After Marie surprisingly released a new jazz single on her birthday, we felt the urge to talk to one of the driving forces behind the project: Mikael Bolyos. Luckily enough he found the time to answer some of our questions and we want to thank him very much for doing so. We know he is a busy man.
RXB: Mikael, thanks for stopping a second to take the time to talk to us. It was probably quite busy lately with Marie’s birthday and the release of the new song – and both topics that made us think we desperately need to talk to you. So, first of all: Is your house still a normal house or did it turn into a huge garden on Marie’s birthday? Just kidding, of course, but we are well aware that many fans still send their cards and flowers and presents and we are curious: Did it become more now that Marie has retired from the touring life?
Mikael Bolyos: No, our home still always look like a flowershop on every Maries birthday.
RXB: And talking about Marie’s birthday: We were very surprised to find out that she or you decided to release a new single (Alone Again) on her birthday. Did you choose this date on purpose or was it a coincidence? This definitely feels like you made yourself a present and you gave a present to us as well.
MB: Yes, the whole idea was to try to give a little something back to all her fans. Call it a little “thank you” for all the support over the years.
RXB: Do you still read the Roxette internet and Facebook fan pages such as Roxetteblog and The Daily Roxette – so are you aware that the fan world went totally crazy after the song was announced on several streaming services such as iTunes, Amazon and Google play?
MB: Yes, we noticed some comments!
RXB: The response so far has been amazing, lots of positive comments everywhere, how do you feel about this?
MB: We, Marie, Magnus, Max & me are so happy about this. Max told me the other day that people are telling him daily on the bus, in the streets, everywhere how much they like the song and production.
RXB: What can you actually tell us about the single? When did you have the idea, when did you record it?
MB: I had an idea back in 2002 to make an instrumental album with my favorite sax and guitar players in Sweden. Magnus Lindgren and Max Schultz. We started the recordings at Vinden studio in January 2003. Soon we asked Marie to add some vocals to one of the songs (on a Sunday). We also made the first recording of Max´s song “Alone again” back then. At that time it was an instrumental song. A couple of years later I wrote the lyrics and in 2009 we recorded the song with Marie. At that time we even had plans of doing some light touring with this trio. But as you know history wanted something else.
RXB: Is there a reason you chose English over Swedish?
MB: No, not really ! Maybe it´s because Magnus’ instrumental song’s name was “On a Sunday” so Marie and me wrote english lyrics to it.
RXB: The song came together with a (surprise) video – what was the idea behind this?
MB: We thought it would be easier to present the song if it contained a video. It’s much more funny to click a link and be able to listen and watch.
RXB: You worked with two musicians with who you already worked with before, why did you choose to work with them? How did this collaboration come up?
MB: Marie and me heard a duo in a hotelbar in London 2002. Two guys playing sax and guitar. It felt as an odd combination, but still so interesting. It felt natural to ask Max & Magnus if they were interested of trying something like this, but playing only original songs.
RXB: Does the single mean that a new album is coming out soon?
MB: I wish I could say yes, but this was meant to be a one-time event, but after the massive positive reaction….. we’ll see…..Hopefully we can release something more in the same category in the future…at least I hope.
RXB: Both musicians are known for their jazz music, if there will be a new album, will it be THE jazz album Marie always wanted to do?
MB: Yes, I think it’s a good guess that in that case, jazz & blues will dominate, but I don’t know about a whole album.
RXB: Have you listened to Per’s solo album? What do you think?
MB: Yes we have and we think it´s great. We like it a lot !
RXB: We read a rumour some weeks ago that you and Marie became grandparents in the meantime. It spread like a bush fire and many people were speculating about this being right. We really don’t want to fuel the rumor mill, but in case it is true…
MB: HA! Not as far as we know.
