CBB30 – RoxBlog interview with Per Gessle – “If you’re lucky enough to have hits, you should cherish the moment, because it might never come again.”

Roxette’s most amazing 5th album, Crash! Boom! Bang! celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The album was released on 9th April and I wanted to do an interview with Per in April, but so many things came in between that we postponed it. Now the time has come and we could Zoom in for a chat about the CBB era. As usual, we touched on other projects as well, especially Joyride – The Musical that premieres on 6th September, but also his upcoming Swedish album and of course, there is a lot of talking about his songwriting. If you are strong enough to read it until the very end, you will get to know some details about the CBB30 anniversary release as well.

We met via Zoom on 20th August and Mr. G joined the meeting 5 minutes late. But he had the perfect excuse.

Per Gessle: – Hey, I’m sorry to keep you waiting!

Patrícia Peres: – Hej, no worries!

PG: – I was a good boy, I was buying flowers for my wife, because we have our wedding day tomorrow.

PP: – Aaaw, you’re very nice!

PG: – I do my best sometimes. Haha.

PP: – How are you doing?

PG: – I’m good. It’s busy. I’ve been working in the studio a bit and I’ve been going to Malmö quite a lot. I’ll be there tomorrow again for more rehearsals. What else? I’m recording a new video next week for another single from the new Swedish album.

PP: – Oh, so there will be another single.

PG: – I have one song, I won’t tell you that much about it, but it’s my favourite song on the album. It’s just an amazing song. Once in a while there is one song that means something special to you, like “Vid hennes sida” from “Samma skrot och korn”, for instance, which is my favourite song, or “Tycker om när du tar på mej” from “Mazarin”. It’s just my favourite song from the new album.

PP: – It sounds very exciting. I know you like to look into the future rather than looking back on the past, but it’s always so interesting to hear your thoughts on your albums in retrospect. “Crash! Boom! Bang!” turned 30 in April. You were after “Joyride” and “Tourism”. How do you remember the time when Roxette’s 5th album was still just an idea? What was your ambition when you started writing songs for this album?

PG: – I think I had big big big ambitions for this album, because I was really on a roll. I’ve always been that kind of person who, when something gets successful, or I get lots of self-confidence from people liking what I do, then I just want to do more of that. More work, actually. Marie was the opposite, because as soon as we got really, really big and toured all over the world, she wanted us to take it easy a bit, relax and enjoy life, blah, blah, blah. And I thought that was rubbish. That’s why I convinced… or forced everyone to do the “Tourism” album. Everyone was looking forward to touring the world, checking out all these beautiful countries and cities, but I told them that we’re going to go into the studios in Buenos Aires or this nightclub in Sao Paulo or wherever to do recordings. And they said, no, no, no, we don’t want to do that. Anyway, I got my way. That was a brilliant idea. And so for “Crash”, I was just really focused and did a lot of really focused writing. Some of my best songs are on that album. “What’s She Like? ” is a great song for me. [He has a note open on his computer, so he is checking it every now and then.] “Vulnerable” is a great song. It was in my head for a couple of years. I’d never bothered to make a demo, but I knew it by heart.

PP: – If we start with the sleeve that gives a face to the album, what does it tell about this record?

PG: – Well, we just wanted to do something that was really big and you could use it on a production on stage as well. So this checkered flag idea came up. That particular picture was one of my favourite pictures, but we couldn’t really use it, because I didn’t have any light in my face. So they had to work on the light in my face.

PP: – So you put it on the sleeve. Haha.

PG: – Haha. There are so many pictures from that session, but it took forever to paint that.

PP: – [I show the picture on the back of the booklet.] It’s a very cool pic too.

PG: – In those days, everything was larger than life. So it was like no budgets, any crazy idea deserved to be tried out. But it turned out to be a great sleeve. Looking back at the album, I think it’s a little bit too long. I think there are some crap songs on there, which I don’t like. “I Love The Sound Of Crashing Guitars” is a much better lyric than the music. I think that for me, that takes down the whole album. The title song is a beautiful one.

PP: – You recorded the album in London, Stockholm, Capri and Halmstad for 11 months, between February 1993 and January 1994. Why did you start the recordings in London and how did Capri come into sight?

PG: – I don’t know. I think we just wanted to change scenery and change studios. I think we were doing “Almost Unreal” for the Super Mario movie. It was actually made for another movie, the Hocus Pocus movie. So I think we did that in England and I guess we just felt comfortable hanging out in London for a while. When I think about that album, I think about Italy and Capri. We were there for a month or five weeks. That gave the whole album this particular vibe.

For me, it is an album where I had a lot of self-confidence as a writer. So it’s a little bit more sophisticated. For me, when I look back on “Look Sharp!”, “Joyride” and “Crash”, “Look Sharp!” is like I’m young or almost young anyway. “Joyride” is just a massive album. Every song was supposed to be singles. And on “Crash” I tried to get into being personal and trying to find my style.

PP: – Was it because of that that you started playing even more? I think you play more guitars on this album than before.

PG: – Yeah, I think so. We also expanded the band a bit and we had lots of different players. Christer Jansson played drums as well, and Micke Nord played guitar and Staffan Astner played guitar. [Staffan didn’t play on CBB, but on “Have A Nice Day” and here comes the explanation why he is mentioned.] Lots of people came down to the studio, I think. Sometimes I just mix up the album sessions, you know, I’m talking about something and then suddenly I realize, shit, no, that’s Spain and “Have A Nice Day”.

PP: – You mix up those sunny locations. Haha.

PG: – “Place Your Love” is something that I wanted to sound like my style. Jonas played on that one, but we couldn’t play acoustic guitar together, just the two of us, because we come from totally different schools of guitar playing. So I had to make a choice. It’s either going to be Jonas or it’s going to be me. And I chose me, because Jonas did all the stuff on “Watercolours In The Rain”, for instance. So this was like a new thing for me.

PP: – And how was the recording team in Capri? You were under one roof for a long time.

PG: – Yeah, so to speak. We had this fantastic studio. We had different bungalows and we had dinners together. We had the whole place to ourselves. So we worked, we tried different settings. I remember we tried playing acoustic guitars in the garden to see how that sounded, with no acoustic rooms around us. We just tried out different things, which was very inspiring. But at the end of the day, it’s all about the songs, all about the material. It’s 15 tracks on this album. If you get rid of five, you get a great album.

PP: – Nooo, it’s a perfect length! The album is very guitar-driven, but besides that, there are also noises of nature, as well as drums and strings. It has a very detailed sound. When you listen to it now, what do you think about the sound?

PG: – It sounds very expensive, haha, because it’s a lot of recordings and then re-recordings and trying things out in the studio instead of trying things out when you make demos. That’s the way we worked in those days. [He looks at his note on the computer.] There were leftovers, the bonus tracks on the CD. “Almost Unreal”, which is from the movie, and “Crazy About You”, which I thought was amazing. I thought that should be a single.

PP: – Yeah, that would have been the first single. Why did you drop it?

PG: – I never understood that, but we had this voting system. Nobody liked that at all. And “See Me”, I thought was a really beautiful song as well. For some reason, it didn’t make it. And then I think Marie chose “Go To Sleep” instead as the ending track. And I thought “Love Is All” was supposed to be the ending track. I think we closed the gigs with that on tour. I can’t remember, maybe we did.

PP: – You closed the shows with “Go To Sleep”.

PG: – “Love Is All” is a great song. It’s very simple, but very nice. It’s got a very interesting melody, but it’s too long. Come on! We’re not Pink Floyd. Haha.

PP: – Compared to “Joyride”, what is the biggest difference for you on “Crash! Boom! Bang!”?

PG: – Well, like I said, this is a way for me to become a little bit more personal, a little bit more finding my own style. And that is easier said than done. Of course, you have your own style, your own ambitions and you know what you want to achieve as a writer. But as time goes by, you get better and you get more sophisticated. You learn more, so slowly, without really noticing it yourself, you become a different writer. “The First Girl On The Moon”, for instance, I could never have done that on “Look Sharp! “. I was ready to write it for “Crash”. I think the title track is also beautiful. It’s a classic Roxette big ballad, which is amazing in the musical, by the way. All those ballads are just wow! Because they just fit with this big orchestra and it’s so sentimental.

PP: – Actually, now that you say “Crash! Boom! Bang!” is a classic Roxette ballad, compared to previous ones, it was different. The strings mixed with guitars give a wonderful warm sound to it. Your classic ballads were power ballads back then. So CBB was actually a bit different versus the ballads you did before.

PG: – Yeah. And also, it’s a different beat. I mean, it’s a 6/8 beat.

PP: – This is where I’m lost… Haha.

PG: – Haha. [Here he is humming the beat of CBB, then LTYH to show me the difference.] “Listen To Your Heart” is a normal 4/4. I always liked 6/8. I talked to someone the other day. Maybe it was Albin Lee [Meldau]. He said, he can’t write songs with that beat. And I said, if I have a great melody and it’s that typical 6/8 groove to it, it’s going to be amazing, because I don’t find it hard to do. The hard thing is to make it interesting, but that goes for every song. There are several examples. I just tried to think of other songs in that same beat that I’ve written. It will come to me in 20 minutes or so. I love that song. I think it’s great and Marie is singing it amazingly well.

PP: – This is one of the songs that had a video. The director was Michael Geoghegan, who made three videos for you for this album. Why did you pick him exactly?

PG: – I can’t remember, actually. We were looking for directors and his name came up from the English office, I think. We liked his work, but also, I think it was a political thing that we wanted to have the EMI UK office involved in the project. Sometimes you just do things like that. You let the English decide who’s going to do the remixing or the Americans or the French. Maybe if you have a great French remixer, the French company will get more interested in your project. So we did those sneaky things. It went like that.

PP: – In an early interview you mentioned that “Joyride” was a very American album, while CBB was very British.

PG: – I don’t really think so, actually. I never thought “Joyride” was an American album. I mean, the thing with Roxette, to begin with, is that we don’t really sound American or English. We sound Swedish. And all the players are Swedish. We tried sometimes. With “Listen To Your Heart”, for instance, we did our best to sound American, but if you listen to similar American bands at the time, they sound different. All those bands and Bryan Adams or whatever. So I don’t know. If I said that, I don’t know what I meant by it, because I never really thought so.

PP: – The opening track is “Harleys & Indians (Riders In The Sky)”. A real rock song and just by the title, one would think it’s about motorcycles, but it’s not. What was it inspired by?

PG: – Well, I was really into bikes in those days and I just wrote this track. I thought the whole song was interesting, because it was pretty different. It had a great guitar groove, guitar riff and also the chorus was amazing with Marie and me singing together. So it just sounded like a special song. I can live without it. It’s not a “The Look” for me. It’s not an important song on the album for me. But for me, the best songs are “Crash! Boom! Bang!”, I think “Run To You” became a great song. When I wrote it, it was a little bit more, as you probably heard on the demo, a more classic pop song. This arrangement was Anders Herrlin’s idea, to do this groove and use the strings. So we took away all those big electric guitars and it just turned out to be a nice song.

PP: – Yeah, definitely.

PG: – “Fireworks” I thought was cool, because it had a cool lyric. But it’s too long. Haha.

PP: – Well, the average length of the songs is four minutes on this album. Am I right that the working title of the album was “Fireworks”?

PG: – Yes.

PP: – What made you change it to “Crash! Boom! Bang!”?

PG: – Probably because “Crash! Boom! Bang!” was written later on and it’s an even better title, I think. I thought it was like crash! boom! bang! [here he demonstrates onomatopoeia (a sound written as a word)]. What’s his name? This American pop art guy, you know… that cartoonish style.

PP: – I can’t remember either, but I know you used that style on your archives sleeves. [Roy Lichtenstein style.]

PG: – It’s sort of cool. I can’t really remember why we changed it otherwise, but “Fireworks” is a good title, too. It’s a good title for a greatest hits album.

PP: – Next time! You mentioned “Run To You” and it also had a video, but it was directed by Jonas Åkerlund. The style is very different to the Geoghegan videos, nicely built around the touring life from travelling through soundchecks to being on stage. What did you want the viewers to get to know about you in this video?

PG: – As little as possible, probably. Haha. We had to shoot that video on the road, we didn’t have time to have a big production and go somewhere else. This idea came up to work with Jonas and he did a great job. When you do lots of videos for an album, it’s nice to have different styles. So it was fun. It turned out great.

PP: – I agree. “Sleeping in My Car” was the lead single. You told the story of it that the record label missed a single, so you wrote this one. It all happened very fast, writing the song and recording it, but do you remember how you started it? Was it the music or the title or the lyrics first?

PG: – I was listening a lot to Paul and Linda McCartney’s “Ram” album. And there is a song called “The Back Seat Of My Car” on that album, which I love. I got really pissed off when they said that they couldn’t really hear any single. I thought it was loaded with singles, of course. So I went home and I just came up with this idea and “Sleeping In My Car”.

The next day we booked Studio Two at EMI. We already had Studio One, so someone else had to move out from Studio Two. Haha. We made a demo there, which sounds crap, you probably heard it. Haha. But it was an instant way for me to present a new song to Clarence and everyone. Clarence didn’t like it at all, because he felt like it sounded like a Gyllene Tider track.

I basically handpicked players that I wanted to play on it, and they weren’t Roxette players. It was Mats Persson on percussion, who eventually became a percussion player on the tour. And Pelle Sirén, who used to play with X Models, which was an EMI band as well. He played guitar. I don’t know who played bass. Anders maybe?

PP: – Yeah, I think so.

PG: – So we did it very quickly and I just loved the energy of that song. So it was written and recorded just to show them, here is your single…

At the same time, I must say, it took a very long time to make that album. What also happened was that the British invasion happened. Oasis, Blur and all those bands came up. So suddenly I felt like, let’s do something that is sort of in that style, because that sort of Oasis guitar driven style is my home turf because of Gyllene Tider. So it’s nothing new to me. Let’s do it and let’s do it really loud and pump up the guitars and just have this… I don’t know how, but I managed to make the song quite interesting musically. I think the verse is in D minor and the chorus is in D major, which is quite unusual for a song. But it sounds natural when you listen to it. And when you manage to do something like that, you know you have something special going on. So musically, I felt like this is not a sellout, this is not a simple song and if you’re going to play it yourself, you’re going to notice that you’re in a lot of trouble, because you haven’t found out what to do. Haha.

PP: – When you look back now, do you agree that the album was missing the first single before this song?

PG: – Well, it depends. When you present an album, especially in those days when albums were so important. There were lots of bands like Def Leppard. They always released something quite complicated as the first single, but then the big smash was the second single. But then you have sort of presented that you’re here and you’re doing something special, blah, blah, blah. Today, everything has to be upfront immediately, and it has to be short, because people don’t have the attention span like they had 20 years ago. To answer your question, it depends on how you want to present the whole album. When you release “Sleeping In My Car”, if you like “Sleeping In My Car” and you don’t know anything about Roxette, you might be a little bit disappointed with the rest of the album, because there is no other song that sounds like that. On the other hand, if you go with “Run To You”, it doesn’t really reflect the album either. From a commercial point of view, maybe we should have gone with the title track, because a big Marie ballad is what everyone was used to at the time. I don’t know. Oh, and that’s the same with the “Sällskapssjuk” album. The first single was Molly, the second was Lena, and both those songs were co-produced by Andreas Broberger and Anton Ekström. Those are the only two songs that they are involved with. Now the third one, as you can hear, sounds pretty different.

PP: – Yeah, it’s very different.

PG: – It has a country vibe with Malin-My on violin.

PP: – It’s kind of Nashville style.

PG: – Yeah. And it’s got my new superheroes here, Fredrik “Gicken” Johansson and Magnus Helgesson, the bass player and guitar player from Halmstad. They play on the whole album. The next single is also very different, so it depends on how you want to present your project. Nothing’s right, nothing’s wrong.

PP: – “Sleeping In My Car” deserved a rocking video and it was also directed by Michael Geoghegan. What is your best memory from the shootings and how do you remember your and Marie’s acting?

PG: – Marie loved it and I was always very happy to make videos when she was singing, because it was less work for me. I only had to stay there, play chords and look as cool as possible, which was hopeless. Haha. But I did my best. We had a good time.

To do the “Crash” video was much more complicated. That took forever. You know that we had to reshoot it for technical reasons. But it was really complicated to do a video like that in those days.

PP: – It was very much ahead of its time.

PG: – Yeah. It’s just one sequence. It was a brilliant and very expensive idea. When we had to reshoot it, people were crying. The insurance company had to pay for everything.

PP: – So they were crying, too. Haha.

PG: – Haha. But in the end, it’s a beautiful video. I hope we can do… I’m sure we will do an HD version, because it’s really poor quality on YouTube.

PP: – It would be amazing to have all the videos in much better quality. Back to “Sleeping In My Car”, related to this song there was a protracted lawsuit. [A musician accused EMI and Per of plagiarism. Similarities appeared in the chord progression, but the independent expert concluded that there was no infringement of the copyright.] I don’t really want to talk about the case itself, but I’m curious how it works for you as a songwriter, that even if you hear a tremendous amount of songs and of course, nowadays it’s even more difficult to find out new things, you can still stick to your own style and don’t make the same sound as another artist. How does that work?

PG: – Haha. I think it’s easy for me, because I’m not a very competent musician. So even if I try to be Tom Petty or Paul McCartney, I’m not going to succeed. I’m not there on that level. Everything I’ve listened to all my life that I liked, I’ve used that in my own music. And I think if you talk to any artist or writer, they say the same thing. It would be really silly for anyone to say that they invented the wheel, because they haven’t. John Lennon loved all these ’50s stuff, which you could hear in his music. Tom Petty loved The Byrds and that kind of stuff. And Del Shannon. Everyone is influenced by the people that they like and they love, and I’m the same way. I try to figure out how they did that Al Green song. Especially when it comes to styles that I’m not really familiar with. Song styles that are maybe not melody driven, they are driven by the groove instead, the bass and the drums, which is really unfamiliar territory for me, I’m very melody driven, as you know. But if I’m trying to write something in a ’70s soul style, I’m totally lost. I don’t know what to do, but it turns out to be something else, which could be interesting.

PP: – You’re sailing.

PG: – Yeah. There’s no right, no wrong.

PP: – That’s the motto of the day.

PG: – It’s the truth!

PP: – “Vulnerable” was the fifth and final single from the album. How did you pick this word?

PG: – I think that was the whole idea with the song. It was that word. I love that word, it’s impossible to say.

PP: – Was it because of that why Marie didn’t want to sing it?

PG: – No, I don’t know. Did I write that for Marie? I can’t remember.

PP: – I don’t know. Probably not.

PG: – It’s a little soft for her. It should have been written differently if it was sung by her. Nevertheless, I always thought my vocals were crap on that one. One of these days I should re-record that and do it a little better. We never really played it live. We are talking about playing it live on the new tour.

PP: – Yes, please! We expected it to be played on your unplugged tour, because it would have fit so well, but it never happened.

PG: – I think we tried it out, but it just felt like it didn’t go anywhere. It’s got this string thing happening and that’s about it. It has very long verses, it’s like double verses every time, and it has a long chorus. Four minutes feels like eight minutes on stage. Haha. But we’ll see, we might use it.

PP: – I hope so! You just said that you were happy that Marie was the main character in the videos, but here it was you. How did it feel?

PG: – It was fun. I think it was shot in Australia.

PP: – Yeah, at Bondi Beach.

PG: – I have just vague memories of it, but it was fun. I felt very comfortable doing that. I was always proud of that song, the only thing I wasn’t proud of was my vocal performance. I thought it was really crap. Haha.

PP: – Haha. I like those vocals!

PG: – Yeah, lots of people love that song. Åsa loves it too, but I just wasn’t ready for it. It’s so different singing ballads, compared to singing uptempo songs. I don’t know why. In those days, I never really felt like I was ready to do that. I’ve been really a very late bloomer when it comes to singing properly. It’s somewhere around the mid ’90s, late ’90s, when I really start to think that I sang OK. On “The World According To Gessle” album there are some really nice ones. “Stupid” is good vocals. But most of these songs… “Fireworks” is not really good vocals.

PP: – I remember when we did the interview about your solo debut album on its 40th anniversary and first you said, oh, it’s a cool album. And then you said, this song is terrible, this song is terrible, this song is terrible. And now you do the same. Haha.

PG: – Haha. It’s because you find the mistakes looking back. At the same time, one of the things that got me in a very positive way, emotionally as well, at the musical rehearsal in Malmö, is that it’s such a massive catalogue of songs. It’s so many songs. And there are so many really, really nice songs. I’m not saying that to compete with anyone, but from my personal level, I’m really proud of some songs. When you hear lots of those songs in a row, it’s sort of heartbreaking. It’s all my life, basically.

PP: – There was your life in the GT movie, now there is your life in the Roxette musical.

PG: – Yeah, but it’s even more so in the musical, because it’s a bigger span. At the same time, for almost every song that you’ve done, if you listen to it, you want to change things. “Do You Wanna Go The Whole Way?”, for instance. I think that’s a great track, but it’s so slow. It should be…, you know, up with the tempo, so it becomes a bit more groovy. I don’t know why nobody noticed that in those days.

PP: – But Marie’s vocals are so powerful on it.

PG: – Maybe there was a trend, a Massive Attack thing going on in England at the time, or whatever that Clarence was really into, and he wanted to keep the tempo. I don’t know. I can’t remember. Speed it up, please!

PP: – Did Marie like to sing it?

PG: – I don’t know. I can’t remember recording it. I remember making the demo with Mats, and I thought it was a really nice melody, because it’s so unusual, that melody coming from me. So it must have been a mistake. That’s why I probably used it. [He is humming the melody.] It’s a really beautiful little thing there. I thought the title was interesting and I thought it was a cool song.

PP: – It’s a question in the title. There are two question titles on “Crash! Boom! Bang!”.

PG: – I love question marks!

PP: – Which is the best ever song with a question in the title?

PG: – On this album?

PP: – No, from anyone.

PG:[He is thinking hard.] Oh, I can’t think of any song with a question mark. “What’s She Like?” got a question mark. I think it’s interesting to ask a question in the title. The title is the first thing you notice in a song. I just thought it makes you curious. I have to find out what’s she like.

PP: – There is this middle section with “The First Girl On The Moon” and “Place Your Love”. Can you tell me about this idea?

PG: – We had these two songs, and since the album was so long, we made it act one, act two, and put the acoustic stuff in the middle. I think those two songs are really nice, both of them. “The First Girl On The Moon” is a really wonderful song. “Place Your Love” is cool as well. Like I said, I was the one who was playing the guitar on that one.

PP: – “I Love The Sound Of Crashing Guitars” was inspired by Pete Townshend. What did he mean to you?

PG: – Oh, he’s a master! An amazing guitar player and even better writer. He’s just an amazing composer and the way he plays as well. He is doing really complicated things, but he makes it sound so simple. I’ve listened to The Who all my life. I still do. When I have nothing to do, I always go to YouTube and check out some The Who live from the old days. It just puts you in a brilliant mood, because that’s what it’s all about. This is what rock music is all about. A much more interesting band than, for instance, Led Zeppelin, because they have all these songs, “Baba O’Riley”, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” or “Behind Blue Eyes”, or even back to the ’60s, “Substitute” or “Happy Jack”. These are amazing songs. “I Love The Sound Of Crashing Guitars” could definitely be left out and forgotten in a drawer somewhere. Haha. I think it’s a nice idea for a lyric, but I think the music is bad.

PP: – Have you ever crashed a guitar?

PG: – No, I haven’t.

PP: – Not even by accident?

PG: – Well, no, but I left an acoustic guitar on stage once, and when I came back, someone had made a hole into it. It was a very nice acoustic guitar, so I had it repaired. I don’t know what happened to it. Something fell on it, probably, on tour somewhere.

I have a great Trini Lopez Gibson guitar that I have on tour as well, and I used that in the studio with Mats. I put it on the sofa and then I was going to sing, so I took away my watch. Then I threw my watch on the sofa and it hit the guitar and made this really big scratch on the guitar. [He demonstrates it with his hands.] Haha.

PP: – Ojoj. So you did crash a guitar. Haha. Now talking about MP, “Lies” is the only track where the music is written by you and MP. What was MP’s addition to this song? The vibes of it remind me a bit of Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way”. Is there any relation to that?

PG: – No. I think the guitar riff is what MP wrote. It’s a silly track anyway. I don’t really like it. Haha. By the way, the la-la-la-la-lies, there was a The Who song called “La-La-La-Lies”. Maybe I borrowed that little phrase from them. I can’t remember. And we had another drummer there, Nicki Wallin. He was a heavy metal drummer who plays drums on that track. That’s one of those five songs that you can get rid of.

PP: – Then let’s talk about “I’m Sorry”.

PG: – Oh, “I’m Sorry” I think is a brilliant track!

PP: – In the Roxette demos talks with Sven you mentioned that it had the potential to become single material, but probably because of your fault that you held the production back to make it sound like the demo, it didn’t happen. Was it often the case back then?

PG: – It should have been a single, because it’s a really good title. “I’m Sorry”. I always loved that chorus. I think it’s a brilliant chorus. It’s so catchy. Maybe the production is compromised, because I wanted certain things and Clarence wanted other things. At the end of the day, nobody was really happy with what we’ve done with it. So that’s why it got really low on the album. It never became a single, but it’s a good track. I think it’s one of those songs that I would love to try to play live as well in the future. We’ll see.

PP: – Would be great! The last two tracks are “Love Is All (Shine Your Light On Me)” and “Go To Sleep”. Do you remember Marie’s first reaction and thoughts on “Love Is All”?

PG: – No, I don’t. I remember when I made the demo, it was sung by Camilla Gustafsson, who was singing on a few of my demos in those days. She did a great job. Musically, it’s a pretty interesting song. It’s all about these sustained chords. I thought it was really nice to have these angel style verses and then I’m coming in to do the chorus, which is very simple. It’s a very classic chord sequence. I thought it was great, but it’s too long. That was like this „Hey Jude” style. The same style we have at the end of “Doesn’t Make Sense”. You create like a new theme and it just goes on and on and on until you just puke. Haha. I think we overdid it on “Love Is All”. But I’m sure that if you check out the master tapes, the multitrack tapes, it’s probably five minutes longer.

PP: – So in the end, you shortened it. Haha. “Go To Sleep” is the only song to which Marie wrote the music. How did it work?

PG: – Well, I think Marie just had her first child when we recorded this album, so she was on and off in the studio. When she presented “Go To Sleep” and “See Me”, for some reason, we picked or she picked “Go To Sleep”. Maybe it was like a go to sleep song in the end. Personally, I prefer “See Me”. I think that’s a really wonderful song. We used that on “Travelling”, right?

PP: – Yes, it’s on “Travelling”.

PG: – A beautiful one!

PP: – You mentioned that Marie had her first child when you recorded this album and she recorded many of the vocals while she was pregnant. She said in an interview that it felt comfortable for her to make this album. Did you hear any difference in how she was singing?

PG: – No, not really. I remember what was different was that she wasn’t around that much as she used to be. But that was natural. Then, of course, that became the norm. Then she had another child, Oscar, and I became a parent as well. When we did the “Have A Nice Day” album in 1998 it was also different, because then suddenly we worked with Michael Ilbert who was producing, and he and Marie didn’t really get along that well. It became more and more me and Clarence and then me and Clarence and Christoffer. That was a little bit unfortunate, I thought. But it was Marie’s choice. Vocal wise, she was always amazing. I remember doing “Milk And Toast And Honey” for “Room Service”. It was just an amazing take, but she wasn’t really that interested anymore. I called her up and I said, “can’t you come to the studio and do another take on the end of the song? Because we have to alter the melody of it. So you have to bring the song home, so to speak.” So she did. But she came with a taxi, and she left the taxi outside. So she went in and sang the new melodies that I had written and it took like six minutes or so. Then she went away and we continued working. That was unfortunate a bit, but that was the way it turned out to be. She had family, so she had other priorities. And that was also what I guess became the ending of Roxette before Marie got ill. She wanted to do other things.

PP: – Four of the album songs were also released in Spanish: “Crash! Boom! Bang!”, “Run To You” (Directamente a ti), “I’m Sorry” (Cuánto lo siento) and “Vulnerable” (Tímida). 3 were sung by Marie, 1 by you. You tried to avoid singing in Spanish. How come you picked “Vulnerable” as well?

PG:[He is hiding his face with his hands.] I tried to sing in Spanish and it just sounded so ridiculous. But Marie was really amazing. She didn’t speak Spanish at all, but she sounded great. The Head of EMI Spain, I think his name was Rafael Gil, he was a wonderful person. He came to Stockholm during that whole recording session and he was like the tutor to tell Marie how to pronounce things and what you can and can’t do. She didn’t have a clue what she was singing about and I certainly didn’t have a clue what I was singing, but I did my best. I never really listened to that album at all. But a lot of people liked it. It was a record label decision to do something in Spanish. I didn’t really like the idea, but then I remembered that The Beatles did stuff in German, so I said OK. Haha.

PP: – It’s fun that you did that. Which is the best title on the album?

PG: – Best title? “Crash! Boom! Bang!” is a good title. “Fireworks” is a good title. “Sleeping In My Car” is a good title. “The First Girl On The Moon” is interesting. “I Love The Sound Of Crashing Guitars” is a much better title than song. “What’s She Like?”, good. “Do You Wanna Go The Whole Way?”, good. “I’m Sorry”, good. “Love Is All”, hm. “Go To Sleep”, decent.

PP: – Which song has the best hook?

PG: – Best hook? [Per wanted to look at his note on the screen, but it went dark.]

PP: – The hook has gone. Haha.

PG: – I think “Sleeping In My Car” has got a great guitar riff. I think that’s pretty in your face. But I like the “bamm ba bamm” [he is humming it] on “Crash! Boom! Bang!” as well. That’s Burt Bacharach style. I’ve always loved that one.

PP: – Which song has the strongest lyrics?

PG: – “Crash”, I think. “What’s She Like?” is also a good lyric. For me, that was like the special song on the album.

PP: – And why was it so special to you?

PG: – Because everything was there. Marie’s voice is amazing, the song is there, the melody is there and the lyrics are there. And also Clarence’s choice of sounds, synthesizers [he has a problem pronouncing this word, haha]. I can’t speak after 16:30… Haha.

PP: – I’m sorry. Haha.

PG: – But anyway, he picked really wonderful sounds. It’s a very good song and it’s like mature Roxette. If someone who doesn’t know anything about Roxette and they pick “What’s She Like?” to represent Roxette, I’m more than happy.

PP: – Which chorus are you the most proud of?

PG: – Most proud of? “I’m Sorry”. It’s the best chorus. The “Sleeping In My Car” chorus is very efficient. “Vulnerable” has a nice chorus as well. But “I’m Sorry”, it’s a brilliant chorus.

PP: – The best melody?

PG: – I don’t know if it’s the best, but the most interesting melody for me is “Do You Wanna Go The Whole Way?” I think it’s really weird, very unlike me, like I said before. It’s irresistible. When I write something like that, I have to do something with it, because I’m stepping out of my comfort zone doing things like that. I don’t know how I do it, but I did it once for that one.

PP: – The coolest rhyme on this album? Do you remember all the lyrics? [He is thinking.] For me it’s “pills and thrills – Hollywood Hills”.

PG: – Yeah, and I like “vintage Jesus – crash the guitar into 1000 pieces”.

PP: – Aaah, that’s cool indeed!

PG: – That’s a nice lyric. It’s just that I don’t like the music. You know, I had that lyric lying around for quite a long time. I tried to write music to it, but it’s complicated, because it’s got all these really long sentences. It’s really hard to write in my style of music. I need shorter phrases, so I can sort of trick the ear a bit. This is hard for me to do. And when you use a lyric like that, that is so long sentences, it becomes a very long song. I lose interest.

PP: – Which song would be an instant hit in a 2024 remix? If it’s done by Bassflow. Haha.

PG: – Haha. There’s not that many. I mean, “Sleeping In My Car” is the obvious choice, because it’s sort of instant. You could do “Sleeping In My Car” in so many different ways. If someone would have done that in a Max Martin production style, it sounds like a hit record, because it’s got all those chord structures and those melodies and lyrics. This album was made by 35-year-old people. I mean, we were getting old already then. Haha.

PP: – Being on the charts was more important for you in the ’90s than it is today. How did you cope with the positions you reached with CBB after the success of “Joyride”? I mean CBB was a commercial success too.

PG: – Well, it was OK for us. The problem with “Crash” was that we didn’t have a deal in the States anymore, because our record label got sold. 127 people got sacked and 127 new people came in and they didn’t have any relationship with “Look Sharp!” or “Joyride” or Roxette. So, we were left out in the snow. They didn’t really want to release this album and that’s why we wound up in a campaign with McDonald’s, as you know, which was crazy. It was just a business thing for the label. Tina Turner and everyone was involved. They sold zillions and zillions of records, but we were the only ones who presented new music. Everything else was like compilations.

PP: – Ah, I didn’t know that. That it was compilations for other artists.

PG: – I thought it was a big mistake to do that. I told them so, but they convinced everyone, including the Swedish company, that that was the way to go. Knowing that, I felt like we lost our momentum in the States, which we did, and that really never came back.

PP: – I’ve checked the charts who was No. 1 around that time, April 1994. I was surprised to see “The Sign” by Ace Of Base was No. 1 for several weeks in March and May and April was owned by R. Kelly on the Billboard Hot 100. Wasn’t there any chance to change the record company to a more competent one back then?

PG: – No, because we were stuck with a long contract. So eventually, when “Have A Nice Day” came out in 1999, it was never released in the States at all. Then we found an independent label called Edel Records. Maybe we did a compilation. I think it was probably a compilation with all the old hits. [Edel America Records released a 16-track “Don’t Bore Us, Get To The Chorus” greatest hits compilation in the US in 2000.] We toured acoustically and did acoustic shows in the States.

PP: – At Virgin.

PG: – Yeah, Virgin Megastore in New York and some theatres here and there. But it was tough. The momentum was pretty much lost with “Crash” in the States. Thinking about that, I thought the response elsewhere was great.

PP: – The tour excluded the US, but still you did 81 concerts in 4 continents for more than 1 million people. That’s amazing!

PG: – The tour was a big success and we finally got to play South Africa. That was massive stadiums.

PP: – And also China! How proud were you that even Mick Jagger envied you for that?

PG: – That was fantastic! But all in all, when I look back, it was these eight years from 1988 to 1995, the heydays of the band. After that, we took a break, Marie had a second child and I did the first Gyllene Tider comeback in 1995-1996. Then “The World According To Gessle” in 1997.

PP: – The setlist included 8 songs from CBB.

PG: – Wow!

PP: – That’s more than half of the album. Why did you think it would work out fine to play so many new songs?

PG: – The “Crash” band was different from before. Suddenly we had Micke Nord Andersson on guitar, because he was such a great personality on stage, as well as being a great lap steel player. We had two drummers, Pelle and Mats Persson on percussion as well. So it was a different lineup. Probably, because of that. You could do that in those days. If you had a fanbase coming to your shows, they expected you to play songs that they haven’t heard on the last tour. Nowadays everyone, especially big artists, play the big songs. As soon as they play something from the new album, everyone goes and buys a beer, including me. Haha. I don’t know, it’s a different ball game.

PP: – How do you think the CBB era formed your fanbase?

PG: – Oh, I don’t know. I never thought about that. I think when you work mainly in a Top 40 format – everything I’ve done is based on what we call Top 40. It’s not Top 40 anymore, because it’s old, but it used to be Top 40. I think, if you have big songs, you’re going to keep your fans. If you don’t have big songs anymore, they’re going to move on to something else. Because most people aren’t super interested in everything you do. They are interested in certain things you do and you have to be aware of that. I always thought it was impossible and actually boring to try to have success all the time at any cost, because you have to follow your own line. We talked a little bit earlier about finding your own style and going from there. I think if you’re lucky enough to have your heart in pop music that is Top 40 anyway, you’re probably going to wind up having a hit record anyway down the road, because that’s what you’re going to get good at. But to sit down and try to create hits for an international market, when the main purpose is that it should be hits, I think that’s really stupid, because what you lose is your personality. That’s why I think lots of the current pop scene is really boring, because it’s written by eight people and there’s no one in charge. The artist isn’t in charge anymore. The producer might be in charge, but it’s like a mishmash of everything. And everything sounds like it’s the way it’s supposed to sound. I think that’s the end of a career. If you’re lucky enough to have hits, you should cherish the moment, because it might never come again. Suddenly, you want to work with some other people, or maybe you want to go in another direction, and then suddenly you lose 92% of all the people who loved the previous single. Haha. They don’t like violins, or they don’t like fiddles, or they don’t like lap steels or whatever. They think it’s too much dance or it’s too little guitars, or it’s too many guitars.

PP: – It has to please you, first of all.

PG: – If it doesn’t please me, I can’t see how I could finish the production, or finish the song even. When you write a song, you have to have a target or a goal, a direction that you want to go into with a song. And you have to fulfill that. In the ’80s, when my career went down in the mid ’80s and I started writing songs with other writers, I immediately realized that was not for me, because it’s so much compromise all the time. I write something, a lyric or whatever, and they say, oh, you have to change that line, you have to change that word, I can’t sing that word, blah, blah, blah. It winds up not being me anymore. It becomes something in between all the time and that is not what I want to do. That’s why I wanted to be an artist also. I wanted to make my own records, because then I could be in charge of…

PP: – …be your own boss.

PG: – Yeah, be my own boss, exactly. Amen.

PP: – The show in Johannesburg, South Africa was recorded to be released on VHS. You already shared a wonderful, remastered version of “Spending My Time”. Will we get to see the complete show remastered?

PG: – I think it’s done, actually. Absolutely, it’s on the way.

PP: – Fabulous! And earlier you promised a 30th anniversary release. What can we expect and when? I guess it will come only next year?

PG: – No, it’s coming for Christmas!

PP: – For Christmas this year? Yay!

PG: – It’s got 23 demos on it.

PP: – Wow!

PG: – There’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 [he is checking his note on the computer], at least 5 that’s never been published before. Some of them are out in The Per Gessle Archives box, but there’s a few that I found, like “Lies”, for instance, “What’s She Like?”. That’s a terrible demo. Ew! I remember that one.

PP: – Haha, we will love it, I’m sure!

PG: – And there’s other songs that didn’t make the album, but it was written during that era as well.

PP: – Sounds exciting! So it will be the upscaled version of the live thing, then the demos. What else can we expect?

PG: – It will be a physical product. I don’t know if it’s going to be a triple album or a triple CD or a double CD or whatever. But the concert will be separate. That’s the plan anyway. We talked about it the other day. I actually called Warner, because I knew I was going to talk to you, so I thought I might have some updated info.

PP: – Thank you!

PG: – We will release it at the end of November, early December. It’s in the can.

PP: – Great to have something to look forward to for Christmas as well.

PG: – I have a fantastic thing coming out on my birthday next year.

PP: – You are a teaser! Haha. So, in the musical, there will be “What’s She Like?”, “Crash! Boom! Bang!”… Any other songs from CBB? I guess “Sleeping In My Car” is in there too.

PG: – Yeah, “Sleeping In My Car” is in there. There are quite a few songs from “Crash”.

PP: – As real songs or as underscore?

PG: – No, with the lyrics and everything. There are lots of songs in the musical. More than I expected, actually. There are a few songs that I miss, but they couldn’t put them into the script.

PP: – If there are so many songs included, will there be any conversations between the characters or will they be only singing? Haha.

PG: – Haha. It’s a great story. I think it’s going to be marvellous to watch.

PP: – Can’t wait!

PG: – I brought MP with me the other day, and he was silent for like three hours. It’s really cool, and everyone is so passionate about it. It’s a wonderful team and everyone enjoys working together, so the vibe is just amazing. Tomorrow we are going to watch the costumes for the first time. They created 1180 pieces of wardrobe!

PP: – Wow! I’m always amazed by all these costumes in musicals.

PG: – This is far out. This guy, who used to work in London as well, but he’s a Swedish guy, he is just wild! He loved that era, late ’80s, early ’90s. The musical takes place in the early ’90s, so you’re going back to the ’90s, and it’s just amazing stuff that he’s done. It’s a really big production. I’m really happy we are doing it in Malmö, because it would have been impossible to do this in a private theatre. This is too big for that. So this is going to be wild. It’s a huge stage. That’s what makes Malmö so special. It’s really, really deep. There are things that you can’t really do in any location in Stockholm, for instance. So, yeah, it’s going to be exciting for sure.

PP: – I’m definitely very excited about it. OK, Per. It was a bit more than one hour. I’m very sorry for that.

PG: – Nah, it’s fine. I got my flowers. Haha.

PP: – Haha. Happy anniversary to you and happy celebration!

PG: – Thank you very much!

PP: – Then see you on the 6th!

PG: – See you on the 6th! Keep it up!

PP: – Thank you very much, Per! Bye-bye!

PG: – Thank you! Bye!

Stills are from the interview.

Per Gessle and Valdemar Wahlbeck on Swedish Radio

Per Gessle and Valdemar Wahlbeck were guests on Studio Ett, Swedish Radio on 18th July. You can listen to the interview HERE!

The reporter welcomes the guys and asks them how it was when they met for the very first time and who was more nervous. Per can’t remember, so he turns to Valdemar and asks where they met. Valdemar says it was at Hotel Tylösand. Now Per remembers Valdemar came with his notebook and asked him a lot of questions. Valdemar says he had like 20 questions and thought they could go through them. It went well, the guys say. The reporter says it was a good starting point.

Valdemar is 21 years old. The reporter is curious what he knew about Gyllene Tider when he got involved with the film. Valdemar says that as a Halmstad local, you grow up with Gyllene Tider. His father has been playing a lot of Gyllene Tider at home, the records were either hanging on the wall or in the record box. And then you also sing Sommartider a number of times during summer breaks.

The reporter saw the movie a few weeks ago and she says the applause afterwards was massive. Here she plays music journalist Per Sinding-Larsen’s words, who says Gyllene Tider is part of music history and talks about the probable influences they had, e.g Sven-Ingvars and Owe Thörnqvist. The reporter asks Per what he thinks about it. PG thinks there might be some truth in that, but they didn’t listen very much to Sven-Ingvars or Owe Thörnqvist. For Per, it was rather Povel Ramel who was very influential. Valdemar thinks he was fantastic. Then it was ’60s pop that Per grew up with and when Gyllene Tider started, it was exactly the end of the ’70s. It was just when punk and new wave music started happening. The Ramones, Blondie, Buzzcocks and all that. So they gained some kind of self-confidence that it was OK not to be terribly good. It was different a few years earlier with progressive music, e.g. Emerson, Laker & Palmer and Yes. Everyone could play punk music and it suited Per very well, as he couldn’t play. The reporter is surprised, but PG says he learned along the way. He learned to play acoustic guitar to Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne and such songs on nylon string guitar. Then he changed to electric guitar and learned The Kinks’ riffs.

Valdemar says the movie itself is very much about music and together with Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist they dove themselves deep into Gyllene Tider songs. They geeked out on all the songs and Valdemar geeked out on Per’s voice. There is this genuine tightness and fantastic feeling which is not found in much other music.

The reporter remembers listening to Per’s solo debut album in the ’80s, before Gyllene Tider and she wants to know what Per’s ambitions were back then. Per corrects the reporter and says that his first solo album came out in 1983 and by then they had already made three Gyllene Tider LPs. 1981 was their biggest year. In 1982 came Sommartider and in 1983 Per’s first solo record came out. He made that record because everyone else in the band did the compulsory military service. He had a year off since he didn’t do the service, because he looked terrible in green. Valdemar laughs. Per simply made a singer-songwriter record, a more grown-up album. He was 24 years old, he was an old man already then. Haha. Marie Fredriksson also sang some songs on that album.

According to the reporter it’s funny that Per says he didn’t look good in green. She doesn’t know if Per was just joking, but that part was also fun in the movie. There it felt like Per was a pretty vain guy at that point, so it made her wonder how much of the film is true. Per must say it’s very realistic. There are characters that didn’t exist or things that didn’t happen the same way they are in the movie, but the story, the anecdotes and the events that are in the film actually happened. Almost all of them. What doesn’t quite match the chronology, for example, is a love story when Per meets his girlfriend who is now his wife. In real life it happened in 1984, but the movie ended in 1982. But all the tough, positive and fun things that are in the movie, they happened in real life too.

This is Valdemar’s breakthrough and the reporter is curious how he has found Per Gessle in himself. Valdemar says he listened to Gyllene Tider a lot and to start with, both he and Per are smalltown people, so they have a lot in common. Especially when you come from the same city and have the same dialect. He has some older friends through his father, a few people who were there around in Halmstad at that time. So he carried a lot of things already. Then he talked a little with Per. For Valdemar it feels a bit like they have done it together in a way. He received a little help and he has been able to ask. The whole thing started by recording the songs. There you find much more feeling already in the music. Then, a few months later, it was shooting the movie. By then you would have read all the biographies, listened to even more songs, checked out that era and different clothes and influences that they had.

Per says he was quite negative that there would be a film made about Gyllene Tider. When he was contacted, he thought they were going to make a film about Gyllene Tider’s 40-year career. A great tribute to what they have achieved. But the movie is not about that. The film ends in 1982 when Sommartider was released. Per told Per Simonsson, the director, that he should try to capture this Life on Seacrow Island (Vi på Saltkråkan) feeling. By that PG meant that they should gain empathy and become positive, so those who watch the movie would like these guys in the band. Then it could be an awesome movie. The film starts with Per doing the tests for military service. It is very much his childhood and his teenage years that is reflected. Then the film ends in 1982. So it’s a different kind of film than what people might think. Per finds it exciting and says that the guys who play Gyllene Tider are magically good. It’s incredible. Valdemar says it’s a fun cast, they got on well very quickly. Per says it looks like they had so much fun. Valdemar confirms it was much fun to stand there together and play these songs that you have been singing since you were little. And that it worked and fit. It was really fun.

The reporter says both Per and Valdemar are from Halmstad and while she is sitting here listening to and looking at them, she feels they have many similarities. Per says Valdemar is his avatar. They are laughing.

The reporter says, for those who are not from Halmstad, it seems that their voices are quite similar. She is curious if this is how Valdemar talks anyway. Valdemar says he hasn’t made anything up. He turns to Per and says Per is from Söndrum, so he has the Söndrum dialect. Per says he doesn’t have that at all, he comes from Furet. Haha. Valdemar is a bit more from the countryside, Holm.

The reporter asks Per if the film brings a comeback as well. Per asks if she thinks he needs to come back. The reporter says she meant Gyllene Tider. PG says that Gyllene Tider actually toured last year, so they have absolutely no plans. This autumn he releases a Swedish solo record and next year it’s Roxette with Lena Philipsson. The tour premieres in South Africa on 26th February, then they go to Australia and probably to more countries. Valdemar asks Per if there are any tickets left. Per says Valdemar can come along. Haha.

Valdemar sings in the movie. He says it took a long time for him to find this voice. The reporter asks him if there will be more singing by him. Valdemar laughs and says if it goes well on Spotify, we will see. Per says that the entire soundtrack record is available on Spotify. Valdemar thinks it’s amazing. It’s almost unreal to listen to yourself, your own voice on Spotify. He says it’s almost his own voice, it’s a mix of Per’s and his. Per says it’s Valdemar who sings. The reporter asks PG if Valdemar can sing. Mr. G thinks Valdemar sings really great. Sometimes he tries to sing a little too much like Per in Gyllene Tider. Valdemar agrees. Per says Valdemar has a very good singing voice and he is such a modern artist. He goes to the Ballet Academy, he is a musical singer, he is amazing at it and he knows everything. Per knew absolutely nothing when he started.

The reporter asks the guys what they hope the film will lead to. PG thinks the best scenario is if young people watch it and get the feeling and understand that it’s really cool to start a band and play music and do stuff together, and not just sit and stare at their iPhones all the time. Valdemar thinks it would be much fun if a band culture would grow out of this. The guys say the movie has received a fantastic response so far, a lot of people who see it think it’s fantastic. Valdemar says it really makes him happy to hear that.

The reporter thanks both to the real and to the movie screen Per Gessle for coming to the show.

HERE you can see some more photos by Henrik Martinell / Swedish Radio

Valdemar Wahlbeck was approved by Per Gessle – “Do your thing and it will be fine”

TT News Agency did an interview with Valdemar Wahlbeck before the Sommartider movie premiere.

Sommartider premiered in theatres on 17th July. It depicts Gyllene Tider’s path from young clumsy guys from Halmstad to pop stars after the breakthrough in the late 1970s. But it is not a documentary portrayal. Director Per Simonsson’s film is a romantic depiction of pop life, as if it were a lyric to a Gyllene Tider song:

This rollercoaster of emotions, longing for love, heart and pain. It was a great inspiration.

Valdemar Wahlbeck plays Per Gessle and recognized himself in a lot of things, because he himself is from Gyllene Tider’s hometown Halmstad. But playing an icon, who is also very much alive, is not easy.

I didn’t really know what to do. So I asked Per and he said “do your thing and it will be fine”. And I did that.

Per Simonsson says that Per Gessle was a little skeptical at first:

I noticed that he was wary until he read the first version of the script. Then he understood that it isn’t a documentary.

When Valdemar Wahlbeck compares today’s world to the 1970s, he sees it as a time where there was not much to do, which was good for creativity. You had to come up with something other than scrolling.

It has inspired me a lot, to go out and do things. The first thing I did was to delete Instagram and Facebook. We’ll see if I get them again. I have nothing against social media, but the way I want to live my lifestyle, I just thought it took a lot of time.

Valdemar Wahlbeck has grown up in the world of entertainment, as the son of comedian Peter Wahlbeck. Other celebrity children are also in the film, such as Jesper Parnevik’s son Phoenix and Lancelot Hedman Graaf, son of entertainer Magdalena Graaf and soccer player Magnus Hedman.

Lancelot Hedman Graaf has his own music career, but did not back down to be associated with Gyllene Tider as well.

I thought like that before, but then I’m such an incredibly manic jumping person. So I can’t keep thinking like that. I’m doing music, I’m competing in Thai boxing and then suddenly I’m sitting here and I’m an actor.

To the question if all the guys aren’t too good-looking to play Gyllene Tider Valdemar replies laughing:

Lol! Yes, maybe. But we had stylists and they didn’t.

Jan-Olov Andersson from Aftonbladet asked Valdemar (21) about how it was playing Per Gessle. Valdemar laughs and says:

I thought I would play the most handsome, Anders. It didn’t even occur to me that I would play Per.

Valdemar Wahlbeck explains why he took the chance when the film company in Gyllene Tider’s hometown of Halmstad was looking for young potential actors for the film.

I have been involved in theatre all my life and studied film in high school. I had already applied and got into the Ballet Academy in Gothenburg. It felt like everyone was applying, so you couldn’t help but do it too. It was the big chance.

After many casting rounds and test filmings, Valdemar got a role in the film, but not as bassist Anders Herrlin, but the main role, as Per Gessle, Gyllene Tider’s frontman.

Jan-Olov asks Valdemar about his own musical background.

You learn to play the piano at the Ballet Academy. On guitar, I can only play chords. But I have always sung, at the Cultural School in Halmstad and in choirs. Then I studied film in high school. When the pandemic came, we made even more films. Singing, theatre, film, it has been a hobby, but now it can become a profession.

When I got the role, I had to take a break from school. So now I’m starting a new class at the Ballet Academy. It’s three years, then I’m a musical artist. After all, it’s several art forms in one.

Valdemar met Per Gessle several times before the shooting.

Both in Halmstad and Stockholm. I expected a “rock star”, but he is a Halmstad dude, very nice. There is a small-town feel around him. If you are from there, you know what it is. Per only said “do your thing” about how I should interpret him.

Valdemar sings a lot of Gyllene Tider songs in the movie, so Jan-Olov is curious how it was.

I have always liked Per Gessle’s voice, now I love it. We could do an entire interview just on how to find the Gessle voice. It’s difficult, genuine, one of a kind. Imitating it is impossible. There is a raspiness in it and it is at once sexy, naive and propulsive. It’s about embracing it, landing it in your own body and… then something that sounds like me comes along.

Three out of five of the young actors in the film are considered as nepo babies, children of famous parents. In Valdemar’s case, his father is Peter Wahlbeck, sometimes controversial stand-up comedian, actor and artist.

I have never seen dad as a public figure. I don’t know “Peter Wahlbeck”, but I know my father. For me, he is the one who cooked our meals or with whom I took a walk in the forest with the dog.

To the question what he thinks about Valdemar playing Per Gessle Valdemar replies:

He loves Per, he is the pride of Halmstad. At the same time, dad is a comedian, so he has joked quite a bit about Per. When the family sat at the dinner table and I told them that I was going to play Per, dad got a little tear in his eye.

Photo by Fredrik Etoall

Per Gessle about ”Per Gessle” – ”He is fantastic”

TT News Agency published a short interview with Per Gessle before the Gyllene Tider movie premiere.

Per Gessle was initially skeptical of a film about Gyllene Tider. He says:

It felt like there was no reason to make a film about the four decades of Gyllene Tider. You can do that when we have stopped.

But Per Gessle was convinced by director Per Simonsson, whose film “Sommartider”, released in theatres on 17th July, focuses on the road to the big breakthrough.

It captures the feeling of this youthful euphoria that we had when we started the band. When everything is possible while everything is impossible. That’s exactly how it was. I think it turned out great.

The film is not a documentary, but is about him. It was hard to grasp.

I thought I would be very emotionally affected. But I wasn’t. It was hard for me to feel that it was about me. When you watch it, it’s like in a dream. That you suddenly dream about yourself. You don’t realize it’s you. But now that time has passed and I’ve seen it a few times, I’ve taken it in in a different way.

Per Gessle has been a support for director Per Simonsson and also helped with the script work. The pop star is known for his need for control, but not this time.

I’m very fussy when it comes to my own projects. So if someone else is going to do something about us or about me, I think it’s better to let them do it their way. But of course I shout when I think something is wrong.

Valdemar Wahlbeck stars as the young pop nerd Gessle. Per praises him:

I think he is fantastic. I had never met him before, but I think he is an absolutely wonderful person. He is wonderful.

Per Gessle moved on to Roxette after Gyllene Tider. After Marie Fredriksson’s passing, Roxette has lived on in new constellations, next time with Lena Philipsson. On 6th September, there will also be a premiere in Malmö for “Joyride – The Musical” based on Roxette’s music.

Gyllene Tider has also made a comeback from time to time. Most recently last year with a tour and recently a live album was released. But the attention surrounding the new film doesn’t open for more Gyllene Tider.

No, we have no plans. Gyllene Tider is very far down on my list right now. I’m working on my solo record and then it’s Roxette with Lena all next year. And the musical will soon premiere. I’m busy with other things.

Åsa Gessle interview by Femina

Malin Roos at Femina did an interview with Åsa Gessle and Anna Hållams took some wonderful photos of Fru Nordin in Tylösand.

Malin talks to Åsa at Hotel Tylösand, so she sees Åsa doing her thing around the hotel. A cushion has ended up askew in a sofa so that the seam can be seen. Nothing an ordinary eye would perceive, but Åsa sees everything and is there to rearrange it.

If you have created an environment, you want it to look like you have it in your head. I think it’s also good to show the staff that you have your heart in the details, because then they get it too.

Exactly what her official title is at Hotel Tylösand is a matter of mixed opinion. Her husband, who has been a co-owner of the hotel outside Halmstad since 1995, calls her “The Boss”, in short.

Åsa describes herself as “creative manager of renovations”, which turns out to mean everything from painting walls late at night to sitting in construction meetings at seven in the morning. Above all, she is behind the design.

When Femina is visiting, the hotel’s SPA has just opened after receiving a facelift. The result is just like the creator’s vision; a sacred oasis with very dark slate.

Åsa Gessle says that since she and her husband designed their first house in Halmstad in 1992, she had a teacher in Abelardo Gonzales, former professor of design at the School of Architecture in Lund.

Abelardo is my aesthetic school, he is super talented. Both Per and I are a little hurt that everything should be in line. Abelardo taught me to keep my eyes open and that nothing is impossible.

Preferred creative subjects in school

However, the interest in architecture and design goes back further than that, as Åsa was born and raised in a family with a strong craft tradition. Grandfather was a blacksmith, great-grandfather a slipper maker and both her grandmother and mother worked with sewing.

My mother was single with four children and a dog. We lived in a small three-room apartment in the Akka houses in Trelleborg and didn’t have much money, but my mother was creative. She sewed and knitted everything for us. You had to learn how to make changes with small means, which made me also quite handy.

Woodworking and sewing and domestic science were my subjects at school, I wasn’t as good at sitting still and studying.

To the question what she wanted to be, Åsa replies:

Stewardess. Until I started flying and realized I was afraid of flying.

Åsa Gessle was 20 when she moved to Halmstad in 1982 to open a clothing store with a boyfriend who was ten years older. She had never been to the capital of Halland County before and didn’t like it at all at first, she reveals:

I found it difficult to get into Halmstad and was in Trelleborg a lot. The guy and I drifted apart and separated. But then later I was out with my brother one evening in Halmstad and met a gang where one of the guys was Per…

It flashed a little.

To the question if she was listening to Gyllene Tider then, Åsa replies:

No, I had been in Paris and worked with modelling. In those days, you didn’t get information that way either, there were no mobile phones. It wasn’t my music either. I like dance bands and used to go to traditional Nordic dances on Sundays in Folkets Park in Trelleborg.

Gyllene Tider were basically over when Åsa and Per Gessle became a couple in 1984.

Åsa tells Femina that she was there at the fateful dinner in 1985 when the band’s bassist Anders Herrlin said he didn’t want to be in the band anymore – and that she was the spider in the web when she got them to play together again at Per’s 30th birthday party in 1989.

But at that time the focus was on a new band that was about to take over not only Sweden, but the world.

Marie Fredriksson’s death hit her hard

Åsa Gessle was working at a travel agency in Halmstad when things exploded with Roxette. She had booked flights and hotels for Per and Marie Fredriksson in the first years when her husband asked her to accompany him on a world tour in 1989. She went on leave, pushed aside her fear of flying and joined the Joyride world tour.

I was Per’s personal assistant, made sure that the suitcases were packed and arrived at the hotel and that Per was on the right radio station at the right time. That all the logistics worked for them.

Åsa says that the Roxette era also gave her a friendship with Marie Fredriksson.

We have traveled all our adult lives together. We hung out and were close, partied and had fun. We had a little tequila. We were young, no more than 30.

When Marie passed away in December 2019 as a result of a previous cancer, Åsa Gessle’s mother was also dying at home in Skåne. She describes an inhumanly tough time:

Marie passed away on Monday the ninth and my mother on Thursday the same week. I watched over my mother for ten days while Per sat by himself in Stockholm when Marie passed away. I couldn’t go away and comfort him and we couldn’t be together. It was a horrible week.

But I played a lot of Marie for my mother during her last days, “Tro” and “Ännu doftar kärlek”.

Two song titles that also match Åsa Gessle’s design expression well. The hotel in Tylösand is imbued with symbols of love – such as the heart on the roof above the new pool that is reflected in the water. She says it was an important detail for her.

You can certainly be perceived as a little girl who drew hearts everywhere, but for me it is important to show that we stand for love here, especially in a time where we are fed with so much evil and negative things that happen.

It may sound cliché, but love and peace are the fundamental things in the world.

In October, Åsa and her hitmaker husband have been together for 40 years. Malin asks what is the secret.

That you have your own life in the relationship.

Per and I have separate worlds. He has the world of music and I have this as mine. The fact that we both have a lot to do is fun, because we always have things to talk about and discuss when we see each other. Not as if we had been sitting on each other’s lap the whole time.

When Per was a guest on Framgångspodden podcast, he expressed that the fact that Åsa came along on the trips and tours was important for both Roxette and their relationship. On the other hand, Malin is curious if Åsa has ever felt that her career has been held back.

No, I haven’t thought about that. But maybe that’s why I think it’s extra fun to work now. Now it’s my time and that’s what Per says too: “now you get to do your part that has been held back”.

I have not only experienced what Roxette has given its audience, I have experienced a variety of cultures and made friends all over the world.

Malin noticed Richie Sambora in Bon Jovi on a picture on Åsa’s Instagram. Åsa is smiling:

Yes, it was a party in New York, a tough night.

I sat next to Richie at a dinner with Eddie Irvine, whom we have known for a long time. They were, of course, “completely ordinary people”, just like Per is an ordinary person, everyone else is. If you are in the middle of it, you don’t think about it, but of course, we’ve been invited to very fun events, like all the MTV galas in the past with Duran Duran and all sorts.

Malin is curious if there is someone Åsa has been starstruck by.

Yes, Paul McCartney whom we met in the green room at the Apollo in New York before the pandemic.

Travelling around the world has been an inspiration in Åsa’s profession. Hotel Tylösand’s extension The Front House is influenced by the Whitby Hotel in New York and she has borrowed the idea of ??green apples as a recurring interior detail from Hotel Delano in Miami.

Everyone laughed at the beginning, it wasn’t very popular, but today we always have green apples in front, except during Christmas time when they are red.

Shares life between Stockholm and Halmstad

Otherwise, Åsa Gessle’s signature color is black. But not black-black, she emphasizes and gives a lesson:

There is a difference between black and black, especially in interior design. I prefer a softness in the black, a warm brown-black tone. In the paint shop here, they have even come up with a code for “Åsa-black”.

Malin asks Åsa if she also goes Johnny Cash-style on clothes.

Yes, like one hundred percent of my wardrobe is black clothes. It started when we were touring. It was impossible to color match when we travelled so much, so black became a safe choice. I’d rather put on shoes in color or paint my nails.

Per is not as black.

No, he can have a little pink and purple. It comes from his mother’s color palette.

During the busiest touring years, Halmstad with the house and hotel was the place that Åsa and Per Gessle landed in order to gather strength, while the apartment in Stockholm was the base.

During and after the pandemic, Åsa has spent more time on the West Coast, partly because there have been several major renovations, partly because their son has left the nest.

Gabriel moved two years ago, that means I can be here more as well. My husband thinks it’s a bit boring though, he is a bit of a sociable person. Now Gabriel is probably the one of the two who copes best ha ha. Per doesn’t cook, so…

Malin wants to know how Per copes with it when Åsa is here.

It’s a bit difficult… but I make lunch boxes. He has two dishes at a place in Stockholm that he goes and buys, but otherwise I prepare for him to heat. He can do that and he can cook rice and pasta. But usually it is no more than two or three days.

Per and Åsa Gessle in the Gyllene Tider movie

Åsa smiles and tells Femina that 26-year-old Gabriel is a civil engineer in computer technology. In the same way that it was fundamental for her to have her own identity, it has been for their son, she explains.

Gabriel has always said that he doesn’t want to be known as “Per’s son”. He is a great musician, plays the grand piano and is very musical, but goes his own way. Then he has a lot to fall back on that he gets for free in his life anyway, but he is very conscious of having his own life and earning his own money.

He is independent and has attended KTH for five years. The fact that he has a “real profession” would have made his grandmother, Per’s mother happy. She wanted Per to become a pediatrician or a psychologist.

Instead, he became an internationally celebrated pop star.

Åsa Gessle explains that she herself has not exactly been in the spotlight, saying that she “doesn’t like it and prefers to stay behind”. So one wonders about the change. Anyone who follows Per Gessle on Instagram can note more pictures and warm posts about “The Boss”.

Yes, haha I wonder too. Something has happened. He is also getting older, maybe other sides will emerge.

In July, the film about Gyllene Tider premieres. One can assume that the nostalgia trip will involve both old and new fans from the group “hysterical girls” who roar “Per Gessle”. Åsa says that she takes the commotion in stride.

In the beginning, when I was young, I was maybe a little jealous, but you can’t think like that, it is what it is. Per has always been good at taking good care of his fans.

Åsa says it will be a very enjoyable film and reveals that she actually appears in a small role. She and the whole family.

We will do a Hitchcock-like cameo. Per and I, our son and his girlfriend.

Dreaming of building further

Åsa gets up, folds up a blanket and states that she still has sore muscles after the marathon dance in Västerhagen in Haverdal.

Gyllene Tider and Roxette in full glory, it doesn’t matter. Åsa from Trelleborg still has her heart in dance band music. She mentions Perikles, Sannex, Casanovas and Blender.

I don’t drink that much alcohol, and you can’t either when you go to sports dance. Then it’s packed between seven and eleven and you are completely exhausted afterwards.

However, dancing to a dance band is not something I can do with Per.

Åsa hopes to get the hotel management on board with her next dream project.

Even though it’s winter, it’s so beautiful here. The sea is amazing. The openness here is fantastic and you should take advantage of that wherever you are in the hotel.

Always take in the sea wherever you are. She likes view points. They want a sun deck on top of the SPA. They have investigated and it works, so they only need some years.

Åsa Gessle: 5 tips to lift your home

  1. Be bright!

“I’m not too happy with cold lights, I like to go towards warm tones in the lighting, preferably 2,700 Kelvin. Mixing light sources is nice, as is candlelight, which you can’t have too much of.

I also like to mix textures in the interior; hard, soft, shiny and fur. If you are calm, you can play more with materials. It is easier to change colors according to the season with a calm foundation and less expensive to lift a room with a new cushion than to repaint, for example.”

  1. Think about the details

“I don’t want it too cosy with lots of trinkets. Details are important and everything that makes a room alive contributes to the whole of the environment, like fruits, books and green plants.

I’m not a fan of plastic flowers. I think the oxygen, chlorophyll and scents that plants give make people feel good.”

  1. Sort through the wardrobe!

“I like to decorate with both old and new. I like to go to Myrornas and look for fun things for our home and for the hotel. So a tip is to look in the wardrobe for what is already there. Most have lots and you can also redo things.

I had some yellow pots that had been in storage for 20 years, suddenly they got new life. Everything can find a new place, recycling is very important to me.”

  1. Prioritize comfort

“There is great designer furniture that is wonderful to experience, but not always as comfortable to sit on. When I choose chairs and sofas, number one is that they are comfortable and good to sit in. Preferably practical too.”

  1. Dare black!

“When we started with dark, many people were skeptical and said it would be cold and hard, but it won’t be, if you use a softer black color with brown in it.

It’s individual, but personally, I find dark tones calming. It is also grateful to mix wood and nature with the black.”

All interview text is written by Malin Roos for Femina in Swedish. Here it is a translation by RoxBlog.