Russian interview with Per

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In advance of Roxette’s 2 upcoming concerts in Russia, TRUD did an interview with Per. He speaks about the comeback, the new album, Roxette’s breakthrough and the future of the music business.

About the album:

Most of the work is actually done. This is a very strong album. Some very, very good ballad for Marie and a few fast songs. We want to sing much together. To avoid: this song Marie, and this song Per. Just like in our early songs like «Paint», «Dressed For Success» or «The Look», where we sing together.

Read the article in Russian or a Google translation!

Interview with Magnus Börjeson: “We just want to have fun on stage.”

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Kirsten and Judith met Magnus Börjeson a few hours before the concert in Halmstad to talk about his career as musician and how he sees Roxette at the moment. We picked him up at the station and sat down at the station café to chat. It was actually us who wanted to know more about him, but he started asking about us:

Magnus: So where are you from? Germany?

Judith: I come from Spain, live in Austria.

Kirsten: Germany.

M: So when you are not Roxette fans, what are you doing for a living?

J: I work as project manager in a bank.

M: And you?

K: I am a journalist.

M: For a newspaper..?

K: Yes, for a local newspaper, sports mainly.

M: Where is that?

K: North of Frankfurt.

J: What are you doing, when you don’t work with Roxette or Per?

M: I do music, that’s all I do. Haha! In different shapes and kinds, I do a lot of music for films and TV commercials, that’s what I’ve done the last couple of years.

J: Could you explain us how did you get into music?

M: I started playing when I was a kid with my neighbour, we played in his basement. Then I had a band at school. I had a lot of bands, I had a band called Beagle in the early 90ies, we had two albums out, that’s the first time we really had a record deal.

K: I saw the videos from that time, they are funny.

M: Yeah, we did a lot of videos. It was the age of the video. And yes, they were fun. I had a lot of hair then.

K: It looks better now anyway.

M: haha, thank you! I think so too. That was like my first real major thing. We signed with Polar, which was ABBA’s record company. We were at ABBA’s manager’s to sign the deal, everything was very intense. It was really fun for a couple of years. Then it wasn’t fun anymore, so we quit.

K: Can you really make a living from music?

M: yes, I do. I’ve done since then. It’s a lot of work; I’m into a lot of things. But I cannot imagine doing anything else, I have always wanted to do this since I started playing, so I couldn’t think of anything else to do. That would be horrible.

J: How many instruments do you play?

M: I play bass and guitar, and some keyboards. I started playing drums when I was a kid, that was my first instrument.

 

K: Do you still play drums?
M: I know how to play, but you know, when you haven’t played for a while, you get very bad. But give me six months and I think I would manage.

J: So you mentioned you don’t do anything else but music, meaning you also compose your own stuff?

M: yes, that’s what I do when I am not touring or doing something with other artists. I compose a lot of music for films.

J: Do you prefer to play live or studio?

M: Well, both. I love to play live, I think it’s funny, you can show off a bit, be a rock musician, haha! But I work a lot in the studio as well, I have my own little studio at home, so I work there every day and I enjoy that immensely too.

K: You mentioned music for films, can you tell us about this film you presented in Cannes?

M: We’ve been working long on this project. We first made a short film, which you can find on YouTube. It was about six drummers breaking into an apartment and starting to play songs. We did that in 2000, with a couple of friends of mine who made short movies at that time. And then a French production company suggested we should make a feature film about this. So we started about four years ago and we just finished before Cannes, where we presented it. It’s called “Music for one apartment and six drummers” and it’s going to have its premiere in Sweden and France this December.

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Evgeny: “I was thinking about how Marie would manage to conquer the wild wind”

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The story of Stavanger gig from our Russian reader – Evgeny Perekopskiy.

It all started some months ago, when I happened to get one of the last tickets to the Stavanger gig. I was shocked at the price of postage (nearly 10 euros) and if you know how fast our Russian post is, then, without a doubt, you will understand me how nervously I was waiting for my ticket to arrive.

After one month (!) it arrived. But then Laura (an Argentinean fan) asked me if I could find her one more ticket, so I started to look for one for her. I found, here on RoxetteBlog, an advertisement from Csaba, a
Hungarian fan, offering a VIP ticket. So I contacted him and got it. Then all I had to do was wait for the moment to come…

On August 20th, I had to take four (!!!) flights to reach Stavanger and this I did 🙂 Csaba met me in Stavanger and gave me my ticket. Next morning I went to meet Laura who was staying at the Radisson Blue Atlantic Hotel. When I met her, she said that Marie and Per were also staying there. What a nice coincidence! 🙂 Later in the lobby I met two German fans, Tina and Anja, and three Argentinean fans, Silvana, Lionel and his wife Brenda. We were sitting and waiting for someone from rox related to come. Soon Oscar and Josefin came to the receptionist to order breakfast. Oscar recognized me and we chatted a bit.

Then it was midday. We needed to go to Randaberg to get in line. But prior to our departure to this village, we met Mikael Bolyos. He wished us a great time and to enjoy the gig. When we arrived in Randaberg, I found a lonely Roxette poster where Marie and Per’s faces were blue because the poster was a bit old. I thought that their faces had became blue because of the cold Norwegian climate 😉

When we reached the Viste beach, we noticed some Spanish and Norwegian fans. Some minutes later, the
security woman asked us to move to another area because Roxette were going to rehearse. When we moved, we saw Per arriving with his wife Åsa. Per was holding a bunch of red roses. They were for Åsa, of course, to celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary. Roxette started their rehearsal at around 4 o’clock. They played: ‘The Big L.’, ‘Opportunity Nox’, ‘Fading like a flower’, ‘Silver Blue’, ‘Church of your heart’, ‘7twenty7’ and ‘Dressed for success’. After they finished rehearsing, the security team made four entrances, two for VIP visitors and two for ordinary ticket holders.

At 5.30 pm they opened the gates and fans ran as fast as they could. Luckily, I was standing near the front of Marie’s micro. Then I went to see what they served for VIP guests. There were some salads; fruit, fried meat, delicious shrimp and other dishes. I had some food and took some bananas for my friends who were sitting on the front row 🙂 The support act – Paperboys – a Norwegian hip-hop band started to play at around seven o’clock. They played very well and I saw the audience liked them a lot and knew the lyrics singing along the whole session.

The clouds became grayer and grayer. It was damn cold and windy. I wasn’t thinking about myself, I was thinking about how Marie would manage to conquer the wild wind. Roxette went on stage at around nine in the evening.

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