Per Gessle Archives - Page 114 of 161

What is Per Gessle cooking?

March 1, 2014 by Patrícia Peres

David Guetta, Per Gessle, Christoffer Lundquist in the studio - pic was posted on Roxette Official by Per — David Guetta, Per Gessle, Christoffer Lundquist in the studio – pic was posted on Roxette Official by Per

Since that studio photo of Per and Chris with David Guetta was posted on Roxette Official 2 days ago, tons of fans started discussions about what this new project could be. Well, yeah, we are discussing this topic continuously, whenever PG is in the studio. But is it a remix album in progress now or something completely new? Is it related to Roxette or some Per solo stuff?

Mr G said it even in one of the Nordic Rox shows that it’s easy to get stuck in your own style, so for example, he tries writing in keys that he doesn’t know that well. Why not a new genre then?

You might remember our earlier article about Per Gessle featuring Galavant, a house duo from Halmstad. They were together in the studio on 19th September 2013. It’s still not known what they recorded there, but that work must be also related to this new project.

Sebastian Atas, Per Gessle, Victor Sjöström – pic was posted by the guys from Galavant at their Instagram profile

One month later, on 24th October 2013, Per posted a selfie from a helicopter, saying he ”talked a lot to DJ Balthazar. Such a generous and talented fella.” DJ Balthazar is a Bulgarian DJ, whose music is something unique between techno and progressive house.

One month passed and Mr G posted a question on 18th November 2013 on Roxette Official:

Had a big “remix-discussion” over dinner….. Do you like remixes of our songs? If so, any favourites from the jolly and colourful Rox-past?

When it comes to remixes, fans are divided into 2 bigger groups. One part of them likes or even loves most of the remixes, the other part is never listening to them. I’m personally not much into remixes, but my ears say Bassflow did magic to ”The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye”. One thing is sure: almost everyone agrees on that anything can be better than ”Dance Passion” (1987).

So now here is this David Guetta piece of info some months later and we still don’t know what it is all about. I think via remixes, PG’s music can reach and be more appealing to the younger generation, so it’s fine to spread the word that way, too. But who knows if it’s really about remixes?

Surely this is not the only project Per is working on, since he was also posting a lot about vintage synthesizers, studio sessions in AGM and T&A studios and all this DJ info. He said it in interviews that he is also working on a soundtrack for a new Jonas Åkerlund film (which Jonas starts shooting this spring) and we know new Roxette material is also in sight in a near or a more distant future.

Hard to be patient when there are so many exciting bits and pieces of news, but again, Roxers are the best at waiting. Hope to hear the outcome of the project(s) quite soon.

Twelve Peaks of Nordic Rox

February 27, 2014February 27, 2014 by Patrícia Peres

Screenshot is from the ”Gyllene Tider sommaren 2013” docu

As we already heard it from Per, there is a new show on Nordic Rox called Twelve Peaks. The essence of it is Per Gessle choosing 12 songs according to the actual topic and he and Sven Lindström are discussing them. Sven made the first 2 shows available via Evgeny Perekopskiy. Huge thanx for that! You can check them out at the links below.

I encourage you to listen to these shows, it’s really worth it. I always love listening to Sven and Per talking to each other. They always have a very nice, relaxed conversation, a friend to friend discussion about music. All smiles and laughs and jokes and meaningfulness. You just have to love Mr G’s enthusiasm when he is talking about songs and music in general and Sven is a fab partner in that. Magnificent is the word.

Per Gessle’s 12 favourite Xmas tunes

The part with Per starts at 50:14, right after Church of Your Heart being played, but because of all the gorgeous music you can hear on Nordic Rox, I suggest you listening to the complete, 3-hour-long programme.

John Lennon & Yoko Ono: Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
Wizzard: I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
Bob Dylan: Must Be Santa
Slade: Merry Xmas Everybody
Roxette: It Must Have Been Love (Christmas For The Broken Hearted)
The Crystals: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
Brainpool: The Last Christmas
The Pogues: Fairytale of New York
Elvis Presley: Blue Christmas
Mud: Lonely This Christmas
David Bowie & Bing Crosby: Little Drummer Boy
Nick Lowe: Silent Night

At the Bob Dylan song Sven asked Per how it looks like when Mr G is dancing around the Xmas tree and he replied it’s exactly like what you can see in the hilariously good video of the song. So check it out! 😉

It’s impossible for Per to present a Xmas song list without It Must Have Been Love. Here he tells the well-known story of the song, starting out as a Christmas song, how it became the soundtrack to Pretty Woman, Billboard No. 1., etc.

Nice to see Brainpool’s latest single on the list. Per says it’s a cute little song and it’s very Swedish in a way.

About Elvis Mr G says he wasn’t really an Elvis fan, his sister was. His brother was a Beatles fan.

About Christmas in general Per says it’s nice to have a white Christmas. However, if he didn’t have a big family, he would probably leave for a mild climate place with lots of sunshine during Xmas time, to Miami or LA. But he likes it in Sweden. They are talking about Per not being a winter guy. We know he doesn’t ski, but now it turns out he doesn’t swim in the ocean, because there are fish there. So he prefers the pool. Fish-free pool. 🙂

12 songs Per Gessle wished he had written himself

Sven starts the whole show with telling that Per took his time off while recording his new album with Christoffer Lundquist and Clarence Öfwerman. The part with PG starts at 49:10, just after The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye being played. You, see? As I said, it’s worth listening to the complete, 3-hour-long programme.

To the questions how many songs he has written, he says he doesn’t count them, but he probably has 7-800 registered songs [according to an earlier article in Hallandsposten it’s rather 1000!!!], which means he is getting old, he says. Sven says: ”Or you’re writing fast!” Regarding the question that comes up very often during interviews (how can one write a hit?) he says you have to have the ability to make a good melody, but you have to write music that is appealing to yourself, but it’s always a happy accidence of the timing and luck for it becoming a hit.

Songs he listed are mostly the ones that inspired him when he was a kid, when he was just listening to these hits. Now he is listening to the songs as a professional and he is missing listening to songs as a non-pro. Songs are not in priority order, Mr G just listed these 12 hits. Picking only 12 songs wasn’t really easy for him, he says.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Refugee
Buzzcocks: Ever Fallen In Love
The Who: Substitute
The Left Banke: Walk Away Renée
The Zombies: Time of the Season
Mott the Hoople: All the Young Dudes
The Beatles: Dear Prudence
The Nerves: Hanging on the Telephone
Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood: Summer Wine
Paul McCartney: Too Many People
The Turtles: Happy Together
Dionne Warwick: I’ll Never Fall In Love Again

Regarding The Beatles Per says they released approximately 140 songs and he wished he had written 110-112 of them.

When they are talking about Summer Wine, he says you can do so many great things when you use a male and a female voice. It’s like talking to each other. It was the theory with Roxette, too.

As Per informed earlier, there are a zillion ”12 Peaks” shows to come, e.g. his 12 favourite pop drummers and his 12 favourite pop intros. At the end of the Xmas special he was even joking about an Easter special, with 12 songs about eggs. 🙂 Can’t wait to listen to the upcoming 12 peaks!

Per Gessle’s complaint sent to Radio Halland

February 25, 2014February 24, 2014 by Patrícia Peres

pg_radio_halland

Per was a guest on Swedish Radio, P4 Halland this morning. They were talking about a letter Mr G sent to the radio 35 years ago (23rd February, 1979). You can also watch videos shot during the interview. Video 1, Video 2, Video 3.

The letter is about Radio Halland not playing Gyllene Tider often enough, just playing dance bands. He says they wrote quite a lot of letters like this. Radio Halland was special for them, since GT is from Halmstad and they thought the local radio should support local bands more. Per says he didn’t get a reply to that letter back then, he also forgot about it until 20 years later, when one day he entered the building of Radio Halland and saw it at the reception on the wall framed. He remembers they even sent postcards under fake names to have the chance to appear in Poporama (an old radio show).

Per says it was a tough time to make themselves heard, because just like now, the Swedish music industry was very Stockholm oriented. They had to use all the tools they could.

To the question when was the last time he wrote such a letter he laughed and said he stopped doing it now. By the way, some months after this letter had been written they got a contract from EMI Stockholm.

Per says he has always been doing what he loved, writing songs and playing them. He knew it from the very beginning that writing songs for others was not really his thing. He always wanted to play his songs himself.

To the question what was the biggest thing in his career when he is looking back he says it’s Roxette and the 4 Billboard No. 1’s. He says they were pioneers with their tours, touring in South America in the 90’s and also in China. If he thinks about Sweden only, Gyllene Tider is of course still enormous and performing in Ullevi was fantastic, but also their gig in Halmstad in 1995 was magical, then the Återtåget tour in 1996 and playing in Örjans vall in 2004.

As usual, Per says again it’s never clear which song will become a hit or what response you’ll get regarding a song. You have to find your own style and you have to be satisfied with your songs yourself, create them according to your own taste.

Regarding autographs Mr G says he didn’t even have an autograph back in the days, just look at the letter he wrote to Radio Halland, he hadn’t even signed it. Sometimes he did sign Marie’s autographs in the past, at the beginning. George Harrison also signed the others’ autographs in The Beatles he says.

Regarding what he still wants to do before he dies, Per says he wants to work and is looking forward to a new big and long Roxette adventure. Marie is on her solo tour now, but it’s a plan to do more Roxette. To the question if we can see him on stage with Marie during her tour he says he doesn’t think so.

BADABAM! – a new item in the PLECtionary

February 12, 2014 by Patrícia Peres

plecs_in_guest_bathroom_01 — © Per Gessle

You surely remember the day when Per posted 2 photos from the guest bathroom. Yeah, those 2 pics (pic 1, pic 2) on which we could see tons of plecs in a cosmetics bag. No surprise that many of us started thinking about a perfect excuse to use the guest toilet of the Gessle Residence one day. No clue what those picks are doing in the guest bathroom (???), but W-O-W! It was a heart-attack moment when the photos appeared in the newsfeed.

We all started checking the plecs one by one and could also see real rare items on the top among the picks from the past decade. When I say rare items, I’m not talking only about the ”LOOK SHARP! / IT’S ONLY PLAYBACK P.GESSLE” and the ”Ta mej… nu är jag din! / Åsa” plecs, but also about such a rare pick which hasn’t been part of Sandra Knospe’s collection either. The white ”MONEY NEVER SLEEP$ / ROXETTE P. GESSLE” plec with black letters!

When I saw it, I got very excited and thought where is Sandra when we need her. She has to see it immediately! Some hours later she was online and of course, she also started drooling when she saw Mr G’s posts on Roxette Official. It didn’t last long until THE plec got into her sight. And she let Per know about it, posting the same pic with a funny sign to hold that guitar pick back. One could have been more than 99% sure Per would react on that post. And he did so. But I think no one thought what the content of his comment would be:

Sandra, send me an envelope with your address and the pick is yours. Your collection deserves it! /P.

Pure awesomeness! And he was so right. No one else would deserve that plec more, than Sunny. Sandra was faster than a shot from a gun, ran to the post office and the letter was on its way to Sweden in about an hour. Another fast PERson replied to that mail very soon and BADABAM, Sandra’s collection got closer to being complete. Woohoo!

This way the PLECtionary is also updated. The numbers are changed now, since this plectrum had to be No. 3 on the list. Check it out!

Sandra says this pick has become the most precious item in her collection. It will be hard to beat how she got this guitar pick.

And this is still not the end of the story. Sandra posted a photo on Roxette Official to thank Per for THE plec and Per replied:

Happy you’re happy. /P.

Speechless is the word. I know I kinda repeat myself quite often when it comes to such things, but is there anyone who would question that this guy is the most caring and most awesome artist in the whole wide world? Roxers are the luckiest fans, that’s for sure.

south_park_plec Now only 1 mystery has to be solved: what is that sweet South Park plec doing among all the precious PG-related guitar picks?

And still one thing left to dream of: to see the red Ferrari box, the archive in which there are all the plectrums, kept proud and polished.

P.S.: Per, dig a bit deeper in that cosmetics bag! There still might be some hiding picks, one or two of those missing bits that could further help Sandra find Plectrum-Nirvana. 😉

If you are interested in reading some more about this topic, check out the interview with Sandra.

The Man himself is talking about the plecs and more in this interview.

The PLECtionary you can find here.

Gessle wines are the 3rd best selling celebrity wines

February 1, 2014 by Patrícia Peres

All wines in The Per Gessle Selection – Kurt & Lisa and Furet launched in October 2012, Sommartider in April 2013 – were warmly welcomed on the wine market.

2013 was a perfect year for the Gyllene Tider comeback and launching Sommartider wines. Sommartider became a quite evident component of tons of picnic baskets during the tour in Sweden.

At the same time, all TPGS wines were travelling the world, since many fans brought some bottles / boxes with themselves home after the tour. If you’ve been checking the Facebook page of Per’s wines, you could see that many bottles and boxes were opened already during summer, but lots of fans were waiting patiently to open them on special days, like a birthday or at Xmas.

As the blog ”Ett eko av mat och vin” informs, according to Systembolaget’s sales in liters in 2013, Mr G’s wines are the 3rd best selling celebrity wines. Here is the complete list:

Celebrity	Sales 2013 (litre)
Per Morberg	1479283
Tina Nordström	114812
Per Gessle	111134
Petter	88312
Bo Hagström	85658
Elvis Presley	68528
Motörhead	59088
Bengt Frithiofsson	56832
KISS	54688
Maria Montazami	45272
Ernst Kirchsteiger	32747
Lasse Stafanz	16968
Richard Juhlin	7442
Tomas Ledin	3737
Robert Gustafsson	2650
Slayer	2276
Lill-Babs	2162
Rolling Stones	2019
Sweden Rock	2000
Ernie Els	1816
Ulf Wagner	1604
Carl Jan Granqvist	1418
Kent	1344
Leif Mannerström	1331
David Bowie	749
Rocky	745
Hammerfall	696
Nils Liedholm	469
Francis Ford Coppola	442
Glenn Strömberg	429
Coldplay	367
Penélope Cruz	237
Erik Lallerstedt	180
Marilyn Monroe	134
Plura	22
Markus Aujalay	14
Ernst Billgren	5
Swedish House Maffia	2
Laila Bagge Wahlgrens	0
Total celebrity wine sales 2013:	2247607

So 111,134 liters of TPGS wines were sold last year. Wow! Congrats! No real surprise, but 95% of it was Sommartider rosé and white. Sommartider rosé boxed wine even made it to the Top50 rosé wines at Systembolaget, landing at the 48th place with the sales of 55,954 litres.

Elvis Presley is also selling well, but it seems that Swedes are no fan of David Bowie when it comes to his wine. Whatever. A kind of boost in TPGS sales is surely coming in February, March and April when fans are in Sweden for the Marie Fredriksson tour. Hopefully, Systembolaget is well-prepared for that in the concert cities.

Let’s see what kind of new items 2014 brings to all wine and champagne lover Gessle fans. Until then, some new short video ads like these for Sommartider wines during Vintertider would be fun, don’t you think? 😉