Marie Fredriksson

Roxette Brasil interviewed Jokke Pettersson: ”Marie and I are very close since I was a child.”

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Roxette Brasil (Bianca Cappelletti) did a nice interview with Jokke Pettersson, Marie’s nephew, who is going to be part of Marie’s band on tour. Here you have the translation:

 

Marie is the youngest child of the Fredriksson family. Her sister Anna-Lisa (who died in a car accident when Marie was 8) and Ulla-Britt were much older, so Marie had a closer relationship with Tina. In fact, they were inseparable! The family has always lived in a very musical environment and it seems that the tradition is being kept. Jokke Pettersson, Marie’s nephew will play the guitar in the band that will accompany her on tour in 2014.

Jokke kindly gave an interview to Roxette Brasil and here it is:

Roxette Brasil: – Hello, Jokke! For a start, tell us a bit more about your musical background. Has music always been present in your life? When did you start playing? What are your biggest influences?

Jokke: – Yes, music has always been a large part of my life. I started playing the drums when I was 8 and the guitar at the age of 11. In my family we were always playing music and singing, so it was natural for me to play the instruments, too.

Roxette Brasil: – We know you have a strong blues influence, but you also play great pop and wow … heavy metal? Can you tell us more about your style?

Jokke: – I started out as a big heavy metal fan and I was listening a lot to Metallica, Pantera and stuff like this when I was a kid. At a time in my life I thought that it was not enough and then learned to play all the other styles such as blues and pop. I always liked guitarists like John Scofield, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hendrix and others.

Roxette Brasil: – In 2011 you gave an interview to a newspaper in Helsingborg, related to a United Nations day show. You were asked about playing songs from Marie (Tro, Sparvöga , Ett hus vid havet, Vinterangel and Ännu doftar kärlek) and you said that the conductor of the choir proposed the songs, who revealed that Marie is your aunt and that your mother was in the choir, too. Can you tell us more about your relationship with Marie? Are you close to each other?

Jokke: – My mother is Tina. Marie and I are very close since I was a child.

Roxette Brasil: – Tell us about your band, Ladah.

Jokke: – I and two friends are the members of Ladah, where we played jazz-rock fusion. I’m currently working a lot with my band, Karavan. We released two albums that can be found on Spotify. We toured with American Hunter Perrin and now we’re on tour with Cameron Ochs. I also have a metal band called Kayser. We will release our next album in February. I love playing different styles.

Roxette Brasil: – For those who are wondering if you’ve worked together with Marie earlier, you played the guitar on some of the songs of Min bäste vän album, right? How did she invite you to accompany her on tour?

Jokke: – Yeah, I played on Min bäste vän and also on her new album, Nu!. She called me to go on tour with her and of course I said YES! It’s an honor!

Roxette Brasil: – Marie has one of the most beautiful and the most recognizable voices in pop. For this reason, she has many fans around the world and we know that many fans will travel from their countries to join her tour. Do the pressure and anxiety increases for this reason or the fact that you are her nephew makes you more relaxed?

Jokke: – Tough question. I think the biggest reason to be calm is that I know what I’m doing. But I love Marie and her personality and it is very good of course.

Roxette Brasil: – As a final question, what are your expectations for the tour?

Jokke: – Play great music, meet cool people and have fun.

Marie Fredriksson – TV ad and PR for ”Nu!”

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Lygrell & Silver Productions is the company that made the short video we could see on Aftonbladet’s website last Friday in which Marie and Micke are talking about ”Sista sommarens vals”.

Warner Music Sweden decided to do different PR for the album than usual, so besides some interviews in magazines, there are 5 videos about different topics. Good news is that all 5 videos are available online! (4 of them were removed after this article was published.) The PR videos are fantastic and it’s a great idea to do something different indeed. The productions company informs, Warner will spread them via social media sites.

Here you can check all the videos (note that now only Sista sommarens vals has a valid link):

The videos are shot at Marie’s & Micke’s home in Stockholm, in different places of the house. One of my personal favourites is the one with ”Kom vila hos mig”, where Marie is singing in the studio. Pure awesomeness!

The other is the longest video (15 minutes!!!), where she and Jonna are talking about mode and style. We already shared Jonna’s blog post with Marie some time ago on our Facebook site, so now we know why they were sitting together in Marie’s wardrobe. 😉 In the background you can see many clothes Marie was wearing in old videos (e.g. Anyone, The Big L., Joyride, Milk and Toast and Honey) and on tours or photo sessions. You can see in the video how much Marie loves her hot clothes. Good that she keeps them all.

Besides the 5 PR beauty videos, Lygrell & Silver Productions also made a 20-sec-long TV ad, which can be seen on TV4. Absolutely fantastic! 3 songs can be heard in the ad: ”Det är nu!”, ”Kom vila hos mig” and ”Sista sommarens vals”. Click HERE for watching!

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Update 15:30 CET, 1st December: the PR videos besides the one in which Marie and Micke are talking about Sista sommarens vals and the TV ad were removed. Ooops. Warner will probably share them one by one, so please, be patient. They should be out very soon.

Busy St. Lucy’s day for the fans

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You already saved the date in your calendar, as we already informed you that the 1-hour-long part of ”Tack för musiken” in which Marie Fredriksson is the guest will be broadcasted on SVT1 at 21:00 CET, 13th December. The show was recorded at the end of August and many fans could buy tickets and be there in the audience. It is going to be a fantastic show with Marie performing some of her songs live and a long interview with her done by Niklas Strömstedt.

Before you can enjoy watching Ms Effe on TV, you’ll have a chance to see another program on another channel, TV4. ”Gyllene Tider sommaren 2013” starts at 20:00 CET the very same evening. This will be an appetizer from the upcoming DVD. It will contain parts of the ”Dags att tänka på refrängen” tour, as well as some exclusive shots from the backstage. One bad thing about Swedish TV channels – understandably – competing with each other is that the GT stuff ends at 21:30. Fingers crossed that both programs will be available online after they are over on TV.

Oh, one more thing! Hopefully, history won’t repeat itself and we won’t have to wait another year for the GT DVD after this TV cut is broadcasted. 😉

MF_GT_13th_Dec_on_TV

 

Roxette radio docu on NYE

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If you need something to cheer you up before this year’s New Year’s Eve party, the radio documentary about ”Look Sharp!” – the album, which is still their best as Per says – will be probably your thing. As you could already read it in our earlier articles, Tara Moshizi and Tove Meyer did interviews with Marie, Per, Clarence and Anders during the past months and they were talking about the album on the occasion of its 25th anniversary.

Save the date in your calendar!

Sveriges Radio P4: 31st December, 12:03 pm CET
Sveriges Radio P1: 31st December, 16:03 pm CET; 3rd January 18:15 pm CET

Tara and Tove have appr. 6 hours of raw material, but they cut it to a 50-minute-long documentary. Good news is that they will share some more of the raw material (i.e. the interviews or parts of them) online after the docu has been broadcasted. Stay tuned!

 

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Marie Fredriksson chats with fans: “Successful because of my fans”

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In a 20 minutes chat on Aftonbladet Marie Fredriksson answered some questions today.

Most of the fans asked about her tour which starts in February. Rosa from Barcelona wanted to know if we can expect any surprises on the tour, but Marie didn’t reveal anything and said: “If I told you know, it wouldn’t be a surprise.”Luiz Gimenez asked how Marie feels about the fact that a lot of fans will come from Brazil to Sweden to see her shows. Marie replied she is also looking forward to the tour and seeing the fans again. A Russian fan wanted to know how many new songs Marie will play at her shows and Marie let us know that she plans to play at least two new songs. RXB admin Judith asked if they are already rehearsing and have prepared a setlist for the 2tour, but so far they are only thinking of several songs and haven’t started rehearsing yet.

RXB team member Patrícia asked about a rumour we have heard several times now – that Marie is working on a biography, but it seems it’s too early to tell about it since Marie couldn’t or didn’t want to say anything about a possible release date of this book. Later on, Evgeny Perekopskiy asked about a dream she has and which dream she wants to come true: “Maybe to release a book about my life in the future.”

Being asked about her favourite song on “Nu!”, Marie replied that it’s “Vad vore jag utan dig” (see our interview with Mikael Bolyos) which “means so much to me”. The main difference between “Nu!” and her previous albums? Easy question for Marie: “I have only written one song.”

Julia from St. Petersburg asked about Marie’s other passion – painting – and if she is planning another exhibition. But it is of course obvious that Marie is busy with other stuff: “I’d love to have another exhibition when I have the time.”

A user called Mia wanted to know about artists Marie likes or give her inspiration – Marie says it’s Rufus Wainwright and Veronica Maggio. Funniest answer: “My friend Pär.” Guess the question.. “Do you still have any connections with Halmstad?”

And the most touching answer comes with Miedy’s question “You always look so happy and in a good mood when you meet your fans. What’s your secret?” – I know that my success is because of you.

Miedy also asked about possible Roxette recordings, but Marie seems not to be involved so far as says: “Nothing new with Roxette, so far.”