Releases

Martin Sternhufvud: “MP meant a lot in getting this album done. I salute him!”

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Martin S

We interviewed Martin Sternhufvud (MaMas Barn), who just released an album “Från ingenting till någonting” (you can listen to it at the bottom of this article and buy it here) and talked with him about his music and many other things.

RXB/ Judith: Hi Martin, we would like to begin with the origins. How and when did you get into music? What instruments do you play?
Well, the impulse to express myself through music came very early in my life, when I was like 9 years old I did my first songs and recorded them on my mother’s cassette-player. But it was in the secondary school when I was 16 years old that I met other friends and we started a band. I remember when I met up with MP at that time and asked him if he wanted to play the drums in our first band. He said: Yes!

RXB/J: Who are your favourite artists and inspiration?
My current absolute favorite artist right now is a Swedish guy who calls himself “The tallest man on earth”. Check it out on Spotify or/and youtube. I enjoy all artists who move from the inner space in some sense – I think that is what touches me as a listener. I want to feel the soul of the other…

So genuine artists as Springsteen, Dylan, Lars Winnerbäck, Bon Iver, Fink, Ebba Forsberg among others may help me to awake to a more genuine reality. I think that’s what art is about.

RXB/J: Could you tell us about the 70ies, how did you get to know Per and Marie and start the band with her (Strul, MaMas Barn)?

Per and I went in the same school and he was kind of eccentric, walked around in suites and a hat (guess he found his inspiration from David Bowie…) which was kind of odd at that kind of post hippie-era! Per was a good friend of a friend of mine so we that was how we first met. Further on we shared the same facilities where our different bands rehearsed.
I remember how Per introduced me to Tom Petty in our chill-out room. I was very impressed by Tom Petty – Per was a great fan to him (and still is I guess).

Marie was the girlfriend of our drummer (not MP – now we are in the late 70’s…). So I asked him if he could bring Marie to the band as the rumor said that she sang very nice…And she did! She blew us all away with her voice…!

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New-old Gyllene Tider sound charmed Swedish press

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Today both Aftonbladet (Jens Peterson) and Expressen (Anders Nunstedt) have published their reviews of Gyllene Tider’s 6th studio album, Dags att tänka på refrängen. It’s not a surprise reading a positive review in Aftonbladet, but Mr. Nunstedt positively shocked most of the fans – and I guess non-fans as well. Some lyckopiller might have been involved while he was listening to the album. 😉

 

GT.se

 

According to Aftonbladet, Per Gessle wants you to clap your hands, your knees to be swinging and your mouth to be giggling. Well, what else? Don’t you feel the same with each Gyllene Tider album? Dags att tänka på refrängen – in Expressen’s opinion – is an energetic and playful album, full of ingenious melodies and smart arrangements. However, Anders Nunstedt adds he is curious whether the album grows even stronger after a few more listenings, as one of Gyllene Tider’s strengths has always been their ability to make a strong first impression.

Aftonbladet writes there is nostalgia and tributes to record stores and pop heroes. We already know Bob Dylan appears in the first track, but be sure there is some David Bowie, too. All 3 songs that we could have a listen to yet are full of typical Gessle rhymes and reading the reviews, there is much more to come.

You can find everything on this album from melancholically beautiful to uptempo party songs and from catchy pop candy to charming spaghetti western. “Lyckopiller” seems to be the one and only ballad. According to Nunstedt it’s a romantic piano ballad à la the classic GT concept, even if the song makes a trip to SOAP-land. “Knallpulver” is the only instrumental track and Mr. Nunstedt suggests the publisher to send it to Quentin Tarantino. Wow! What a great idea! After Small Apartments soundtrack everything is possible in hot hot Hollywood. 😉

In the title track, ”Dags att tänka på refrängen”, Per sounds young and life-affirming, says Jens Peterson. Anders Nunstedt says Mr. Gessle is singing duet with himself through the left and right speakers. It seems to be a good choice to end the short short short short short journey the album provides with its 38-minute length.

Expressen writes 10 of 12 tracks sound like they are written to be performed live. So, what about a medley this summer? DATPR compact. Well, maybe a medley with 8 of these 10 songs and ”Det blir aldrig som man tänkt sej”, as well as ”Chikaboom (#2)” as separate songs in the setlist.

Release date of the album: 24th April, 2013.

 

 

Per Gessle, the workaholic

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Amazon.de shared the tracklist of Gyllene Tider’s Dags att tänka på refrängen album with length and dates next to the demos appearing on the Deluxe CD. The digital version is available from 22nd April, physical version (CD, vinyl) from 24th April.

 

GT-DATPR_Album-cover

 

Album:

  1. Det blir aldrig som man tänkt sej /2:52/
  2. Man blir yr (Album Version) /3:01/
  3. Singel /3:01/
  4. Allt jag lärt mej om livet (har jag lärt mej av Vera) /2:59/
  5. Tio droppar regn /2:53/
  6. Jag tänker åka på en lång lång lång lång lång resa /2:54/
  7. Lyckopiller /3:07/
  8. Chikaboom (Album Version) /3:08/
  9. Anders och Mickes första band /3:22/
  10. Tiden är en dåre med banjo /3:02/
  11. Knallpulver /2:32/
  12. Dags att tänka på refrängen /3:41/

 

Demos:

  1. Det blir aldrig som man tänkt sig (Demo 6/8 2012) /2:21/
  2. Man blir yr (Demo 26/7 2012) /3:24/
  3. Singel (Demo 6/12 2012) /2:11/
  4. Allt jag lärt mej om livet (har jag lärt mej av Vera) (Demo 6/8 2012) /3:05/
  5. Tio droppar regn (Demo 6/10 2012) /2:29/
  6. Jag tänker åka på en lång lång lång lång lång resa (Demo 28/8 2012) /2:54/
  7. Lyckopiller (Demo 21/6 2012) /2:53/
  8. Chikaboom (Demo 6/12 2012) /3:40/
  9. Anders och Mickes första band (Demo 5/10 2012) /3:23/
  10. Tiden är en dåre med banjo (Demo 9/8 2012) /2:41/
  11. Knallpulver (Demo 8/5 2012) /1:32/
  12. Dags att tänka på refrängen (Demo 28/6 2012) /3:13/

 

Looking at the demo dates one can see (not that we didn’t know it until now 😉 ) that Mr. G is indeed a workaholic – and we like it! Let’s take a closer look at these dates.

 

  • 8th May, 2012: gig day in Curitiba, Brazil. Was the demo made in the dressing room?
  • 21st June, 2012: during a short break between South Africa and Borlänge. Were there any lyckopiller involved during the recording? 😉
  • 28th June, 2012: 1 day after Borlänge and 1 day before the ultra-awesome Amsterdam gig.
  • 26th July, 2012: 2 days after the megafantastic Gdansk, Poland gig and 1 day before Kotka, Finland. By the way, this day Per shared the new ”Fake guitarist in an 80’s band” plec collection on Facebook, Roxette Official. So, most probably he had to try and see if they were OK, thus he recorded a demo.
  • 6th August, 2012: After all the birthday celebrations it was time to record 2 demos. Not mentioning the earthquake in Halmstad that day.

Woke up to a trembling world 5 o´clock this morning. Thought Micke Syd was rehearsing in Harplinge.

  • Actually, there was a tweet regarding the earthquake that day: “Det värsta är ju inte att det har varit ett jordskalv i Halmstad. Det värsta är att risken finns att Per Gessle skriver en låt om det.” (meaning: ”The worst thing is not that there has been an earthquake in Halmstad. The worst thing is that there is a risk of Per Gessle writing a song about it.”). Well, I’m not sure about any songs being written that day, but it would be too cool to have some earthquake vibes à la Gessle one day.
  • 9th August, 2012: during the break between Finland and Norway gigs.
  • 28th August, 2012: 1 day before the Ottawa, Canada gig, when Roxette went on a lång lång lång lång lång resa.
  • 5th and 6th October, 2012: 4-5 days after the premiere of Kurt & Lisa and Furet wines in The Per Gessle Selection.
  • 6th December, 2012: well, demos are always good to be recorded when Santa is in town. 🙂

 

Now it would be interesting to hear anything about the circumstances under which these songs were written. Hopefully, there will be a detailed interview about the songs with Per after the album is out. So far we know that ”Det blir aldrig som man tänkt sej” – formerly known as ”Är det jag” – was written in the 70’s (demo 9th July, 1979).

One more interesting thing – what a fan (Ketil Nordgård) mentioned on Gyllene Tider’s facebook page the day the tracklist was published – is that in the ”Att vara Per Gessle” book (p. 270) ”Knallpulver” is mentioned as a leftover from Per’s ”En händig man” album. However, Per stated in several interviews that the big difference between Gyllene Tider’s new album and ”Finn 5 fel!” (2004) is that one third of the songs on F5F were leftovers from ”Mazarin”, but now all the songs were written exclusively for Gyllene Tider. Well, whatever project ”Knallpulver” was written for, the title sounds exciting and it seems to fit the album quite well.

 

 

Gyllene Tider + new single is out = dizzy Monday!

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Gyllene Tider’s first single out of “Dags att tänka på refrängen” – “Man blir yr” is out! And there is a lot going on around this release today.

Here are some links and information:

Gyllene Tider – radio visits today:

07:30 – Mix Megapol Göteborg (or here)
07:50 – Mix Megapol ”Äntligen Morron” (or here)
08:30 – NRJ, Vakna Med NRJ-Kanal 5
14:30 – SR P4 Extra med Lotta Bromé

On newspapers:

Aftonbladet: Gyllene Tider låter yngre än någonsin

Per Gessle tells that the album is 37 minutes long. You can also listen to the 2 tracks “Man blir yr” and “Chikaboom #2” if you have WIMP.

Aftonbladet gives the single 3 pluses.

Expressen: Anders Nunstedt writes about the single in his typical style and gives it 2 bees. Expressen also interviewed Gyllene Tider, Per reveals that some concerts are sold-out and that they will do some “adjustments” around Easter.

 

#gtsommar Lyrics of Gyllene Tider: Man blir yr

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However, we could see parts of the text on the sleeve, Gyllene Tider shared the complete lyrics of Man blir yr, their first single from the new album Dags att tänka på refrängen. The song is full of very typical, fantastic Gessle rhymes. Because of mentioning a “Hollies-låt” and “förlåt Susanne”, the song might refer to Sorry Suzanne from The Hollies, but somehow one can feel there appears a little Fru Nordin in this song. Doesn’t she? 🙂

 

Man_blir_yr

Man blir yr

Kom just på
Mitt i villervallan
Broder Allan står
På en båt
I en Hollies-låt
Helt genomvåt
Förlåt Susanne, det blir så här ibland
När jag gräver upp gammalt damm
Och ser tillbaka

Man blir yr
Man tar fyr
Tum för tum
I mitt rum

Kom just på
Hur vi möttes
I en vrå
På ett diskotek
85? Kanske 82?
Du var söt i lockigt hår
Susanne, det blir så här ibland
Jag gräver bland gammalt damm
Och flyr tillbaka

Man blir yr
Man tar fyr
Tar en chans
Får åka ambulans

Kom just på
Den som spar han har
Det är tur att du finns kvar
Här hos mej
Annars hade jag nog ägnat all min tid åt dej
Jag hade letat efter dej
Jag hade letat efter en vän
Värd att leta efter

Man blir yr
Man tar fyr
Man blir kär
Och blir så här

© P. Gessle – Jimmy Fun Music

 

The song premieres on Swedish radio stations next Monday (18th March). The single with Chikaboom #2 as a B-side will be available digitally from that same day, as well as on 7” red and yellow vinyl from 3rd April (according to webshops).

If you want to listen to the song very early in the morning on Monday, you can tune in on Mix Megapol (Gothenburg). There will be a GT interview, so the song will surely be played during it. According to Per, they’re on from 7.30 am CET. Click here for listening to Mix Megapol’s online broadcast. This morning show is also shown on TV, but we’re not sure there is a live broadcast. Clips hopefully will be available later on Kanal 5’s website or the show’s YouTube channel.

Bring on Monday! 🙂