Marie Fredriksson about upcoming solo album: “You can expect a typical Marie Fredriksson style”

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There have been some rumours going on about a new Marie solo album the past months and specially since the recording of “Tack för musiken” last week. I had the chance to ask Marie a couple questions about the album and other topics:

RXB: First of all, how was your summer? You did some appearances like with GT at Ullevi or at Madeleine’s wedding or now the recording of “Tack för musiken”…
Marie Fredriksson: My summer was relaxing and sunny. And GT was a great evening! Sweden and GT at its best. Madeleine asked and it was lovely to play at her wedding. I think “Tack för musiken” is a great TV show and Niklas is a great host and a good ol’ friend of mine. I was very surprised and happy to see all of you in the front rows!

RXB: There have been rumours for a long time about a solo album, what can you tell us about it?
Marie: You can expect a typical Marie Fredriksson style. The album is in Swedish.

RXB: When did you start working on it and with whom did you record the album?
Marie: I started a long time ago but a world tour came in-between. The album is produced by Micke [Bolyos] and Christoffer Lundquist. We had Mr. Pelle Alsing on drums on a couple of tracks. Jens Jansson and Christer Jansson played drums too. Then Christoffer Lundquist played bass and guitar, so did Staffan Astner and Jokke Pettersson. Ola Gustavsson [who was at “Tack för musiken” as well] played guitar and pedal string. Micke played keyboards and did some programming together with Christoffer.

RXB: and who wrote the songs?
Marie: I wrote one song, Per [Gessle] wrote one song too and the rest are written by Micke, mostly together with different lyricists.

RXB: There were also rumours about a solo tour… so we are wondering if and when?
Marie: Definitely not during 2013. Maybe 2014, but nothing is decided yet, so I cannot tell you more at this stage. But I love to tour, it’s the best I know!

RXB: What are you doing nowadays when you are not busy with music?
Marie: I am painting, relaxing and having fun. I love to be close to my family.

We are very much looking forward to the album (and tour)!!

Changes in facebooking habits are much appreciated

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Roxette_Official_FBYou might remember this article with the voting regarding what you think about Mr. G’s facebooking habits.

230 Roxers voted so far (which – considering that ~673 000 fans are there on Roxette Official – is not representative at all, but thanx to everyone who voted!).

 

 

 

Next to 33% of Roxers who chose they love anything Per is posting, 54% of the voters don’t really like the repostings, but new stuff or at least if Per is sharing his thoughts shortly. Well, after the article was published and there were already some votes, Mr. G’s facebooking habits changed (back) to something very adorable. Long post about the release party of the book and even a photo, short daily updates about relevant happenings in the Rox world AND comments on fans’ posts / comments. Even if he’s making fun of us sometimes, by e.g. stating he’s in Munich, making many fans think about heading to Munich immediately, this is just lovely.

We all like it, so keep up the good thing, Per! Thanx a lot for caring about our opinion. 😉

 

Review: “Roxette – Den osannolika resan tur och retur”

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Sven_L_Roxette_DORTOR_coverI just finished reading the last page of  “Roxette – Den osannolika resan tur och retur” and to put it in short: go and buy it and read it!

With this said, let’s go a bit more into details.

One could say the book is split into two parts; the first one is about Roxette. The author Sven Lindström goes through Roxette’s journey since they started with “Neverending Love” and played the last concert of the 2011-2012 tour in Mexico in September last year. You will find some interesting information about what happened in the USA, the ups and downs in the relationship between Per and Marie, Marie’s illness and recovery and the celebrated amazing comeback that we had the honour and blessing to witness the past years.

And Sven does a great job showing the world what Roxette is about! Even though there was nothing really new for me in the book besides a couple of details or things that I had forgotten, Sven puts the story down in a very nice way, in a way that made me feel proud and happy of having joined this joyride back in ’89. I laughed, I cried, I felt happy, I was surprised while reading the book. The book is clearly targeted to those who don’t follow Roxette on FB or read news on fan websites but are interested enough in the band and want to know some details about Per and Marie and how it all happened. But it’s also a nice documentation for Roxers and it will surely make you remember many things and bring back very nice (and not so nice) memories. And even though I know the story very well, I more than once felt I didn’t want to stop reading, and that, for me, is what makes a difference in a book.

The last 100 pages are dedicated to Roxette fans, or Roxers as we all call ourselves. Sven met many fans during his trips to South America, Russia and Europe to see Roxette and he decided to publish 5 stories of 6 die-hard fans, as he called them in the interview we did with him last week (stay tuned!), from different parts of the world: Argentina, Russian, Germany, Brazil and Poland/Sweden. This is the part of the book that has raised more eyebrows the past weeks since the table of contents of the book was published online. People have been wondering why so much about fans and why those fans. I was also wondering if I would find it interesting at all and I didn’t read it straight away like the first part. But then reading through the stories I realised that I’ve been there and done that a couple of times too and I am sure you will find yourself in the stories to a certain extent, too. We are all.. magic friends!

The only down-side is that there were moments where I would have liked to go on reading about the stories and get more the details. And that, compared to “Att vara Per Gessle”, there are very few pictures on this one. But one can’t have it all and this doesn’t change my final conclusion.

And it all begins where it ends… just get it if you can and if you speak Swedish, it’s simply worth it! Let’s hope it gets translated into more languages so that it can reach much more of you and public in general.

You can get the book on Bokus, they deliver to 35 countries besides Sweden.

[Update September 22:] Patrícia also wrote a review, you can read it on FB.

Gyllene Tider’s second single out of DATPR: Dags att tänka på refrängen and Singel

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datpr singelThe next single off “Dags att tänka på refrängen” will be “Dags att tänka på refrängen” and “Singel”, which will also be released as a double A-side vinyl single featuring these tracks:

Side A1:
Singel #2

Side A2:
Dags att tänka på refrängen (album version)
Dags att tänka på refrängen #2.

As Gyllene Tider wrote on Facebook, Singel #2 has three verses instead of 2. And on DATPR #2 the first verse is sung by Per and Micke Syd together.

Release date is September 18.

The cover of the single was shared today on FB by Thomas Evensson.

Mr. G’s facebooking habits

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Roxette_Official_FBNo, I won’t write an article about Per’s tagging skills, but as lately (and earlier, too – usually when there is a tour break or no touring period) there were many posts / comments / questions about why Mr. G is posting on Facebook the way he is often doing it, I thought it would worth a poll to get to know what fans really think about it. Even yesterday – when one could have thought there might be some tiny news – after the release party of Sven Lindström’s ”Roxette – Den osannolika resan tur och retur” he rather reposted pics posted by fans on Roxette Official and old facebook videos from 2012 tour than posting e.g. a sentence (not mentioning a pic) about the book is available SOON at the nearest petrol stations. This soon is tomorrow by the way.

 

Whatever answer you choose below, one thing we can all agree on: no other artist dedicates as much time to keep in contact with and paying as much attention to his fans as Per. I know he knows how much we all appreciate it that it’s he himself who is handling all these social media sites. And of course, there is no offense at all, I’m just curious about what you all think, as this is also something which is kind of Per’s trademark – the re-re-re-repostings I mean – as I haven’t seen it yet from any other artist / brand on Facebook. At least not to this extreme. 😉

So, choose one from the below statements. The one that reflects your thoughts the most. Bear in mind that here we are talking about Per’s posts on Facebook: Roxette Official & Gyllene Tider. (Per Gessle Official & The Per Gessle Selection are not affected that much. Yet. 😉 ).

 

[poll id=”6″]

 

Anyway, the repostings always make me think about this interview with Per on TDR:

”TDR: Social media has become a big part of this tour. Do you enjoy the interaction? You have been doing it since the “Have A Nice Day” site’s “Ask Per” section.

PG: I  do, especially when we’re on the road as there is always an hour in the lounge at the airport and there is always so much time to do it so you might as well check out what people think. I think it’s really interesting to have this communication with people and they appreciate it. For me as a fan and I go to the Tom Petty site (laughs) which isn’t very active, but then they publish something and it’s “Wow! Check out that guitar!” So when you get some details like hanging out in the dressing rooms or pictures of… yesterday we went to this vineyard… I just think from the fans point of view it’s really cool.”

 

Is it the ”less is more” rule? Hm.