Marie was interviewed by Erik Blix on P4 Extra. Marie talked about the upcoming tour, meeting her fans and also about a project she has longed to do for a long time: something with jazz and soul.
Here is a summary of what Marie said:
Erik Blix thinks that Marie’s blonde haircut is a kinf of signature, and wonders if people would recognise her otherwise. “Haha! Well, I have had it for such a long time.. haha who knows, but yes, everybody is used to it now”.
Erik Blix congratulates Marie on the Hall of Fame selection and asks her if she thinks an artist is missing “naah.. haha I don’t think so.. but.. there are many great bands out there”.
Marie will go on tour in just 11 days and she is looking forward to it. “I am just so much looking forward to it,” she says. She hasn’t been on tour for more than 10 years, Marie explains that she has been touring with Roxette the past years and that things just take some time. But now the time has come. Marie explains that they are having so much fun at the rehearsals and that it feels exciting to perform her songs in Swedish.
The reporter wonders if she still feels nervous when it comes to touring. She tells that she does! Marie also explains that it makes a difference if she is on tour with Roxette, because Per is a great support, and now she feels a bit of alone on stage, but she has a great band with her, so it’s going to be fantastic.
Erik Blix saw that there are some competitions for meet&greets with Marie and wonders how it is to meet her fans. “It’s going to be great, meeting my fans is the best there is because they have always supported me and believed in me.” The reporter wonders if there aren’t any crazy fans who for example want to cut off a bit of her hair or something like that “yes, sure, there are many idiots out there, but most of them are extremely nice, they are the best.”
Marie’s latest album is called “Nu!” – this means live for her, just living the moment. That’s how she’s living right now, after all what she’s gone through. She explains that she tries not to plan long-term and just enjoy what happens now. Of course, she has become better in living the moment because of her illness. She also explains that she loves to just sit down and listen to birds sing, specially when birds start to wake up and show up again. She reveals she can even distinguish some of the birds she hears tweet.
It took Marie and Micke a long time to finalise “Nu!”, but now that it’s finally out, Erik Blix wonders how it feels to release something that they have been working on for so long. She says it feels great, to just be done with it and then look forward to the next project. The album is full of love, Marie talks about her husband Mikael Bolyos who has supported her all the way and has written (with other composers) most of the songs on the album. She explains that it takes very long for her to write texts, so she is happy that she wrote “Sista sommarens vals” and it turned out so nice.
Erik and Marie look back in time into the 80ies and even before that, when Marie was into the “progg” movement, but she doesn’t want to talk much about that “haha! it was cool.”
Marie also reveals that there is one thing she really wants to do: start with her jazz project again. “I love jazz and blues and always wanted to do something with that.” But she doesn’t want to reveal any details, even if the reporter tries to find out if she will record old jazz songs or new ones, “no sorry, cannot talk about it, haha! it’s too early!”
Marie also tells that she hates winter and snow and that therefore she loves her house in Spain. She gets inspiration there and she writes music and also paints.
Erik Blix asks about her illness and what it has given to her. She is happy that she managed and that she is here now. There was a time when she had to take many pills (up to 25 a day even!) and it was very hard, but she was always sure inside that she would manage. Her faith helped her too as well as the fact that she has always believed in herself and, of course, her family. Marie doesn’t want to go into further details about her faith, but she tells that she sang a lot in the church when she was a kid and it gave her strength, so she grew up with it and it means a lot to her. She also explains that nowadays she feels fine but that when she is tired she has problems with one leg, but “I have started to like my leg, haha”.
Roxette and Marie have done music for some films (Pretty Woman, Arn, Sånt är livet…), so the reporter wonders if she could choose, for which film would she have liked to make music for. Marie tells that there are many great films out there, so it’s very hard just to pick up one.
Erik comments on Marie’s rock look and some pictures where she is wearing T-shirts of Beatles or Ramones, she explains that she just liked the T-shirts and got them. Of course, she loves the bands too. Specially Jimmi Hendrix and Joni Mitchell meant a lot to her, but also a lot more. She listened to them when she was a kid, she is not much up-to-date nowadays, but she explains that her son has a great ear for music and has a great music taste, also her daughter, they like all kinds of music.
The first Marie thought when she was asked to sing at Princess Madeleine’s wedding was “oh, what am I going to wear? haha!”. She was very happy that the Princess asked her to sing at her wedding and what was amazing for her was that she wanted to listen to “Ännu doftar kärlek”, she felt very proud about that. So they rehearsed a lot and she also found a dress to wear that day. For Marie this song means strength.
She talks about how difficult it is – after her illness – for her to write lyrics to songs, she usually starts with the music. She is very proud of Sista sommarens vals, the one and only song she wrote for her new album, “Nu!”.
