Per Gessle

Spotify didn’t let us wait too long and made The Per Gessle Archives – Demos & Other Fun Stuff!, Vol. 2 available at midnight again. What can I say? Yet another sleepless night. But I could really spend all my Thursday nights like this until the box-set is out in September.

Besides 1-2 well-known demos and demos of well-known songs you can find more real gems on this album, too. There is even a demo from almost 30 years ago and oh yeah, that’s a hilarious one! Mannen med gitarr, which is my all time fave PG demo (as some of you also commented on an earlier post, I can see it’s your fave, too) well deserved its place in this set of Mr. G’s pearls. This way it will surely get more plays than it gets on the Tycker om när du tar på mej single. Now we get to know who to blame for it has never been recorded for an album.

Interesting to hear the first version of the Being with You demo. Decide yourself if you like this one or the other version you can find on Vol. 1 more. I definitely vote for the 2004 version, but it’s really great to hear different demos of the same song.

I have to mention that the variety of how Per can sing / say / pronounce the word ”beautiful” is too cool. Here we can find a totally new & hot version in Beautiful Girl.

This you can’t hear in the conversations, but Per shared it on Roxette Official earlier and you can find it in the PG about songs section, so I think it’s worth adding this background info to Stay (At Home, At Work, At Play):

Hahaha! Stay! At home, at work, at play! That last phrase came from a Sparks-song. I always loved that! This demo was recorded at Tits&Ass in the summer of 1995 with Micke Syd on drums, MP on bass guitar and me fooling around with loads of guitars. I love that solo!!! It took off with the lyrics and then I wrote the music together with MP, I think most of the chorus came from him actually. There are some chords in there I wouldn’t have used myself…. This was just after the CBB-tour had ended and I geared up for the first Gyllene Tider-comeback in 1996. Neither Rox nor myself recorded it “properly”, this is the only version that exists that I’m involved in. However, a Danish girl, Ann-Louise did a version of it. You’ll probably find it on YouTube.

The conversations are again fab. I love that Sven knows so much about Per’s music that he can always ask the right questions and this way we get to know loads of information not only related to the demos that are on this album, but also about other songs or albums. Great job, Sven and hats off, Mr. G! September seems to be too far away now…

Right at midnight CET, The Per Gessle Archives – Demos & Other Fun Stuff!, Vol. 1 became available on Spotify. That meant no sleep at all! And not only to me. My neighbours will surely kill me one day (if I’m not killed by Per’s voice by then)… Yeah, you could guess it, I’m in love with this stuff!

Started listening to the songs one by one and I got breathless already by the first track. Don’t want to reveal what song it (or part of it) became later, because it’s an amazing thing, listening to such a demo for the first time without knowing any background to it. Awesomeness! Goosebumps all over me!

Always loved how Per can leave a song alone for years, even for more than a decade and then suddenly take the demo out of his drawer, come up with new ideas to it and oh-la-la, a new song is born. He is talking about it in details in the Conversations with Sven Lindström. I could really listen to him talking about songs and songwriting 24/7.

Per says regarding the release:

I’m a big demo fan myself … and I know there are so many people out there – hardcore Roxette fans and Per Gessle fans – who are really interested in my work. I just thought it was a nice thing to release for those guys.

The conversations are just like what we are used to anytime there is an interview / discussion involving Mr G and Sven. Good mood, friends talking to each other with the same enthusiasm about music. Lots of fun, smiles and laughs.

It’s fab to hear that Per is still planning to release an acoustic album in the future. Not the first time he mentions it and I trust he will really come out with such a record. That will be a glorious day.

In the first volume we get many Gessleish lyrics and melodies, as well as tremendous amount of details about where, when, how or even why the demos were recorded. It’s also cool to have this mix of English and Swedish demos.

Per says regarding the project that there is ”no stone unturned”. He is so wrong! There ARE stones unturned, but he is doing it so right. He gives us so much, but there is still something left to be longing for. After this project he could do a ”1st version demos” compilation album. He surely knows that after listening to the 3rd or any other numbered version demos we are just too curious about how they sounded for the very first time. Anyway, we can only be grateful for this wonderful gift from him. Still 10 volumes are waiting for us! Woohoo!

Enjoy listening to the first volume and don’t forget that Vol. 2 is out in a week on Spotify! iTunes will have it from 2nd June.