they were the most played artists for 3 years in a row. It was a fantastic period. Svjetlana asks how they could cope with their success. PG tells when you are in the middle of it, you don’t think about that. You are working, you go on. He was anyway triggered by it back then. When they toured with and promoted Look Sharp! he wrote Joyride, when they toured with Joyride he wrote their next album, Crash! Boom! Bang!, etc. Svjetlana notices that Per wanted to do more and more. She asks how he felt about it back in the days. PG says he travelled all around the world, but didn’t really see much. He was mainly in hotel rooms and at the concerts. When you are in such busy period, you just can’t make it. After the pandemic it’s fun to travel to cities he knows he had been to before, but doesn’t remember much. When you wanted to keep everything at the same high level as they did their things, you had to work 24 hours a day and stay focused and keep yourself in top shape. It’s like what sportsmen do. They enjoyed being up on stage every night and perform to tons of people who loved what they were doing. That’s the best reward ever. It’s a fantastic job Per has, he says. Even if it was tough at times, it only has positive sides.

Svjetlana says it’s almost unreal what happened with Roxette abroad, all their success. She asks if there is melancholy besides pride when Per thinks back at those times and if such thing can happen again. Per says it can’t happen again, because we live in different times now. It’s 30 years of his life he has devoted to Roxette and he is very proud of Roxette. As he already said, when you are thirty, you are at a certain stage in your life, now that he is 63, he is at another stage. He of course hopes that the new album works well, but it’s not the most important, it’s not why he made it. He made it because he wanted to have fun and he tries to follow his way as a songwriter and artist. He is doing several things at the same time. He has just finished an acoustic tour in Sweden with 31 gigs, they had a Gyllene Tider tour earlier, many other things.

Here Svjetlana plays What’s She Like?, which she knows is a special song for Per. After playing it, she tells how wonderfully Marie sings. Per agrees, she sings fantastically. Svjetlana asks if this song will appear in the Roxette musical. Per laughs and says it’s a very exciting project. There is a very nice script that the musical will be built on, a book written by Jane Fallon. Per thinks that Roxette’s music matches very well in such a conetxt. There are so many nuances in the Roxette song catalogue, one could use really many of them. It’s gonna be tricky to match the songs to the story though. What’s She Like? could be one of the songs used, they both think.

Svjetlana tells Roxette sold more than 80 million records, they had an international career, there are millions of Swedish crowns on their bank account. She is curious what is Per’s driving force still. PG tells it’s about finding your place in life. He is super grateful that he could work with music fulltime, writing songs and playing them since he was in his teens. It’s not just a way he is following all the time, it’s not like he has plans that in 5 years he has to reach this or that. He has a lot of ideas and tries to implement them as well as he can. Svjetlana says, so it’s not fame, not money, not such things. Per says it mattered when he was young, e.g. when they started Gyllene Tider. When they played at schools, they dreamed about playing in Stockholm or Gothenburg, when an album became gold, they wanted a platinum, when they had a platinum, they wanted to have a double platinum. That’s how people work. It was the same with Roxette. The idea at the beginning was that they wanted to go abroad, because he himself felt he covered Sweden with Gyllene Tider’s success. But when Marie and Per talked about abroad, they meant Belgium, Germany or the Netherlands. Or maybe playing in Copenhagen. Svjetlana laughs and asks „no South America or China in your thoughts?” Per laughs and says no and also not the success that they had in the US.

Regarding keeping the legacy alive, Svjetlana asks Per if he is doing it because he thinks Roxette would be forgotten. Per says he knows there is a fantastic power in Roxette’s music. Also in his Swedish music. It’s not that he thinks that „oh, maybe in 30 years we would be forgotten”. He wants to experience it again, to be standing on stage, singing his songs and feel the communication with his audience. It’s the most awesome feeling. The acoustic tour he did was one of the most amazing things he did so far. It was so intimate in those small theatres in an acoustic arrangement. Sometimes it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. In certain songs he played only one string at a time, because it was so quiet. It was awesome that people were sitting there and listening. It was also fantastic that he played some old Gyllene Tider songs in a totally new arrangement. Lyrics of songs like Ljudet av ett annat hjärta that he wrote when he was 22, had a totally different meaning, both  for him and for everyone else, now that he sang it as a 63-year-old. There is another thing in there what wasn’t there in Gyllene Tider in 1981. There is a different energy as well, but the core of the song changes. And it also feels good for Per as a songwriter that the time goes by and the lyric becomes a different thing. It’s the same with What’s She Like? When he wrote it, he wrote it for Marie, because he knew that when Marie sings it, it will have a totally different meaning when he sings it. If he sang it, it would have been What’s He Like? That’s awesome in music. You can change it all the time.

Svjetlana tells she asked people about Per and most of them said he is an ordinary guy. She asks Per if that’s correct. Per says he doesn’t know what „ordinary guy” means and it’s hard for him to judge, but he is happy that people think so, because he doesn’t think he is an unusual guy, even if he has had an unusual life. He had much luck in many ways, but he is also very ambitious. His family and friends often say that he is working too much, but that’s in his personality and he knows you have to work much to get to where you want to be. He is not talking only about commercial success, but also about his writing. He wants to do his best all the time, otherwise he can’t sleep well at night. He laughs. Svjetlana notices Per has high expectations of himself. Per agrees. Svjetlana says the other thing people mentioned was they were wondering how Per keeps himself in shape. PG says he tries to pay attention to what he eats. When he was a kid, he looked quite like a meatball at school. That was always his Achilles heel, but especially during the past few years he tried to shape up. Svjetlana asks if Per is training. He quickly reacts he isn’t at all. He is rather walking and listening to things he is working with or tries to hatch an idea and to find answers to all the weird and stupid questions about his projects. So he sticks to his headphones, he is antisocial and he is in his own bubble then.

As a last question, Svjetlana asks Per about Gyllene Tider. PG says it’s a nice little band. Svjetlana thinks it’s a damn good band. Per says it’s also something he is very proud of. He is very proud of them being good friends and that they have fun when they meet. He can’t promise anything, but he hopes that there will be more Gyllene Tider in the future. But he doesn’t know anything yet.

Svjetlana thanks Per for coming to the show, PG also thanks for having him.

Aftonbladet interview with Per Gessle about PG Roxette

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As Per Magnusson from Aftonbladet informs, Per Gessle had just been in Halmstad City to leave a picture for framing before the interview. He had just got back from London where he saw the Abbatars (ABBA Voyage – and thought the first twenty minutes were absolutely fantastic) and met his British record company (which is very enthusiastic about his new music). He also discussed the upcoming Roxette musical with author Jane Fallon (who is Ricky Gervais’ partner).

But above all, Per is in full swing to start a new chapter in Roxette’s life. Before he has come to a decision, he had spent lots of months staggering back and forth about what he would do next.

I’ve been thinking for a long time about what I should do with Roxette. It’s not an easy question and there is no obvious answer, because Roxette is so much the bond between Marie and me. But I’ve been writing these songs my whole life. Leaving them behind and not using the legacy feels very strange. But replacing Marie with another girl and starting a new duo has never been on the agenda.

Per Gessle began writing songs that eventually ended up with Clarence Öfwerman, Roxette’s producer and Magnus Börjeson, bass player in Roxette. The music became like a sibling to the records “Look Sharp!” and “Joyride”. The rest of Roxette’s live band came in: Jonas Isacsson, Christoffer Lundquist, Helena Josefsson and Dea Norberg. The result is PG Roxette, a development of Roxette based on the frontman. The first taster was released on 3rd June. In the 3:01-long single, “The Loneliest Girl In The World”, it feels like Per Gessle has released all the wounds and sad memories. Just another classic pop song, one last time.

When such a chorus is born, you become so happy. The most difficult thing that exists nowadays is to write uptempo songs. It’s probably because you have used all the tricks already and it’s hard to surprise yourself. It’s easier to write a sophisticated ballad, it’s more where you are in life. But writing a clever three-chord song is tricky if you’re not 22. I already thought so when I was 35.

Per Magnusson is wondering if one can even make such happy and uncomplicated pop music in 2022. At the same time there is a bittersweet undertone that goes all the way back to “Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång”.

It’s fun that you say that, because there are many who have said the same thing. The production is very ’89-’91. But the presentation feels modern, I think. What is retro is my style of writing songs. Almost no one writes pop music that way anymore. The album is übercatchy, but doesn’t sound like anything on Spotify’s top 50 – and I think that’s good.

Aftonbladet asks if Per can tell anything more about “Pop-Up Dynamo!” coming in September.

I won’t reveal too much, but there are more singers on the album that fit into the context. In the end there will be eleven songs. It’s same as the single. Classic Roxette, just like we worked on “The Look”. There is an acoustic song, but otherwise it’s full blast. I’m very happy with this record.

Aftonbladet is curious if it was a difficult decision to make the album without Marie.

Yes, it was difficult to make the decision to take the step. But I hope to be able to play Roxette songs around the world more times. Of course, I can play twenty-five Roxette songs and call myself Per Gessle, but the brand is still Roxette. It feels strange not to use something that I’ve been involved in and built since 1986. But of course, there is nothing I want more than that Marie was involved and sang on this record. On the other hand, I know how difficult it was for her to work with “Good Karma”, the last Roxette record. It is as it is. What can you do? But sure, it’s hard.

Per Magnusson tells Per Gessle is extremely productive as a songwriter and artist. The projects have taken turns throughout his career. He is curious what PG’s driving force is.

I actually don’t know, it’s an interesting question. I just like playing pop music. I just got home from these thirty-one gigs we did acoustically. It was great to sit down and feel the power of, e.g., “Juni, juli, augusti”. Many of these songs mean so much to me that I just have to do it. That’s me. There is no direct driving force, I just can’t help it.

Aftonbladet wants to know if it’s more about the creative process than a fifth Billboard No.1 nowadays.

I want everything to be as big as possible, but it must be based on it being fun. The way Roxette succeeded is completely incomprehensible. But I have no idea how it happened. Therefore, I can’t try to do it again. If you want to do music for a long time, you have to do different things and stop staring blindly at old successes.

Per Magnusson is curious what the dream scenario looks like with this project.

I hope to be able to gather the whole band and play live someday. Now, unfortunately, Pelle Alsing, our old drummer, also passed away. Huge loss for all of us. But it would be fun to tour for real. These songs still have their power. It would be great fun to do a world tour of course. Damn, I’m young!

In the article Per also tells he has no special plans for the summer. He will probably spend most of his time in Halmstad.

Album image “Pop-Up Dynamo!” PG Roxette. Photo by Fredrik Etoall.