Per Gessle

Interview with Per Gessle and Fredrik Etoall at Hotel Boman in Trosa

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Östra Strömlands Posten was there at the vernissage of Fredrik Etoall’s exhibition at Hotel Boman in Trosa on 9th November and they did a short interview with both Per Gessle and Fredrik Etoall. Fredrik’s Roxette, Per Gessle, Marie Fredriksson and Gyllene Tider photos are on display at the hotel.

There was no room for all the questions and answers in the newspaper, so they shared the complete conversation with Per on their Facebook page.

ÖSP: – What do you think of the evening so far?

PG: – It’s great fun that so many people came. Fun to hang out with Fredrik for a few hours as well. He is so energetic and talented. He has a unique eye, he sees things no one else sees. We find it easy to work together and it’s always close to laughter with Fredrik. We got to know each other at a photo session with Roxette and those photos have really stood the test of time. The pictures with just Marie are from her solo time – they are amazing!

ÖSP: – Now you go on tour again. How does that feel? Is it always the same fun?

PG: – It’s always just as fun to go on tour and I tour almost every year. I like tour life and the energy you get from the crowd.

ÖSP: – Kristin Boman [owner of the hotel] mentioned that you are one of the most productive people she knows. “Per is always writing something”. After as many years as you have been at it, you would think it would slow down a bit, right?

PG: – My creativity is probably quite constant. I look for ideas every day, all the time. The thing that has slowed me down – because I do think I have slowed down –, is that the music business has changed so much. It’s not nearly as fun as it used to be. Now it’s business at all costs. Gyllene Tider would never have gotten through today like we did back then with our strange ideas and my strange lyrics. No record company would have invested in it, because today there is a lot of formulaic thinking with Idol and all that. It’s a machinery today like any other industry. It wasn’t like that, if you go back to the ’60s or ’70s when the music industry exploded with The Beatles for example and completely different opportunities for crazy people like David Bowie. Music back then had much more power than today and played a different role in society. Take the protest songs against the Vietnam War, for example.

ÖSP: – Is it possible to summarize what you want us listeners to experience when we listen to your songs?

PG: – I hope that in my best moments I can give those who listen to me the same thing that I get from the artists who mean something to me. Music is so amazing. It gives comfort and strength and you can feel that a text is about you. All the songwriters and composers I’ve listened to all my life, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, Paul Simon and Tom Petty not least, Randy Newman and Kris Kristofferson – they are all great storytellers. If I can give someone a fraction of what they have given me, I’m more than happy.

ÖSP: – Can one get to know you better through your lyrics or do you write more generally?

PG: – I think so. When you write a text, it often starts with an idea that you recognize yourself in, but then in verse two it can become something else, to make it even more exciting. I’ve written maybe a thousand songs and I’m not THAT interesting (Per laughs), but I can tell about feelings and about how I react to things and so I try to make it universal, but in my own way. My biggest enemy is always that it will become clichéd or predictable. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you don’t.

ÖSP: – Do you ever release something you are half-satisfied with?

PG: – No, never these days. It has happened before but not anymore. I have lots of songs lying around where the lyrics don’t fit and then the years go by and sometimes I can get distance from them and I can pick them up again. On this record there are two songs, “Hoppas” and “Ingen annan”, which I wrote in 1984 for my second solo record “Scener”, which I had forgotten. There was a girl from Hungary who manages a big Roxette community. She saw a photo of cassettes I have and she recognized two titles, so I listened to them again and they are great songs, but the lyrics were crap. The music was terrifying. It was written by a 25-year-old me who was curious in a different way. In early Roxette songs I can hear that I don’t really have the ability to write English lyrics, like in “Neverending Love”. At best, they are a bit fun, but not very good. Then I had a period of 18 years where I didn’t work in Swedish at all, so then I learned to write texts in English.

ÖSP: – Do you have any favourites among your own songs?

PG: – Yes, I have lots of songs that I like, for example, the songs I wrote for Marie: “Queen Of Rain” and “What’s She Like?” which Marie sings fantastically. I like “The Look”. It’s a totally insane song with three chords that turned out right.

ÖSP: – Favourites from the latest record?

PG: – “Plåster” with Amanda Ginsburg. I had recorded almost the whole record before I realized it was going to be a duet record, so in some cases I re-recorded the songs. For example, I recorded the first half of “Beredd” with Molly Hammar, so that it would fit her key. In most of the other songs I chose singers who sang in my key, for example Lisa Miskovsky suits me very well. Lena Philipsson works well too. I get a little pressured in the parts I sing, but then Lena sounds fantastic, so it’s worth it. I have a fun job!

ÖSP: – What do you think of Bomans and Trosa?

PG: – It’s a pleasure to be here. It’s Sweden’s second best hotel… Nah, kidding aside, Bomans is one of my favourite hotels in the whole world, wherever you go it’s completely unique. Every time I’m here, I never want to leave. Trosa is wonderful with all the water, especially in the summer. If you walk around inside Trosa it’s fantastic, I love being here. Sometimes I have a bit of a problem with mosquitoes here. We don’t have mosquitoes at all in Tylösand.

 

ÖSP: – If you had to choose one or a few of the pictures exhibited here, which would you choose as your favourite pictures?

FE: – A photo that is the backbone of me and the book in this project. It’s the photo of Marie in the window. It’s so “pinch me in the arm” strong and it’s unbelievable that I’ve taken it. The picture is Marie and what she has done for Swedish music and the Swedish people and also internationally, and so the picture carries so much of what she has been through. Then there are many photos that I think are incredible. The book cover is also special. Technically it may not be the best picture, but as Per also puts it, “there is no one who has taken such a picture of Marie and me”. Many probably thought that there has been some romance between Marie and Per, but as far as I have understood, there has not. When we took the picture, there was only protection. Other pictures might be cooler, but this one is so unique based on all the speculation and what had happened to Marie, so it’s just protection.

ÖSP: – How do your photos come about?

FE: – Conscious luck is what I usually talk about. I do an incredible amount of preparation for everything I do. It doesn’t matter how much I prepare, it won’t happen that way anyway, but if I’ve prepared, I’m ready for a chance. The photo of Marie in the window just happened. Just like the one by the piano. I told Marie that I listened to one of her songs with my team every morning, “Den bästa dagen”. “Come and sit next to me,” she said, and then she played it for me. While she was playing, I snuck up and took the picture. It is almost out-of-body.

Photo and interview by Jessica Gustâv

Per Gessle on Nordic Rox – October 2024

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Per Gessle and Sven Lindström are finishing the countdown of their ’70s toplist in the October episode of Nordic Rox. Per thinks it’s been really exciting to make this list. Sven explains they have taken a look at the top 20 Swedish tracks that defined the ’70s as they see it. That’s as close to the truth as you can possibly get. Haha. Per agrees.

The guys kick off the show with a trip to Denmark with a band called D-A-D, originally called Disneyland After Dark. They changed their name to avoid a lawsuit from The Walt Disney Company. They are celebrating their 40th anniversary. Their great, brand new song, Keep That Mother Down is played. Mercy by Goldielocks from Finland comes after that. It’s their latest single. A good one, PG thinks.

The next song is Lone Rocker by The Gonzoes, a wild and crazy garage band from Stockholm. Per loves this song, both he and Sven think it’s very cool. Sven says he would love to see them live in some sweaty old club in Stockholm whenever possible. He will give Per a call when it’s time. Haha.

The guys play somewhat mellower tones, Happy by Deportees feat. Esther is next.

Talking About Love by the Cocktail Slippers follows. They are signed to Little Steven’s label, Wicked Cool Records. They have been there forever and they are a really cool garage pop, new wave-ish band from Norway, Sven says.

Sven and Mr. G kick off the top five songs on their ’70s list with a Eurovision track. The artist is Björn Skifs. He was actually No. 1 in the US in spring 1974. The same spring as when ABBA came out with Waterloo. Sven says it was a major happening in Swedish music, going international for the first time. Per can’t remember that and he tells Sven he is so old. Haha. Getting back to Björn, he was singing in a band called Blue Swede and they were No. 1 on the Billboard chart with Hooked On A Feeling. Next year, in 1975, Björn was the winner in the Swedish Eurovision Song Contest with Michelangelo. It was a huge hit, even Per remembers that. After the song is played, Sven realizes that the song was a winner only in his mind. It ended up in the 5th place, however, it was the biggest hit from that contest. A boring song called Jenny Jenny won that year. Nobody remembers that one. Sven is wondering what people were thinking. Haha.

The guys move on to No. 4, one of Per’s favourites, a Swedish singer-songwriter called John Holm is next. This upcoming track is the first track of his very first album in 1972. Per loves it. He loves John’s voice and the lyrics. John’s first three albums were really influential on PG and a lot of other aspiring teenagers. He didn’t sound like anybody else, Sven says and adds that Per was so inspired that this track opens his first solo album in Sweden. Mr. G corrects Sven that it wasn’t the opener, but it’s on that album. Sven laughs and says he is really cooking today. Haha. Per says Sven is confused. Mr. G explains he made a cover of this song and played it live many times. He thinks it’s beautiful and he likes it. So now they play the original, Den öde stranden (The Deserted Beach).

No. 3 is from a cult album from 1970 by a female singer, Doris. Per says this album didn’t happen at all. She was singing very easy listening stuff in the ’60s and eventually she made this album in English. It sold 2,000 copies only, but 25 years later, one of the tracks ended up on a British compilation of acid jazz music, Sven informs. Boom, suddenly it happened. It sold 10,000 vinyl copies newly pressed in Japan. The guys say never give up. The main track on that album is the one they picked, Did You Give The World Some Love Today, Baby. Hearing it now, Per and Sven consider it a ’70s classic, but back then it wasn’t considered by the audience to be anything at all. Per thinks Doris has a wonderful voice and she is a great singer. Sven says they hope you agree with them that this is a truly remarkable song.

The next track is by another very influential guy, Pugh Rogefeldt. Vandrar i ett regn (Walking In The Rain) comes next. Per has also covered this one not long ago. Pugh passed away, unfortunately and Per was part of an homage for him on TV. He recorded this particular song, which he loves. What the guys play is actually a live recording, which PG attended when he was a kid. He was like 16 years old, sitting in the audience, and just having the time of his life watching Pugh on stage. He was really one of the greatest rock artists in Sweden at that time, 1975, Sven says. He was one of the first Swedish artists who actually did rock music in Swedish. He made it cool. It wasn’t happening in the ’60s at all. His debut album came out in 1969. He continued that all through the ’70s and became a very influential artist. He became the godfather of Swedish rock, basically. Sven says there is a backing vocal choir in the song singing „chip chili, ungarna de väntar” (translating into „chip chili, the kids are waiting”). Sven is wondering what that means, but Per doesn’t know. Sven was hoping that PG could clarify that. Mr. G thinks nobody knows. Haha. For some reason, this is typically Pugh. He wrote whatever came into his mind. He was really influenced by Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, that kind of stuff. He was one of a kind, for sure. When he did this thing in Swedish, it was like nothing else. He had a fantastic fantasy and way of expressing himself. Per thinks that on the third album Pugh made, he invented his own language, Pughish. He wrote all the songs in his own language, which was far out.

The only track left now is No. 1 and Sven gives a clue. They can say the winner takes it all. There has to be an ABBA track as the winner here. The guys’ favourite ABBA song turned out to be the same, SOS from 1975. It was a good year. It’s taken from the ABBA album a year after their breakthrough with Waterloo. This is both Per and Sven’s favourite ABBA album. It’s got so many great pop songs. By listening to SOS, we should just enjoy ABBA in their heydays. Well-deserved win on the guys’ ’70s list. Per thinks it’s a beautiful track and it still sounds fresh to his ears. Sven agrees.

There are still a few tracks with good-looking music before the guys wrap it up. The first one is a song seldom played, Mother One Track Mind by The Soundtrack Of Our Lives.

The next one is Nyper mig i armen (Pinching My Arm) by Per Gessle and Albin Lee Meldau. It’s from PG’s duet project. It’s the third single from the album that is coming out in autumn. Per thinks this is the last song he wrote for the album. He wrote it last Christmas. It’s got this sort of country style to it with violin and lap steel. Mr. G like it and says it’s very popular, people like it a lot. It’s been played a lot on Swedish radio. Sven asks Per if he had Albin Lee in mind when he wrote the song or if it happened later. PG says he was looking for a male partner to sing with and Albin Lee just popped up in his head. He never met him before, but he called Albin Lee up. Per knows Albin Lee has recorded one of his songs earlier, so he knows that Albin Lee was into what Per was doing. Albin Lee came over to Per’s house and to the studio and they just had a great time. It clicked immediately.

This wraps up the October episode of Nordic Rox. Sven and Per thank the listeners for joining them and Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom closes the show, as usual.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

CONTEST by Warner Music Sweden – remake Per Gessle’s album cover!

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Warner Music Sweden has organized a contest and they are curious what YOUR Sällskapssjuk cover would look like.

To participate, you have to post a picture of you, your family, your dogs or someone else’s dogs on Instagram with the hashtag #pergessle_sällskapssjuk. Warner Music Sweden will draw 3 lucky winners and contact them via DM on Instagram.

The prize is a framed print of your cover signed by Per Gessle, signed vinyl and singles and 1 kg of dog treats.

The contest runs until 30th November.

Good luck!

Per Gessle on Nordic Rox – September 2024

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Per Gessle and Sven Lindström count down from 10 to 6 on Sirius XM in the third part of their ’70s countdown in the September episode of Nordic Rox.

Per asks Sven how he is doing. Sven is fine. He asks Per how his summer was and PG says it was excellent. No touring for him this year, so he has been really lazy in the sun. Sven is joking that it is Per’s favourite position. Mr. G confirms, that’s where he belongs.

The guys are up to play music that defined the Swedish ’70s, goodies that have never been played on American radio before.

Sven and Per kick off the show Only Summer by Green & Granstrom. Sven informs that it’s a rather interesting cooperation between a guy from Malmö, Sweden, called Lars Brundin, songwriter, also photographer and a friend in the States called Jimmy Granstrom, who has been working with one of Lars’ tracks and written an English lyric to that. So that’s Only Summer and it was recorded in the States. So it’s a bit of a Swedish-American partnership there.

Late To The Party by Anna Lille is next, a new song from Norway by a 20-year-old singer. It’s a good track.

Shimmy Shimmy Style by Teddybears comes next. The guys are guessing it was released maybe 10 years ago. [It was released in 2018. /PP] Per loves the Teddybears. They have done some great songs. They are a pretty cool band, Sven thinks. They should produce more music, new music. He is always eager to hear more music from them. So if this message reaches them, back to the studio. Per says they are probably lazy in the sun. Haha. Sven says summer is over, boys. Get back to work! Haha.

The guys take another trip to Norway. and play Tired Old Dog by Sløtface.

Then comes Sällskapssjuk featuring Per Gessle and singer Lena Philipsson. Per says it’s an impossible word to say in English. He has some English friends and he tried to translate that phrase for them, but that word doesn’t exist in English. Sven says it means that you are really longing to be with someone. You are longing for company, Per says. It’s a great phrase in Sweden. Sven says that the immediate translation would be company sick, but that would take the focus away. This single was released a month or two ago and it’s also the title for the upcoming album. Per has recorded an album with lots of duets, and Lena is one of them. She is a great singer, and she is also going to be lead singer on the upcoming Roxette tour, starting in South Africa and Australia next year. Sven thinks that must be terribly interesting and exciting. Per confirms it is. He brought together the old Roxette band. They unfortunately lost Marie and also Pelle, the drummer, but the rest of them are coming with PG, and Lena is doing the vocals. They are going to play the old Roxette catalogue. It’s going to be cool, Mr. G thinks.

The guys get down to the mission of this episode, to dig deep into the Swedish ’70s, to songs that they think define that decade. At No. 10 there is an amazing song called Livet är en fest (Life is a party) by Nationalteatern. It was a big hit in 1974. Sven thinks it’s a fantastic album, very unusual also for the time, because they were like a prog band, a progressive leftist band. They didn’t sound like any other band. Per agrees. They were like a theatre. They went to schools, played performances. They had some really wonderful songs. This soundtrack to this particular show became a big thing. Per thinks it was a No. 1 album in Sweden. Sven confirms. It became a classic. They had a bit of a punk ethos to them. They started out like actors and then they learned to play to reach out to teenagers. Then they became better and better, but still had that sort of half amateurish thing, which is making them unique. According to PG, it sounds great. The sound of this record is really cool. It still is.

No. 9 is a classic Swedish artist. The song they play is from his debut album released in 1975. He is called Ulf Lundell, a big artist in Sweden. He is still around and touring once in a while. He was really big in the ’80s, especially. His debut album sounds like the mid-70s a lot. Sven agrees. The track is called Då kommer jag och värmer dej (I’ll come and keep you warm) and it is sort of a blues pop song. Quite cool. Ulf Lundell made a major breakthrough on the Swedish scene, both musically and culturally in general. He published his first book, Jack, about growing up in the ’60s. It was a big success. He came from nowhere and just boom, entered like that.

No. 8 is a song from 1977, so there is a bit of a punk influence here as well. The guys are talking about Magnus Uggla, who had his big breakthrough with this album and this song. He came from the glam rock scene. It was a sucker for Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter and Bowie and that kind of stuff. He moved into the scene with one foot in glam rock and the other one in punk, the new wave scene. The title for this album, his third album, was Va ska man ta livet av sig för när man ändå inte får höra snacket efteråt (What’s the use of committing suicide when you can’t hear the talk afterwards). Haha. It’s a great one, Per thinks. The song they play was really big. It was everywhere in the late of ’77 and it was super controversial as well, because he was singing about going out, getting girls and trying to get girls laid. He wrote about it in a way that was really to the point with no further ado. There were a lot of controversial debates about if one can really write such songs. Per remembers that. He was a punk guy, but he was from a nobility family, so that was also a question mark, if you can really be a punk if you are upper class. Varning på stan is played.

The guys are ready to move forward to something completely different, as they say in Monty Python. Ted Gärdestad, who was a very young singer-songwriter in the early ’70s, had a big breakthrough when he was 15, in 1972. His first two albums were produced by Björn and Benny from ABBA and they were really wonderful songs. His brother wrote the lyrics and Ted himself wrote the music. You can still hear his songs all the time, even today. His music has just transferred over generations. It still moves a lot of people. The song they play is Per’s favourite song on this. It’s called Come Give Me Love. The girl singers you hear are Agnetha and Frida from ABBA, singing the chorus. Despite the English title, the Swedish lessons continue. It’s a taste of Ted Gärdestad at his best in 1973. Per thinks this amazing song has a wonderful sound.

The final song from the ’70s on this show is from the end of the decade, autumn of 1979. It’s a band that Per is totally in control over, everything that happened, because it’s Gyllene Tider, Mr. G’s power pop group. Per says this is a song from their first album recorded in 1979 and it became their first No. 1 single in the early months of 1980. It kicked the doors open for the major breakthrough and changed everything for all of them. It was a double A side single. The record label wasn’t really sure about which song they should promote. It was also the era of all this dance stuff that was typical of the late ’70s. The other song was more of a dance record and this was like a homemade sort of reggae style. Sven says they were heavily influenced by the new wave movement. Blondie, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Ramones. PG adds Tom Petty. They loved the new wave and really loved proper songs and going back to the ’60s and ’70s as well. The whole attitude they had… they were like 18, 19, 20 years old. Sven says the 20-year-old Per Gessle sat down writing a lyric that made this one stand out, definitely on the radio. PG says it’s about checking out the girls on TV. The ones who present the show. You had the hostess those days in between the programs. It’s TV2. Sweden at that time had two channels. Sven explains the double meaning of part of the lyrics. What Per says basically is to put on TV2 and put on the girls on TV2. Per says it was a little game with the words. A little bit of innuendo, Sven says. And it made it happen, PG says. Sven says now the listeners are totally aware of what this song is all about and they play Flickorna på TV2 (The girls on TV2).

Next month the guys are back with the top five. Per promises it’s going to be sensational.

The next song on the show is a track about Elvis by Albin Lee Meldau. PG says he is a great guy and a fantastic singer. He is like a troubadour, singer-songwriter. Per has seen shows with him, just him and an acoustic guitar, which are amazing. He is actually touring in Europe right now and Mr. G is sure he is going to be big. Elvis, I Love You is a taster of an upcoming album in English, something to look out for. He is also Per’s partner in his duet album project. Per has made a single with him as well. He is wonderful, PG thinks.

Sweet Jackie by Sugarplum Fairy is wrapping up this Nordic Rox episode. Per thinks it’s a great song. Sven thinks the chorus is beautiful.

Sven and Per thank the listeners for joining them and Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom closes the show, as usual.

Photo by Anders Roos, 2019

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Per Gessle and Lena Philipsson on Efter fem

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Per Gessle and Lena Philipsson were guests on Efter fem, TV4 last Sunday. HERE you can watch Anna Brolin’s interview with them.

The program starts with people from the streets singing Roxette songs. Anna says there is no doubt that fans are excited about the upcoming Roxette tour that starts in Cape Town in February. She asks Per and Lena how it feels. Lena says it feels good now. They have started the rehearsals and she is focusing on planning now. She has already started looking at lyrics to try to get into it already now. Per says it’s a test for Lena to learn all the lyrics. PG thinks it’s easier for him, because it’s complicated to learn all the chords, but he has a relation to the lyrics, because he has written all of them. He says they have started acoustic rehearsals and it’s really exciting. Anna asks them if the rehearsals go well. Per says they haven’t argued too much. Lena confirms. Haha. She says it’s going well and they look to the future. There are many songs to sink your teeth into, but it’s fun. She is really looking forward to doing this.

Anna asks Per how it feels to bring the Roxette catalogue around the world again. Mr. G says it feels fantastic. It was quite a difficult decision. He has been wondering what he would be going to do with it or if he would leave everything alone. It has taken him many years to decide. The main point is that there is a whole world out there that still loves this music. He has written basically all the songs that Roxette has recorded, so they are very much his babies in a way. But the token only fell into place when he worked with Lena a year ago in connection with that thing [he points at the new album that is on the table in front of Anna], the Sällskapssjuk album… In the studio he realized how good Lena is. She could sing these songs.

Anna says she is very curious about that call that was made after, but before they get down to that, here comes a little background info about both Per and Lena’s career.

Johan Macéus talks about Gyllene Tider, their first three albums, then the first connection between Lena and Per in 1986 when Per wrote the song Kärleken är evig, Lena’s success at Melodifestivalen. The same year, Per recorded the song Neverending Love with Marie Fredriksson. They called themselves Roxette and Roxette soon became a success in Sweden. In 1989 they also broke through in the USA with The Look. It Must Have Been Love was in the movie Pretty Woman and became a worldwide hit in 1990. Over the years, Roxette topped the charts again and again, they toured all over the world and have sold around 75 million albums. Lena won Melodifestivalen in 2004. Now the two stars unite. Last spring, they released the song Sällskapssjuk together as part of Per Gessle’s newly released duet album.

Per explains that the album is full of duets and one of them is with Lena. When PG worked with Lena in the studio, he felt that she was really good. Lena has all the qualities needed to be able to sing Roxette songs. It’s not the easiest thing, Per says. Anna asks him what qualities Lena has. Lena is laughing here, but Per says she has a personality and energy and she sings cleanly and nicely. She has everything a good singer should have.

Anna asks Lena if she agrees. Lena asks Anna if she really should answer that question. Haha. She says Roxette songs are quite extensive and demanding. They demand a woman.

Anna wants to know what made Per think that they should do something more together. PG says it was something he talked about before. It’s a decision that has taken a very long time to make and he needed these little things like feedback from the big Roxette audience around the world. Many have wanted this to happen. He notices from streaming numbers that Roxette is just keep getting bigger and bigger. Roxette is more than 30 years of his life. So when Lena came into the studio and he heard her singing, he thought, shit, that’s not a bad idea. He was thinking how he should ask her. He didn’t ask directly. A few weeks passed before they met again.

Anna turns to Lena and asks her how it happened. Lena says she was down there in Halmstad and sang this duet Sällskapssjuk. Actually, Per asked her if she would go to Halmstad or if she would rather record in Stockholm. Then Lena thought she would go down to Halmstad, because then she would be in Per’s environment and then they could bond a little and maybe have some dinner. It might lead to something more. Then afterwards, it didn’t take that long. Per says it was three weeks, Lena says it was a few days until Per contacted her and said they should meet, because he wanted to ask Lena a question. Lena doesn’t know what she expected. Maybe some tour together or some more songs together. She was very surprised when it was this particular question. She wasn’t prepared for that at all. Anna is curious what the question was exactly. Lena says it was a straight up question. Per asked her if she would like to join Roxette on tour. She was surprised and started thinking that it can be difficult, because then she has to sing Marie’s songs. She was wondering how it would be received. It’s not an easy task for another artist to step in and do it. Per was very excited and thought this would be fun. He told Lena that she should do her own thing. Then Lena was thinking for a little while and then she said yes. Per says it was a good decision.

Anna says they were digging a bit in the archives and found out that there is one thing that is common in Per and Lena’s creation of music. Both Per and Lena have created Sweden’s most famous na-na-na-na-na-nas. Here they show the two songs where they sing na-na-na-na-na-na. Per says he thought Anna was going to say that they had Sweden’s two strangest dialects. Haha. Lena says, that too. Haha.

Anna asks her guests what their relationship is to each other’s music. Per and Lena look at each other and they say na-na-na is apparently the secret link between them. Haha. Lena says they come from the same era and they have been in the music industry for a very long time. Per says the music industry is different today versus when they started. He adds that there is no 40-year age gap between them, they are both veterans. There are a lot of meeting points. Per doesn’t say it was better before, but it was different.

Anna turns to Lena and asks her about her relationship to Roxette songs in particular. These are very big songs, as she also mentioned before and they demand a woman. Anna is curious if there are any songs that Lena feels like it’s an honour to sing. Lena probably feels that with all the songs actually. She thinks the whole mission is like that, that she feels that it is important to shape up and do it really well. She absolutely feels that. It doesn’t apply to a specific song, it applies to everything. If she has to mention songs, then it’s the biggest hits, of course. That they make them so that it feels good and everyone is happy. It Must Have Been Love, Spending My Time, Dressed For Success.

Anna asks Per what the feedback from the fans was after the announcement was made and the dates were out. PG experiences a huge interest. One can see that in the ticket sales. People don’t really know what they are buying. Lena adds that it’s more like a pig in a poke. Haha. Per thinks it’s cool, because Lena is a magically talented singer and she is also magically good on stage. So if you don’t know who Lena is and you go to Melbourne or to Perth and see Roxette next year, you’ll be shocked at how good it is. Per is completely convinced of that.

Lena says she always finds it difficult when expectations are set this high. She doesn’t really like it, but she will do her best. She can’t do anything other than do her best. People around the world don’t know who she is. So she leans towards the fact that she is also Swedish and that it was Per who has chosen her, so it’s his fault. You can always blame it on him. Haha.

Anna says the tour starts in Cape Town, then they go to Pretoria, then around Australia, Munich and there are a few dates in Sweden, but only in Halmstad and Gothenburg. She asks what happened to Vetlanda. Lena is wondering too. Haha. Per says there will be more gigs in Europe next summer, but not all the dates are out yet. He can’t promise that Vetlanda will be there, but they can discuss it.

Anna says Per was on many world tours, he knows touring life very well. She asks what tips he has for Lena regarding a world tour. Per says it’s not much different than touring in Sweden. It’s a prerequisite that you like to be on tour. He thinks that both Lena and he does. It’s great to meet people. You get an enormously positive energy from being on tour. But you also have to take care of yourself. Sleep properly. There is a lot of waiting. Waiting at airports and waiting for everything. Per turns to Lena and says she has to go to bed on time. Haha. Lena agrees that there is no difference. It’s the same routine anyway. You check in at a hotel, rest before the concert, you go to the venue, sit in the dressing room and get ready. Then you have to perform and do a good job. It’s the same, just further away. Per says everything is about the concert. That’s the priority.

Anna says Lena and Per have known each other for a very long time. PG corrects her and says they don’t know each other very well. They have had parallel careers, they have run into each other at the Grammys, stuff like that, but they haven’t hung out. Lena says maybe they do that now on tour.

Anna says Per talked pretty nicely about Lena musically. Now she is curious what Lena thinks is the brilliance of Per. Lena says she doesn’t know how many songs Per has managed to write. It’s incredible! It’s crazy! He has exactly the same energy all the time. He is just as curious, just as interested in working as always, in a tireless, fantastic way. One is just full of admiration for this. Per says Lena is so kind and thanks for her words. He adds that it means he is very old. Lena says it means he is very talented.

Anna asks Per what the allure of going on tour with this incredible song catalogue is. Mr. G says that the journey Marie and he got to take part in is absolutely fantastic. If you look back at those eight years between 1988 and 1995, their heydays, it’s an unimaginable journey. There is almost no one who has experienced it from Sweden. So it’s clear that Per is longing to go back to that time. Now that he has the opportunity to hopefully be able to do it again, it just feels super exciting.

Anna wants to know what he is longing for most of all. Per says you are longing to come to new cultures, new countries, cities and people who even you don’t understand what they say, because they speak other languages, but they know every single song, every line of lyrics that you have written yourself. It’s an amazing experience, no matter if it is in Buenos Aires or in Warsaw or wherever.

Anna asks Per if it can happen that when they hang on to this a bit more, some more music can come from the two of them. Per says they don’t know. Anna turns to Lena if there can be more songs like this duet they released. Lena says she has no idea. It is Per who is writing. She has no idea what the future brings. They start with the tour and they will see if it feels fun and works well. So far it has worked great and they have so much fun. Per agrees.

Anna thinks a lot of people are excited to see the concerts. She says one just wants to go to Perth and see this. Per says she should come.

Anna thanks her guests for coming to the show and wishes good luck with the hanging, bonding and Cape Town in February. Per and Lena thank her for that.

Stills are from the interview