Roxette

Per Gessle for musik.km.ru: “I think the new single will come out in January”

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Natalia Stupnikowa for musik.km.ru: Hello, Per! We know that you are working on a new Roxette album. There is an information that a new single will be released before Christmas this year. Tell us something about work a new album.

Per Gessle: Well, first of all I’m not really sure if we make it to the Christmas with the single, really. As soon as we play Russia next weekend, we’ll go back to the studio. Actually I work at the studio this week as well. So we’re working all through this year and hopefully we’ll have a release in the spring next year with the new album. And of course the new single. But I… you know, in reality I think the new single will come out in January maybe.

It feels very good, it feels very strong, the album. And it’s a very classic sounding Roxette album, lots of great ballads for Marie and lots of up-tempo songs for me. It feels very good.

Natalia: Will new songs be performed at the Russian concerts?

Per Gessle: No, I don’t think so. I think we’re gonna stick with the old songs this time. We’re planning on doing some shows next year as well, if that will happen, we’re gonna play some new songs as well when the album is out. But for now we stick to the old ones.

Natalia: Do you plan some special stage production of your upcoming Moscow gig?

Per Gessle: Well, we’re having a slightly different band than in 2001. And of course everything looks different. But it’s still very much based on the songs. We have a great audience all over the world and everyone knows our songs so well, so the show is very much built on communication with the audience. The audience is singing with us and we’re having lots of fun together. It’s much more than having a huge stage design or something like that. We have a design but we spend more time on the music than on the stage.

Natalia: You said that you have a new band, tell us more about them…

Per Gessle: It’s a mix between the old guys and some new faces for you. We’ve got a new girl called Malin who’s new to us, she’s doing backing vocals. And we’ve got a new bass player called Magnus Börjesson, who’s also a great singer, he’s a really really talanted guy. And then you’ve got Clarence Öfwerman on keyboards who is also our producer on the record. And we have Pelle Alsing on the drums, who’s been with us forever. And on lead guitar we have Christopher Lundquist who used to play bass with us, but now he’s a lead guitar player. So it’s a very energetic band, quite heavy on the guitars, we’re a little bit more guitar-oriented than we used to be. But it feels very good and it’s a great band to hang out with. We have lots of fun being together and that is very important too.

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How many babies were named after Roxette in USA?

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I heard “The Look” by Roxette the other day, and it made me wonder: Were any babies named Roxette back when the Swedish pop duo was churning out #1 singles?

The answer is yes, about 30 babies were named Roxette during those years:

* 1989: 5 baby girls named Roxette
* 1990: 6 baby girls named Roxette
* 1991: 5 baby girls named Roxette
* 1992: 7 baby girls named Roxette
* 1993: 6 baby girls named Roxette

Where did the band get its name? From a song — “Roxette” by British rock band Dr. Feelgood. (Not to be confused with “Dr. Feelgood” by American rock band Mötley Crüe.)

Source: Nancy.cc

Interview with Magnus Börjeson: “We just want to have fun on stage.”

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Kirsten and Judith met Magnus Börjeson a few hours before the concert in Halmstad to talk about his career as musician and how he sees Roxette at the moment. We picked him up at the station and sat down at the station café to chat. It was actually us who wanted to know more about him, but he started asking about us:

Magnus: So where are you from? Germany?

Judith: I come from Spain, live in Austria.

Kirsten: Germany.

M: So when you are not Roxette fans, what are you doing for a living?

J: I work as project manager in a bank.

M: And you?

K: I am a journalist.

M: For a newspaper..?

K: Yes, for a local newspaper, sports mainly.

M: Where is that?

K: North of Frankfurt.

J: What are you doing, when you don’t work with Roxette or Per?

M: I do music, that’s all I do. Haha! In different shapes and kinds, I do a lot of music for films and TV commercials, that’s what I’ve done the last couple of years.

J: Could you explain us how did you get into music?

M: I started playing when I was a kid with my neighbour, we played in his basement. Then I had a band at school. I had a lot of bands, I had a band called Beagle in the early 90ies, we had two albums out, that’s the first time we really had a record deal.

K: I saw the videos from that time, they are funny.

M: Yeah, we did a lot of videos. It was the age of the video. And yes, they were fun. I had a lot of hair then.

K: It looks better now anyway.

M: haha, thank you! I think so too. That was like my first real major thing. We signed with Polar, which was ABBA’s record company. We were at ABBA’s manager’s to sign the deal, everything was very intense. It was really fun for a couple of years. Then it wasn’t fun anymore, so we quit.

K: Can you really make a living from music?

M: yes, I do. I’ve done since then. It’s a lot of work; I’m into a lot of things. But I cannot imagine doing anything else, I have always wanted to do this since I started playing, so I couldn’t think of anything else to do. That would be horrible.

J: How many instruments do you play?

M: I play bass and guitar, and some keyboards. I started playing drums when I was a kid, that was my first instrument.

 

K: Do you still play drums?
M: I know how to play, but you know, when you haven’t played for a while, you get very bad. But give me six months and I think I would manage.

J: So you mentioned you don’t do anything else but music, meaning you also compose your own stuff?

M: yes, that’s what I do when I am not touring or doing something with other artists. I compose a lot of music for films.

J: Do you prefer to play live or studio?

M: Well, both. I love to play live, I think it’s funny, you can show off a bit, be a rock musician, haha! But I work a lot in the studio as well, I have my own little studio at home, so I work there every day and I enjoy that immensely too.

K: You mentioned music for films, can you tell us about this film you presented in Cannes?

M: We’ve been working long on this project. We first made a short film, which you can find on YouTube. It was about six drummers breaking into an apartment and starting to play songs. We did that in 2000, with a couple of friends of mine who made short movies at that time. And then a French production company suggested we should make a feature film about this. So we started about four years ago and we just finished before Cannes, where we presented it. It’s called “Music for one apartment and six drummers” and it’s going to have its premiere in Sweden and France this December.

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Evgeny: “I was thinking about how Marie would manage to conquer the wild wind”

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The story of Stavanger gig from our Russian reader – Evgeny Perekopskiy.

It all started some months ago, when I happened to get one of the last tickets to the Stavanger gig. I was shocked at the price of postage (nearly 10 euros) and if you know how fast our Russian post is, then, without a doubt, you will understand me how nervously I was waiting for my ticket to arrive.

After one month (!) it arrived. But then Laura (an Argentinean fan) asked me if I could find her one more ticket, so I started to look for one for her. I found, here on RoxetteBlog, an advertisement from Csaba, a
Hungarian fan, offering a VIP ticket. So I contacted him and got it. Then all I had to do was wait for the moment to come…

On August 20th, I had to take four (!!!) flights to reach Stavanger and this I did 🙂 Csaba met me in Stavanger and gave me my ticket. Next morning I went to meet Laura who was staying at the Radisson Blue Atlantic Hotel. When I met her, she said that Marie and Per were also staying there. What a nice coincidence! 🙂 Later in the lobby I met two German fans, Tina and Anja, and three Argentinean fans, Silvana, Lionel and his wife Brenda. We were sitting and waiting for someone from rox related to come. Soon Oscar and Josefin came to the receptionist to order breakfast. Oscar recognized me and we chatted a bit.

Then it was midday. We needed to go to Randaberg to get in line. But prior to our departure to this village, we met Mikael Bolyos. He wished us a great time and to enjoy the gig. When we arrived in Randaberg, I found a lonely Roxette poster where Marie and Per’s faces were blue because the poster was a bit old. I thought that their faces had became blue because of the cold Norwegian climate 😉

When we reached the Viste beach, we noticed some Spanish and Norwegian fans. Some minutes later, the
security woman asked us to move to another area because Roxette were going to rehearse. When we moved, we saw Per arriving with his wife Åsa. Per was holding a bunch of red roses. They were for Åsa, of course, to celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary. Roxette started their rehearsal at around 4 o’clock. They played: ‘The Big L.’, ‘Opportunity Nox’, ‘Fading like a flower’, ‘Silver Blue’, ‘Church of your heart’, ‘7twenty7’ and ‘Dressed for success’. After they finished rehearsing, the security team made four entrances, two for VIP visitors and two for ordinary ticket holders.

At 5.30 pm they opened the gates and fans ran as fast as they could. Luckily, I was standing near the front of Marie’s micro. Then I went to see what they served for VIP guests. There were some salads; fruit, fried meat, delicious shrimp and other dishes. I had some food and took some bananas for my friends who were sitting on the front row 🙂 The support act – Paperboys – a Norwegian hip-hop band started to play at around seven o’clock. They played very well and I saw the audience liked them a lot and knew the lyrics singing along the whole session.

The clouds became grayer and grayer. It was damn cold and windy. I wasn’t thinking about myself, I was thinking about how Marie would manage to conquer the wild wind. Roxette went on stage at around nine in the evening.

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