Releases

Per Gessle’s “Kvar i min bil” released by rockabilly trio in English

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JLT-still_in_my_car_COVER_1400px-300x300The Swedish rockabilly trio JLT (John Lindberg Trio) just released a new album called “DiG iT!” which features the song “Still In My Car”, co-written by Per Gessle (music). Per initially wrote the song in Swedish under the title “Kvar i min bil”, as you may have already guessed, and now the trio has written English lyrics to it. The song is the trio’s new single as well.

The Swedish song was written for the film “Låt den rätte komma in” and is also included in “The Per Gessle Archives – Demos & Other Fun Stuff Vol. 2”. As Per explains in the Conversations, the song included in the Archives is not really a demo but the final product and it was never released officially until now. And now actually twice, as it was also released by Per on vinyl in April for the Record Store Day.

Kvar i min bil:

Comment from Per:

John Lindberg, Martin Engström and Jocke Dunker from JLT performing “Still In My Car” at Go’kväll in April.

You can listen to the full album on Spotify.

Per Gessle at the Gothenburg Book Fair in September!

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We already mentioned in an earlier article that Per’s 2 books will be launched at the Gothenburg Book Fair in September. However, it was quite predictable, we didn’t know it for sure back then if Mr G would be there in person. The good news is that you’ll be able to meet him at the book fair! More than that, what do you think about a 3-day-long trip in Gothenburg? Why? Because he will be at not less than 2 seminars! Both seminars are organized by Roos & Tegnér, the publishing company of the upcoming Per Gessle books (and the fabulous Alla tiders Gyllene Tider book).

PG_SL_03One seminar is on Friday, 26th September and it will start at 5.00 pm and last for 45 minutes. The topic sounds very promising. There will be a conversation led by our beloved Sven Lindström, who will have Per Gessle and Nisse Hellberg (you surely know him at least from The Lonely Boys project) as guests. They will talk about pop culture, songwriting and inspiration. Besides this, there will be a pop quiz for the two pop nerds. Sven is going to be a fab moderator of that. Sounds like it’s gonna be much fun, doesn’t it?

The other seminar, which is related to Per’s books, is on Sunday, 28th September. It starts at 1.00 pm and lasts until 1.45 pm. The moderator here will be Jan Gradvall, who is a well-known Swedish journalist and knows very much about pop culture. Per will talk about the books and how the most popular songs came to his mind. He will share his thoughts about songwriting and lyrics and he will tell about his role models and inspirations. Since there was a signing session last year, I think there will be one this year, too, however, it’s not yet confirmed.

The tickets you can buy at the entrance and on Sunday it is valid for the seminar as well. Regular prices for adults: 180 SEK per day. Happy Hour between 9:00 and 10:00 on Sunday: ticket for adults: 130 SEK. For the Friday seminar you will also need a seminar card, which costs 625 SEK if you buy it until 9th August and 675 SEK after that date.

It’s not yet known if the seminars will be broadcast live anywhere, like last year on TV4. Busy month September is going to be!

 

Update on 29th June: the seminar programme has been published. Click HERE to check it!

Heikki L feat. Per Gessle – You Don’t Want Love is out on Spotify

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Heikki LHeikki_L_feat_PG, aka Heikki Liimatainen, is a house music producer, DJ and remixer from Finland. He seems to be a great musician of the genre he represents and he surely likes Roxette. Some days ago the cover of the 3m 46s long track, You Don’t Want Love he did together with Per appeared on the web, but we didn’t really know what to expect. Click HERE to listen to it on Spotify!

As Team Roxette informed this afternoon:

DJ Heikki L invited Per to sing the top line on this new track called “You Don’t Want Love”. Per liked the sound of this modern pop song and added his own pop signum to it, the result is to be heard tomorrow on Spotify and released everywhere else on Monday May 26th.

Then Per posted:

HEIKKI L UPDATE. Yes, loved this track. Great melody lines to sing and a very cool production to my ears. Hope you’ll like it!

 

Like it? I can only say, if what Per Gessle is cooking with all the other DJ’s, including David Guetta is anything similar to this, I’m in! This sounds so fresh and amazing and catchy and aaah! A new side of PG and a wonderful tone of his voice in this song. It would be great to know a bit more about the background of this project.

Heikki L says to Ilta-Sanomat:

Roxette is the cutting edge of pop music and I’m really excited to work with one of our time’s most famous singer.

Per says at the same place:

As you may know, I’m crazy about good songs. When I got the demo of the song and the request to be part of it, I couldn’t resist. I like the melody and the whole atmosphere of the song is irresistible. This is modern pop music spiced with a traditional twist. I am very proud to be part of this.

 

The song is on repeat next to Vol. 2 of TPGA. One can’t get enough of all the beauties we’ve been provided with during the past few days!

 

You Don’t Want Love
Heikki L feat. Per Gessle

I’m holding on
I’m holding out for love tonight
You keep saying it’s a futile fight
Cause you don’t want love

Ooh, you say you don’t
But something tells me that’s not quite true
And something tells me to stick with you
Though you don’t want love

You are still by my side, yeah
Though you insist you’re a loner
I’m yet to be convinced

Right now
I see fire in your eyes
I see love
Even through your disguise
Yeah you lost
But I’m giving it all back
No, don’t believe you don’t want love

You took it hard
And never want to feel again
Locked tight and you won’t let me in
Cause you don’t want love

Ooh, but I’m not him
I’ll keep you here in a loving place
He made you play in a vicious game
I don’t call that love

You are still by my side, yeah yeah
Though you insist you’re a loner
I’m yet to be convinced

© Patric Sarin/ Sharon Vaughn/ Heikki Liimatainen/ Per Gessle

 

Per’s vocals were edited in February, the single was mastered in April.

The Per Gessle Archives – Vol. 2 available on Spotify

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

New EP or full-scale album by Roxette

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Roxette_tp_white_bgAs you could hear it with your own ears in the Australian radio interview with Per, he started writing new songs for Roxette a couple of months ago and they will go to studio in August to record new material before they start rehearsing for the tour in September.

Now Per reveals in an interview with The New Zealand Herald that they are planning to do an EP with 4-5 songs. However, being the hit machine he is, there might be a new studio album coming! That’s what he says:

We’re talking about doing an EP, four or five songs. At the same time, knowing me, I write a lot and if everything goes well, it might as well be a full-scale album.

Fingers crossed for a full album!

 

Besides this, he tells what the secret behind one of pop’s most enduring relationships is:

It helps that we never had a romance. We’ve known each other all our lives and it’s like a brother-sister relationship. When Marie got ill in 2002, it was a nightmare for all of us. I’m so pleased that she’s still alive. To be able to do these tours again is just amazing.

We are all so pleased, too! Bring on the new album and the tour!