When I decided to meet Jonas Isacsson, my story about him was already written – in my head. Back then I didn’t know that it would take me another seven months to finish this text. Why? Just because some bad things happened, I didn’t have spare time to write it, my iPhone crashed and didn’t let me play the recording of the interview – and most of all I wanted to do it right, it was meant to be perfect. But in the meantime I realized that there’s no way to write a perfect article about a guy who deserves it. The more I try, the less it works. I am, however, happy now that I finally made it. Please be gentle about my English. I did it all alone, I am not a native speaker and tried my best.
My wish to meet Jonas again and write a story about him came two years ago. When I finally got the chance to really meet and talk to him, I was more than happy. Finally, I would make it to Stockholm and could go for a beer with him. Why I wanted to meet Jonas? When we – Judith and I – interviewed him for Roxetteblog the very first time (November 2009, during Night Of The Proms), I had the feeling he has a lot of stories to tell, a lot of experiences to share. When we had met for the interview, we sat more than 2 hours talking to him and we could have gone another 2 hours if he had had the time. I, however, thought that not the complete story has been told. Some months and years later I really missed him during the Roxette tour, although Christoffer Lundquist did a tremendous job. When I saw Christoffer running across the stage, hitting his guitar and making people in the audience go crazy with his acting and watching, I thought about Jonas again and the feeling I had. I thought that he is just a compeletely different guy on stage. Calm, quiet, shy, withdrawn – whatever you may call it. It fascinated me that a guy can be so lost (in a positive way) in playing the guitar on stage that you can even hear it. Every tone sounds like you feel what he wants to tell with it, every break he makes means exactly that: to be silent for a very short moment.
So, after our first interview I was really eager to talk to him again; just to hear what else he has to tell.
We meet in August 2013 again. It is a sunny day in Stockholm. It is the day of the “Tack för musiken” recording with Marie Fredriksson and it feels like a perfect day to talk about his career, life and thoughts about this and that. It is warm enough to sit outside and drink a beer – and so we do. I wanted Jonas to choose the location and he came up with a small diner in Södermalm. I ask him why he chose this location. “Because it’s so lovely and a nice location to sit outside. Many of my friends live here or around the corner.” I have a look around and notice he chose a vegetarian diner. Asked about that he says that he himself isn’t a vegetarian, but many of his friends are, but that he still loves the food. “I don’t eat that much meat actually, more fish and seafood. But this here is good food. You should try it. Although, I think they are a bit modest with spice. You should bring your own spice.” He thinks a lot before he speaks, he seems a bit nervous but still happy that we meet.
When I had passed the diner earlier I noticed a lot of drug addicts. “It’s nice anyway”, Jonas says about Södermalm after I mentioned the drug thing. “More people are around, it’s not that snobby here.” Of course, I want to know where in Stockholm it is snobby. “Östermalm. Old ladies with dogs out there and so on.” He laughs. We look around and think about Södermalm again. I read somehwere that Södermalm is the one place in Stockholm, where everyone wants to live and work. “It wasn’t like that 20 years ago”, Jonas says. He thinks again. “Pelle lives here. Pelle Alsing. I haven’t seen him in a while. I miss him.” I don’t know what to say in this moment and try to switch the topic.
