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
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.
