Per Gessle and Valdemar Wahlbeck were guests on Studio Ett, Swedish Radio on 18th July. You can listen to the interview HERE!
The reporter welcomes the guys and asks them how it was when they met for the very first time and who was more nervous. Per can’t remember, so he turns to Valdemar and asks where they met. Valdemar says it was at Hotel Tylösand. Now Per remembers Valdemar came with his notebook and asked him a lot of questions. Valdemar says he had like 20 questions and thought they could go through them. It went well, the guys say. The reporter says it was a good starting point.
Valdemar is 21 years old. The reporter is curious what he knew about Gyllene Tider when he got involved with the film. Valdemar says that as a Halmstad local, you grow up with Gyllene Tider. His father has been playing a lot of Gyllene Tider at home, the records were either hanging on the wall or in the record box. And then you also sing Sommartider a number of times during summer breaks.
The reporter saw the movie a few weeks ago and she says the applause afterwards was massive. Here she plays music journalist Per Sinding-Larsen’s words, who says Gyllene Tider is part of music history and talks about the probable influences they had, e.g Sven-Ingvars and Owe Thörnqvist. The reporter asks Per what he thinks about it. PG thinks there might be some truth in that, but they didn’t listen very much to Sven-Ingvars or Owe Thörnqvist. For Per, it was rather Povel Ramel who was very influential. Valdemar thinks he was fantastic. Then it was ’60s pop that Per grew up with and when Gyllene Tider started, it was exactly the end of the ’70s. It was just when punk and new wave music started happening. The Ramones, Blondie, Buzzcocks and all that. So they gained some kind of self-confidence that it was OK not to be terribly good. It was different a few years earlier with progressive music, e.g. Emerson, Laker & Palmer and Yes. Everyone could play punk music and it suited Per very well, as he couldn’t play. The reporter is surprised, but PG says he learned along the way. He learned to play acoustic guitar to Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne and such songs on nylon string guitar. Then he changed to electric guitar and learned The Kinks’ riffs.
Valdemar says the movie itself is very much about music and together with Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist they dove themselves deep into Gyllene Tider songs. They geeked out on all the songs and Valdemar geeked out on Per’s voice. There is this genuine tightness and fantastic feeling which is not found in much other music.
The reporter remembers listening to Per’s solo debut album in the ’80s, before Gyllene Tider and she wants to know what Per’s ambitions were back then. Per corrects the reporter and says that his first solo album came out in 1983 and by then they had already made three Gyllene Tider LPs. 1981 was their biggest year. In 1982 came Sommartider and in 1983 Per’s first solo record came out. He made that record because everyone else in the band did the compulsory military service. He had a year off since he didn’t do the service, because he looked terrible in green. Valdemar laughs. Per simply made a singer-songwriter record, a more grown-up album. He was 24 years old, he was an old man already then. Haha. Marie Fredriksson also sang some songs on that album.
According to the reporter it’s funny that Per says he didn’t look good in green. She doesn’t know if Per was just joking, but that part was also fun in the movie. There it felt like Per was a pretty vain guy at that point, so it made her wonder how much of the film is true. Per must say it’s very realistic. There are characters that didn’t exist or things that didn’t happen the same way they are in the movie, but the story, the anecdotes and the events that are in the film actually happened. Almost all of them. What doesn’t quite match the chronology, for example, is a love story when Per meets his girlfriend who is now his wife. In real life it happened in 1984, but the movie ended in 1982. But all the tough, positive and fun things that are in the movie, they happened in real life too.
This is Valdemar’s breakthrough and the reporter is curious how he has found Per Gessle in himself. Valdemar says he listened to Gyllene Tider a lot and to start with, both he and Per are smalltown people, so they have a lot in common. Especially when you come from the same city and have the same dialect. He has some older friends through his father, a few people who were there around in Halmstad at that time. So he carried a lot of things already. Then he talked a little with Per. For Valdemar it feels a bit like they have done it together in a way. He received a little help and he has been able to ask. The whole thing started by recording the songs. There you find much more feeling already in the music. Then, a few months later, it was shooting the movie. By then you would have read all the biographies, listened to even more songs, checked out that era and different clothes and influences that they had.
Per says he was quite negative that there would be a film made about Gyllene Tider. When he was contacted, he thought they were going to make a film about Gyllene Tider’s 40-year career. A great tribute to what they have achieved. But the movie is not about that. The film ends in 1982 when Sommartider was released. Per told Per Simonsson, the director, that he should try to capture this Life on Seacrow Island (Vi på Saltkråkan) feeling. By that PG meant that they should gain empathy and become positive, so those who watch the movie would like these guys in the band. Then it could be an awesome movie. The film starts with Per doing the tests for military service. It is very much his childhood and his teenage years that is reflected. Then the film ends in 1982. So it’s a different kind of film than what people might think. Per finds it exciting and says that the guys who play Gyllene Tider are magically good. It’s incredible. Valdemar says it’s a fun cast, they got on well very quickly. Per says it looks like they had so much fun. Valdemar confirms it was much fun to stand there together and play these songs that you have been singing since you were little. And that it worked and fit. It was really fun.
The reporter says both Per and Valdemar are from Halmstad and while she is sitting here listening to and looking at them, she feels they have many similarities. Per says Valdemar is his avatar. They are laughing.
The reporter says, for those who are not from Halmstad, it seems that their voices are quite similar. She is curious if this is how Valdemar talks anyway. Valdemar says he hasn’t made anything up. He turns to Per and says Per is from Söndrum, so he has the Söndrum dialect. Per says he doesn’t have that at all, he comes from Furet. Haha. Valdemar is a bit more from the countryside, Holm.
The reporter asks Per if the film brings a comeback as well. Per asks if she thinks he needs to come back. The reporter says she meant Gyllene Tider. PG says that Gyllene Tider actually toured last year, so they have absolutely no plans. This autumn he releases a Swedish solo record and next year it’s Roxette with Lena Philipsson. The tour premieres in South Africa on 26th February, then they go to Australia and probably to more countries. Valdemar asks Per if there are any tickets left. Per says Valdemar can come along. Haha.
Valdemar sings in the movie. He says it took a long time for him to find this voice. The reporter asks him if there will be more singing by him. Valdemar laughs and says if it goes well on Spotify, we will see. Per says that the entire soundtrack record is available on Spotify. Valdemar thinks it’s amazing. It’s almost unreal to listen to yourself, your own voice on Spotify. He says it’s almost his own voice, it’s a mix of Per’s and his. Per says it’s Valdemar who sings. The reporter asks PG if Valdemar can sing. Mr. G thinks Valdemar sings really great. Sometimes he tries to sing a little too much like Per in Gyllene Tider. Valdemar agrees. Per says Valdemar has a very good singing voice and he is such a modern artist. He goes to the Ballet Academy, he is a musical singer, he is amazing at it and he knows everything. Per knew absolutely nothing when he started.
The reporter asks the guys what they hope the film will lead to. PG thinks the best scenario is if young people watch it and get the feeling and understand that it’s really cool to start a band and play music and do stuff together, and not just sit and stare at their iPhones all the time. Valdemar thinks it would be much fun if a band culture would grow out of this. The guys say the movie has received a fantastic response so far, a lot of people who see it think it’s fantastic. Valdemar says it really makes him happy to hear that.
The reporter thanks both to the real and to the movie screen Per Gessle for coming to the show.
HERE you can see some more photos by Henrik Martinell / Swedish Radio
Side A
