Per Gessle

Per Gessle thinks “Joyride – The Musical” is awesome

by

TT News Agency has published an article in which they talk to Joyride – The Musical director Guy Unsworth.

There have been many suggestions of a musical based on Roxette’s music. Per Gessle has turned down previous offers, because the scripts weren’t good enough, including one that focused on cancer during a period when Marie Fredriksson was ill.

When Unsworth came in as director, it was about one thing: keeping the Roxette spirit.

It was one of the first conversations I had with Per, if you want to capture Roxette in a feeling, what kind of feeling would it have been? For Per, it’s a lot about having fun at concerts. At the same time, they have made songs that evoke incredibly strong emotions.

The result is a musical based on both parts.

Unsworth continues:

We wanted the audience to smile, but at the same time we also wanted to manage the fact that Roxette is associated with some of the biggest “break-up ballads” of all time. The atmosphere is “feel-good” from the early ’90s when they had their heyday.

The script is based on best-selling author Jane Fallon’s novel Got You Back from 2008 – a triangle story full of drama.

The dangerous thing about musicals is that many people come just to listen to the music. That’s why we wanted a story that outweighs the music.

Another challenge has been to attract both devoted Roxette fans and musical enthusiasts. Unsworth explains:

We want to reach out to everyone regardless of whether they like Roxette or not, but we will offer a little extra to all fans. We’ve woven in some of the lesser known songs. So if you are really a fan, there are a few surprises in both costumes and melodies. It’s also a little tribute to Marie.

With two days left until the premiere at Malmö Opera, Unsworth believes they will succeed in conveying the Roxette spirit. The tickets are almost sold out until December and Gessle himself has expressed that he is satisfied.

He has been an important part of the process. He has been very present, but also trusted us very much. He probably realized that musicals were not his area of interest and instead turned to others. I was fascinated by the idea of creating something that he would appreciate. He has said that he thinks it will be an awesome musical.

Check out Aftonbladet for the original Swedish text.

Interview with Per Gessle on Musikplats Stockholm

by

Per Gessle was contacted by Fredrik Eliasson at Musikplats Stockholm on Swedish Radio and they talked via phone on the 23rd August show. Listen to the conversation HERE! It starts at 1:42:52 into the program.

Fredrik greets Per and congratulates him on his new song, Nyper mig i armen that became song of the week when it was released. Per thanks for that. Fredrik asks Per what it was like doing this song with Albin Lee Meldau. PG says it was fantastic. He had seen him and heard him, but he had never met Albin Lee before. When Per wrote this song for his upcoming duet album that will be released in autumn, he immediately thought of Albin Lee, so he contacted him and Albin Lee came to Halmstad. They had a great day in the studio and a good dinner. They shot the video for the song in Per’s garden in Halmstad. It was nice.

Per thinks his new album is a wonderful project. He was working with different female and male singers on it. It’s lovely.

Fredrik is curious what it has meant to Per to do these collaborations with Molly Hammar and Lena Philipsson among others. PG says he has always liked working with other voices. With Marie Fredriksson, Helena Josefsson and others. It’s mostly fun from the songwriting point of view. It’s fun to see what happens to a song when someone else sings it. When someone else interprets it. It’s a challenge and it’s exciting to do something that you don’t do every day.

Fredrik mentions the bridging generations, getting input from, for example, Albin Lee and Molly. He wants to know what has been the most educational for Per during these collaborations. Per says it’s fun to have some young blood. There are also some slightly older partners on the upcoming album, so it’s a mix. Fredrik thinks it must be cool to mix like that. PG confirms, it’s great fun. When you have a song and someone else sings it, all of a sudden it changes the energy, it changes temperature, because it’s interpreted in a completely new way. Per finds it cool and interesting as a songwriter.

Fredrik informs that there is a lot going on around Per. On 6th September, Joyride – The Musical, a Roxette musical premieres at Malmö Opera. He asks Per how it feels to him. PG says he is there at the rehearsals every now and then and it’s a fantastic journey to be a part of. It sounds wonderful. Last week he heard how it sounded with the orchestra and the band and it was magical. This week it’s costume rehearsal. He is incredibly happy to be part of this.

The premiere is in Malmö and the musical will be played there until spring. Fredrik asks Mr. G if they will take the musical to Stockholm as well. They certainly will. The whole idea of ??the musical is to take it all around the world. That is their ambition.

Fredrik asks Per what he thinks about his song catalogue in this context. What strikes Per musically is that much of his music fits very well in this context. It’s pretty grand music. It’s old-fashioned pop music that he writes, there is a lot of modulation, big themes, the ending. There are new musical parts all the time. Today’s pop music is very form-oriented. Other musicians write in a different way. Per’s music fits the format with a large orchestra, many voices and a good band. It’s great to be a part of it.

Speaking of Roxette, Fredrik says Per is going on a world tour with Lena Philipsson. PG says he has been thinking for many years what to do with the Roxette catalogue. Then when he was working with Lena, he thought she would be great to sing Roxette songs. They talked about it and did some testing. It sounded absolutely magical, Per thinks. Lena is a wonderful singer. Not as old as PG, but she has been around for quite some time.

This is not about forming a new Roxette or starting a new band. It’s about going out on tour and playing the Roxette catalogue from back in the days. It’s very exciting. They have brought the original Roxette band together. It will sound amazing. They start in Cape Town, South Africa at the end of February and continue in Australia. Then they will see what happens next. The demand is huge, Fredrik adds, for Roxette’s music live on stage. Per says ticket sales have been going great, so they are a bit overwhelmed by that. PG does notice that Roxette’s music is being played. When Marie passed away, there were only two ways to go. Either you shut down Roxette or you try to find ways to continue. He feels the same what Fredrik says, that there is a lot of interest. Then he feels, why not go out and play a little. He has written all these songs, so it would be fun to play them live for people. They will see how it goes, but it feels like a really fun project too.

Fredrik thanks Per for joining the show and they say goodbye to each other.

It Must Have Been Love comes as the next song.

Photo from Fredrik Eliasson’s Instagram from February 2024.

Per Gessle – King of pop and self-confidence

by

Per Gessle was a guest on Söndagsintervjun on Swedish Radio P1. Listen to it HERE!

Until the recordings could start for the show, program leader Martin Wicklin thought to continue the small talk with Mr. G. He says it has been very special to listen to Gyllene Tider songs on repeat, the first albums, Gyllene Tider in the ’80s. Per says he avoided listening to those records for many, many years, because he thought he couldn’t listen to them. He thought everything sounded so bad. But recently, because of the GT movie, he went back to these first and second albums. On the third record, Puls, they started getting older and it feels both in the lyrics and stylistically. Martin smiles at the expression „getting older”, because PG was still only 23 then.

Here they start the program with Martin introducing Per Gessle, the king of pop. In Sweden, he has filled stadiums and sports fields for more than four decades both as a solo artist and with Gyllene Tider. With Roxette and Marie Fredriksson, he has sold over a hundred million records worldwide and had more Billboard number one hits in the US than all other Swedish artists combined. The breakthrough that was filmed in the movie Sommartider is in many ways an incredible story. In a short time, Per Gessle, a fairly lonely guy in his own fantasy bubble, became a celebrity.

In this interview, he opens up about the self-confidence that paved the way, but also about when his self-image failed from time to time and about the time with Roxette when he didn’t even want to be seen in pictures.

Martin welcomes Per and mentions all the actualities around him: the film about Gyllene Tider that premiered this summer, the musical about Roxette that premieres in Malmö in September, the upcoming solo album that will be released this fall and a world tour with Roxette.

Per corrects Martin that the Roxette musical is not about Roxette. The script is based on a book called Got You Back, written by Jane Fallon. It has been reworked so that the Roxette songs fit in somehow, but it’s not a story about Roxette as the Gyllene Tider film is a story about Gyllene Tider.

Martin is curious why there is so much happening around Per right now. Mr. G says there is always a lot going on around him. The film and the musical, that it happened in the same year, wasn’t really intended that way, but it turned out like this for various reasons. He thinks it’s fun. He tries to keep up as best as he can.

Martin asks Per how it feels to go on tour with Roxette for the first time since Marie Fredriksson passed away. Per says it feels exciting that he finally decided what he wants to do with the Roxette legacy and the Roxette catalogue. It was not obvious to continue, but there are only two ways to go for him after Marie’s passing. Either you shut down Roxette, or you find some way to manage these songs. He hasn’t really been able to decide what feels right, but as the years have passed, he has felt that the interest in Roxette’s music has continued to increase around the world. Besides that, he has written almost all of Roxette’s music and lyrics himself. When he worked with Lena Philipsson for his upcoming Swedish duet record, he realized that Lena has the capacity that he could imagine bringing into this project. It’s not about starting a new Roxette, or a new band with Lena Philipsson. It’s about going around and playing the Roxette catalogue.

Martin wants to know what the big difference is in doing this with Lena instead of Marie. Per doesn’t know yet, because they haven’t started rehearsing yet. They have tried to play some songs on the piano and sing and it sounds fantastic. Lena is a formidable singer. Per hasn’t had the chance to experience it yet, but he knows that Lena is a very talented artist on stage. So PG thinks she will be able to handle those arenas that they will end up in on tour. How it will turn out, he has no idea, but it feels good. He has known Lena since he was involved in writing her breakthrough song in 1986, Kärleken är evig, so they have a connection. She is great to work with.

Before this interview, Martin has been watching videos of old gigs with Roxette at those big arenas all around the world, with huge audiences. It was hysterical, he thinks. He asks Per to describe the feeling of being on that stage when the intro to The Look starts. Per says those were fantastic years. They had eight years, 1988-1995, which was their prime. For him, all those years are one big blur in a way. He also looks at those YouTube clips sometimes and thinks, shit, he can’t remember anything from this. But he knows it was overwhelming. When he talks to the people who travelled together with them in the band, or from the management, then he is reminded of various things that he forgot. It is a magical journey they have been part of. If iPhone existed at that time, there would be more videos to remember, he laughs. What happened all around is absolutely fantastic. When they played China in the mid ’90s, they were the second band in the world to get permission to play. It is incomparable. To quote his new single, he has to pinch his arm (Nyper mig i armen).

Martin is curious if that experience of being on stage in front of so many cheering people becomes like a drug. Per confirms and thinks it’s strange how you get used to it. Then such thoughts come that „what? is it only 30,000 tonight?” You learn quite quickly how to act. Some things work, other things don’t. Which then means that it will be acting in the end. Then if you come to your senses a little, you can think that it is absolutely fantastic that you were able to go to all these continents, to countries where they don’t even speak English. They have different religions, different politics, different skin colours, different languages, but everyone knows Roxette’s lyrics and songs by heart. It’s quite bizarre. There really isn’t a place where they haven’t been. That makes you a little dizzy. It’s absolutely incredible.

Martin asks Per about Sommartider, the movie about Gyllene Tider’s journey to the breakthrough in the late ’70s. He is curious how it felt to be portrayed in the movie. Per was a little skeptical at first. When the idea came up that the production company wanted to make a film, he imagined that they would make some huge tribute to Gyllene Tider’s long career. He wasn’t too interested in that. But when they told him about the idea that the film would end in 1982, when Sommartider was released, it became a completely different kind of film and then Per got curious. He got curious also because it’s not an easy film to make, because then that means it has to be very typical of the time and you have to find those people who can play them in the band. It could have been a flop, but it turned out to be a fantastically beautiful film and he applauds it as loud as he can. He thinks it has been super successful. Per has seen it six times, but he wants to see it again. Martin asks if it’s like a happy pill. Per confirms it is. He guesses that he and the other guys in the band, as well as those who have been in the inner circle see this film in a different way than other people do. But it’s a happy pill as long as it’s an underdog story. And it’s true. They were the underdogs, as much of an underdog as you can be.

Martin says it captures the energy around Gyllene Tider at that time. He was 11 years old when Sommartider came out and he remembers the GT fever that prevailed in Sweden through his slightly older cousins in northern Sweden who played Gyllene Tider with flaming cheeks. Martin wants to know how Per experienced the fuss at the time. PG says it was completely weird. He comes from a rather isolated existence. He created his own little planet, he was living in his own bubble. He didn’t have many friends. The thing that changed his life was when he was in high school and he met a guy who played in a band, in the same band as MP. MP and Per got super tight and started Gyllene Tider. Those were actually Per’s first friends. Going from that in 1976-77 to being Sweden’s biggest band in 1980 was a big difference, of course. So this whole Gyllene fever, as Martin called it, in 1980-82 was dizzying. After all, Per was 21 when they broke through.

The guys are talking in Halmstad, where it all began, so Martin is curious what this place means to Per. PG loves Halmstad. He has always lived in Halmstad, although he has an apartment in Stockholm too. The more years have passed now after the pandemic, he is in Halmstad more often than before, because he likes the peace there. Then of course they have Hotel Tylösand and he has a studio together with MP in town, in which he works a lot. He enjoys being in Halmstad. Everything is easier in a small town than in a big city, he says.

Martin talks about a scene in the mid ’70s where Per is a young teenager reading English pop magazines and one day he dyes red strands in his long hair and takes a walk through town. Martin is curious if Per remembers that walk. PG says he remembers being very afraid of how people would react to the way he looked and the way he dressed, but at the same time, he was so proud that he dared to take that step. You have to challenge yourself all the time. Sometimes the first attempt doesn’t work, but the second one does, or the third. That’s the way it’s been. You have to dare, you have to fail and you have to lose yourself and you have to do bad things to do good things. When you are young, it’s very difficult to deal with that. It’s not easier when you get older, but then you understand it in a different way. You have to learn to choose your wars and you have to learn that everything is connected somehow.

Martin says he read in connection with that walk that Per enjoyed the looks and also the giggles. He could enjoy being the one who dared. Mr. G says he did enjoy it, but of course he cared about reactions. It also depends on your current shape, how strong you feel. Every time you succeed at something, it could be your new hairstyle or your new torn jeans, you gain self-confidence. It’s all about gaining self-confidence and feeling seen in some way.

Martin thinks that at that age and in such a small town, it’s also a bit scary to stand out. Per confirms, it was very scary. There were many people who thought he was very odd and weird, but he also tried to take that as something positive. Martin asks how he did that. PG says you have to learn it somehow. He always had it easy at school and he remembers when he was in high school and they had an exam, he got everything right on the test. Then the teacher told the class that Per got all the answers right and the class booed him because of that. Then Per thought, how strange that is that you are booed because you did well. He learned a lot from that. You cannot let others decide what is right, you have to decide for yourself what is right. In this particular case, it was right to try to do as well as possible on that test. Things like that have shaped Per and made him strong and ambitious. He tried to find things in himself where he thought he had capacity and it has become music, because that’s what he can do.

Martin concludes that Per must also have been quite strong as an individual who could see that. First the class booed him even though he had done something good, then he walked through town with pink hair and they looked at him. This is daring. So it means that there was this strength in Per already as a little boy. PG says there was a longing to be in the center, to be able to direct his own life and not be painted into a corner by someone else. It’s probably his personality. He didn’t see it from that angle when he was growing up, but that’s the way it was.

Per has always had this interest in music, but until he met those friends at the age of 16-17, he was a rather lonely child who hated group work at school or maybe didn’t want to fit into the available groups. Martin is curious what kind of element music was in that life. Per was quite alone there making his lists. He says when he was an early teenager, he was overweight, he had glasses, he had pimples and long hair. He was a bit of a nerd. He thought that this world that pop music or the pop world offered him was much more exciting and attractive than the real world. The real world was pretty boring, he thought. So he sat there and made his lists and fantasized about different things that had to do with music. Of course, eventually there was a desire to play in a band himself and by then he had already started writing songs, mainly lyrics. He made his own recordings before he met Mats, MP in Gyllene Tider. There was a radio program called Bandet går at the time. Anyone could submit songs and Per did. He remembers they played one of his weird songs called Ser du alla människor and then he got his first fan letter. It was completely bizarre that someone he didn’t know had listened to his song and been touched by it. He will never forget that feeling. It was an incredible declaration of love for him and for what he had done. He was very touched by that and of course it gave more flavour to continue. Once they got started with Gyllene Tider, he had suddenly moved his pop fantasy from childhood to become his reality. He wasn’t at school all day, he went to the rehearsal room in Harplinge instead and planned new songs and new recordings.

Martin says it sounds like a big step to take from being in a very small bubble of your own, a pop music fantasy of your own to suddenly being in the center, at the front of the stage, leading a band in front of thousands of people. It was incredibly strange, Per confirms, and it went fast too.

Martin wants to know if it was difficult to go the complete opposite way. Per can’t say it was difficult. It was just weird. It was strange to get a sudden response to everything and gain appreciation. He also remembers that early on he thought they were very good. It is also in the film that they were constantly sending their demos to here and there and they were rejected by Björn and Benny and all sorts of people. They didn’t send the demos out by chance, they sent them out because they thought they were damn good and someone should bet on them. What Per tried to take from all the rejections was that they have to be better, so they stop being rejected. There was self-confidence in all of them.

Martin says it’s exciting to see what drive and self-confidence they had, because that was also a time when they were breaking new ground. Those days it was either prog or punk and there were many who looked down on this type of music that they brought. But they were full of self-confidence that what they were doing was good. Per says they loved their Blondie and Tom Petty records and he remembers listening to Bowie’s Diamond Dogs and Aladdin Sane a lot. They loved glam rock. Sure, there was a lot of resistance, but it was just a matter of going ahead. It sounds so simple. Haha.

At the same time, Martin knows that Per doubted himself many times. E.g. when it comes to his singing voice, but also regarding his weight when he was a child and his appearance. Martin thinks such thoughts are stuck with you throughout life. PG thinks that what you experience as a child, you carry with you your whole life. He has been aware that it has been difficult, of course, but at the same time, for the job he has chosen, if you are going to be an artist, you have to be pleased with yourself. You have to have self-confidence. Per says he has to know what to do with himself in front of an audience to maximize what he is good at. He has always tried to maximize himself in different ways. Martin asks him what it means. Per smiles and says that it means to make sure you maintain your weight for a few days so that the press photos look OK. It has to do with the entire presentation of what is now called the brand. How you present your concerts, your style, the album sleeve.

Martin finds it interesting. There is a lot of talk about physical things when it comes to women, but not so much about the feelings. Even Martin can have problems with press pictures of himself at times when he has weight problems or things like that. It’s hard to look at those pictures. He is curious how it has been for Per during his long career. PG says it’s also about self-confidence. If you don’t feel good about yourself – it doesn’t have to be a big thing, it could be that you just don’t feel comfortable with yourself – then of course it affects everything you do. That’s how it is to be human. You have to try to find the middle ground, so that you have the least possible resistance in your existence. It’s not that easy. Everyone who lives and listens to this knows that it’s the hardest thing there is, to find yourself in life, be tough against adversity, be generous and don’t feel guilty. It’s complicated, but that’s what it is to be human.

Martin asks Per when it was the most difficult for him. Per says, primarily when things have happened in his private life, of course those affected him. It affects your mood. Regarding Gyllene Tider or Roxette, of course he was affected if things didn’t turn out as he had thought. Then he was thinking „what did we do wrong?” or „isn’t it time to change the record label in Spain?”, things like that. You try to find scapegoats and learn something from that too. But usually, it’s private things that affect you. Per says he is 65 years old now, recently retired, haha, and he still thinks it has been a fairly smooth journey. Occasionally, a lot of tears and grinding teeth, but as a whole, it’s been smooth, a long career.

Martin asked this, because he read in Sven Lindström’s book about Roxette that before the release of Have A Nice Day in 1999, there was a period when Per chose not to appear in videos. There wasn’t even a tour then, because Per was uncomfortable with his appearance and weight at the time. Per confirms it was the case. He felt completely wrong. He had just gotten to know photographer Anton Corbijn who wanted to make some videos with them. They made one for Stars and Per appears only in a small box at the beginning of the video. Then there is another guy who plays his role in the clip. It was because he wasn’t comfortable with the way he looked. The next video they did with Anton in Portugal or in Italy maybe, Salvation. By then PG had lost a little weight so he started feeling more comfortable. That’s how it worked for him. He thought it didn’t benefit Roxette and the video if he was involved. Martin is curious what Per thinks about it today. Mr. G thinks it was the right decision. Haha. Martin asks if it wasn’t a wrong decision to bow down to the ideals of the time about what pop stars should look like. It wasn’t what Per was thinking about, it was just that he didn’t feel good about himself. His own image of himself was not what he wanted it to be. He has never cared about the ideals and that someone should look a certain way. So it wasn’t that he couldn’t live up to what a pop star should look like. It was entirely about how he felt.

Martin says that Per as a songwriter and artist has been at the top of the stratosphere. There are many examples of artists who have not managed to stay down to earth. Martin is curious how important has Åsa been for Per not to float away. Per smiles and says Åsa is amazing. They met back in 1984 and got married in 1993, so they have been together all their lives. When they met, it was the fall of 1984 and Per was about to become a has been at the age of 25. He had lost his record deal, Gyllene Tider was over. After all, Åsa never came into Per’s life to a set table. They had to build their relationship based on who they were. Mr. G remembers his accountant at the time cut his credit cards, because he had no money. He wrote songs for every possible artist. That was the time when he also wrote Kärleken är evig for Lena Philipsson, but he also wrote for Anna Book. He noticed clearly and early on that it didn’t suit him to write for others, because he had to compromise too much. Often they wanted his texts in the first place and then they wanted to rewrite them and make them simpler. It didn’t suit him at all. He preferred to be an artist himself and perform his own songs. And stand in the center, at the front, like when he was little, Martin adds. Per says, standing in the center was also strange with Roxette. When they did their first concerts in 1987, the first gigs were very strange for both Marie and Per. They were thinking about who would stand at the front and Per pretty quickly took a step back, because Marie was much better at it than he was. But it was an ego decision. Martin asks Per if it was difficult. PG says it was probably difficult. He can’t remember how it felt, but he does remember that it was a decision made by him. If Marie is going to sing, she gets to run this project. And then he came forward sometimes and sang some parts. Although on that tour they didn’t have The Look yet.

Martin says Åsa is also an important part of the GT film, how Per and Åsa met. Although for a long time Per’s lyrics were a lot about falling in love, meeting girls and such, it seemed that it was not so easy for him in practice to meet someone. Per laughs and says there were some girls before Åsa, but those relationships can’t be compared to that with Åsa. She was the big love and still is.

Martin asks Per if he thinks fame got in the way before Åsa. PG thinks it could be, because as soon as they broke through in 1980, they became… isolated is a wrong word, but they sort of became… All of a sudden everyone knows who you are and all of a sudden other demands are placed on you. Per can still feel that today, e.g. when he goes into a restaurant somewhere and he sees he is recognized, then he automatically becomes professional. He has been with other celebrities, international ones who tell stories. Per sees how people react when they enter a room. He laughs to himself. People are the same everywhere. Martin asks Per what he thinks when he sees those international celebrities. PG says it’s the same thing. He doesn’t know what celebrities represent, but one can see now how fixated everyone became on Truls at the table tennis Olympics. It’s the human way of being. Shit, check, there sits Leif G.W. Persson. Or check there, Tom Cruise. Martin asks Per if they are the people who make Per feel the way others look at him. Per replies no, but he can note how the surroundings behave then and how it buzzes. His friends tell him what people who walk behind him talk about after he left. He doesn’t mind it. It’s cool. Although it’s nothing he has strived for. This celebrity status is a love and hate relationship. He has always worked to make the things he does known. But you don’t really know what you’re getting yourself into, because you also become famous, not only the things you do. There is a price you have to pay for the fun of being an artist, Martin adds.

A few years after Per and Åsa got together, PG broke through with Roxette and there was a lovely little note Åsa wrote for Per one day and it became a big song. Martin wants to hear the story of that note. PG says they lived in an attic in Halmstad and Åsa had left a note on his grand piano one day. It said „Hej, din tok, jag älskar dig” (Hello, you fool, I love you). Per thought that was wonderful. He had just read an interview with Paul McCartney who said writing songs with John Lennon was like being on a long joyride. Then Per thought, what a nice word, joyride. He didn’t really know what that meant. Obviously, doing a joyride means that you steal a car, ride it and then dump it. Per didn’t know it back then. For him it was just a joy ride. So he put together Åsa’s little note with that word joyride and it became Hello, you fool, I love you. Come on, join the joyride. It worked just like that. Bang.

Then he wrote this badass song on acoustic guitar the same day. A little later that day he met MP, and then we wrote Spending My Time. So it was a good Tuesday. Haha.

Martin says Joyride became one of Per’s super hits and he thinks that it says quite a lot about how Per creates lyrics and music. PG agrees. He says he doesn’t sit and knead, or at least he tries not to. He doesn’t sit hour after hour and write, because he can’t focus on it anymore. It has to go fast and it has to be in the moment it happens. Many people ask him about this text, what it is about, where it comes from. Per has no idea. He collects stuff that is relevant to him in those 20 minutes it takes. That is his ambition anyway. There are many examples when he couldn’t manage it, but at least that’s what he is aiming for.

Martin says there are also many examples when Per succeeded, even if it is difficult to logically explain it. For example, The Look, which was their first No. 1 on the US Billboard. It has a very special text. Martin knows that the American DJs who heard The Look for the first time when an American exchange student brought this record from Sweden reacted immediately to the first lines of the lyrics. He asks Per to sing the first lines of the text and Per sings it: walking like a man / hitting like a hammer / she’s a juvenile scam / never was a quitter / tasty like a raindrop / she’s got the look.

Martin asks him what the text means. It’s just logical nonsense. Per had bought a new synth, a pretty cheap one and he tried to learn how to program it. He has always been a helpless case when it comes to technology, so trying to learn how to program a synth was a giant mission. The easiest way for him was to write a song, so he wrote bababababa and he came up with this rhythm in his head and wrote the first lines to remember the rhythm. It was almost some kind of rap. He wrote it down to remember it and then when he listened to it, he thought it was pretty cool. He was thinking what he should do with the rest of the song and he decided to continue writing in the same spirit. Then it became sort of logical. There was a bit of I Am The Walrus about it. Per actually wrote it for Marie to sing, so it was called He’s Got The Look, but she tried to sing it and it didn’t work at all. She couldn’t sing like that. It’s only three notes, after all. She came up with the idea of answering Per instead in the chorus and that made the whole chorus super cool. That’s how it works, you just try things out. A nonsense text is also a text.

Per Gessle has already done everything, he has topped everything, but he is not alone among great rock and pop artists who despite this, still continue making new music, releasing new songs and going on tours. Martin asks PG what he thinks the reason is for this. Per says it’s just something inside him, that he wants to get things out and that he gets curious. It doesn’t happen as often as it used to, writing Joyride in the morning and Spending My Time in the afternoon on the same day. It probably won’t happen again. When you are younger, there is a drive that’s fantastic and Per has always been triggered by success. That was one of the differences between Marie and him. Marie was quite fed up with success and thought they should take it easy. Per was the opposite. He thought they should do even bigger gigs and do even more things. He remembers when they were out on the Joyride tour in 1991-1992, he thought they should record an album during the tour. There was a lot of resistance around this from both the band and Marie, but it turned out to be a record called Tourism. Per wrote new songs during the tour. The first single was How Do You Do! and the album became a big one for them. It was because Per got enormous energy from success. It’s in his DNA.

Martin says Marie Fredriksson could say that she sometimes felt like a passenger next to Per and even the other members of Gyllene Tider could sense that sometimes Per was travelling on his own journey. Martin is curious if that was necessary for Per to be able to create. PG understands that the others felt that way, but there was no alternative. If he was to sit and wait for the other four in GT to decide what to do, then nothing gets done. It was a bit like that with Marie too. When Roxette started, Marie’s career was on the way up and Per’s career was going downhill. So his only weapon was to keep Marie in the Roxette project, to make Roxette successful, because as soon as they had made the first Roxette record, Marie made another Swedish solo album with her producer and then boyfriend. There was a time in the beginning before they broke through internationally that no one around Marie wanted her to work with Per. Marie’s record company, her producer, her family, her boyfriend. The only one who wanted to work with Per was Marie herself. It was fantastic, of course. The very first Roxette single, Neverending Love doesn’t have a picture of them on the cover, because if it were to flop, it would not affect Marie’s Swedish career negatively. That was the the record company’s strategy. So Per’s weapon was always to come up with songs like It Must Have Been Love, Queen Of Rain, Perfect Day or Spending My Time. Or Soul Deep which Marie loved to sing on the first album. So that she would want to stay.

Martin says Per has made more than a thousand songs. He is curious which song Per would pick if he had to choose one as a kind of soundtrack to this meeting they have had. The Look, for God’s sake, Per says. It’s the coolest song in his life. It has everything that a hit should have. He was sitting in a restaurant in Stockholm and then a guy who worked at another record company came to him and said, „have you seen that you are on the radio list in the USA?” Per didn’t know what the guy was talking about, but then he checked the Billboard and saw that The Look was among the Bubbling Under songs, the songs that were on their way up, possible chart climbers. There were 20 radio stations in that. There was Roxette and The Look on one station and Per understood absolutely nothing. Because The Look was not exactly what Roxette was supposed to be. The idea of Roxette was that Per wrote the songs and Marie sang them. The Look was sung by Per, so it was absolutely sensational that it was that song. For Per, it is an important one. It’s the coolest song he has done, Martin thinks. Per says it has become symbolic. It might not be the best song he has written, but it’s cool. Martin says Per mentioned it had everything, but he wants PG to list what it has. Mr. G says it has a sound, it has a riff, it’s unique, it has many parts. You don’t write music that way anymore, he adds. It has a sound that sounds like nothing else. It has to do with Clarence Öfwerman’s production and Jonas Isacsson. There is Per’s voice and Marie’s voice. This song is really crazy.

Here Per picks up the guitar and performs The Look and that closes the interview.

CBB30 – RoxBlog interview with Per Gessle – “If you’re lucky enough to have hits, you should cherish the moment, because it might never come again.”

by

Roxette’s most amazing 5th album, Crash! Boom! Bang! celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The album was released on 9th April and I wanted to do an interview with Per in April, but so many things came in between that we postponed it. Now the time has come and we could Zoom in for a chat about the CBB era. As usual, we touched on other projects as well, especially Joyride – The Musical that premieres on 6th September, but also his upcoming Swedish album and of course, there is a lot of talking about his songwriting. If you are strong enough to read it until the very end, you will get to know some details about the CBB30 anniversary release as well.

We met via Zoom on 20th August and Mr. G joined the meeting 5 minutes late. But he had the perfect excuse.

Per Gessle: – Hey, I’m sorry to keep you waiting!

Patrícia Peres: – Hej, no worries!

PG: – I was a good boy, I was buying flowers for my wife, because we have our wedding day tomorrow.

PP: – Aaaw, you’re very nice!

PG: – I do my best sometimes. Haha.

PP: – How are you doing?

PG: – I’m good. It’s busy. I’ve been working in the studio a bit and I’ve been going to Malmö quite a lot. I’ll be there tomorrow again for more rehearsals. What else? I’m recording a new video next week for another single from the new Swedish album.

PP: – Oh, so there will be another single.

PG: – I have one song, I won’t tell you that much about it, but it’s my favourite song on the album. It’s just an amazing song. Once in a while there is one song that means something special to you, like “Vid hennes sida” from “Samma skrot och korn”, for instance, which is my favourite song, or “Tycker om när du tar på mej” from “Mazarin”. It’s just my favourite song from the new album.

PP: – It sounds very exciting. I know you like to look into the future rather than looking back on the past, but it’s always so interesting to hear your thoughts on your albums in retrospect. “Crash! Boom! Bang!” turned 30 in April. You were after “Joyride” and “Tourism”. How do you remember the time when Roxette’s 5th album was still just an idea? What was your ambition when you started writing songs for this album?

PG: – I think I had big big big ambitions for this album, because I was really on a roll. I’ve always been that kind of person who, when something gets successful, or I get lots of self-confidence from people liking what I do, then I just want to do more of that. More work, actually. Marie was the opposite, because as soon as we got really, really big and toured all over the world, she wanted us to take it easy a bit, relax and enjoy life, blah, blah, blah. And I thought that was rubbish. That’s why I convinced… or forced everyone to do the “Tourism” album. Everyone was looking forward to touring the world, checking out all these beautiful countries and cities, but I told them that we’re going to go into the studios in Buenos Aires or this nightclub in Sao Paulo or wherever to do recordings. And they said, no, no, no, we don’t want to do that. Anyway, I got my way. That was a brilliant idea. And so for “Crash”, I was just really focused and did a lot of really focused writing. Some of my best songs are on that album. “What’s She Like? ” is a great song for me. [He has a note open on his computer, so he is checking it every now and then.] “Vulnerable” is a great song. It was in my head for a couple of years. I’d never bothered to make a demo, but I knew it by heart.

PP: – If we start with the sleeve that gives a face to the album, what does it tell about this record?

PG: – Well, we just wanted to do something that was really big and you could use it on a production on stage as well. So this checkered flag idea came up. That particular picture was one of my favourite pictures, but we couldn’t really use it, because I didn’t have any light in my face. So they had to work on the light in my face.

PP: – So you put it on the sleeve. Haha.

PG: – Haha. There are so many pictures from that session, but it took forever to paint that.

PP: – [I show the picture on the back of the booklet.] It’s a very cool pic too.

PG: – In those days, everything was larger than life. So it was like no budgets, any crazy idea deserved to be tried out. But it turned out to be a great sleeve. Looking back at the album, I think it’s a little bit too long. I think there are some crap songs on there, which I don’t like. “I Love The Sound Of Crashing Guitars” is a much better lyric than the music. I think that for me, that takes down the whole album. The title song is a beautiful one.

PP: – You recorded the album in London, Stockholm, Capri and Halmstad for 11 months, between February 1993 and January 1994. Why did you start the recordings in London and how did Capri come into sight?

PG: – I don’t know. I think we just wanted to change scenery and change studios. I think we were doing “Almost Unreal” for the Super Mario movie. It was actually made for another movie, the Hocus Pocus movie. So I think we did that in England and I guess we just felt comfortable hanging out in London for a while. When I think about that album, I think about Italy and Capri. We were there for a month or five weeks. That gave the whole album this particular vibe.

For me, it is an album where I had a lot of self-confidence as a writer. So it’s a little bit more sophisticated. For me, when I look back on “Look Sharp!”, “Joyride” and “Crash”, “Look Sharp!” is like I’m young or almost young anyway. “Joyride” is just a massive album. Every song was supposed to be singles. And on “Crash” I tried to get into being personal and trying to find my style.

PP: – Was it because of that that you started playing even more? I think you play more guitars on this album than before.

PG: – Yeah, I think so. We also expanded the band a bit and we had lots of different players. Christer Jansson played drums as well, and Micke Nord played guitar and Staffan Astner played guitar. [Staffan didn’t play on CBB, but on “Have A Nice Day” and here comes the explanation why he is mentioned.] Lots of people came down to the studio, I think. Sometimes I just mix up the album sessions, you know, I’m talking about something and then suddenly I realize, shit, no, that’s Spain and “Have A Nice Day”.

PP: – You mix up those sunny locations. Haha.

PG: – “Place Your Love” is something that I wanted to sound like my style. Jonas played on that one, but we couldn’t play acoustic guitar together, just the two of us, because we come from totally different schools of guitar playing. So I had to make a choice. It’s either going to be Jonas or it’s going to be me. And I chose me, because Jonas did all the stuff on “Watercolours In The Rain”, for instance. So this was like a new thing for me.

PP: – And how was the recording team in Capri? You were under one roof for a long time.

PG: – Yeah, so to speak. We had this fantastic studio. We had different bungalows and we had dinners together. We had the whole place to ourselves. So we worked, we tried different settings. I remember we tried playing acoustic guitars in the garden to see how that sounded, with no acoustic rooms around us. We just tried out different things, which was very inspiring. But at the end of the day, it’s all about the songs, all about the material. It’s 15 tracks on this album. If you get rid of five, you get a great album.

PP: – Nooo, it’s a perfect length! The album is very guitar-driven, but besides that, there are also noises of nature, as well as drums and strings. It has a very detailed sound. When you listen to it now, what do you think about the sound?

PG: – It sounds very expensive, haha, because it’s a lot of recordings and then re-recordings and trying things out in the studio instead of trying things out when you make demos. That’s the way we worked in those days. [He looks at his note on the computer.] There were leftovers, the bonus tracks on the CD. “Almost Unreal”, which is from the movie, and “Crazy About You”, which I thought was amazing. I thought that should be a single.

PP: – Yeah, that would have been the first single. Why did you drop it?

PG: – I never understood that, but we had this voting system. Nobody liked that at all. And “See Me”, I thought was a really beautiful song as well. For some reason, it didn’t make it. And then I think Marie chose “Go To Sleep” instead as the ending track. And I thought “Love Is All” was supposed to be the ending track. I think we closed the gigs with that on tour. I can’t remember, maybe we did.

PP: – You closed the shows with “Go To Sleep”.

PG: – “Love Is All” is a great song. It’s very simple, but very nice. It’s got a very interesting melody, but it’s too long. Come on! We’re not Pink Floyd. Haha.

PP: – Compared to “Joyride”, what is the biggest difference for you on “Crash! Boom! Bang!”?

PG: – Well, like I said, this is a way for me to become a little bit more personal, a little bit more finding my own style. And that is easier said than done. Of course, you have your own style, your own ambitions and you know what you want to achieve as a writer. But as time goes by, you get better and you get more sophisticated. You learn more, so slowly, without really noticing it yourself, you become a different writer. “The First Girl On The Moon”, for instance, I could never have done that on “Look Sharp! “. I was ready to write it for “Crash”. I think the title track is also beautiful. It’s a classic Roxette big ballad, which is amazing in the musical, by the way. All those ballads are just wow! Because they just fit with this big orchestra and it’s so sentimental.

PP: – Actually, now that you say “Crash! Boom! Bang!” is a classic Roxette ballad, compared to previous ones, it was different. The strings mixed with guitars give a wonderful warm sound to it. Your classic ballads were power ballads back then. So CBB was actually a bit different versus the ballads you did before.

PG: – Yeah. And also, it’s a different beat. I mean, it’s a 6/8 beat.

PP: – This is where I’m lost… Haha.

PG: – Haha. [Here he is humming the beat of CBB, then LTYH to show me the difference.] “Listen To Your Heart” is a normal 4/4. I always liked 6/8. I talked to someone the other day. Maybe it was Albin Lee [Meldau]. He said, he can’t write songs with that beat. And I said, if I have a great melody and it’s that typical 6/8 groove to it, it’s going to be amazing, because I don’t find it hard to do. The hard thing is to make it interesting, but that goes for every song. There are several examples. I just tried to think of other songs in that same beat that I’ve written. It will come to me in 20 minutes or so. I love that song. I think it’s great and Marie is singing it amazingly well.

PP: – This is one of the songs that had a video. The director was Michael Geoghegan, who made three videos for you for this album. Why did you pick him exactly?

PG: – I can’t remember, actually. We were looking for directors and his name came up from the English office, I think. We liked his work, but also, I think it was a political thing that we wanted to have the EMI UK office involved in the project. Sometimes you just do things like that. You let the English decide who’s going to do the remixing or the Americans or the French. Maybe if you have a great French remixer, the French company will get more interested in your project. So we did those sneaky things. It went like that.

PP: – In an early interview you mentioned that “Joyride” was a very American album, while CBB was very British.

PG: – I don’t really think so, actually. I never thought “Joyride” was an American album. I mean, the thing with Roxette, to begin with, is that we don’t really sound American or English. We sound Swedish. And all the players are Swedish. We tried sometimes. With “Listen To Your Heart”, for instance, we did our best to sound American, but if you listen to similar American bands at the time, they sound different. All those bands and Bryan Adams or whatever. So I don’t know. If I said that, I don’t know what I meant by it, because I never really thought so.

PP: – The opening track is “Harleys & Indians (Riders In The Sky)”. A real rock song and just by the title, one would think it’s about motorcycles, but it’s not. What was it inspired by?

PG: – Well, I was really into bikes in those days and I just wrote this track. I thought the whole song was interesting, because it was pretty different. It had a great guitar groove, guitar riff and also the chorus was amazing with Marie and me singing together. So it just sounded like a special song. I can live without it. It’s not a “The Look” for me. It’s not an important song on the album for me. But for me, the best songs are “Crash! Boom! Bang!”, I think “Run To You” became a great song. When I wrote it, it was a little bit more, as you probably heard on the demo, a more classic pop song. This arrangement was Anders Herrlin’s idea, to do this groove and use the strings. So we took away all those big electric guitars and it just turned out to be a nice song.

PP: – Yeah, definitely.

PG: – “Fireworks” I thought was cool, because it had a cool lyric. But it’s too long. Haha.

PP: – Well, the average length of the songs is four minutes on this album. Am I right that the working title of the album was “Fireworks”?

PG: – Yes.

PP: – What made you change it to “Crash! Boom! Bang!”?

PG: – Probably because “Crash! Boom! Bang!” was written later on and it’s an even better title, I think. I thought it was like crash! boom! bang! [here he demonstrates onomatopoeia (a sound written as a word)]. What’s his name? This American pop art guy, you know… that cartoonish style.

PP: – I can’t remember either, but I know you used that style on your archives sleeves. [Roy Lichtenstein style.]

PG: – It’s sort of cool. I can’t really remember why we changed it otherwise, but “Fireworks” is a good title, too. It’s a good title for a greatest hits album.

PP: – Next time! You mentioned “Run To You” and it also had a video, but it was directed by Jonas Åkerlund. The style is very different to the Geoghegan videos, nicely built around the touring life from travelling through soundchecks to being on stage. What did you want the viewers to get to know about you in this video?

PG: – As little as possible, probably. Haha. We had to shoot that video on the road, we didn’t have time to have a big production and go somewhere else. This idea came up to work with Jonas and he did a great job. When you do lots of videos for an album, it’s nice to have different styles. So it was fun. It turned out great.

PP: – I agree. “Sleeping in My Car” was the lead single. You told the story of it that the record label missed a single, so you wrote this one. It all happened very fast, writing the song and recording it, but do you remember how you started it? Was it the music or the title or the lyrics first?

PG: – I was listening a lot to Paul and Linda McCartney’s “Ram” album. And there is a song called “The Back Seat Of My Car” on that album, which I love. I got really pissed off when they said that they couldn’t really hear any single. I thought it was loaded with singles, of course. So I went home and I just came up with this idea and “Sleeping In My Car”.

The next day we booked Studio Two at EMI. We already had Studio One, so someone else had to move out from Studio Two. Haha. We made a demo there, which sounds crap, you probably heard it. Haha. But it was an instant way for me to present a new song to Clarence and everyone. Clarence didn’t like it at all, because he felt like it sounded like a Gyllene Tider track.

I basically handpicked players that I wanted to play on it, and they weren’t Roxette players. It was Mats Persson on percussion, who eventually became a percussion player on the tour. And Pelle Sirén, who used to play with X Models, which was an EMI band as well. He played guitar. I don’t know who played bass. Anders maybe?

PP: – Yeah, I think so.

PG: – So we did it very quickly and I just loved the energy of that song. So it was written and recorded just to show them, here is your single…

At the same time, I must say, it took a very long time to make that album. What also happened was that the British invasion happened. Oasis, Blur and all those bands came up. So suddenly I felt like, let’s do something that is sort of in that style, because that sort of Oasis guitar driven style is my home turf because of Gyllene Tider. So it’s nothing new to me. Let’s do it and let’s do it really loud and pump up the guitars and just have this… I don’t know how, but I managed to make the song quite interesting musically. I think the verse is in D minor and the chorus is in D major, which is quite unusual for a song. But it sounds natural when you listen to it. And when you manage to do something like that, you know you have something special going on. So musically, I felt like this is not a sellout, this is not a simple song and if you’re going to play it yourself, you’re going to notice that you’re in a lot of trouble, because you haven’t found out what to do. Haha.

PP: – When you look back now, do you agree that the album was missing the first single before this song?

PG: – Well, it depends. When you present an album, especially in those days when albums were so important. There were lots of bands like Def Leppard. They always released something quite complicated as the first single, but then the big smash was the second single. But then you have sort of presented that you’re here and you’re doing something special, blah, blah, blah. Today, everything has to be upfront immediately, and it has to be short, because people don’t have the attention span like they had 20 years ago. To answer your question, it depends on how you want to present the whole album. When you release “Sleeping In My Car”, if you like “Sleeping In My Car” and you don’t know anything about Roxette, you might be a little bit disappointed with the rest of the album, because there is no other song that sounds like that. On the other hand, if you go with “Run To You”, it doesn’t really reflect the album either. From a commercial point of view, maybe we should have gone with the title track, because a big Marie ballad is what everyone was used to at the time. I don’t know. Oh, and that’s the same with the “Sällskapssjuk” album. The first single was Molly, the second was Lena, and both those songs were co-produced by Andreas Broberger and Anton Ekström. Those are the only two songs that they are involved with. Now the third one, as you can hear, sounds pretty different.

PP: – Yeah, it’s very different.

PG: – It has a country vibe with Malin-My on violin.

PP: – It’s kind of Nashville style.

PG: – Yeah. And it’s got my new superheroes here, Fredrik “Gicken” Johansson and Magnus Helgesson, the bass player and guitar player from Halmstad. They play on the whole album. The next single is also very different, so it depends on how you want to present your project. Nothing’s right, nothing’s wrong.

PP: – “Sleeping In My Car” deserved a rocking video and it was also directed by Michael Geoghegan. What is your best memory from the shootings and how do you remember your and Marie’s acting?

PG: – Marie loved it and I was always very happy to make videos when she was singing, because it was less work for me. I only had to stay there, play chords and look as cool as possible, which was hopeless. Haha. But I did my best. We had a good time.

To do the “Crash” video was much more complicated. That took forever. You know that we had to reshoot it for technical reasons. But it was really complicated to do a video like that in those days.

PP: – It was very much ahead of its time.

PG: – Yeah. It’s just one sequence. It was a brilliant and very expensive idea. When we had to reshoot it, people were crying. The insurance company had to pay for everything.

PP: – So they were crying, too. Haha.

PG: – Haha. But in the end, it’s a beautiful video. I hope we can do… I’m sure we will do an HD version, because it’s really poor quality on YouTube.

PP: – It would be amazing to have all the videos in much better quality. Back to “Sleeping In My Car”, related to this song there was a protracted lawsuit. [A musician accused EMI and Per of plagiarism. Similarities appeared in the chord progression, but the independent expert concluded that there was no infringement of the copyright.] I don’t really want to talk about the case itself, but I’m curious how it works for you as a songwriter, that even if you hear a tremendous amount of songs and of course, nowadays it’s even more difficult to find out new things, you can still stick to your own style and don’t make the same sound as another artist. How does that work?

PG: – Haha. I think it’s easy for me, because I’m not a very competent musician. So even if I try to be Tom Petty or Paul McCartney, I’m not going to succeed. I’m not there on that level. Everything I’ve listened to all my life that I liked, I’ve used that in my own music. And I think if you talk to any artist or writer, they say the same thing. It would be really silly for anyone to say that they invented the wheel, because they haven’t. John Lennon loved all these ’50s stuff, which you could hear in his music. Tom Petty loved The Byrds and that kind of stuff. And Del Shannon. Everyone is influenced by the people that they like and they love, and I’m the same way. I try to figure out how they did that Al Green song. Especially when it comes to styles that I’m not really familiar with. Song styles that are maybe not melody driven, they are driven by the groove instead, the bass and the drums, which is really unfamiliar territory for me, I’m very melody driven, as you know. But if I’m trying to write something in a ’70s soul style, I’m totally lost. I don’t know what to do, but it turns out to be something else, which could be interesting.

PP: – You’re sailing.

PG: – Yeah. There’s no right, no wrong.

PP: – That’s the motto of the day.

PG: – It’s the truth!

PP: – “Vulnerable” was the fifth and final single from the album. How did you pick this word?

PG: – I think that was the whole idea with the song. It was that word. I love that word, it’s impossible to say.

PP: – Was it because of that why Marie didn’t want to sing it?

PG: – No, I don’t know. Did I write that for Marie? I can’t remember.

PP: – I don’t know. Probably not.

PG: – It’s a little soft for her. It should have been written differently if it was sung by her. Nevertheless, I always thought my vocals were crap on that one. One of these days I should re-record that and do it a little better. We never really played it live. We are talking about playing it live on the new tour.

PP: – Yes, please! We expected it to be played on your unplugged tour, because it would have fit so well, but it never happened.

PG: – I think we tried it out, but it just felt like it didn’t go anywhere. It’s got this string thing happening and that’s about it. It has very long verses, it’s like double verses every time, and it has a long chorus. Four minutes feels like eight minutes on stage. Haha. But we’ll see, we might use it.

PP: – I hope so! You just said that you were happy that Marie was the main character in the videos, but here it was you. How did it feel?

PG: – It was fun. I think it was shot in Australia.

PP: – Yeah, at Bondi Beach.

PG: – I have just vague memories of it, but it was fun. I felt very comfortable doing that. I was always proud of that song, the only thing I wasn’t proud of was my vocal performance. I thought it was really crap. Haha.

PP: – Haha. I like those vocals!

PG: – Yeah, lots of people love that song. Åsa loves it too, but I just wasn’t ready for it. It’s so different singing ballads, compared to singing uptempo songs. I don’t know why. In those days, I never really felt like I was ready to do that. I’ve been really a very late bloomer when it comes to singing properly. It’s somewhere around the mid ’90s, late ’90s, when I really start to think that I sang OK. On “The World According To Gessle” album there are some really nice ones. “Stupid” is good vocals. But most of these songs… “Fireworks” is not really good vocals.

PP: – I remember when we did the interview about your solo debut album on its 40th anniversary and first you said, oh, it’s a cool album. And then you said, this song is terrible, this song is terrible, this song is terrible. And now you do the same. Haha.

PG: – Haha. It’s because you find the mistakes looking back. At the same time, one of the things that got me in a very positive way, emotionally as well, at the musical rehearsal in Malmö, is that it’s such a massive catalogue of songs. It’s so many songs. And there are so many really, really nice songs. I’m not saying that to compete with anyone, but from my personal level, I’m really proud of some songs. When you hear lots of those songs in a row, it’s sort of heartbreaking. It’s all my life, basically.

PP: – There was your life in the GT movie, now there is your life in the Roxette musical.

PG: – Yeah, but it’s even more so in the musical, because it’s a bigger span. At the same time, for almost every song that you’ve done, if you listen to it, you want to change things. “Do You Wanna Go The Whole Way?”, for instance. I think that’s a great track, but it’s so slow. It should be…, you know, up with the tempo, so it becomes a bit more groovy. I don’t know why nobody noticed that in those days.

PP: – But Marie’s vocals are so powerful on it.

PG: – Maybe there was a trend, a Massive Attack thing going on in England at the time, or whatever that Clarence was really into, and he wanted to keep the tempo. I don’t know. I can’t remember. Speed it up, please!

PP: – Did Marie like to sing it?

PG: – I don’t know. I can’t remember recording it. I remember making the demo with Mats, and I thought it was a really nice melody, because it’s so unusual, that melody coming from me. So it must have been a mistake. That’s why I probably used it. [He is humming the melody.] It’s a really beautiful little thing there. I thought the title was interesting and I thought it was a cool song.

PP: – It’s a question in the title. There are two question titles on “Crash! Boom! Bang!”.

PG: – I love question marks!

PP: – Which is the best ever song with a question in the title?

PG: – On this album?

PP: – No, from anyone.

PG: – [He is thinking hard.] Oh, I can’t think of any song with a question mark. “What’s She Like?” got a question mark. I think it’s interesting to ask a question in the title. The title is the first thing you notice in a song. I just thought it makes you curious. I have to find out what’s she like.

PP: – There is this middle section with “The First Girl On The Moon” and “Place Your Love”. Can you tell me about this idea?

PG: – We had these two songs, and since the album was so long, we made it act one, act two, and put the acoustic stuff in the middle. I think those two songs are really nice, both of them. “The First Girl On The Moon” is a really wonderful song. “Place Your Love” is cool as well. Like I said, I was the one who was playing the guitar on that one.

PP: – “I Love The Sound Of Crashing Guitars” was inspired by Pete Townshend. What did he mean to you?

PG: – Oh, he’s a master! An amazing guitar player and even better writer. He’s just an amazing composer and the way he plays as well. He is doing really complicated things, but he makes it sound so simple. I’ve listened to The Who all my life. I still do. When I have nothing to do, I always go to YouTube and check out some The Who live from the old days. It just puts you in a brilliant mood, because that’s what it’s all about. This is what rock music is all about. A much more interesting band than, for instance, Led Zeppelin, because they have all these songs, “Baba O’Riley”, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” or “Behind Blue Eyes”, or even back to the ’60s, “Substitute” or “Happy Jack”. These are amazing songs. “I Love The Sound Of Crashing Guitars” could definitely be left out and forgotten in a drawer somewhere. Haha. I think it’s a nice idea for a lyric, but I think the music is bad.

PP: – Have you ever crashed a guitar?

PG: – No, I haven’t.

PP: – Not even by accident?

PG: – Well, no, but I left an acoustic guitar on stage once, and when I came back, someone had made a hole into it. It was a very nice acoustic guitar, so I had it repaired. I don’t know what happened to it. Something fell on it, probably, on tour somewhere.

I have a great Trini Lopez Gibson guitar that I have on tour as well, and I used that in the studio with Mats. I put it on the sofa and then I was going to sing, so I took away my watch. Then I threw my watch on the sofa and it hit the guitar and made this really big scratch on the guitar. [He demonstrates it with his hands.] Haha.

PP: – Ojoj. So you did crash a guitar. Haha. Now talking about MP, “Lies” is the only track where the music is written by you and MP. What was MP’s addition to this song? The vibes of it remind me a bit of Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way”. Is there any relation to that?

PG: – No. I think the guitar riff is what MP wrote. It’s a silly track anyway. I don’t really like it. Haha. By the way, the la-la-la-la-lies, there was a The Who song called “La-La-La-Lies”. Maybe I borrowed that little phrase from them. I can’t remember. And we had another drummer there, Nicki Wallin. He was a heavy metal drummer who plays drums on that track. That’s one of those five songs that you can get rid of.

PP: – Then let’s talk about “I’m Sorry”.

PG: – Oh, “I’m Sorry” I think is a brilliant track!

PP: – In the Roxette demos talks with Sven you mentioned that it had the potential to become single material, but probably because of your fault that you held the production back to make it sound like the demo, it didn’t happen. Was it often the case back then?

PG: – It should have been a single, because it’s a really good title. “I’m Sorry”. I always loved that chorus. I think it’s a brilliant chorus. It’s so catchy. Maybe the production is compromised, because I wanted certain things and Clarence wanted other things. At the end of the day, nobody was really happy with what we’ve done with it. So that’s why it got really low on the album. It never became a single, but it’s a good track. I think it’s one of those songs that I would love to try to play live as well in the future. We’ll see.

PP: – Would be great! The last two tracks are “Love Is All (Shine Your Light On Me)” and “Go To Sleep”. Do you remember Marie’s first reaction and thoughts on “Love Is All”?

PG: – No, I don’t. I remember when I made the demo, it was sung by Camilla Gustafsson, who was singing on a few of my demos in those days. She did a great job. Musically, it’s a pretty interesting song. It’s all about these sustained chords. I thought it was really nice to have these angel style verses and then I’m coming in to do the chorus, which is very simple. It’s a very classic chord sequence. I thought it was great, but it’s too long. That was like this „Hey Jude” style. The same style we have at the end of “Doesn’t Make Sense”. You create like a new theme and it just goes on and on and on until you just puke. Haha. I think we overdid it on “Love Is All”. But I’m sure that if you check out the master tapes, the multitrack tapes, it’s probably five minutes longer.

PP: – So in the end, you shortened it. Haha. “Go To Sleep” is the only song to which Marie wrote the music. How did it work?

PG: – Well, I think Marie just had her first child when we recorded this album, so she was on and off in the studio. When she presented “Go To Sleep” and “See Me”, for some reason, we picked or she picked “Go To Sleep”. Maybe it was like a go to sleep song in the end. Personally, I prefer “See Me”. I think that’s a really wonderful song. We used that on “Travelling”, right?

PP: – Yes, it’s on “Travelling”.

PG: – A beautiful one!

PP: – You mentioned that Marie had her first child when you recorded this album and she recorded many of the vocals while she was pregnant. She said in an interview that it felt comfortable for her to make this album. Did you hear any difference in how she was singing?

PG: – No, not really. I remember what was different was that she wasn’t around that much as she used to be. But that was natural. Then, of course, that became the norm. Then she had another child, Oscar, and I became a parent as well. When we did the “Have A Nice Day” album in 1998 it was also different, because then suddenly we worked with Michael Ilbert who was producing, and he and Marie didn’t really get along that well. It became more and more me and Clarence and then me and Clarence and Christoffer. That was a little bit unfortunate, I thought. But it was Marie’s choice. Vocal wise, she was always amazing. I remember doing “Milk And Toast And Honey” for “Room Service”. It was just an amazing take, but she wasn’t really that interested anymore. I called her up and I said, “can’t you come to the studio and do another take on the end of the song? Because we have to alter the melody of it. So you have to bring the song home, so to speak.” So she did. But she came with a taxi, and she left the taxi outside. So she went in and sang the new melodies that I had written and it took like six minutes or so. Then she went away and we continued working. That was unfortunate a bit, but that was the way it turned out to be. She had family, so she had other priorities. And that was also what I guess became the ending of Roxette before Marie got ill. She wanted to do other things.

PP: – Four of the album songs were also released in Spanish: “Crash! Boom! Bang!”, “Run To You” (Directamente a ti), “I’m Sorry” (Cuánto lo siento) and “Vulnerable” (Tímida). 3 were sung by Marie, 1 by you. You tried to avoid singing in Spanish. How come you picked “Vulnerable” as well?

PG: – [He is hiding his face with his hands.] I tried to sing in Spanish and it just sounded so ridiculous. But Marie was really amazing. She didn’t speak Spanish at all, but she sounded great. The Head of EMI Spain, I think his name was Rafael Gil, he was a wonderful person. He came to Stockholm during that whole recording session and he was like the tutor to tell Marie how to pronounce things and what you can and can’t do. She didn’t have a clue what she was singing about and I certainly didn’t have a clue what I was singing, but I did my best. I never really listened to that album at all. But a lot of people liked it. It was a record label decision to do something in Spanish. I didn’t really like the idea, but then I remembered that The Beatles did stuff in German, so I said OK. Haha.

PP: – It’s fun that you did that. Which is the best title on the album?

PG: – Best title? “Crash! Boom! Bang!” is a good title. “Fireworks” is a good title. “Sleeping In My Car” is a good title. “The First Girl On The Moon” is interesting. “I Love The Sound Of Crashing Guitars” is a much better title than song. “What’s She Like?”, good. “Do You Wanna Go The Whole Way?”, good. “I’m Sorry”, good. “Love Is All”, hm. “Go To Sleep”, decent.

PP: – Which song has the best hook?

PG: – Best hook? [Per wanted to look at his note on the screen, but it went dark.]

PP: – The hook has gone. Haha.

PG: – I think “Sleeping In My Car” has got a great guitar riff. I think that’s pretty in your face. But I like the “bamm ba bamm” [he is humming it] on “Crash! Boom! Bang!” as well. That’s Burt Bacharach style. I’ve always loved that one.

PP: – Which song has the strongest lyrics?

PG: – “Crash”, I think. “What’s She Like?” is also a good lyric. For me, that was like the special song on the album.

PP: – And why was it so special to you?

PG: – Because everything was there. Marie’s voice is amazing, the song is there, the melody is there and the lyrics are there. And also Clarence’s choice of sounds, synthesizers [he has a problem pronouncing this word, haha]. I can’t speak after 16:30… Haha.

PP: – I’m sorry. Haha.

PG: – But anyway, he picked really wonderful sounds. It’s a very good song and it’s like mature Roxette. If someone who doesn’t know anything about Roxette and they pick “What’s She Like?” to represent Roxette, I’m more than happy.

PP: – Which chorus are you the most proud of?

PG: – Most proud of? “I’m Sorry”. It’s the best chorus. The “Sleeping In My Car” chorus is very efficient. “Vulnerable” has a nice chorus as well. But “I’m Sorry”, it’s a brilliant chorus.

PP: – The best melody?

PG: – I don’t know if it’s the best, but the most interesting melody for me is “Do You Wanna Go The Whole Way?” I think it’s really weird, very unlike me, like I said before. It’s irresistible. When I write something like that, I have to do something with it, because I’m stepping out of my comfort zone doing things like that. I don’t know how I do it, but I did it once for that one.

PP: – The coolest rhyme on this album? Do you remember all the lyrics? [He is thinking.] For me it’s “pills and thrills – Hollywood Hills”.

PG: – Yeah, and I like “vintage Jesus – crash the guitar into 1000 pieces”.

PP: – Aaah, that’s cool indeed!

PG: – That’s a nice lyric. It’s just that I don’t like the music. You know, I had that lyric lying around for quite a long time. I tried to write music to it, but it’s complicated, because it’s got all these really long sentences. It’s really hard to write in my style of music. I need shorter phrases, so I can sort of trick the ear a bit. This is hard for me to do. And when you use a lyric like that, that is so long sentences, it becomes a very long song. I lose interest.

PP: – Which song would be an instant hit in a 2024 remix? If it’s done by Bassflow. Haha.

PG: – Haha. There’s not that many. I mean, “Sleeping In My Car” is the obvious choice, because it’s sort of instant. You could do “Sleeping In My Car” in so many different ways. If someone would have done that in a Max Martin production style, it sounds like a hit record, because it’s got all those chord structures and those melodies and lyrics. This album was made by 35-year-old people. I mean, we were getting old already then. Haha.

PP: – Being on the charts was more important for you in the ’90s than it is today. How did you cope with the positions you reached with CBB after the success of “Joyride”? I mean CBB was a commercial success too.

PG: – Well, it was OK for us. The problem with “Crash” was that we didn’t have a deal in the States anymore, because our record label got sold. 127 people got sacked and 127 new people came in and they didn’t have any relationship with “Look Sharp!” or “Joyride” or Roxette. So, we were left out in the snow. They didn’t really want to release this album and that’s why we wound up in a campaign with McDonald’s, as you know, which was crazy. It was just a business thing for the label. Tina Turner and everyone was involved. They sold zillions and zillions of records, but we were the only ones who presented new music. Everything else was like compilations.

PP: – Ah, I didn’t know that. That it was compilations for other artists.

PG: – I thought it was a big mistake to do that. I told them so, but they convinced everyone, including the Swedish company, that that was the way to go. Knowing that, I felt like we lost our momentum in the States, which we did, and that really never came back.

PP: – I’ve checked the charts who was No. 1 around that time, April 1994. I was surprised to see “The Sign” by Ace Of Base was No. 1 for several weeks in March and May and April was owned by R. Kelly on the Billboard Hot 100. Wasn’t there any chance to change the record company to a more competent one back then?

PG: – No, because we were stuck with a long contract. So eventually, when “Have A Nice Day” came out in 1999, it was never released in the States at all. Then we found an independent label called Edel Records. Maybe we did a compilation. I think it was probably a compilation with all the old hits. [Edel America Records released a 16-track “Don’t Bore Us, Get To The Chorus” greatest hits compilation in the US in 2000.] We toured acoustically and did acoustic shows in the States.

PP: – At Virgin.

PG: – Yeah, Virgin Megastore in New York and some theatres here and there. But it was tough. The momentum was pretty much lost with “Crash” in the States. Thinking about that, I thought the response elsewhere was great.

PP: – The tour excluded the US, but still you did 81 concerts in 4 continents for more than 1 million people. That’s amazing!

PG: – The tour was a big success and we finally got to play South Africa. That was massive stadiums.

PP: – And also China! How proud were you that even Mick Jagger envied you for that?

PG: – That was fantastic! But all in all, when I look back, it was these eight years from 1988 to 1995, the heydays of the band. After that, we took a break, Marie had a second child and I did the first Gyllene Tider comeback in 1995-1996. Then “The World According To Gessle” in 1997.

PP: – The setlist included 8 songs from CBB.

PG: – Wow!

PP: – That’s more than half of the album. Why did you think it would work out fine to play so many new songs?

PG: – The “Crash” band was different from before. Suddenly we had Micke Nord Andersson on guitar, because he was such a great personality on stage, as well as being a great lap steel player. We had two drummers, Pelle and Mats Persson on percussion as well. So it was a different lineup. Probably, because of that. You could do that in those days. If you had a fanbase coming to your shows, they expected you to play songs that they haven’t heard on the last tour. Nowadays everyone, especially big artists, play the big songs. As soon as they play something from the new album, everyone goes and buys a beer, including me. Haha. I don’t know, it’s a different ball game.

PP: – How do you think the CBB era formed your fanbase?

PG: – Oh, I don’t know. I never thought about that. I think when you work mainly in a Top 40 format – everything I’ve done is based on what we call Top 40. It’s not Top 40 anymore, because it’s old, but it used to be Top 40. I think, if you have big songs, you’re going to keep your fans. If you don’t have big songs anymore, they’re going to move on to something else. Because most people aren’t super interested in everything you do. They are interested in certain things you do and you have to be aware of that. I always thought it was impossible and actually boring to try to have success all the time at any cost, because you have to follow your own line. We talked a little bit earlier about finding your own style and going from there. I think if you’re lucky enough to have your heart in pop music that is Top 40 anyway, you’re probably going to wind up having a hit record anyway down the road, because that’s what you’re going to get good at. But to sit down and try to create hits for an international market, when the main purpose is that it should be hits, I think that’s really stupid, because what you lose is your personality. That’s why I think lots of the current pop scene is really boring, because it’s written by eight people and there’s no one in charge. The artist isn’t in charge anymore. The producer might be in charge, but it’s like a mishmash of everything. And everything sounds like it’s the way it’s supposed to sound. I think that’s the end of a career. If you’re lucky enough to have hits, you should cherish the moment, because it might never come again. Suddenly, you want to work with some other people, or maybe you want to go in another direction, and then suddenly you lose 92% of all the people who loved the previous single. Haha. They don’t like violins, or they don’t like fiddles, or they don’t like lap steels or whatever. They think it’s too much dance or it’s too little guitars, or it’s too many guitars.

PP: – It has to please you, first of all.

PG: – If it doesn’t please me, I can’t see how I could finish the production, or finish the song even. When you write a song, you have to have a target or a goal, a direction that you want to go into with a song. And you have to fulfill that. In the ’80s, when my career went down in the mid ’80s and I started writing songs with other writers, I immediately realized that was not for me, because it’s so much compromise all the time. I write something, a lyric or whatever, and they say, oh, you have to change that line, you have to change that word, I can’t sing that word, blah, blah, blah. It winds up not being me anymore. It becomes something in between all the time and that is not what I want to do. That’s why I wanted to be an artist also. I wanted to make my own records, because then I could be in charge of…

PP: – …be your own boss.

PG: – Yeah, be my own boss, exactly. Amen.

PP: – The show in Johannesburg, South Africa was recorded to be released on VHS. You already shared a wonderful, remastered version of “Spending My Time”. Will we get to see the complete show remastered?

PG: – I think it’s done, actually. Absolutely, it’s on the way.

PP: – Fabulous! And earlier you promised a 30th anniversary release. What can we expect and when? I guess it will come only next year?

PG: – No, it’s coming for Christmas!

PP: – For Christmas this year? Yay!

PG: – It’s got 23 demos on it.

PP: – Wow!

PG: – There’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 [he is checking his note on the computer], at least 5 that’s never been published before. Some of them are out in The Per Gessle Archives box, but there’s a few that I found, like “Lies”, for instance, “What’s She Like?”. That’s a terrible demo. Ew! I remember that one.

PP: – Haha, we will love it, I’m sure!

PG: – And there’s other songs that didn’t make the album, but it was written during that era as well.

PP: – Sounds exciting! So it will be the upscaled version of the live thing, then the demos. What else can we expect?

PG: – It will be a physical product. I don’t know if it’s going to be a triple album or a triple CD or a double CD or whatever. But the concert will be separate. That’s the plan anyway. We talked about it the other day. I actually called Warner, because I knew I was going to talk to you, so I thought I might have some updated info.

PP: – Thank you!

PG: – We will release it at the end of November, early December. It’s in the can.

PP: – Great to have something to look forward to for Christmas as well.

PG: – I have a fantastic thing coming out on my birthday next year.

PP: – You are a teaser! Haha. So, in the musical, there will be “What’s She Like?”, “Crash! Boom! Bang!”… Any other songs from CBB? I guess “Sleeping In My Car” is in there too.

PG: – Yeah, “Sleeping In My Car” is in there. There are quite a few songs from “Crash”.

PP: – As real songs or as underscore?

PG: – No, with the lyrics and everything. There are lots of songs in the musical. More than I expected, actually. There are a few songs that I miss, but they couldn’t put them into the script.

PP: – If there are so many songs included, will there be any conversations between the characters or will they be only singing? Haha.

PG: – Haha. It’s a great story. I think it’s going to be marvellous to watch.

PP: – Can’t wait!

PG: – I brought MP with me the other day, and he was silent for like three hours. It’s really cool, and everyone is so passionate about it. It’s a wonderful team and everyone enjoys working together, so the vibe is just amazing. Tomorrow we are going to watch the costumes for the first time. They created 1180 pieces of wardrobe!

PP: – Wow! I’m always amazed by all these costumes in musicals.

PG: – This is far out. This guy, who used to work in London as well, but he’s a Swedish guy, he is just wild! He loved that era, late ’80s, early ’90s. The musical takes place in the early ’90s, so you’re going back to the ’90s, and it’s just amazing stuff that he’s done. It’s a really big production. I’m really happy we are doing it in Malmö, because it would have been impossible to do this in a private theatre. This is too big for that. So this is going to be wild. It’s a huge stage. That’s what makes Malmö so special. It’s really, really deep. There are things that you can’t really do in any location in Stockholm, for instance. So, yeah, it’s going to be exciting for sure.

PP: – I’m definitely very excited about it. OK, Per. It was a bit more than one hour. I’m very sorry for that.

PG: – Nah, it’s fine. I got my flowers. Haha.

PP: – Haha. Happy anniversary to you and happy celebration!

PG: – Thank you very much!

PP: – Then see you on the 6th!

PG: – See you on the 6th! Keep it up!

PP: – Thank you very much, Per! Bye-bye!

PG: – Thank you! Bye!

Stills are from the interview.

Per Gessle’s new single, a duet with Albin Lee Meldau is out!

by

Per Gessle has released a new duet, Nyper mig i armen from his upcoming album as the third single. The single contains three songs:

Side A
Nyper mig i armen

Side B
72 (MP Remix 2024)
Varje gång (T&A demo 1986)

Listen to it on any streaming platform HERE and don’t forget to order the physical copy (out on 20th August), 7″ vinyl at Bengans!

The video to Nyper mig i armen premieres at 9 am CEST on 16th August.

Per says:

“Nyper mig i armen” is one of nine duets that are included on my new album “Sällskapssjuk” which will be released in October. I’ve always been weak for duets. It’s always fascinating to observe how a song and the lyrics change both meaning and feeling when several people sing it.

Albin Lee Meldau has a particularly personal voice, so when I wrote “Nyper mig i armen” last Christmas, I immediately thought of him. There’s a sort of Swedish country troubadour character in there in Albin who could be right in the middle of my happy little song with violin intro and all! He didn’t disappoint me. He is a lovely person and now a good friend with magical vocal cords.

Albin Lee continues:

When I was asked to sing on Per’s song, I thought it was a joke at first and am very happy that it was a real question! I liked “Nyper mig i armen” immediately when I heard it. It’s a wonderfully sunny and country-smelling song. Per is a fantastic songwriter and artist, but above all he is a very nice person who I am very happy to have gotten to know.

 

Nyper mig i armen

Hon satt nöjd i sin stol
På en terrass där man bojkottar sol
Hon kunde lika gärna låtsats som det regnar

Och hur jag blev intressant
Har jag funderat på på min kant
Det måste finnas vassare val där hon hör hemma

Ett ögonkast och sen
Är jag van att dörren slås igen
Men nu är hon min, jag nyper mig i armen
Det pratas lite grann
Sen lämnar man varann
Nu är hon min, jag nyper mig i armen

Och ibland när hon ler
När hon inte vet att jag ser
Då svävar jag, det känns som jag kan flyga

Ett ögonkast och sen
Är jag van att dörren slås igen
Men nu är hon min, jag nyper mig i armen
Det pratas lite grann
Sen lämnar man varann
Nu är hon min, jag nyper mig i armen

Jag får nypa mig i armen

Words & music: Per Gessle (25th+27th December 2023, Halmstad)
Published by Jimmy Fun Music

Produced by Per Gessle

Recorded at Tits & Ass, Halmstad, December 2023 + January + February 2024 + Sweetspot, Harplinge, December 2023

Engineers: Mats Persson (T&A) + Staffan Karlsson (Sweetspot)
Mixed at T&A, Halmstad by Mats Persson + Per Gessle

Per Gessle: acoustic guitar + organ + hand clap + vocals
Albin Lee Meldau: vocals
Ola Gustafsson: acoustic guitar + electric guitar
Magnus Helgesson: drums + percussion
Fredrik ”Gicken” Johansson: electric bass + lap steel + dobro
Helena Josefsson: backing vocals
Staffan Karlsson: harp
Mats Persson: mandolin
Adam Sass: trumpet + flugelhorn
Malin-My Wall: violin
Clarence Öfwerman: piano

 

72 (MP Remix 2024)

Words & music: Per Gessle
Published by Jimmy Fun Music

Produced by Per Gessle

Recorded at Tits & Ass, Halmstad, July 2002

Engineer: Mats Persson
Remix by Mats Persson at T&A, Halmstad, March 2024

Per Gessle: keyboards + vocals
Mats Persson: electric guitar + keyboards + bass + programming
Jimmy Monell: programming

72 was released on Gyllene Tider’s Finn 5 fel! album in 2004.

 

Varje gång (T&A demo 1986)

Words & music: Per Gessle
Published by Jimmy Fun Music

Produced by Per Gessle

Recorded at Tits & Ass, Halmstad, 4th December 1986

Engineer: Mats Persson
Mixed by Mats Persson + Per Gessle at T&A, Halmstad

Per Gessle: keyboards + vocals
Mats Persson: electric guitar + keyboards + bass + programming

Varje gång was released by Anna (Anna-Carin Borgström) in 1987 and by Wizex also in 1987.

Photo by Fredrik Etoall

72  and Varje gång get their own digital sleeve so that these songs don’t pop up on the duet partner’s page as well.