Roxette

Interview with Per Gessle in Aftonbladet – “It’s a bit too much Per for my taste”

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Anna & Hans Shimoda did an interview with Per for Aftonbladet. They talked about the Roxette revival – this time with Lena Philipsson by Per’s side, the great sadness after Marie Fredriksson and the tough journey of illness, the love for his wife Åsa and that he was the weak link in Gyllene Tider.

It is no exaggeration to say that 2024 is Per Gessle’s year. One of Sweden’s foremost pop singers releases a new album Sällskapssjuk, there will be a film about Gyllene Tider premiering this summer, and a musical about Roxette will be staged at Malmö Opera.

In addition, Gessle revealed just a month or so ago that he is reviving Roxette with Lena Philipsson at the microphone early next year.

It’s actually a bit too much Per for my taste. A moderate dosage would have been desirable, but I knew that when this year began. The film and the musical have been pushed forward all the time, and so they premiere two months apart, and that’s a bit unfortunate. Or it doesn’t matter, but you don’t know what you’re up to. Then we release a record at the same time and then comes this Roxette thing. So it’s four big things at the same time.

Aftonbladet asks Per to tell them about Sällskapssjuk, the upcoming album, which is his first Swedish album in seven years.

What I can say is that the recordings were finished last summer. So I’ve been doing other things in the studio that you guys don’t know about. I recorded “Sällskapssjuk” in autumn 2022 and spring 2023, so Lena and I worked together already then.

Anna and Hans are curious if it was clear already then that Lena would sing in Roxette.

No, it came a little later. But when we started working together, the token fell and I thought that Lena is not that bad.

Per and Lena are going on a world tour as Roxette next year. Aftonbladet wants to know whether Per felt it right away that Lena was the right choice or whether it developed with time.

Both. In recent years, I’ve been thinking about whether I should do anything with Roxette at all. My thinking has been how to manage Roxette’s legacy and song catalogue in the best way. After all, there are only two ways to go, either not to do it at all or to try to find a way so that it fits as well as possible. It was not an easy decision.

When I made “Sällskapssjuk” with Lena, I felt that she has all the qualities; a great front person with long experience and she comes from the same era as me. We also have a history together, I was involved in writing her breakthrough song “Kärleken är evig”. She is also a great singer, so I felt it was too good to be true.

Per tells how it went when he asked Lena:

I just took the courage and asked her. I thought she would fall off the chair and she almost did. The spontaneous reaction was how to shoulder Marie’s mantle. I explained that it’s not the idea, it’s rather about managing the Roxette songs. The only way for her to deal with it is to do it her own way.

Gyllene Tider will also be a film this summer. Aftonbladet is curious how it is for Per to see himself.

That is a good question. The first time I saw it I brought a tissue with me in case I started crying, but I didn’t at all. Me and director Per Simonsson agreed early on that he should try to create a “Life on Seacrow Island” [Swedish TV series – Vi på Saltkråkan] feeling, and by that I mean that you should feel sympathy and become friends with these five guys in the band, and you do.

If it has been emotional or nostalgic:

From the beginning I was not particularly positive that we should make a film at all. It’s actually about me growing up. It starts when I fill in the enlistment and ends in 1982 when “Sommartider” is released, so it’s not a tribute to Gyllene Tider’s 40-year journey, but it’s about growing up and starting a band in a small town and trying to get into Café Opera in wooden slippers.

It doesn’t feel like Per has any plans to settle down.

What does it mean? No, I think it’s super fun. I love working in the studio and playing. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t work. I’ve never really had a job, I’ve written music and played and that’s how it has worked.

To the question how he remembers the breakthrough of Gyllene Tider, Per replies:

It was super exciting, we were terrified. The first thing we did was “Måndagsbörsen” which was live TV and we were 20 years old. Everyone watched that show and you could notice it, because we broke through that night.

Aftonbladet asks Per how the celebrity life that came with it was.

What I liked was the romanticism of the pop world. I loved that everything was possible and allowed. Make-up on guys, high volume and the fuzz box at max. I have always loved it. Then there was also this idolatry and having fans. But in reality it was quite difficult. You could never be alone. People stole the laundry at my mother’s house in the garden. They stole number plates from my car, everything that was loose was stolen. We couldn’t go to a restaurant, so Anders and I moved to Los Angeles in the fall of 1981 for six weeks, because we couldn’t be at home. We escaped. On that trip we also ended up at Studio 54 in New York.

We could get in because Expressen’s Mats Olsson’s girlfriend was wearing a short-short leopard skirt, so she was let in. She said “I got these friends with me”. They looked at us and we got in, but we weren’t as tough as she was.

Anna and Hans are curious if it was deliberately provocative to stand out when Per wrote the lyrics of Flickorna på TV2.

Yes, I wanted the lyrics to stand out. All I wrote on the first record were quite odd lyrics, I wanted everything to be special like “(Dansar inte lika bra som) Sjömän” and “Ska vi älska, så ska vi älska till Buddy Holly”.

I was the weak link in Gyllene Tider. I was a pretty lousy guitarist and a half-arsed singer, but I wrote all the songs, while the others were fantastic musicians.

To the question if he really thinks he is a mediocre singer Per replies:

These days I sound pretty good, because now you can fix it on the computer. I belong to the category of singers who must have a certain type of material that I can handle. I’m no Tommy Körberg. I’ve always felt that my voice has limited my songwriting, that’s why I wanted to work with Marie. The idea of Roxette from my side was that I write the songs and Marie sings them. We all were surprised when we got our first hit, “The Look”, sung by me. Then the whole principle collapsed, but Marie recovered quite quickly.

The breakthrough with Roxette must have been absolutely amazing, Anna and Hans think.

Yes, it was crazy. We were lucky in a way, because I was 29 and Marie was 30 when we broke through. So we had quite a lot of experience, which was very nice. We had already made many mistakes here at home.

Per about his journey with Marie Fredriksson:

Oh my God. Our journey together began so early. Then she got sick in 2002 and was away for seven years. Then she appeared in 2009 when I did my first European tour and was in Amsterdam. I didn’t know she was coming, but she and her husband were. I asked her if we would do a song together, so she and I went on stage and did “Listen To Your Heart” acoustically. I’ve never seen so many people cry.

Per describes their relationship:

We were a bit like siblings. My relationship with Marie was similar to that with my sister and brother who have also sadly passed away.

When she eventually broke through with “Ännu doftar kärlek”, she was together with our producer Lasse Lindbom. When Marie then got an offer to make the first Roxette single “Neverending Love”, no one wanted it. The only one who really wanted to work with me was Marie herself. She told Lasse and the record company that “now I’m doing this with Per” and it became Sweden’s biggest hit in the summer of 1986.

Aftonbladet asks Per how it was when Marie passed away.

It was horrible of course, it became so concrete. But Marie got sick in 2002 and she passed away in 2019, that’s 17 years. I remember that after she got sick, we visited her in the hospital, but no one knew what it was about. She had her head shaved and had a bandage around her head. Then she came a few months later and sang a song called “På promenad genom stan”. She sounded just like usual, then she got sick again and had another operation. After that she lost half her sight, she couldn’t hear anything in one ear and it took away her short-term memory. So after that she went into this seven-year hiatus.

They toured again between 2010 and 2016, but then Marie quit.

When we were reunited, her doctor said she shouldn’t do it, but she wanted to. In 2016 we had a big tour booked and had sold 350,000 tickets. Then she called me out to Djursholm and explained that she couldn’t cope with it anymore. Then we had to cancel.

The reporters ask Per about Åsa. They read that they met at a nightclub in Halmstad.

Yes, it was a long time ago now, it was in October 1984. She had a guy with her who I thought was her boyfriend, but it turned out to be her brother.

It’s been 40 years. Anna and Hans are curious how they make love last that long.

We are quite similar, but also quite different. We are not in each other’s way. Åsa got a job within Roxette when we broke through, so she travelled with me during those hectic years, from 1988 to 1995, then we were never home. We didn’t know it at the time, but it was a smart decision.

Aftonbladet wants to know if Per has ever felt guilty towards his family.

Maybe not guilty, but I think I should have been more involved in my son’s schooling and attended parent-teacher meetings. But my life has never looked like that. I’ve always avoided that because if I go to a parent-teacher meeting, it’s all about me being there. It’s better and calmer for him if I stay away, but that’s my fate. It’s been an amazing journey, I’ve been doing this since I was 20 and now I’m 65. It’s amazing – and I’m not done yet.

 

Per Gessle about…

… a possible Gyllene Tider comeback

You should never say never. The former was the fourth comeback. [It was the fifth. Haha. /PP] But nothing is planned and I can’t see when it will happen. Now it’s Roxette that matters and we’ll see how long it lasts, maybe no one is interested in Roxette.

… how the hit song Joyride came about

My wife had left a note when she went out to town and she had written “Hej, din tok. Jag älskar dig”. I thought it was a nice phrase, so it became the chorus “Hello, you fool, I love you”. By the way, I wrote “Joyride” and “Spending My Time” the same afternoon.

… Pernilla Wahlgren turning down “Neverending Love”

When EMI wanted me to record it, I had to check it with Pernilla’s record company. It turned out that she had refused to record it, but they had given it to Niclas Wahlgren who had recorded it and was going to release it on his record. I said he wouldn’t get that, so there is a recording that never came out. Then we released it ourselves and it became our breakthrough song.

Photo by Andreas Bardell

Per Gessle, a fan of order on Sverige!

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Per Gessle was a guest of Farah Abadi on Sverige! on SVT. Farah starts the show by introducing Per as one of Sweden’s greatest pop legends. Right now he is in a period when a lot of exciting, unexpected things are happening around both Gyllene Tider and Roxette. This episode also contains a meeting with photographer Anders Roos, who for many years followed Per Gessle’s career closely and the electric guitar maker in the Scanian countryside, from whom musicians from all over the world buy guitars.

Farah welcomes Per and says it’s nice to have him in Malmö. Per says it’s nice to be here.

It was a bit difficult to get him on the program, because he is always so busy. Per says it’s a bit much right now, even for him. There is a lot going on. Farah asks him to tell us more. PG doesn’t know where to start. The Gyllene Tider movie premieres this summer. The Roxette musical has its world premiere in September in Malmö. There is a new album coming this autumn called Sällskapssjuk, off which Per has started releasing singles already. Then there is a Roxette tour that starts in the spring in South Africa. All these are completely different things. The Gyllene Tider film was probably a bit unexpected, because such movies are usually made when you have died.

Here they watch a short part of the movie where Per and his father are talking inside a car and when it ends, Farah asks Per if this is how it happened. Per says, no, not really. He always had quite a lot of support from his parents. Unfortunately, his father passed away in 1978, but he still felt supported to do what he wanted. He wanted to be in this pop bubble. It was a much nicer world than the real world.

Farah asks Per if he always has a song on his mind. PG says he usually jokes that he writes as little as possible. There is no reason for him to sit down at the piano between nine and five and try to write songs. He doesn’t work like that. He has to have an idea, usually a text idea or a temperature as he calls it. He is trying to find what he wants to say with the song. The best songs are the ones where music and lyrics are written basically at the same time.

Farah is curious what Per means by temperature. PG tries to explain that it can be sadness, joy, curiosity, loneliness or whatever it is about. It sets the temperature of the song. It also characterizes the melodies and the choice of chords and eventually how it should be arranged and produced.

Farah wants to know if Per feels like a song he has written is going to be hit. If he feels it right away. Per says he can feel that he likes it a lot, but if it becomes a hit, that time is long gone. He has always been a super bad hit picker. He was the one who didn’t want to include Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) on the Mazarin album. He thought it was a bit of a ’50s pastiche and it didn’t belong there. But everyone else was nagging about it, so it was pure luck that he bowed to it in the end.

Farah says in Per’s music there is a lot of love. PG reacts „sometimes”. Farah asks him if it comes naturally. PG says it’s often quite lonely, melancholy and a little dark blue in the lyrics, at least in the past few decades. When you get older, it’s more difficult to write about what these songs in the Gyllene Tider movie are about, (Kom så ska vi) Leva livet and all these tjoho songs. They are very difficult to write now when you are 65.

Farah knows Per has a great interest in rock photography. She is curious how a good rock photo is when it’s really good. Per thinks it’s when you see that the artist or musician is really inside their own world. There are great pictures of David Bowie and Springsteen. All of these classic images have captured the moments where there is something special going on in the room.

Farah says they met photographer Ander Roos and she wants to know if he is the one who has photographed Per the most. Per thinks it could be. He has been around the last few years a lot. In recent years PG has been very active with touring. Farah asks what their relationship looks like. Per says Anders is very easy to work with. He has become a bit of a fly on the wall. He is around in the dressing rooms and backstage, but Per doesn’t mind. Plus Anders doesn’t publish anything without asking first, which is a good trait. Haha.

Sverige! visited Anders in his studio. He says he has been photographing music since the ’80s. He listened to a lot of music and went to concerts. He wanted to take nice pictures of music and artists. The artist he has photographed the most is by far Per. Anders shows his all access passes from different tours.

Anders explains it’s like being a bit of a sports photographer in a way, especially when taking photos of what happens on stage. It’s very much about capturing a moment. He shows one of his favourite photos on his mobile. It’s from Brottet in Halmstad. It was raining cats and dogs at the concert and he thinks it’s beautiful how the audience stands there in their raincoats and cheers. It captures something special. The raindrops almost look like icicles against the black sky.

Anders is asked what he looks for when taking rock photos. He wants to get as close as possible and capture the feeling and expression that he feels the artist has. Being it joy or anything else, on stage, backstage or in the dressing rooms. To be able to depict and tell what you can’t see.

Anders documents and photographs everything not only on stage, but at the studio recordings and takes press photos and photographs book covers as well. The first time he met Per was in 1986 when Roxette recorded their first album. It was in Stockholm and Anders and journalist Jan-Owe Wikström made a report with Roxette. A lot of things have happened since then. Since 2013 Anders has been around and actively photographed what Per does. PG didn’t remember him from 1986. A good friend asked Anders if he wanted to join Gyllene Tider on tour and take photos and of course Anders said yes. Then he got to know Per and the others in the band. He has the most contact with Per, through all the different projects they do. He is wonderful to work with, just like all the other band members. PG likes to do different projects. It’s a lot of fun working with them.

Anders has done many photo books as well. Nine books since 2013. He opens the Hux Flux book and explains some camera angles by showing some of his photos inside the book. The reporter asks Anders what he thinks those people will see who flip through these books 50 or 100 years later. Anders says they will see Swedish music history. These books can help tell a little of it. Then he feels proud.

Farah asks Per how it felt to see this report. PG says it was awesome, fun to watch. He has seen this picture from 1986 of Marie and him, but he never knew that it was Anders who took it until much later. So they met back in 1986.

Farah is curious if Per thinks it’s hard to be in so many pictures. Mr. G says, it depends. Not when you are on tour. He thinks it’s wonderful. It is usually his initiative that they become books. It is a memory of a specific tour and a specific project. He wishes there were more photos of recording Look Sharp! and Joyride and those amazing tours. There are videos, but there are quite a few. You can never take too many photos, he thinks.

Farah switches the topic and asks Per about Lena Philipsson and the new Roxette tour. She wants to know how this collaboration came about. Per recorded a new album that contains many duets. One of the duets is with Lena. Per has known Lena for decades. He co-wrote her breakthrough song in the ’80s, Kärleken är evig. PG had a song that suited Lena and she came to the studio in Halmstad. There and then Per was once again reminded of how good she is. Per has been thinking about what to do with the Roxette songs. He wrote almost all of them and he has been thinking for years how he could manage the catalogue in a good way. When Lena came to the studio, Per thought shit, maybe she could sing the Roxette songs with him. He chewed on the idea a little, then he contacted Lena a few weeks later in Stockholm. She was terrified when Per told her the idea. Farah asks if she said yes right away. PG says, no, she was rather shocked. She wanted time to think about it, but then she came back and thought it was a good idea. That is a damn good idea, Per thinks. Farah thinks so too.

Farah says Marie was the other half of Roxette and she is curious how it feels now that Lena will be standing by Per’s side. PG says it’s special, of course, but at the same time, it’s a different thing. It’s not like he has started a new band or a new duo with Lena. This is a journey that they are going to do to manage the Roxette song catalogue. Lena is hired to do that job. When Per puts that cap on, he sees it in a different way. It has never been relevant for him to start a new Roxette. With a new partner that way. Farah asks why not. PG replies it is something that Marie and he had together. It was a long journey, which had a very tragic end with Marie passing away. She got sick in 2002. It’s been a very long time. Now they are managing these songs. There is a huge world out there that still loves these songs. That alone is fantastic, Per thinks.

Farah asks Per whether it will be calmer or messier now than when it started. Per asks if she means in the dressing rooms or on stage. Farah means both. Per says they were quite calm before too. But it will probably be even calmer now. Farah says they are super professional. Per says they have become professionals along the way. Farah thought it was a bit messy back in the days, playing cards and drinking beer. Per says alcohol and he doesn’t work before a concert. Experience has taught him that. He is a control freak, so he likes when things are orderly. He needs order in his head too. Farah asks if Per has always been like this. PG says he was one of those people who had the records in alphabetical order already at the age of six.

Farah wants to know how Per and Åsa met. When it really kicked in, Per was on a date with another girl. They were supposed to meet secretly and the date took place in Åsa’s apartment, because they were friends. Then it turned out that Per fell a little in love with the hostess instead. He thinks it was in 1984. It’s been a long time. It was 40 years ago. Shit, now he realizes he has to celebrate that. Haha. Farah is surprised Per hasn’t thought about it. PG says he thinks it will be in autumn. Good that Farah reminded him. Farah says she wants to see picture evidence later. Haha.

40 years is a long time. Farah is curious if they are arguing. PG says they do. Farah is wondering if it is because Åsa puts the things in the dishwasher higgledy-piggledy and Per wants them in order. PG confirms it’s a constant dilemma. Farah thinks it doesn’t really matter, but Per says it does. Farah asks why and Per replies because you want the dishwasher to be in order. Farah is curious if Per is freaking out when Åsa has filled the dishwasher and he opens it. PG says he doesn’t get pissed because he is used to it. He knows it is like that. Farah supposes Per takes a deep breath before he opens the dishwasher. PG confirms and demonstrates „now it’s time again. Oh shit…”

Farah says a friend once told her that the best things in life are absolutely free. Love and having kids, for example. But the next best things are insanely expensive. PG agrees with that. He doesn’t come from a particularly rich family. They didn’t have much money when he was growing up. It’s clearly more fun if you have grown up and can afford to buy what you are interested in.

Farah has heard that Per is a rank collector. PG doesn’t consider himself a rank collector at all. He doesn’t really collect anything. It’s just lots of things that end up there. Haha. Farah asks how many guitars he has. Per says maybe a hundred. But he doesn’t collect them. He says if you collect guitars, you think „I have to have a 1958 Gibson Les Paul Special”, but he is not like that. They just end up there. You test them and you think it was nice and then you buy it.

Here comes a report with one of Sweden’s most skilled guitar builders, Johan Gustavsson. Most of his very high quality guitars are bought by musicians and collectors in the US. He thinks a good guitar should inspire you to play better. Per hasn’t bought any guitars from him, he doesn’t know why, but he repaired some guitars for him.

While Per is playing air guitar, he says it was lovely to see this report, Johan is a lovely guy. Farah asks PG if he gets guitars for free. Per says he doesn’t, not these days. But in the ’90s on the Joyride tour they were promoting Rickenbacker guitars and they got some custom-made Rickenbackers that they ordered. Marie got a white one and Per got a black one.

Farah is curious what Per does in his spare time. He watches a lot of movies. He is interested in movies, but he also watches them to get ideas and angles on life and stories. Films are great. He usually likes slender films from the past.

Farah is wondering if she calls Per on a Tuesday he is sitting at home in his pyjamas watching movies. PG says he is not in pyjamas, but he probably watches movies in the evening. Farah is surprised Per is not wearing pyjamas. She asks if he wears soft pants at home. Per laughs and says no. He doesn’t own sweatpants. He is probably sitting like he is sitting here now in the TV studio. Farah is even more surprised that Per is wearing jeans at home. PG says he is going strong in his jeans.

Farah asks Mr. G if he goes to the grocery store and sees an offer, slippers for 99 bucks, and decides to buy 2. Per laughs and says he almost never goes to the grocery store. Farah thinks a lot of people would stop him. Per tries to avoid it. He thinks when you have to do things like going to the post office or the grocery store, you have to be in a special mood. You have to be prepared for selfie time and stuff like that. That’s perfectly fine, but most of the time you might not feel like it that particular day.

Farah understands that Per has a great life, but she also feels a little sorry that Per can never be ordinary. He can’t just sit in a café or on an outdoor terrace or lie on a beach or just be. Per says he can do that if he wants. It’s not as dangerous as it sounds, but he is always on his guard. He has a good life and he is super proud of what he has accomplished. He is also grateful for that, so he is not complaining at all.

Farah says it’s almost time for school graduations. Sommartider is a song that is definitely sung there. She wants to know how it feels. It’s like many other things with his music, Per has to pinch his arm. It is amazing that there will be new generations who will embrace this music and love it. It gets a place in their new life somehow. When he is in Stockholm, they live in a street where a lot of student vans come and then they often sing Sommartider. When he is there and hears it, he usually runs and hides. He certainly doesn’t want to be found there when they sing Sommartider.

Farah thanks Per for coming and PG thanks for the invitation.

Stills are from the program.

Interview with Per Gessle in Halmstad NU

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Per Brolléus did an interview with Per Gessle for Halmstad NU, Halmstad’s new local monthly newspaper.

Per Brolléus thinks Marie would have said Per is an idiot if he doesn’t do this. He asks PG what he thinks.

Yes, well, that’s exactly what she had said. Just like that. She had declared me an idiot forever.

The guys are about half an hour into the interview and PB says PG has “written a song text” through his answers to all his questions about the tour, about Lena, about why, about feelings, about whether he knows this works and about the rest of the year before Roxette leaves for South Africa and Australia in February-March next year.

There is one thing that Mr. Gessle no doubt wants to be very clear about – the endless love for Marie. If she is not in every single answer, she is still there as a kind of sounding board or a little bird that nods or shakes its head. She is constantly present, even though it has now almost been five years since she passed away in December 2019.

Either you do it or you don’t. There are no other options if it’s supposed to be Roxette, sound like Roxette and be called Roxette.

That there comes a tour doesn’t feel very strange to Per Brolléus who “grew up” with Per Gessle, Gyllene Tider and Roxette. Per Gessle gives people what people actually want – without sacrificing his own artistic ability or, for that matter, his status. And now people obviously want Roxette. But, this would never have been relevant if it wasn’t for the duet album that Per has recently made.

Lena had agreed to make a song with me and when we recorded it, she knocked me out. Completely. Damn, what a voice she has!!!

Although Lena Philipsson never got to play in the same division as Gessle in the ’80s and, for example, never got to go on Rock runt riket (the 1987 tour with Roxette, Ratata and Eva Dahlgren and a new talent called Orup as support act), but Per and Lena’s paths have crossed a number of times.

We come from the same era and I have written a few songs for her, including the lyrics to Kärleken är evig. And I know her as a damn good artist. But when we got into the studio… Well… Knockout. That voice!!!

After the knockout in the studio in Stockholm, Per invited Lena for dinner in Halmstad. There was food and wine and finally he asked the question: Do you want to go on tour with Roxette? And the answer from Lena? Per laughs and says:

She was shocked and got a few days to think it over. She probably  thought I was crazy. But…, it was not about Lena replacing Marie, i.e. trying to sound like Marie, but Lena being Lena and she would lend her artistic talent to the songs.

And she said YES, says Per in a long exhale.

She ticks all the boxes. She’s got it all, although of course she’s never done a world tour and stood in front of 10,000 wild fans in Sydney. But she has IT. Of course, I did a Roxette tour in Europe with Helena Josefsson, a fantastic singer who has been with me for ages. But she is made for that kind of setup as it was then. Stripped down arrangement with seated audience in an acoustic setup. Now it’s something else and Lena fits in there magically well.

The gang that Per takes with him is pretty much everyone who was there when it started in the late ’80s and onwards.

Jonas, Clarence and as many as possible from the old gang are there. Damn, Roxette should sound like Roxette should sound. And it should be as much Roxette as you can get.

We tested some songs, Lena and I. It sounded fantastic. An own voice, an own feeling.

And now Lena PH is having an international breakthrough at the age of 59. Per laughs and says:

Well, it’s absolutely wonderful.

Regarding the pilot tour he says:

Yes, I want to test the concept. I want to be 100% sure that it works before it becomes something much bigger.

So Australia and South Africa are just the beginning?

We’ll see. Offers are absolutely pouring in, but before I say yes, I really want to feel it first. When we released the news about the tour and about Roxette with Lena, the systems exploded, which is of course great fun.

He pauses for a few seconds, laughs at…

She gets paid quite well too.

Halmstad’s biggest star through the ages has a fully packed calendar: duet album, movie, musical, world tour.

I have videos to make for the songs from the duet album, then it will be exciting when the GT film premieres on 17th July. And then comes the musical at Malmö Opera, which premieres in September.

Per has no direct responsibility in the musical, calling himself a sounding board, but as a reporter Per Brolléus feels that he is not being completely honest here.

I’m involved in the song order and I’ve been down in Malmö and listened. Well, musicals are not my cup of tea, you know, when it gets so perfect. Because for good musicians it never becomes really good, you know what I mean?

Per Brolléus gets it. He was forced to go to some musical about Oklahoma as a child and has never gotten over that shock, so he understands it exactly.

As a last question, Per Brolléus asks Per Gessle, hand on heart, if there could be a test concert with Roxette at Tylösand this winter before they leave for the pilot tour.

It can happen. You never know.

But, honestly…!

Well, it’s quite good to test things before…

Halmstad NU can hereby reveal: there will be a test gig in Tylösand sometime in February 2025. Remember where you read it first.

All interview text is written by Per Brolléus for Halmstad NU in Swedish. Here it is a translation by RoxBlog.

Thanks for the hint regarding the article, Oliver Zimmermann!

Interview with Per Gessle and Lena Philipsson in Aftonbladet

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Aftonbladet joined Per Gessle and Lena Philipsson on their promo day and Anna & Hans Shimoda did an interview with them about their upcoming adventures. HERE you can read the original article in Swedish.

The other week the news hit like a bomb; Per Gessle, 65, brings new life to Roxette with Lena Philipsson, 58, at the microphone. The tour starts in Cape Town in South Africa on 25th February and Aftonbladet is the only newspaper to have met both an excited Per Gessle and a somewhat surprised Lena Philipsson.

Per says smiling:

It happened when we made the duet “Sällskapssjuk” for my new album that I thought that “Lena is not that bad”.

Brain tumor

Pop icon Gessle has long considered what to do with Roxette’s impressive song catalogue. Classics such as Fading Like A Flower, The Look, It Must Have Been Love and Joyride had to be put in the dustbin when Per Gessle’s friend and bandmate Marie Fredriksson passed away in 2019 in the aftermath of the brain tumor she was diagnosed with in 2002.

Per says:

In recent years, I’ve been thinking about whether I should do anything at all with Roxette. I’ve been thinking about how to best manage the legacy and Roxette’s song catalogue live. There were two ways, not to do anything with it at all or to try to find a way that fits as well as possible. It was not an easy decision.

Gessle continues:

When I worked with Lena, I felt that she is very talented as a frontwoman, she has a lot of experience, comes from the same era as me and is a fantastic singer. We also have a history together, I was involved in writing her breakthrough song “Kärleken är evig”.

I gathered all my courage and asked her, thinking that she would probably fall off her chair, and she almost did.

‘Only way to do it’

Stepping into Marie Fredriksson’s shoes is of course not easy, but Per points out that it is about managing Roxette’s music.

The only way for Lena to do it is to do it her own way.

Lena Philipsson is sitting on the couch next to Per Gessle and looks sometimes at Per, sometimes at the floor.

When I was asked to do “Sällskapssjuk”, I of course said yes and Per wondered if I would sing it in Stockholm or if I would come down to Halmstad. I went down to be in Pers hoods. A few days later, a message arrived in which Per wrote that he wanted to meet and that he would ask a crazy question.

Aftonbladet is curious about what Lena thought then.

I felt that “Yes, it worked”. But I thought that maybe there could be another song together or a tour, but I didn’t expect this.

She continues:

I was about to fall off my chair, but I immediately started thinking about what the fans would think about it and how it might turn out. I’m good at identifying the problems, but of course I feel incredibly honoured.

Will it sound familiar?

I feel like I’m an invited guest here, I’ll let Per decide. I won’t get into the artistic side that much. But my feeling is that I want to sing the Roxette songs as they should be.

Per turns to Lena:

Stick to your own way.

Lena says:

Yes, I do have my voice, but I don’t feel that I should do my thing and screw up everything. I want it to feel like the original.

Have a favourite song

Lena Philipsson says there is one Roxette song she is particularly looking forward to singing – a favourite:

There are so many good songs, but I have to say “Dressed For Success”, it’s so much Roxette for me and it’s really Marie’s song.

Lena Philipsson points out that she is not afraid of being compared to Marie Fredriksson.

No, then I would never have said yes. The comparison will of course be made anyway. But I have to dare to take it, otherwise I would have had to say no. I care about doing a good job and want the Roxette fans to feel satisfied.

The tour takes place in South Africa and Australia, but if all goes well, it could be any size, according to Gessle.

What we are doing now as a pilot thing. We will see how it feels and if it turns out as I believe and hope, there are no limits to what we can do.

Interview by Anna & Hans Shimoda, photos by Andreas Bardell for Aftonbladet

Per Gessle talks about Roxette In Concert 2025 on Efter fem

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TV4 invited Per Gessle on Efter fem to ask him about the world tour, Roxette In Concert 2025. Watch it HERE! The program starts with showing a short part of the video to Sällskapssjuk, the duet single of Per and Lena Philipsson.

Program leader Tilde de Paula Eby likes the song very much, she says it’s a new collaboration between two giant artists that she really likes and it is released today. Tilde adds there is something else happening to Per and Lena, they are also going on a world tour. Per confirms and says at least they are going to South Africa and Australia. Tilde says it’s a world tour then. Per laughs and says it’s a big world out there. They were thinking of doing that at the beginning of next year and it’s quite exciting, under the name Roxette.

Tilde says it must be pretty emotional for Per to do this tour with someone other than Marie. PG says it is, of course. He has been toying with this idea for years, how to manage the Roxette catalogue in a good way. The great thing about the Roxette songs is that they still live on and there will be new people who like them. When you start thinking about it, there are really only two ways to go. Either you leave it at that or you move on. Per needed time to himself and also needed to find the right voice. When he recorded Sällskapssjuk with Lena – it’s a song from the duet album that will come out in the fall – then he realized that „shit, there it is”. He thought Lena would fit the Roxette songs perfectly. Per knows Lena is a big Roxette fan. Besides that, he has worked with her. Per has co-written her breakthrough song, Kärleken är evig in 1986. PG contacted Lena after the recordings of Sällskapssjuk and asked if she was interested. She was a little shocked, of course.

Tilde says she can imagine that one can react to such a question both with total jubilation and also a little panic. She says they will talk further about how it was, but before that, she asks her colleague, Henrik Alsterdal to tell a little background info about Roxette.

Henrik shows pictures from the good old days and talks about the numbers: 80 million albums sold, 4 Billboard No. 1 hits, 19 songs on the UK Top 40 and over 600 concerts. Henrik also talks a bit about PG Roxette and the upcoming Swedish album and finishes by stating that Per goes on tour with Lena under the name Roxette and the first gig is planned to be in Cape Town next February. In Cape Town, where Per played his last Roxette concert with Marie in 2016.

Tilde says, when you listen to these songs, it’s like decades are flowing through your whole body. She can’t even imagine what it’s like for Per. PG says they had a fantastic journey with Roxette. The eight years between 1988 and 1995 were fantastic. They were on the US charts for almost four years without falling off. They just changed the song. It was simply an amazing time. He still has to pinch his arm. Tilde says it’s funny that Per, who has done so incredibly much, can still appreciate these things and feel that he has to pinch his arm. It’s unreal. Per says it’s unreal indeed. Their whole journey, coming from such a small country like Sweden at the time. Their record company marketed them as an American band in England, because they couldn’t say they were from Sweden. To succeed was incredibly difficult.

Tilde asks Per if it is on purpose that he and Lena will play the first concert in Cape Town. Per says it was not intentional, it just happened that way and it’s actually strange that it turned out that way. Maybe that’s a sign, PG says.

Tilde is curious if Per has mixed feelings about doing this. PG says, not at all. If Marie would still be here, they would have been out on tour all the time for sure. But she is no longer there. Like Mr. G said before, you either leave it at that or you move on and start a new chapter in the book.

Tilde wants to know how he asked Lena Philipsson. She realized that it must have been mixed feelings for Lena, wonderful and scary at the same time. Per says it was absolutely like that. She asked how she could replace Marie, but Per said it’s not the idea that she should replace Marie, but Lena should do it her way. This is about managing the song catalogue. Per understands that Lena was stressed about it. At the same time, he thinks she has a lot to gain from this. She is a superstar in Sweden, but she has never played in Australia, in South Africa, in South America or in the USA. For her, it’s also a big challenge. Per is sure that if you have never seen Lena Philipsson and don’t know who she is and see her on stage for the first time, you will be shocked. According to Tilde, Lena is incredible on stage. It’s like a persona stepping out of her. She has body language and an absolutely phenomenal voice.

Per says they tested some Roxette songs at home at his grand piano and it sounds magical when she sings Queen Of Rain, Spending My Time and Listen To Your Heart. Per thinks this could be amazing.

Tilde says Per talked about South America, Australia, South Africa, but what about Sweden. PG says, oh, he forgot about Sweden. Haha. There are no plans for Sweden yet, but it will surely come, if it works. They see the Australia and South Africa tour as a small pilot tour. They see how it feels and how it works. PG brings the old classic Roxette band with him. If it works, it would of course be a lot of fun to play in Sweden too.

Tilde is incredibly impressed by Per’s driving force and is wondering where it comes from. Per says he loves his work. He loves to write, to be in the studio, to be on stage. He loves to play his songs and to feel the positive energy that comes from the audience. You get so much back, he says. PG thinks he has the best job in the world, after Tilde. Tilde smiles and says they probably share the first place.

According to Tilde, besides being a lot of fun, it’s a lot of work and it’s quite tough to travel around. Per agrees, touring is a lot of waiting at airports and in traffic jams and all that. But the reward is when you are on stage. It’s fantastic. That one minute, 30 seconds before you go on stage and 30 seconds into the first song, it’s the magic minute. You travel to another universe then. It’s a great charge up and a fantastic blast. That’s wonderful. When Tilde hears how Per describes it, she wants to experience it.

Tilde finishes the interview by mentioning Per’s upcoming album, Sällskapssjuk that is released in fall and the title song that has been released today with Lena Philipsson. She thanks Per for coming on the show and Per thanks for the invitation.

 

 

 

Stills are from the interview.