Per Gessle

Interview with Per Gessle by Hallandsposten before the Roxette tour start

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Jan-Owe Wikström did an interview with Per for Hallandsposten before the Roxette In Concert 2025 tour starts tomorrow. Per regarding the tour:

It’s the most exciting and the most uncertain thing I’ve done since Gyllene Tider’s comeback in 1996. You don’t know at all how it’s going to work, how it’s going to be received.

He explains it’s absolutely not a new band. It’s him, one half of Roxette, the Roxette band where Jonas Isacsson is back for the first time since 2001 and then Lena who is hired as a singer. The other option would have been to not make a comeback at all so this was the next best option, he points out.

Per tells Jan-Owe that it’s 26 degrees in Cape Town right now and he didn’t understand at first why he had an allergic shock, until he realized that it’s full pollen season over there. He took one pill and it was over in an hour, Per laughs.

We’ve actually sold as many tickets this time as when we were there with Marie. I never thought that! At the same time, the music industry has completely changed, where in four years we’ve increased the number of streams on Spotify by 40 percent. So I think it benefits us “craftsmen”, people want real music live.

It could even have been a joint tour with Bryan Adams in Australia, Jan-Owe says.

Yes, indeed. We play almost in parallel, so he wondered if we would go together. But unfortunately, we had already booked venues and started selling tickets. A bit of a shame, because it would have been great fun.

At the rehearsal a little over a week ago, there were 21 songs left. Per reveals:

There have been a lot of “kill your darlings”, but that’s because many songs have the same character. But there will still be two that we’ve never played live with Roxette before.

To the question how the rehearsals felt, he replies:

Very good! Lena is extremely professional. Now it’s about finding our roles. Marie and I had known each other for so long, so it was natural for her to step forward as long as she could. Then I got to the front on the last tour and solo and with Gyllene Tider, I’m the one who does it. We’ll see how it goes here. I mean, the rehearsals are one thing, but in front of just over 10,000 people: “How will Lena act in, for example, “Sleeping In My Car”?” So it’s going to be a challenge, really fun. It’s just a matter of not interrupting each other. Hahaha.

Jan-Owe asks who decides in such situations. Per explains that Lena of course had ideas regarding her singing, but otherwise, Per has the final say.

After the two Halmstad gigs at the end of July, Per has nothing else booked.

We’ll see. But I have several projects that are currently on hold.

To the question if there could even be new Roxette songs with Lena on vocals he replied:

Not at the moment. That has never been the intention, it has been that the song catalogue should live on. People want to hear Roxette’s old hits, not something new. But at the same time – when you work together for as long as we will now, you never know what it might lead to.

Jan-Owe is curious if there are any plans with Gyllene Tider.

Right now it feels a bit finished, but it has felt that way before too… If this tour develops into what I hope for with gigs on more continents, Roxette will be priority 1.

Per Gessle on Nordic Rox – February 2025

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Per Gessle and Sven Lindström have started a new series on Nordic Rox. Before they get down to business, they talk about their winter. Per says he was abroad for Christmas. He is not really a fan of the Swedish and Scandinavian winter season, even though he was born there. Sven agrees and says if they start talking about it, they are going to spend ten minutes complaining about the weather. To cheer things up, the guys have got a new list to go through, the top 30 songs of the ’80s.

Per thinks the ’80s was a fantastic decade. Great hairdos, great clothes and great music. Sven adds, great shoulder pads on the record covers. Haha. They will go through the first five of these songs.

Speaking of freezing cold, they first take a trip to Finland and play Matkustaja by Egotrippi. PG thinks they are a great band. He guesses Egotrippi means ego trip. That’s as far as his Finnish goes. He can’t pronounce the title, but he really loves this song. He tries to pronounce it and Sven says he can’t correct him, because his Finnish is… Haha. For two countries that are so close to each other, the Finnish language is incomprehensible for Swedes. Egotrippi is actually one of the few words that you understand immediately.

The next song is from Norway, I Used To Be A Real Piece Of Shit by Sløtface. It’s just under two minutes, which is their favourite timing for a pop song, Sven says. Per says it’s not bad.

Run To You by Roxette is next from the Crash! Boom! Bang! album that has just been released as a 30th anniversary edition, Per informs.

Before the countdown starts, Ain’t No Saint by Peg Parnevik is played.

Per loves the ’80s. It was a fantastic decade, he thinks, especially when you look back at it now. Sven asks PG what made it special compared to the ’70s. Mr. G explains that music-wise the digital revolution happened. Suddenly you started to work with click tracks and drum machines instead of the old school stuff. Music changed a lot and everything else changed. If you look back at fashion, books…, everything was different. If you look back, Sven thinks the ’50s continued until The Beatles came on the scene in ’63 or so. The ’70s started in 1968-69. Sometimes decades go like this. When Sven hears the album Station To Station by David Bowie, it’s recorded in 1976 or 1975, but that sounds almost ’80s to him as well. Sven is curious if for Per as a songwriter there is an archetypical ’80s sound. It is the synthesizer for PG. It’s Pet Shop Boys, Eurythmics, Thompson Twins, Depeche Mode, Simple Minds. There are so many examples of that style. But, of course, there was a parallel industry as well. Country music went on and the rock scene as well. So basically, the guys are going to have a little bit of this, a little bit of that on the list.

At position No. 30 they kick off with a Swedish monster hit from 1980, Vill ha dig. It became the breakthrough song of a band called Freestyle. Per says this song was all over the place and his first band, Gyllene Tider and Freestyle became sort of competitors. They shared the number one spots on the charts all the time with different singles. Per thinks this is a really brilliant track for its time. It’s just really catchy and it sounds really cool. Long live the ’80s, PG says. He adds that it was a hit even in 1981. It just went on and on and on. Big song for the band, one that you couldn’t escape in the early ’80s. It was all over the radio.

A song you could escape is the next one. Öresundstwist by Torsson, a southern Swedish cult band. Per says this song doesn’t sound like the ’80s at all, it sounds rather like the ’60s. It sounds very much like Torsson. They have their own universe, Sven says. It’s very lyric-driven and it’s really fascinating to listen to them according to Per. The song is about taking the boat between southern Sweden, Helsingborg and Denmark over the Öresund strait. If you have trouble checking out the lyrics, this is basically what it’s all about, Sven informs. And while doing so, you dance some twist on the boat as well, if Sven understands the lyrics correctly. The band is still active. They are touring and they are still very popular, Sven says. PG adds „and they still sound the same”. Sven is pretty sure this is the American radio debut for Torsson.

No. 28 is Blodspengar by a great band called Japop, led by Janne Anderson on lead guitar. They made a couple of albums in the early ’80s. This is very typical of how the power pop scene sounded in Sweden in the early ’80s. Spilling over from the late ’70s new wave. This is like The Greg Kihn Band sort of style. Per thinks it’s a great, really nice pop song. Sven is curious if Per saw Japop live. He did. They were actually signed to the same record label as Gyllene Tider were in those days. Janne is a great guitar player and great singer as well. It was a trio and it’s a shame that they didn’t become bigger. They were produced by Dan Sundquist from Reeperbahn, also an incredibly cool band.

Speaking of power pop, the guys have Mikael Rickfors coming up next. Tender Turns Tuff is a great song from 1981. Mikael Rickfors became the lead singer of the English band The Hollies in the ’70s. He replaced Allan Clarke. They were pretty successful in the ’70s, then Mikael returned home to Sweden in the ’80s and made some amazing solo albums. He worked a bit with Robert Palmer. This song, the title track from the Tender Turns Tuff album, was really big. Per remembers it was all over the place. It’s also a bit new wave-ish, spilling over into the ’80s. Mikael Rickfors and his songwriting partner Hasse Huss wrote a song, Yeah, Yeah, the last track on the Cyndi Lauper album She’s So Unusual in 1983. It was one of the best selling albums in the States in 1983. They have been very successful as songwriters. They were a really good team. Hasse Huss was writing the lyrics and Mikael was writing the music. Sven says that there is a bonus version of the Tender Turns Tuff album and on that extended version there is a track called Blue Fun, which was remixed by Robert Palmer. It sounds really cool. He did a lot of interesting stuff.

The final ’80s song of the day is Ängeln i rummet by one of Sweden’s most successful female artists during the ’80s, Eva Dahlgren. She is still around and she is still amazing, Per says. This was a really big song for her, released in 1989. Wonderful vocals, really atmospheric according to Sven. It might also be the first time being played on American radio.

The list continues in the next show. On this episode the guys still play Soul Free by Atomic Swing from 1994 and Younger by Seinabo Sey from her album Pretend.

Elvis, I Love You by Albin Lee Meldau is next. Per says this is the sound of Gothenburg, Sweden. Sven thinks it’s a brilliant song and informs that PG recorded a song with Albin Lee on Per’s latest album. They did a duet together, which has been a big hit in Sweden, Per says. „Very nice! Thank you very much, Albin Lee!”

The show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Per Gessle shows his Ferrari collection on Antikrundan

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In the January 16th episode of Antikrundan, SVT, there was a 4-minute-long reportage with Per Gessle. Antikrundan is the Swedish version of the original BBC format Antiques Roadshow. The show visits different locations in Sweden and lets people bring their antiques to be valued by experts. The show is hosted by Anne Lundberg.

Watch it HERE!

The recordings took place in August 2024 at Hotel Tylösand when Anne visited Per in Halmstad. Per’s part starts 23:40 into the program. After greeting Anne outside, with a view to the sea, they enter the hotel and walk into the area where The Joyride Car Collection is exhibited. Anne explains Per is a collector of both art and musical instruments, but today it’s about something else. Per enthusiastically says they are going to talk about cars. He thinks it smells so good in there, it smells like cars. If you also love cars, you should know how important it is to maintain your vehicle with the help of an auto repair mechanic.

Anne is curious how Per’s interest in cars started. He thinks it was when he was a kid and watched Formula 1 with Ronnie Peterson and Jackie Stewart. Then he got completely hooked on Ferrari when he saw The Persuaders! with Tony Curtis and Roger Moore. Roger Moore drove an Aston Martin, but the Ferrari Dino Tony Curtis was driving was Per’s dream car. He is not the type who has to drive his cars so fast at all costs. He loves looking at them and he loves the romance around it. It’s Italy, la dolce vita. He thinks older cars in particular are fantastic, but they are so incredibly expensive and difficult to find. If you have a classic car that you want to customize, consider a car wrapping service.

Anne wants to know what the oldest car in the collection is. Per shows the one from 1962. It was bought new by Ragnar Åhlén, who started Åhlén & Holm which later became Tempo and then Åhléns, a chain of Swedish department stores. Per says this car is a 250 GTE. Anne asks PG how he knows that it is the one that Ragnar Åhlén had. Mr. G explains that there is a fantastic sign inside. He allows Anne to sit in the car and she finds the sign that says Åhlén & Holm AB, Ringvägen 100, Stockholm. Considering that the car is 60 years old, it is in fantastic condition in every detail, Anne says. Per says there are a few flaws though, a little patina that is. Anne says they like it like that in Antikrundan.

The next car is the Dino. Per asks Anne if she has seen anything more beautiful. He draws Anne’s attention to the taillights. PG loves them. Anne likes the shape of the car and says it could have been a super exclusive piece of furniture. It’s from 1971. Per lets Anne sit in the Dino. Anne says she has never sat in a car like this, it’s the first time. She hits her head while getting into the car and they are both laughing. Anne notes that you must not be too tall, if you have a car like this. She says Per probably didn’t know it when he was sitting at home watching The Persuaders! that one day he would own a car like this. Per says it’s fantastic. It’s the classic Rosso Corsa. Anne says it’s the color that people associate with Ferrari. Per confirms. Anne has heard that Per even got his own color. It’s Gessle gray (Gessle-grå). He points at the car next to them to show the color. It’s a ’60s color called Grigio Ferro. Many of their cars are in this color, so at the factory they call them Gessle gray (Gessle-grå). Per says they have learnt the Swedish word. And if you encounter any issues with your car while driving, there are mobile auto repair shops that can get you back on the road in no time.

They jump into the Gessle gray Ferrari and Anne asks Per if there are still any dream cars left when he has such a fantastic collection. PG says not really, but of course, there are cars that you would like to have. He loves Ferrari California Spyders from the late ’50s, but they are almost unobtainable. They are extremely expensive and there aren’t that many of them. But it’s always fun to have a dream or two left, Per adds. You have to keep on dreaming. Car owners who keep their vehicles inside a garage are advised to hire a garage door repair technician to maintain or repair their garage door. This will help secure the cars inside. Those who park their vehicles on a parking lot should look for a secure, well-lit space. If any of the lights in the parking area is not working, it must be fixed or replaced immediately by a parking lot light repair contractor.

Stills are from the program.

Per Gessle to release The Lonely Boys demos!

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Per Gessle continues the tradition of releasing music in connection with his birthday on 12th January, and in 2025, he offers something truly special.

Mats Olsson, writer, reporter and a very good friend of mine, wrote an amazing book called “De ensamma pojkarna” (translates into “The Lonely Boys”) about a striving young Swedish rock group in the ’60s. Someone came up with the brilliant idea that Nisse Hellberg (from one of my favourite Swedish bands) Wilmer X and yours truly should try to write a “soundtrack” to the book.

Three of my songs (“Adam & Eve” + “Apple In The Mud” + “Keep The Radio On (This Is The Perfect Song)” were born on the road with Roxette. We were on our “Crash! Boom! Bang!” tour and these songs were written in April 1995 in Santiago, Chile.

“Lonely Boys” and “Stay (At Home, At Work, At Play)” were born in June 1995 while “Genius Gone Wrong” goes way back to 1984.

I recorded my six demos together with MP Persson and Micke Syd during two hectic days in July 1995 at the Tits&Ass Studio in Halmstad.

By the way, there’s another song by me on the “real” Lonely Boys album (“I Wanna Be With You”) which made it to the record only because “Stay (At Home, At Work, At Play)” didn’t really fit in. Sometimes you have to kill your darlings.

The “I Wanna Be With You” demo was made in November 1994 and is not included on the vinyl maxi EP but stands loud and proud, just like the other six tracks, in a brand new mix by MP on all streaming services for your listening pleasure. Have fun!

These fantastic power pop songs are now being released in a refined form with completely new mixes. 6 of them are released as a 12″ vinyl in limited edition on 10th January.

Order a limited signed copy by Per Gessle HERE!

The Per Gessle Archives – The Lonely Boys – Demo Sessions 1995

SIDE A

1 Lonely Boys (T&A Demo July 4, 1995 – 2024 Mix)
2 Apple In The Mud (T&A Demo July 4, 1995 – 2024 Mix)
3 Keep The Radio On (This Is The Perfect Song) (T&A Demo July 5, 1995 – 2024 Mix)

SIDE B

1 Adam & Eve (T&A Demo July 4, 1995 – 2024 Mix)
2 Genius Gone Wrong (T&A Demo July 5, 1995 – 2024 Mix)
3 Stay (At Home, At Work, At Play) (T&A Demo July 5, 1995 – 2024 Mix)

Produced by Per Gessle

Recorded at T&A Studios, Halmstad July 4-5, 1995

Engineer: Mats Persson

Mixed by Mats Persson at T&A Studios, Halmstad August 2024

Played by

Micke Syd Andersson: drums
Per Gessle: electric guitars + piano + harmonica + synthesizer + vocals
Mats Persson: electric guitars + bass guitar

Words + Music by Per Gessle

Published by Jimmy Fun Music

Mastering: Mats Persson, T&A Studios Halmstad

Design: Pär Wickholm, Wickholm Formavd., Stockholm

Photo by Åsa Gessle

The digital edition contains the 1994 demo of I Wanna Be With You in a 2024 mix as well. Tracklist:

1 Lonely Boys (T&A Demo July 4, 1995 – 2024 Mix)
2 Apple In The Mud (T&A Demo July 4, 1995 – 2024 Mix)
3 Keep The Radio On (This Is The Perfect Song) (T&A Demo July 5, 1995 – 2024 Mix)
4 Adam & Eve (T&A Demo July 4, 1995 – 2024 Mix)
5 Genius Gone Wrong (T&A Demo July 5, 1995 – 2024 Mix)
6 Stay (At Home, At Work, At Play) (T&A Demo July 5, 1995 – 2024 Mix)
7 I Wanna Be With You (T&A Demo Nov 2, 1994 – 2024 Mix)

Listen to it on Spotify, YouTube, Deezer, Apple Music or any other streaming platform!

Interview with Per Gessle in Svenska Dagbladet – “Marie always made my songs better”

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Elin Liljero Eriksson did an interview with Per for Svenska Dagbladet. Elin and Per met in the Cornelis room at Södra Teatern in Stockholm.

It has been a busy year for Per. In addition to the feature film about Gyllene Tider and a musical with Roxette’s songs at Malmö Opera, he has turned 65 and released his first album of original material in over eight years – the duet album Sällskapssjuk. Now he is preparing for a world tour with Roxette next year, together with Lena Philipsson. He is really longing to go on tour again.

How his most successful project would be managed after Marie Fredriksson passed away in 2019 has not been a matter of course. Per explains that at first he didn’t want to continue with Roxette. Then he felt that this is over 30 years of his life and he has written almost all the material, songs that he wants to live on. Roxette has also been streamed more than ever in recent years. When he then made a single with Lena for his latest album, it felt right to ask her. But they haven’t started a new Roxette, Lena is hired to manage the Roxette catalogue.

PG is shocked at how many tickets they are selling for the new Roxette tour. There has been skepticism from some fans, but there are a lot of people who think it will be fun to hear the songs again.

Per wrote the lyrics of Kärleken är evig, Lena’s song that ended up at the second place in Melodifestivalen 1986. About writing songs for other artists, PG says he never liked it. Also if you write together with others, it usually means a lot of compromises that don’t make anyone happy, unless it becomes a hit. But that’s not really why Per is doing that. He is at his best when he gets to do things his own way, which is reminiscent of his upbringing in Halmstad.

I was a loner during my school years. I lived in my little bubble, listened to an extremely lot of music and was quite shy. But I was the one who got to sing “Staffan var en stalledräng” in third grade. I can’t believe I dared it, because it was incredibly unlike me. But there was something in me even then, that I wanted to be a pop star.

Per’s mother was a teacher of porcelain painting, his father was a plumber. They had a piano which was sometimes played by Per’s sister, but no deeper interest in music can be traced in the family, except to a violin-playing relative in the 1800s.

I don’t know where it comes from, but I’ve noticed that I have a completely different musicality than the fantastic musicians I’ve had the privilege of working with all these years. To this day, I can’t sit down at a piano and play my songs. I can play them wrong in the most ridiculous places. But if you ask Roxette producer Clarence Öfwerman to play anything from The Beatles, for example, he’ll play it even though he has never done it before. What I have is that sometimes I hear something in music that they don’t.

Elin wants to know if Per hears melodies.

Yes, I don’t know how they get to me. I have no idea how to write a hit. I’ve never had a formula for it. But I’m so glad I love commercial pop music, it’s in my DNA. That’s why there has been a lot of that kind of music. The melodies are the interesting part.

Elin is curious if Per has ever had complexes about not being a typically trained musician. Mr. G thinks „complex” is perhaps not the right word, but he has always felt inferior. Already on Gyllene Tider’s early tours, MP had to go on stage and tune Per’s guitar, because Per couldn’t. But when it was tuned, PG rolled on.

About Marie Per says:

Marie always made my songs better, that’s why I needed her. If she could have written those songs herself, she would have dumped me in the nearest trash can. But she couldn’t. We complemented each other very well.

Marie joining Roxette was not a given.

She was much bigger than I was at the time. No one around her, including the record company and producer Lasse Lindbom, wanted her to do anything with me. She did this against everyone’s will.

To the question how that could happen Per replies:

On the one hand, we had a fantastically pleasant relationship, but above all we were united in the desire to play abroad. But from Marie’s side, it was always the feeling of “we’ll see what happens”. Therefore, it was important for me to deliver. So I wrote the “Look Sharp!” album that was full of goodies. She liked the material for it very much, and I noticed that she sang in a different way when I could have a say. There was a sexiness in songs like “Dressed For Success” and “Dangerous” – a completely different Marie than the one who sang ” Ännu doftar kärlek”.

Look Sharp! was the start of a global Roxette hype that led to intense touring for several years. Elin says that despite the fact that both Per and Marie had partners, there were often rumors that they were a couple.

No, I have never had a relationship with Marie. We had a very intense relationship through Roxette, it was like our child. But after the Crash tour in the mid-1990s, everything changed, because Marie had a child. Then it became a different focus in her life, which was perfectly fine.

Per says he doesn’t really feel at home in the music industry anymore. It’s not because it is worse or better. That’s because it’s different from how it was when he was growing up. That’s why he still likes album covers. If you are 15 years old today, you don’t care about that.

Elin informs about the many projects in Per’s life. In addition to Gyllene Tider and Roxette, he has released several solo albums, runs Hotel Tylösand together with his wife, where he also has the photo gallery Tres Hombres Art and a solid Ferrari collection. He has a house and studio in Halmstad, in addition to his two floors on Strandvägen in Stockholm where he lives. Financially, he could have sat back a long time ago, but Per Gessle can hardly handle free Sundays. He says then it is impossible to get hold of anyone, the offices are closed and everyone is hungover. He wants access to things. Per says you can try to use Sundays as a contemplation day, but every seventh day is a bit too often.

Elin is curious what Per does when he contemplates. Mr. G says he walks and thinks a lot. Åsa likes to have the TV on in the mornings, which is a big schism in their family. Per is easily stressed by too much information, and if it is negative, which it often is these days, he can get quite low. Silence is a way for him to survive.

I never have music on unless I’m actively listening to it. Not in the car either. If it’s a nice car, I want to listen to the engine.

Regarding losing many around him in recent years, Per says:

It has obviously been very tough and has probably affected me more than I think. You are reminded of the impermanence of life.

Elin asks Per if he often thinks about death.

No. The most annoying thing about aging is that it’s so easy to look back. Besides that, it’s a very young world we live in, it’s not quite made for my age. 40 years ago I thought it was great, now it’s something I have to fight against. But if my ambition had been to only do bigger and bigger things, I would have gone crazy. Because what am I supposed to do with it? If I come up with an idea, I implement it. If I feel like it, I write a song. There will probably be a day when I feel like I’m done, but I’m not quite there yet.

Read the original interview in Swedish by Elin Liljero Eriksson and check out the photos by Rickard L Eriksson HERE on Svenska Dagbladet!

Rickard also shared the photos on his Instagram.