Hallandsposten

Per Gessle on the Halmstad Hörs podcast to discuss 40 years of Roxette

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Lasse Pop Svensson and Staffan Karlsson sat down with Per Gessle and Jan-Owe Wikström to talk about Roxette in their 40th anniversary year on Hallandsposten’s podcast, Halmstad Hörs. Listen to it HERE!

Roxette celebrates 40 years on the throne – the guys ask Per if it can be said. Per doesn’t think so. Let’s say 40 years in the business, then. 40 years is mindblowing. PG says it’s a long time, but he has another band that has been going even longer. Haha. The guys ask Mr. G which of these two bands is the best. Per thinks it’s a good question. He likes both bands, he really does, but he has to say he is probably most proud of Roxette, because it was unexpected that it would become as big worldwide as it did. Staffan and Lasse agree that it was a tough beginning of the conversation, because it’s like asking to choose between your two children.

Here they introduce Jan-Owe, who is an expert, one who has followed Per’s career for quite a long time. Since his childhood. Staffan and Lasse thought he could help them along with some facts.

Gyllene Tider released The Heartland Café and there was a 6-track record where the band was called Roxette. Per confirms that it began when the guys in Gyllene Tider did their military service in 1983. He turns to Jan-Owe that he has to correct him, if he is wrong, because he knows it better. Jan-Owe thinks it sounds right. So far, so good. Per made his first solo album in Swedish and it wasn’t at all a sure thing that Gyllene Tider would come back. Instead, what happened was that he translated a bunch of Gyllene Tider songs into English, because he thought they should make an international push. They did some recordings, songs from Puls and the first albums, but they didn’t get very far. They reached local EMI offices and record label offices in different countries. They decided that if they were going to make a next Gyllene Tider album, it should be in English. And that became The Heartland Café. It came out in 1984, they toured in the spring of 1984. That was a slightly different version of Gyllene Tider, because they had brought in Janne Bark on guitar and they had two backing vocalists, Marie Fredriksson and Ulrika Uhlin, who sang with them on that tour. The tour wasn’t any big success. It was perhaps their smallest tour ever. That was one of the reasons that Gyllene Tider gave up. They just didn’t have the real motivation.

Per wanted to try to go abroad and he had no idea how that would be done. It took a very, very long time until the then head of the record label, Rolf Nygren, heard his demo of a song called Svarta glas, which Per had written for Pernilla Wahlgren, who had just broken through with Piccadilly Circus. When Rolf heard the demo he said, “write an English lyric for it and record it with Marie Fredriksson. Then we’ll try to get this out abroad.” And that became Neverending Love, which then became the first Roxette single in the summer of ’86. At that time, Per basically had two years out in the cold. He didn’t have a record contract anymore. He had written songs and recorded demos for a new Swedish album, but no one wanted it. He laughs.

At the same time, Marie had broken through with Ännu doftar kärlek and Den sjunde vågen and all of that, so her stock was significantly higher than Per’s and that was the reason why certain people at the record company (they had the same record company, Marie and Per) didn’t think Marie should jump into the same boat as Per, to do this single. So the compromise was that the record sleeve of Neverending Love contains two drawn figures. There was no picture of Marie and Per.

The guys ask Per if he was OK with that. Mr. G had no choice, but he was very grateful for the chance and that anyone at all liked anything he did. So that’s how they started. It was fantastic that it became such a big hit in the summer of 1986. Then suddenly everyone started shouting: you have to make an LP, you have to make an album. Then Per took his rejected Swedish album, which no one had wanted a year earlier, and translated it into English. That became the first Roxette album, Pearls of Passion.

The guys are curious what those who had rejected it thought then. They must have said, oh, those old songs. Per says they had forgotten them. Haha. It’s a fast industry.

Jan-Owe adds that the first song became a hit partly because Per did a little repetition of sending postcards to some program. Per confirms they have always had those sneaky little tricks. E.g. sending in postcards to vote for themselves in radio shows. PG says they did that back in the Gyllene Tider days. So, of course, he did that in Sommartoppen in 1986 as well. They did get in. He thinks they were number one on Sommartoppen or at least number two.

[The song entered Sommartoppen on 21st July 1986 at No. 3 and 2 weeks later it was No. 2. Then it went down to No. 4 and No. 5, but on 31st August it was No. 2 again. /PP]

Jan-Owe says they might have even missed out without sending those postcards. Per says it happened because mostly you felt like you wanted to help out. Haha. It’s not quite the same as playing the pools or buying a lottery ticket. Typically, as Jan-Owe says, you can never get a hit by helping yourself alone. You have to have the masses with you. It’s always the mass that makes something into a hit. It’s like on Spotify, you can’t bluff your way to 40 million streams.

Jan-Owe asks Per to explain where the name Roxette came from. It’s from the Dr. Feelgood song, but why that one. Per can’t quite remember. He remembers that he loved Dr. Feelgood. He thought it was a cool name. It’s a girl’s name. He thought that suited five guys very well. Haha. He had to eat those words many years later. Many thought that Marie’s name was Roxette and that Per was the manager. The guys are laughing. It did actually happen sometimes in the beginning when they came to a TV studio to do a playback of some song that Per had no dressing room. Marie had one. The one that had Roxette written on it was for her. So Per was wondering where he was supposed to change. In hindsight it’s a bit funny.

Before Per arrived, Lasse and Jan-Owe were talking about Dr. Feelgood having played in Halmstad twice. Lasse saw them at Pinocchio, and Jan-Owe saw them at Greven. Per wasn’t there at any of those shows, but he knows they played at Pinocchio. PG doesn’t even know what Greven is. Jan-Owe explains, it was later called Brogatan 13. The funny thing is that Jan-Owe met Lee Brilleaux, the singer after the concert and asked him if he was aware of Roxette. He said he had heard of them, of course. That was when Roxette was big. But he had never reflected on the fact that it was a song by themselves.

Staffan asks Per if there was panic when the single was released that they had to make an album. PG says it was complicated, because he wanted to get into modern pop, meaning into the digital world. You needed some machines and a bit of how pop music sounded then. That was somewhat the direction he wanted. The chosen producer, Clarence Öfwerman (who, by the way, wasn’t chosen by Per, but by the record company) and Mr. G had a meeting at Café Opera – how posh. You can’t say they exactly clicked. Per thought Clarence was very skilled, but Clarence turned down producing Roxette or working with PG. Then he was persuaded by Pelle Alsing, the drummer, who later became Roxette’s drummer. Pelle Alsing was a big fan of Gyllene Tider and of Per’s songwriting ability. So he said to Clarence: “You’re out of your mind if you don’t take this chance”. So Clarence came in and produced Neverending Love.

Clarence had the idea that he wanted real musicians, but that was exactly what Per wanted to leave. He wanted machines instead. So it became a compromise. Per said: “If you’re going to have a real drummer, then I’d like to have Tim Werner from Eldkvarn”. Raga de Gosch or Tim Werner or Werner Modiggård, it’s the same person. Per liked his drumming style. Clarence countered that he wanted Tommy Cassemar on bass. Then it was MP who played guitar on Neverending Love. Here Per is demonstrating the tunes MP played. He can’t remember if Jonas Isacsson was there. But anyway, there was a bit of a clash. Clarence wanted a real band and Per wanted machines. So Neverending Love, as it ended up on the single, PG never liked it. He thought his demo was much better, because it was done the way he had intended it.

Anyway, once Neverending Love became a hit, they needed to make the album. Then Clarence wanted to choose his drummer, Pelle Alsing, Tommy Cassemar on bass and Jonas Isacsson on guitar. Clarence himself played keyboards. So those were the four who essentially played on the first album. They weren’t a studio band that usually played together before. They knew each other and Per thinks they were mostly good friends. They probably sat in pubs in Södermalm and hatched plans, he has no idea. Per was grateful, of course, that they got to make a record. It was great fun to work with Marie and with everyone. But he still wanted to get into that new era with machines.

Staffan is curious if Marie was hard to persuade, since her career was going really well. Per says Marie was never hard to persuade. PG usually says that the only one who actually wanted to work with him was Marie herself. Everyone around her, e.g. Lasse Lindbom, who was her boyfriend at the time, her entire circle of friends, including certain people at the label, no one thought she should do this. But she wanted to. She explained it many years later by saying she sang in a different way when Per wrote the songs and PG heard that too. He has always said half jokingly and half seriously that Marie always sang best when Per was in the studio, because Mr. G was very good at “directing” her singing. She liked that. Per noticed it on the first album when she sang I Call Your Name, Soul Deep or So Far Away, these fairly difficult songs. She sang in a completely different way than when she sang in Swedish or when she did her English jazz things. But that’s just Per’s opinion.

Staffan says they should jump ahead to when the machines come into play, because that’s when things really started to happen. So they start to talk about album number two.

Per thought the first record turned out good in its own way. But it wasn’t quite how he had imagined it. His vision was different. Then he had a bit of luck. Their engineer, Alar Suurna, a very skilled engineer, broke his leg. Haha. That meant they needed a new engineer. Someone who had become very good and had begun working his way up as an engineer and producer in parallel with them was Anders Herrlin, the former bassist in Gyllene Tider. When he left Gyllene he started working at a music store in Stockholm and specialized in modern technology, the kind that was current in the mid-80s. So he was very good with machines, which made Per think it was a very good idea to bring him in. Meanwhile, Clarence wasn’t particularly interested in machines. But Anders and Clarence clicked and started programming, working, arranging and fiddling with what was to become the second Roxette album.

For the guys it sounds like Clarence is being contrary all the time. They are wondering if Per and Clarence have been able to find a good way of working together. Per says Clarence is quite a contrary type, but he is a wonderful person and, above all, he says what he thinks, and he is a fantastic musician. There is a really funny example from the first Roxette album. Per always used to hear from certain people he worked with (he mentions no names) that the problem with his songs was that they weren’t danceable. Too much pop, no natural groove. One day when he was downstairs in the EMI studio, he heard the coolest groove ever coming from upstairs. So he ran up thinking, “What the hell is this?” And what he heard was that Clarence had arranged I Call Your Name, which was originally called Jag hör din röst and he thought: “Wow, this is my song! My god, it grooves!” So he thought sure, it is possible to make these songs groove, if you know how. So to answer the question: Clarence really revolutionized Per’s music, so Mr. G is not dissing him at all. There are so many songs Per has written that Clarence has dismissed. He didn’t like them. And then you dig them up ten years later, record them with another artist, and they become huge hits. Clarence really does say exactly what he thinks, and Per respects that. He is humble and he can take criticism.

Per’s big musical problem is that he is really bad at playing. He hears exactly how he wants things to sound, but he can’t play it. Hand him a guitar or put him by a piano and you’d laugh at him, he says. The guys are laughing.

Clarence sat there playing variations of the intro to Listen To Your Heart until he found what it needed to be. (Here Per is demonstrating how the intro sounds.) Not many people can handle that. Most people Per has worked with can’t handle that. Staffan asks Per why he is looking at him when he is saying this. Haha. Staffan says Clarence is fantastic, that’s clear. He also mentions that once he sat next to Alar Suurna watching Roxette in the Globe. He’s very tall, but he said hello. Haha.

The guys are getting down to The Look. That’s where things really explode. Staffan says it’s very different from many of Per’s other songs. PG says it was written because he bought a new synthesizer, an Ensoniq ESQ-1. It had six, seven or eight sounds you could use and when you used sound number nine, sound number one disappeared. So you had to be careful not to lose something good. That limits you a bit. The guys are laughing. Per is completely technically hopeless, so he tried to learn how the synth worked and to do that, he wrote two songs – The Look and Don’t Believe in Accidents. They are both released, you can find them on Spotify. Anyway, he wrote a ZZ Top inspired bassline, an eighth-note du-du-du-du-du-du thing, to learn how to do it. Several of the sounds from that Ensoniq are still in the final production. Staffan asks if Anders approved of that. Per says he did and especially Clarence. Haha. Anders was more of a sound wizard. He contributed fun sounds, cool textures, suggestions when you needed something. That’s how he worked. He was great at what he did.

The team from the first album was basically gone by then. Clarence remained and the only song that has an organic band on the second album, Look Sharp!, which became their big breakthrough, is Listen To Your Heart. When Per wrote it together with MP, he told Clarence, “let’s make this as American as possible”. There was a big American sound at that time. Per said, “this album will never be released in the US anyway, so let’s at least be American here in Sweden”. It was amazing when it became No. 1 in the US, because it doesn’t sound particularly American, compared to US productions. Per always thought it sounded like the cousin from the countryside.

Staffan thinks that later it became a strength that Roxette didn’t sound like those huge ‘power ballad’ studios. Those sounded similar. Per says Roxette’s strength was that they sounded like themselves, the cousins from the countryside. When they broke through, everyone in LA and New York wanted them to move there, and they wanted Marie to work with American musicians. That was something they immediately rejected. Because that uniqueness, working with Clarence and Jonas and their gang, gave them their own sound. Like ABBA did. They worked with Rutger Gunnarsson, Ola Brunkert, Lasse Wellander. They had their own sound. As soon as ABBA made the Voulez-Vous album and moved to Florida to work with the Bee Gees’ musicians, it didn’t sound like ABBA anymore. It sounded like the Bee Gees with Agnetha and Frida singing.

The guys are wondering if it was tempting. Per says it wasn’t. Jan-Owe says they did a test on that album. That wasn’t something Per wanted either. He had a big supporter in the head of EMI Europe (excluding England, which was its own unit). He loved Gyllene Tider. He was probably involved in The Heartland Café. He thought Roxette, after Pearls of Passion, should become a priority act for EMI Europe. So he took the initiative that they should make things easier by working with an English producer. He and Per flew to London and met six different producers. They chose Adam Moseley, who produced three songs on Look Sharp! Lasse asks Per what else Adam Moseley had done. PG can’t remember. He says Moseley was very competent musically, but he didn’t have that “pop instinct” Per liked. He thinks those three songs are the weakest on the album. Jan-Owe agrees that those songs weren’t really Per.

PG met six producers, so the guys are wondering what made him choose Adam. All six had worked with various English bands. One had worked with Haircut 100, for example. None of them were exactly on Per’s wishlist. If it had been Jimmy Iovine, who produced Tom Petty, then Per would have cheered. But that was another generation. He can’t remember why it ended up being Adam. Per knows Clarence was very sad he didn’t get to produce Cry, because that was one of his favourite songs. Adam produced that one.

Before they move on, Per wants to tell one more thing about The Look. It was written for Marie, so originally it was called He’s Got the Look and the demo was titled He’s Got the Look. It was sung from a female perspective, and that made it more fun, Per thought. But Marie didn’t want to sing it. She said it wasn’t for her, so Per had to sing it instead.

The whole idea with Roxette, at least from Per’s point of view, was that he wrote the songs and Marie sang them. That’s what they were best at. So whenever a song came up that Marie didn’t sing, that meant she didn’t want to sing it. Everything was written for her, at least on the early albums. Per was the most surprised person in the world when The Look became No. 1 globally. The breakthrough song, and it was one he sang. So the whole idea of Roxette fell apart instantly. But at the same time, they realised that if they can succeed with a song he sings, imagine what will happen when Marie starts singing. And they really did get knocked out. Those songs also did quite well.

Two out of four US No. 1 hits are actually sung by Per. So Staffan thinks he must have been wrong about that. He tells Per he could have just told Marie to sing like he does and it would go great. Haha.

Per says, he has always felt musically limited when it comes to playing. But with people like Clarence, Jonas Isacsson, Marie Fredriksson, or MP from Gyllene Tider, you can write music with more dimensions than you yourself can play. Per has always tried to find people who are much better than he is, because then he can become better. If he has to stand on his toes, he reaches higher. If you listen to almost everything Marie sang in the future, she takes every song to another division entirely, far beyond what the song actually is. Exactly the way a fantastic singer should. And it’s the same with Jonas’ brilliant solo on Listen To Your Heart. It’s fantastic. And that alone is enough.

Jan-Owe says that he remembers when he heard the demo, He’s Got the Look, the riff wasn’t even there at first. That was Jonas who came up with it later.

Lasse turns to Per and asks him if he imagines who will help him bring his idea to life when he has an idea in his head of how something should sound. PG says it depends on the people you are working with at the time. If he looks back at his long career, there have been different people for different eras. So when he writes a song now, he doesn’t save it for something else that might happen later. It finds its home somewhere. A song can have different clothes.

Sometimes when he writes a ballad, since he loves acoustic music, he asks himself if an acoustic arrangement is enough. Or maybe it should have drums or a bigger production. Often both approaches work.

On the latest Roxette tour they are doing now with Lena, they play Spending My Time acoustically, just the two of them. And it works great. But it also works fantastically in a full production. So there are many answers. Jan-Owe thinks that a good song always works acoustically. Per agrees, if you are talking about melodic music, to which their generation often returns. You can play the entire Beatles catalogue on a harp and it sounds fantastic. Or Paul Simon’s catalogue.

Staffan says they won’t go through every Roxette album, but they have to talk about Joyride, of course, recorded in 1990, released in 1991. Staffan asks Per if it can be called the “peak” of that era. Per asks him what he means by peak. Staffan explains that that was the time when the huge tours happened, Roxette travelled basically around the whole globe. It’s the big harvest of the success from Look Sharp!, which also went well.

Per says it was a great era, for nearly four years they barely left the US Billboard chart, they just changed songs. And it probably would have continued another year if their record label hadn’t been sold. That hit them very hard, but that’s another story. Joyride became huge, of course because Look Sharp! had four big hits. Then they ended up in Pretty Woman. That was a blessing. It gave Per six extra months to write the Joyride album. During that downtime, It Must Have Been Love made them even bigger. So when Joyride came (Per inserts he doesn’t know if the guys remember, because they are so young), in 1991 there was the Gulf War. So when the album or the single was supposed to be released, everything got delayed six to eight weeks due to war and crisis. Marie and Per were at a radio convention somewhere in the US where all the major radio bosses were. There are hundreds of radio stations in the US and many of them were represented there. They listened to the song Joyride for the first time, and … keep in mind, Roxette came from five huge hits in the US, the last being It Must Have Been Love. So this was the follow-up. They listened and afterwards, standing there in line to greet Marie, the radio bosses came up to them and said: “Congratulations on your next US No. 1.” Even though the single hadn’t even been released yet. That’s bold. It was great. The guys are joking that they didn’t even need to release it, just check the box. Haha. Per says it was huge. It went to No. 1 in six or seven weeks. Per can’t remember exactly, but it went fast. [In 11 weeks. /PP] Then came Fading Like a Flower. Then the third single, which was supposed to be the big hit in spring 1992, coinciding with the US tour, Spending My Time. They made a massive, expensive video directed by Wayne Isham. That was meant to be the big one. It was supposed to peak on that album. It did in some countries. But in the US, two weeks after it was released, their record company was sold. 123 people were fired and 120 new ones came in. No one had any relationship to Roxette, so they didn’t work with Roxette. Roxette fell off in the US, unfortunately. Nothing they could do, it was politics. So they moved on to other countries.

Jan-Owe asks Per how high Spending My Time went in the US. Per doesn’t know. Maybe 20 or 25. [It peaked at 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. /PP]

Staffan says they anyway toured around the world. He asks if that was the time when the fanatical South American fandom began. “Fanatical” sounds a bit negative, but they really love Roxette passionately. Per confirms, they do. The Joyride tour began in autumn 1991. They toured Europe, Australia, everywhere. South America came in spring 1992. It was a time of economic crisis and war here and there, just like now, there was war then too. Not many bands wanted to go to South America, because there was no money to be made there. Per knows Guns N’ Roses, Madonna and Michael Jackson cancelled. Roxette was asked: “Do you really want to go to South America? There’s no money in it.” But Marie said, “Of course we want to go. We’ve never been to South America. It’ll be fun to play for fans there.” They were living the dream, the entire Roxette success story was amazing, so of course they said yes. They were booked into arenas of 6-8 thousand seats. Then they released the tickets, very cheap tickets, and it turned into chaos. Suddenly they were moved to football stadiums. They played 50-60 thousand capacity venues in São Paulo and Rio. Two shows in Buenos Aires. PG can’t remember the exact order, but they played a football stadium in Buenos Aires, around 50,000 people. Then they wanted to release tickets for another show. So when they returned later on that South American run, they finished in Buenos Aires again. To help finance everything, they sold the broadcasting rights to Argentine TV. They had two TV channels then, like Sweden used to. So one channel broadcast the Buenos Aires concert live. The competing channel broadcast Roxette live from Zurich from the previous autumn. The guys are laughing. Per always says they should be in the Guinness Book of Records, because the only thing you could watch on Argentine TV for 90 minutes was Roxette.

Lasse says maybe that finally brought in some profit. Per says it actually turned out very well financially. Jan-Owe adds that it was like Phil Collins doing Live Aid in two continents the same day, only Roxette was on TV twice at the same time. Per says it was fun and a fantastic experience.

Staffan says Per mentioned that it was unusual for huge artists to go there, but Roxette also went to China, which was equally unusual at that time. PG says that it was on the next tour, Crash! Boom! Bang! Per suggests Staffan needs to read up more. Staffan says he is not that interested in this band. Haha. He thought of blending all the ’90s world tours together. He asks Per what happened when Crash! Boom! Bang! came out, but Jan-Owe wants to rewind a bit first. He is curious about South America, because they are still the most passionate fans today. Lasse says it’s the same with football. They are incredibly passionate. Maybe it’s a cultural thing. Per says they express emotions differently. In Peru, for example, students adopted Roxette as “their band”. They appreciated Roxette in a special way. And these are politically complex countries, very different from where Roxette came from.

Roxette returned to South America on the Crash! Boom! Bang! tour, and Per remembers playing in Buenos Aires (if he is right). They stayed at a hotel and that turned out to be Formula 1 weekend. There were maybe 2,000 people outside the hotel singing Roxette songs all night long. All the Formula 1 drivers stayed at that hotel except Michael Schumacher. Years later, Per met David Coulthard, who drove for McLaren, and they talked about this. Per told him the story and he said: “Oh, it was YOU, you f***er! We couldn’t sleep all night!” He was furious. Fans sang Roxette songs all night long. Jan-Owe asks Per if Schumacher won the race. Haha. He probably did. A clever strategy, Staffan says.

Many artists didn’t return to South America around that time, except Imperiet from Sweden. So it was basically Roxette and Imperiet, two Swedish bands. That’s cool.

Staffan wants to get into Crash! Boom! Bang!, so the guys move on. That became another world tour. Per says it was different vs. the Joyride tour. By then they were more established. They didn’t have as many shows, but still maybe around a hundred. The album was recorded in 1993, released in 1994. The tour really stretched through 1994-95. Staffan says that was a pretty tough time for pop music. The big super bands then were Pearl Jam, a lot of heavy, darker rock. A sort of ’70s-inspired but grungy, depressive vibe. Roxette was more pop, so they must have stood out a lot. Per says Staffan is absolutely right. Oasis had happened, Blur, and all that Britpop.

The Crash! Boom! Bang! album they recorded on Capri for several months, and then finished things in Stockholm. There were so many songs. They played the album for their Swedish label and everyone cheered, but they said: “There’s no single”. That sounds familiar from a Tom Petty song, “I don’t hear a single”. Haha. Per got really pissed off, because he thought the album was fantastic. He still thinks it’s their best album. It’s broad and has so many interesting elements. PG went home the evening after that playback, angry, and wrote Sleeping in My Car. Out of pure frustration. Roxette was huge then. They had both studios at EMI in Stockholm, Studio 1 and 2, so they worked in parallel. It was just them in the building. The next day, in Studio 2, Anders Herrlin and Per made a demo of Sleeping in My Car, while Clarence and the others worked in Studio 1. Clarence didn’t like SIMC at all. The guys are laughing, because the tradition continues. Haha. It’s like Donald Duck at Christmas in Sweden, something you expect. Per understands Clarence, because it’s almost more Gyllene Tider than Roxette. The chord progression jumps between major and minor the way Gyllene songs do. Jan-Owe says it feels like you could have put Swedish lyrics on it. Per agrees.

Per basically put together a brand new band to record that song. It was Mats Persson (not MP, but their percussion guy in Roxette), who played drums. He was in the same band as Clarence, Passagerarna. He was great. Pelle Sirén, who worked with X Models led by Efva Attling, was on guitar, and Per thinks it was Mats Alsberg on bass. [It was Anders Herrlin. /PP] A whole gang that had nothing to do with the usual Roxette lineup. They played on Sleeping in My Car. And the lyrics were specially made for Marie. It’s a very in-your-face, cocky song. There, they got their f***ing single. Haha. It’s a simple song, but maybe it didn’t represent the album as a whole. It’s kind of smart. That might be why Per loves the album. It keeps the whole gang on their toes.

Lasse thinks Sleeping In My Car is probably the best song on the album. Sover i min bil it would be in Swedish. The guys are laughing.

Staffan says Roxette also made some tour albums. Tourism is quite special. Per says he had to fight hard for that one. He thought it was quite tough to be on tour for so long and not be able to work and record. He had listened to the Running on Empty album by Jackson Browne which was recorded during the tour. So the idea was there: why can’t they, when they arrive in a city in Spain, go into a studio and record a song there? Or why can’t they record in a hotel room? So the whole idea of recording during the tour grew from that. Nobody really liked it, because everyone wanted time off. The guys are laughing. But the Tourism album, which was recorded during the Joyride tour, came out in the summer in 1992. The track that became the driving force for the album was How Do You Do! It became the first single and became their biggest song in Germany. It was number one for twelve or fourteen weeks. And another single from that album was a leftover track from Joyride called Queen of Rain. Many of those songs, like Never Is a Long Time, were recorded at a rented nightclub in Buenos Aires. Staffan asks if it was open. Per replies it was closed. They recorded there during the day. Jonas, Clarence and Marie were there, and Per sat next to them. Jan-Owe asks Per if he already had the songs or he wrote them then. PG says it was a mix. The Heart Shaped Sea he wrote then and How Do You Do! as well. Some songs were leftovers from Look Sharp! and Joyride. For example, Here Comes the Weekend. Other songs were single B sides, e.g. Come Back (Before You Leave) was the B side of Joyride. Silver Blue was the B side of The Look; they made a slightly updated version of it. And there were three live recordings as well, to keep this live connection in the production. So it was a mix.

Staffan is curious what the others thought once it was finished. Lasse asks what Clarence thought. Haha. Per doesn’t know what he thought, but the album sold 6 million copies or something like that. It sold a lot. Rolf Nygren, the boss who brought Marie and Per together back then, didn’t think it should count as a real album, because it was recorded on tour. So he didn’t think it should be included in the contract.

The guys get to the point where Roxette took a break. In 1995 the Crash tour ended. In 1996 Roxette turned ten, and then they released their first compilation album called Don’t Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!, and they recorded some new songs. Marie had had a baby and needed some time off, and Per wanted to make a solo album in the meantime. He couldn’t wait. PG wrote lots of songs for himself, and one of them ended up on that Roxette compilation, called June Afternoon. And it’s Gyllene Tider playing on it, even on the Roxette recording.

The album came out in 1996, and it was the first year off from Roxette, and of course the first Gyllene Tider comeback happened in 1996 in Sweden, Återtåget. Staffan says resting and holidays are not Per’s thing. Per laughs and says it’s for people like Staffan. Haha.

Already in 1995 when Roxette was touring with Crash, they talked about a Gyllene comeback. They did a few concerts with Gyllene Tider in 1995, and they released an album, Halmstads pärlor, a Gyllene Tider compilation in 1995. It had several new songs, one of them Per wrote in Japan is called Det är över nu. It became very good. Staffan says it sounds very Japanese. Haha. Per says it was produced together with Michael Ilbert. He was a huge catalyst for the Gyllene Tider reunion. He made them sound exactly like they always wanted to sound, but never managed before, so it was very fun working with him. That song, and maybe one more, Kung av sand, became big hits from that album. So Halmstads pärlor became Sweden’s best-selling record in 1995. And in 1996 came the Återtåget tour and then they reissued Halmstads pärlor and added some new songs. Gå & fiska! and Juni, juli, augusti. Which meant that Halmstads pärlor also became Sweden’s best-selling album in 1996. Why not. The guys are laughing and Staffan asks Per how 1997 was then. Per says everything fell apart then, it was the house of cards. Haha.

With Roxette, there was still a break. Per released his first English solo album in 1997, The World According to Gessle. Humble title, Staffan says. Per turns to Jan-Owe and asks what he was doing in 1998. Haha. Jan-Owe says he wrote songs. PG says they recorded an album called Have a Nice Day. During those years he wrote a lot of songs. They recorded them in Spain. Marie had had her second child and Per had had a little son in 1997, so it took a very long time. And it was a very nice album with lots of good songs, Wish I Could Fly and Salvation. And it was the first album they didn’t tour with. PG had gotten to know Anton Corbijn, the photographer, and they wanted to work together. He made two videos for them. One for Wish I Could Fly and one for Salvation. [From here Per messes up WICF and Stars, so I write Stars instead. /PP] Mr. G explains he had gained weight, so he didn’t want to be in the videos. That was perhaps one of the reasons he didn’t want them to tour. He didn’t feel comfortable with himself. So in the Stars video he is lying in a little street corner with a sign in front of him in the first scene, and then he is morphed into another guy who plays his role. Then he had lost weight for Salvation, so he is in that video. The guys are laughing.

The HAND album came out in 1999, and in 2000 Per wrote songs and they started recording what became Room Service. It became a tour in 2001. A European tour only, though. Jan-Owe is curious why it was only a European tour. Per says it wasn’t easy for them to sell many tickets then. The music they represented was a bit off. He remembers they did Fading Like a Flower acoustically, because the production style it had was no longer modern. Now it’s fun and cool again, but it wasn’t then, so it wasn’t easy. Staffan asks PG if that was when Max Martin started dominating all the charts. Per says it wasn’t just him, it was pop music in general. It’s in the nature of pop music to constantly change, and pop always reflects its era.

In 2002 they decided to take a break. Marie wanted to work with her husband and do her own things. She wasn’t super interested. She wasn’t involved much in the recording of Room Service. It was more Clarence and Per. Ronny Lahti was the engineer, a very skilled one. Marie came in and sang when they called her. Sometimes she came in, sang, and had the taxi waiting outside the whole time. So she really wasn’t very interested.

It wasn’t surprising that they took a break. Then they received a fantastic offer, financially speaking, to participate in something called Night of the Proms. It’s a large symphony orchestra that backs up 3-4 songs. Most artists have done it over the years. It’s a production based in Antwerp, and you tour in Europe – Germany, Switzerland. On the way to the press conference where they were going to announce this, Marie became ill. So it was cancelled. Then everything stopped for several years.

Per did some other things, Mazarin and Son of a Plumber. Staffan thinks Jo-Anna Says is the best song Per has ever done and he is usually right, he says. But here the guys jump ahead, because this podcast is supposed to be about Roxette. Things started again in 2008-2009 when Per was on tour. PG says he worked intensively in the 2000s. Mazarin came in 2003. Then the huge Gyllene Tider tour in 2004. Then came Son of a Plumber. Then En händig man. He can’t remember everything. Then he made the Party Crasher album. It was an English solo album and he went on a European tour with it. He played e.g. Cirkus, clubs for 1,200-1,400 people. When he played in Amsterdam, Marie and her husband came to visit. Per didn’t know they were coming, but he was very happy. Marie had stayed out of the spotlight for many years. So Per asked her if they could perform a song together. She hadn’t sung since the Room Service tour eight years earlier and she wasn’t super eager. But Per has always been good at convincing her, so he did. They went on for the encore and performed… Per can’t remember what. It Must Have Been Love or Listen to Your Heart acoustically. Per has never seen so many people cry as when they saw Marie walk out. She was shocked by the response. She was happy, of course. They all were. Then she called after a week or two and said: “I feel ready. Can’t you write a new Roxette album?” So Per wrote one and that became Charm School which came out in 2010. Then they went on tour. Marie defied everything – doctors, recommendations. She thought it was fantastic. It was truly fantastic that she managed. It was a high tempo. They played 160 shows on that tour and kept going for several years.

Staffan asks if there were breaks when she could rest. Per says there were breaks, but still, when you are on tour, even if you are home for three weeks, you are mentally still on tour. You must stay healthy, you can’t get sick. Maybe there is something you have to adjust, then you must rehearse. It’s a bit on or off. Even when you are home, you are not fully off.

Jan-Owe asks Per how it felt to play smaller venues when they already played stadiums in the past. Per says Roxette never played small venues. Only Per did. Haha. But he doesn’t think like that. When Gyllene Tider plays, they play as big as possible. Often 8,000 and up. Roxette is the same. As a solo artist in Sweden, same. Per plays Brottet in Halmstad or Trädgårdsföreningen in Gothenburg or Sofiero in Helsingborg. But when he goes out into Europe alone, he must start from scratch. He is known there, but he doesn’t have that following. And he also plays differently. He plays from the Son of a Plumber album or maybe some (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone cover, which The Monkees recorded when he was little. It’s no problem. It’s fun. Not everything has to be maxed. It can be fun to play in a small club.

Now with Lena on the Roxette tour they have had maybe 3,000-4,000 people. And suddenly it feels like a club gig. And those can be the best. If you are going to play 8,000-10,000 or more, you need the production. You might need screens and you must rehearse a good production. Because people expect that and you want to provide that. But you don’t need it when you play somewhere like Pinocchio. Haha.

Jan-Owe says it’s another challenge then, the connection with the audience. He mentions that Per had those hotel shows when Covid came and he could really talk to the audience differently. Per says he took the opportunity. He always wanted to try it, but never really believed he could. When Covid came, there were 10 meters between tables and you couldn’t have 400 people in one place. With those hotel gigs you also avoided the pressure of what if I don’t sell tickets. Because 400 tickets will sell. But if you announce your own acoustic tour, it’s a lot of pressure. Later he did announce a tour like that, but by then he had proof it would work.

Jan-Owe asks Per if he benefited from that tour later, going out with Roxette again. PG says everything you do teaches you something. What he has learned the last 20 years is – and he thinks about it often on the Roxette tour – he can lean back and trust his songs, because the songs are so big. People don’t go to a Roxette concert or to see him to watch a high-tech Lady Gaga production. They come because they love the songs. Mr. G thinks it’s incredible. If you think of many artists, especially young ones, it’s a lot of production. Lots of pre-recorded things, lots happening visually. An ADHD feeling. But if you look at Springsteen or McCartney or Leonard Cohen, that generation is different. One of the best concerts Per has ever seen was Leonard Cohen delivering amazing music. He doesn’t know if it’s generational, but he learned that once they start playing, it will work.

The guys start to talk about the present. Per is out again, with auntie Philipsson, Staffan says. PG corrects him that she is not an old lady. OK, miss Philipsson then. Jan-Owe warns Staffan, “watch what you say. She might be listening”. Staffan says hi to Lena on the podcast, then he asks Per when the idea came and what his thoughts were.

Per says this question could take hours, because there are so many angles. When Marie passed away, the whole Roxette concept disappeared. Per didn’t know what to do. The obvious choice was to leave it all. Time passed and he realized there is this huge song catalogue, his whole life. Should he never play these songs again? He needed years to decide whether there was someone who could sing them and who would want to sing them. It wasn’t easy. He almost gave up.

It was a coincidence that Lena came to MP’s studio in Halmstad and sang on a song called Sällskapssjuk. PG had met her before. He co-wrote her breakthrough hit in the ’80s, Kärleken är evig, but they had no real relationship. When she started singing, Per thought: wow, she’s good. Really, really good. And you rarely feel that. So he thought she could sing Roxette songs. She doesn’t sing like Marie, but she has enormous professionalism and vocal capacity.

Per arranged a meeting in Stockholm and presented the idea to Lena. She almost fell off her chair. She didn’t say yes or no. She wanted to think. Then she called and to Per’s surprise she was positive. Staffan asks Per what Clarence thought. Haha. He was very positive according to Mr. G.

Lasse says, with all respect to Marie, this isn’t the first band to change singers. There are many examples. AC/DC is one of them. And it works.

Per says it works. Lasse adds that many people are stuck, they think things must always stay the same. They don’t. PG says it doesn’t mean it’s the same thing. What makes it work with Lena is that she is strong in herself. Per is not starting a new Roxette with her, she is hired to sing the Roxette catalogue. She is a hired gun and she does it fantastically. She does it naturally and in her own way. She is more faithful to the songs than Marie was at the end. Marie chose different ways. Even in her peak years she did that. It was her style, not to follow the rules. Lena is different. She sings as intended, but in her own style.

They did 43 shows in 2025 and they have at least as many in 2026.

Staffan says now it’s the 40-year anniversary of Roxette. He is curious if anything else will happen. Per confirms that many things are coming. They have a plan with the record company to release something every month, to celebrate. For example, the Spanish ballad album will come on double vinyl for the first time. Room Service will come on double vinyl with many extras. Some remixes will come too, Per won’t say which. So a lot of things are happening. There will be other surprises as well. The musical continues in Stockholm and opens in Malmö in the fall. It will go abroad from 2027. Things are happening constantly. Roxette is alive and thriving.

Jan-Owe wants to know if Per plans to write new songs with Lena as a hired vocalist. PG doesn’t think new Roxette releases will come. He released a song with Lena, but under the Per + Lena name. He really doesn’t want to start a new Roxette. Roxette is the past. But he would love to work with Lena in the studio and release new material. Per is writing a new album where she will be involved, along with others.

Jan-Owe says he saw that Roxette UK is on a world tour and he is curious about what Per thinks of them. PG has no problem with them, but they can’t use that name. They are in a legal process, because it’s gone wrong, since Roxette is touring too. There are many tribute bands and that’s fine. They do a great job. But they shouldn’t step on the trademark. Roxette had to clarify it’s not them. Even their record company in Stockholm thought they could do something in England when they were going to play there. But it was not Roxette, it was a cover band that played there. That’s a problem, but it will be solved.

Jan-Owe asks Per how these tribute bands operate, if they contacted Per. Mr. G says they didn’t. They just play. Jan-Owe would think they want feedback and Per says maybe they do, but Roxette doesn’t interfere. Per is flattered they exist, there are many tribute bands worldwide. Playing their songs, that’s great, but they can’t use their images or their name. Jan-Owe says it’s a sign you have made it when there are tribute bands.

With this, the guys wrap up. Lasse and Staffan thank Per and Jan-Owe for joining them on the podcast.

Selfie by Lasse Pop Svensson

Interview with Per Gessle in Hallandsposten about the Roxette In Concert tour

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Jan-Owe Wikström did an interview with Per Gessle for Hallandsposten almost ten years after Roxette’s last concert in Halmstad. Per brings the Roxette band for two gigs at Brottet.

Then it was with Marie Fredriksson, now he performs with Lena Philipsson.

Lena has grown into the role in a fantastic way. Marie can never be replaced, but Lena really does it in her own way so we are not a cover band. In addition, Jonas (Isacsson) is back, who is very much Roxette’s guitar sound.

15,000 people saw the concert on July 22, 2015 at Örjans Vall, which would be Marie’s last with Roxette at home when the following year she was forced to step down due to health reasons and then tragically died on December 9, 2019 from the consequences of her illness.

To keep Roxette’s song collection alive, including four US number-ones, Per went on tour in 2018 under the name Per Gessle’s Roxette. But it was in connection with the recording of the duet album Sällskapssjuk that he realized that Lena Philipsson was the right person to take the place next to him on stage.

Since then, Roxette has had two concerts in South Africa, nine in Australia and ten in Europe before the tour reaches Sweden; Gothenburg on July 23 and 25, and Halmstad on July 26 and 27.

Out in Europe, Lena is a completely unknown name, but the fans have received her in a fantastic way. But here at home, Lena is a big name in her own right, so it will be very exciting to see her meet her home audience.

I mean, there’s a big difference between her today and the first gig in Cape Town, and that’s how it should be. Because it’s on stage that you grow together as a band and learn how everyone behaves, what roles they take. You can never work that into rehearsals, and it’s the same with the social side – that it works there too.

Then we have deliberately included some songs that Marie never sang live. “What’s She Like?”, which is very strong in the musical, is one that Roxette never played live before. Likewise “Vulnerable” – mostly because I thought it was boring to sing, but the audience loves it, hahaha.

During the journey, he has also received confirmation of how strong Roxette is as a band with sold-out concerts in most places.

Yes, we are reaching a new audience, which is fantastic. In January 2024 we had 10.4 million unique listeners a month on Spotify, now we have 17.8 million, which is almost a doubling with 70 million listens every month.

To Jan-Owe’s question what he thinks the reason behind is, Per replies:

On the one hand, it’s a treasure trove of songs that shouldn’t really be possible to fail with. On the other hand, we represent a kind of music that is becoming increasingly rare, because pop music is no longer made in the same way, with a bridge before the chorus or a key rise. And that benefits people like me – especially with the song catalogue that we can build on.

I saw a documentary about Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys who recently passed away. It would have been impossible for him to have a hit today, when most things are artificial and programmed with many songwriters for each song. And it will get worse with AI.

When Roxette reaches Sweden, it will be standard concerts, while in Europe it has been about festivals where Roxette has in many cases been the headliner.

It’s different to play at festivals. Partly because it’s a shorter set, and partly because the audience is there for many different artists, unlike when it’s pure Roxette concerts where everyone has come for us. So if you play a lesser-known song, some people go and buy beer.

Initially, the second Halmstad gig was the end of the tour, but it is already clear that there will be a continuation in the autumn with gigs in Linköping and Stockholm in Sweden, among other places in Europe.

Yes, for each gig, five new offers appear, so the schedule will be filled afterwards. Because if you want, this is just the beginning of the continuation…

Pics by Åsa Gessle

Interview with Per Gessle by Hallandsposten before the Roxette tour start

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Jan-Owe Wikström did an interview with Per for Hallandsposten before the Roxette In Concert 2025 tour starts tomorrow. Per regarding the tour:

It’s the most exciting and the most uncertain thing I’ve done since Gyllene Tider’s comeback in 1996. You don’t know at all how it’s going to work, how it’s going to be received.

He explains it’s absolutely not a new band. It’s him, one half of Roxette, the Roxette band where Jonas Isacsson is back for the first time since 2001 and then Lena who is hired as a singer. The other option would have been to not make a comeback at all so this was the next best option, he points out.

Per tells Jan-Owe that it’s 26 degrees in Cape Town right now and he didn’t understand at first why he had an allergic shock, until he realized that it’s full pollen season over there. He took one pill and it was over in an hour, Per laughs.

We’ve actually sold as many tickets this time as when we were there with Marie. I never thought that! At the same time, the music industry has completely changed, where in four years we’ve increased the number of streams on Spotify by 40 percent. So I think it benefits us “craftsmen”, people want real music live.

It could even have been a joint tour with Bryan Adams in Australia, Jan-Owe says.

Yes, indeed. We play almost in parallel, so he wondered if we would go together. But unfortunately, we had already booked venues and started selling tickets. A bit of a shame, because it would have been great fun.

At the rehearsal a little over a week ago, there were 21 songs left. Per reveals:

There have been a lot of “kill your darlings”, but that’s because many songs have the same character. But there will still be two that we’ve never played live with Roxette before.

To the question how the rehearsals felt, he replies:

Very good! Lena is extremely professional. Now it’s about finding our roles. Marie and I had known each other for so long, so it was natural for her to step forward as long as she could. Then I got to the front on the last tour and solo and with Gyllene Tider, I’m the one who does it. We’ll see how it goes here. I mean, the rehearsals are one thing, but in front of just over 10,000 people: “How will Lena act in, for example, “Sleeping In My Car”?” So it’s going to be a challenge, really fun. It’s just a matter of not interrupting each other. Hahaha.

Jan-Owe asks who decides in such situations. Per explains that Lena of course had ideas regarding her singing, but otherwise, Per has the final say.

After the two Halmstad gigs at the end of July, Per has nothing else booked.

We’ll see. But I have several projects that are currently on hold.

To the question if there could even be new Roxette songs with Lena on vocals he replied:

Not at the moment. That has never been the intention, it has been that the song catalogue should live on. People want to hear Roxette’s old hits, not something new. But at the same time – when you work together for as long as we will now, you never know what it might lead to.

Jan-Owe is curious if there are any plans with Gyllene Tider.

Right now it feels a bit finished, but it has felt that way before too… If this tour develops into what I hope for with gigs on more continents, Roxette will be priority 1.

Interview with Åsa and Per Gessle about Hotel Tylösand in Hallandsposten

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Jan-Owe Wikström from Hallandsposten interviewed Åsa and Per Gessle about Hotel Tylösand. The hotel was originally built by court photographer Johan Hallberg as Restaurant Tylösand in 1915 for 13,000 SEK. Until 1929 it could only be accessed by boat. Today it is one of Halmstad’s strongest brands and tourist magnets, but also – the hotel in the hearts of Per and Åsa Gessle.

The hotel has come a long way until it has transformed into an exclusive spa hotel.

Per notes that there is nothing worse than a hotel where you are greeted by an empty entrance or a deserted reception. He explains:

We want a wow feeling when you enter Hotel Tylösand. You can directly see the car hall, fantastic works of art and sculptures. And we’re going to build a bar in the reception where you can hang out a bit. Sometimes there will be a pianist, so that you automatically end up in a lively environment when you check in.
Because it’s just like with everything else, album sleeves, intros to songs – the first impression is the most important.

Åsa agrees:

The reception is important, the first contact. No matter how shabby hotels are, the reception almost always looks reasonably nice. We also have a nice reception, but it has been there for many years, so it’s time to rebuild, so that it blends in with the new “Front House”.

Åsa – spider in the web

The Front House is a new part of the hotel, with large brown-glazed terraces, the Ronnie Peterson conference room and the car hall with Per’s exclusive Ferrari collection. The rooms in Strandhuset and in Stora huset, the reconstruction of Solgården, Bettan’s Bar, Leif’s Bar & Grill and the new The Spa, but also details such as the small unique room signs, the wrought iron fence around the hotel, the color of the staff’s different clothes, the porcelain in the restaurants and of course – the green apples. Everything bears, in one way or another, Åsa Gessle’s signature. She says humbly:

I don’t think many people know what I do apart from the lamps I have designed. After all, I’m here on an almost daily basis and see things that are good and things that can and need to be improved.
I guess I’m a bit of a spider in the web, as far as aesthetics are concerned. Then when it comes to the actual design of, for example, a room, the architectural firm is responsible for the shell and I for the details, the choice of materials and the colors.

But despite all that, Åsa has no official title at the hotel.

No, not as far as I know. I’ll probably have to ask Jonas.

She laughs, referring to the new CEO Jonas Karlén, who a while ago replaced the long-standing CEO Elisabeth Haglund, who has now in turn replaced Björn Nordstrand as chairman of the board.

To have a significant role alongside Per is extra important for Åsa.

When you live next to a famous person, like Per, you easily become just his wife. But for me it goes without saying to have my own identity. It’s fundamental in my life. I started working more when our son Gabriel was ten years old and I felt that I could be away more than before. And Gabbe – who is just as motivated as his father – once said: “Mum, I don’t want to be known for being my father’s son, but I want to be known for having done something myself”. That’s exactly how I feel too.

At the same time, Per has become more actively involved in the hotel in recent years.

Yes, Åsa has always been involved, but in the last ten years I have taken up more and more space, had more and more ideas and opinions. We have had a strong and common line that our hotel should not only be a place where you sleep and eat, but also a place where you can be creative, socialize and have new experiences.
What makes Hotel Tylösand so special is the diversity. We have a huge art and photo gallery. We have a Spa with skin and hair care, various treatments, laser technology and a Spa shop. We have 230 rooms and suites, we have four restaurants, 32 conference rooms with room for up to 750 people at the same time. Then there is Solgården, the amphitheater, all the DJs and the Roxette and Gyllene Tider museum. Plus Northern Europe’s coolest car hall is now located in the hotel.

Jan-Owe asks if it’s only Northern Europe’s coolest car hall.

Okay then. The only one in the world I know. I think a hotel in Las Vegas had a Ferrari store once upon a time, but that hotel is torn down now.

Took over the run-down Reso hotel in 1995

But it wasn’t like that in 1995 when pop star Per Gessle and businessman Björn Nordstrand took over Hotel Tylösand. It was a run-down Reso hotel with simple rooms, a restaurant and Tylöhus that reeked of the old ’80s.

Åsa says:

We had travelled around the world and stayed in many nice hotels and seen many fun interior details. But when we took over the hotel… the old house was rotten. The rooms were spartan with small, small bathrooms with a small mirror and a shelf underneath with toilet paper rolls on them.
So the first thing I did was fix and place the toilet rolls where they belong, a little further down. And to introduce green apples in the hotel. Philipe Starck and his hotel had apples and in their receptions it was written “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. I liked that. At first, people didn’t think I was smart. But I got through it. It’s only for Christmas that I give in, but then the apples have to be dark red, haha.

Hotel Tylösand 2023 and Hotel Tylösand 1995 have not much more in common than the name.

Åsa remembers:

No, we have added a lot during these 27 years. But we have also removed a lot. All the artificial plants that collected so much dust. And the entrance in lime green and pink, with tiles that looked more like a bathhouse entrance.
At Tylöhus there were mirrors on the ceiling. And the restaurant had pink carpet with seagulls in burgundy and burgundy velvet curtains. It was horrible.
But now we have a line, a common thread in all activities at the hotel and I think it creates a sense of calmness for the guest when there is completeness.

Craftsmanship in the blood

Jan-Owe doesn’t think that Åsa is a trained designer and has attended a lot of great courses.

No, no, I’m just like my husband is in music, self-taught. And we both take help when we need it. It is important to find the right people to collaborate with, preferably personalities who inspire and think a little differently. It is of course also important that the employees understand your vision, so that we pull in the same direction.
And there, Abelardo (Gonzalez), the architect who designed our house, has been a great inspiration and teacher. I rejected eleven kitchen suggestions from him when we built the villa before we agreed. He likes cold materials while I like warm, but eventually, there was a tension where he taught me to keep my eyes open and that nothing is impossible.

Although with a mother who was a seamstress, a great-grandfather who was a slipper maker and a grandfather who was a blacksmith, Åsa already had craftsmanship, creativity and a sense of color and form in her blood.

Well, I was always tinkering around my bed at home, making sure it was nice. After all, we were four children and we grew up with a single mother in very simple conditions, so if you wanted something, you had to be creative and fix it yourself, learn to do well with small tools.

Åsa, who eventually got to display a few stores in Trelleborg, has also brought that thinking to the hotel.

Creating environments doesn’t really have to cost a lot of money. I’m not a geek for branded furniture, but the important thing is that it should feel right. Then if I go to Myrorna and shop, it has no significance. It’s all about the feeling.

Åsa glances at one of the large Monstera plants and smiles:

SEK 299 at Blomsterlandet. So I took the shuttle service there.
In this environment, you also can’t have too expensive things, because they get broken, they are used a lot. There is a huge amount of wear and tear everywhere in a hotel. This is why function is important. And we buy large quantities.
I also don’t like to throw things away, so we reuse what we can.

Sketches by hand

There are also lots of Ferrari details on the shelf inside the Ronnie Peterson Lounge.

Åsa says:

Apart from three books, everything is taken from our private collection. And we had the coasters for the conference table in the hotel’s hiding places. They were unused for some reason, but now they fulfill a function. Super stylish as well.

In the new part of the hotel, The Front House, there are several large sun terraces inspired by the Whitby Hotel in New York, the car hall and the Ronnie Peterson Lounge conference room are Åsa’s latest creations.

I wanted the Ronnie Lounge to be “masculine” and “with a motor feel”, but still with a lot of warmth. Stone is quite cold and cars are tough, so it automatically becomes masculine. And the big screen was really important. When you come from outside and look in, I think it’s beautiful and important that you see movement. Cars and life are always in motion.

The giant conference table inside the Ronnie Peterson Lounge is one of the things that Åsa has designed by hand.

Unlike the rest of the family, I don’t like computers but still sketch with pen and paper. I love to draw and then have it built. A bit like Per. He sits and tinkles on something and then, out of it, comes an idea that eventually becomes a finished text or song. For me, it’s the same when I sketch. I have everything in my head. I can see it in front of me, but cannot present it technically, like a construction drawing. Then it’s important to surround yourself with sensitive people who understand me, such as Östra’s Carpentry here in Halmstad when it comes to fine carpentry.

Inside and outside must meet

The large glass partitions also allow visitors outside to see in and those inside to see out.

It is important that the inside and the outside are connected and become a unit. The greenery outside plays a big role, how everything looks outside the hotel. Here we have boxwood, grass and ivy – not so much flowers, but more evergreen.
When I made a display apartment for HFAB (Halmstad’s real estate company) in 2007, that was also one of the basic ideas. And the person who eventually bought the apartment ended up keeping everything as it was presented. Including all furnishings. Then I felt that I had succeeded.

The end wall inside the Ronnie Peterson room is adorned with huge black and white photos from Peterson’s Formula 1 era. And the walls in the hall are made of granite.

I want a basic tone based on earth and nature and instead add the colors in the details. I basically have a rather sacral taste and am convinced that calm colors make people calm. And stone is very soothing. I designed the statues and the bench from scratch where visitors can sit and relax and look at the cars through the windows. It’s fantastic. A bit like in a museum.

The car hall top secret

Åsa reveals the fact that it would become a car hall was well hidden for a long time:

Yes, it was top secret. We designed it as a conference room, because even the builders wouldn’t know about it from the beginning. We didn’t want it to leak out.
Then it became a long process. I started building a fitting room in November 2019, which was ready in January 2020. But when we were about to put the shovel in the ground, the pandemic came and shut down Sweden in March 2020.

The inauguration of the new hotel part happened this spring, where there are now also guided tours of the car hall held by Dick Jönsson Wigroth, well-known in the motor business.

Per says:

I have known him for many years. When his name came up I thought I hope, hope, hope he wants to do that. Dick is both an aesthete and a technician and is cut and ready for the job.
And I have spoken to a lot of staff in connection with us building the new Front House. Both Åsa and I want it to feel special to work at the hotel and when many people said that they were proud to be part of this fantastic new building, then of course I’m proud that they are proud!

Today, Hotel Tylösand has 120 employees, which during the summer will multiply to over 400.

Per points out:

We are basically full over summer until August. December is also a party month when we serve over 9,000 Christmas dinners. But it’s not like that in January, February or in October or November. It is during those months that we have to be extra creative and invent things so that, above all, companies will come here. We want to keep our staff even when it’s not peak season.

Pay attention to the details

Even though Per, with the support of co-owner Björn Nordstrand, together with the CEO and the board is responsible for the big brushstrokes, he also, just like Åsa, pays attention to the details.

Yes, every time I’m at Hotel Tylösand I do some check-ups, I won’t say where. But I can, for example, go into a toilet and check that the toilet lid is attached, that there are towels and that it is generally fresh. If there is something crazy, I report it immediately and then it will be fixed right away.
Because it’s important that it’s clean and tidy everywhere. It’s invaluable that the staff learn how we think and that everyone helps to ensure that the guest has a maximum experience. If you pass a pillow that has been sucked down, you lift it up and puff at it. Not everyone sees that because not everyone cares. But exactly that is the key to people saying “I’ve never been to a hotel like that in Sweden!”. We hear that often.
Therefore, it’s also important to get involved for the entire Tylösand area, that it is neat on the beach, safe and inviting, that there are good rescue routes if something were to happen. Everything has to work, because the more we invest, the more people come here.

New projects underway

More to come. In December, the pool project will start when that part will be renovated.

Åsa says:

Then I would like to build a sun roof on top of the spa with a staircase up the side. But also extend the roof over Bettans so you can sit and enjoy and have a drink or coffee. In that case it would be called Bettan’s roof.
So I constantly have new projects and wishes. Then you can see if you get through with them. The board is tough, haha…

To own a hotel of 23,000 square meters is an ongoing process. Or as Per himself puts it:

It’s a bit like washing windows on a skyscraper. You will never be finished. Because when one thing is done, it’s always time for the next.

Photo of Åsa and Per by Linus Kamstedt Lindholm.

Per Gessle’s parallel universe in Hallandsposten

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As it always happens before a tour starts, Jan-Owe Wikström from Hallandsposten did an interview with Per Gessle this time again.

There was a sneak premiere of the Gyllene Tider tour at Leif’s Lounge in Hotel Tylösand last Thursday, release of the new record “Hux Flux” the following day and tour premiere of Gyllene Tider at Brottet in Halmstad on Friday. It is the present.

New solo record already completed for release next year, premiere of the Gyllene Tider movie in 2024 and then also premiere of the musical in Malmö, based on Jane Fallon’s novel “Got You Back” with Roxette’s songs as a basis. It is the future.

Come along into Per Gessle’s parallel universes.

This is how the industry works today. Everything must be planned a year in advance. Least. It’s studios, venues, hotels, staff and everything around that needs to be booked, so it’s important to always be one step ahead.

Per and Jan-Owe are sitting in Per’s house in Sandhamn which, surreally enough, turns 30 this year.

The summer of 2023 lies ahead of Gessle and Gyllene Tider. A new tour awaits. Even though everything was really over that evening on the pontoon outside the Opera House in Oslo on 18th August 2019. Until a red, rectangular Bo Diddley model Gretsch guitar in the fall of 2021 changed everything again. And Hux Flux was Gyllene Tider back.

For some reason, I usually come up with something new when I’ve got a new guitar and these songs screamed for “Gyllene”.

But if he hadn’t suffered from tonsillitis and new covid regulations hadn’t been introduced, there might still not have been a comeback.

That’s how it was. In November, at the end of my 2021 acoustic concert tour, I got tonsillitis and had to cancel the last concerts in December. And when they were to be implemented in January instead, new pandemic restrictions came and everything was moved until April.

That gave me a lot of time to spare, so between December 2021 and April 2022, this album was created. I recorded demos together with MP, where we worked in a completely new way. Since we had so much time this time, compared to the recording of the last record “Samma skrot och korn” in France, we devoted a lot of time to the guitars. We went back, tested, redid and tested again.

Then, when everything was basically ready, we sent the material out to the band. Some songs were just finished in form, but not arranged, then everyone got to make their mark and that’s where Anders came into the picture, who modernized the sound on some.

The rest was recorded at Staffan Karlsson’s Sweetspot Studio outside Harplinge. And the result: an energetic pop album full of string guitars and of course – Farfisa organ.

I was doing the acoustic tour at the time and in parallel also finished PG Roxette, which was an ’80s-90s synth-based pop record. So this became an outlet to play that kind of totally dying guitar pop that I’ve always loved. Old fashioned, a bit punk and edgy where the song “Gammal kärlek rostar aldrig” almost sounds like Plastic Bertrand and Sigue Sigue Sputnik.

It’s difficult to balance between silly and fun, but I try to get on the right side of the line because Gyllene should be a little more fun, a little more kick-ass, which isn’t always easy when you’re 64.

I noticed in retrospect that on the previous Gyllene album from 2019 I had too many songs that were better suited for me as a solo artist. A little more sophisticated and more serious. Gyllene sounds best when it becomes a little more classic power pop, a little more 3-chord fireworks!

And actually, this time I haven’t written a single song that didn’t make it.

Just like the previous record, “Hux Flux” is also available as a vinyl LP in several colors. But the song order on the vinyl version differs from the CD and streaming.

Yes, on an LP there are two opening tracks and therefore you always want a strong, exciting ending on side A to get curious about side B. Otherwise, with the CD and not least streaming, it has easily become that you featured too much music. The LP format is perfect.

The fact that Per still buys vinyl records is due to one reason in particular:

It’s for the album covers. Then I usually play the records on Spotify anyway because it’s easier.

At the same time, he misses the romance of the physical records.

I come from a generation that has a romantic view of the record itself and therefore it is so difficult to accept that it hardly means anything anymore. Without the album covers, the music becomes much more obscure and is consumed in a different way. Most young people probably listen to even more music than my generation did, but they don’t always know WHO they are listening to. Or what the songs are called. Or who wrote and produced. Everything has become one big anonymous stream of music since streaming took off.

In the past you went on tour to promote the records because it was on the records that you made money. Now it’s the other way around. Major tours are very lucrative. Few people care when old artists release new material because it’s the old hits that the masses want to hear. I can only look to myself and have no idea, for example, about the last decade’s Elton John, Bob Dylan or Paul McCartney records.

Jan-Owe is curious how Per has managed to “survive” despite the fact that the music industry has completely changed, both in terms of listening, consuming and the way of writing.

I don’t know. I’ve tried both to try to develop myself and my creation in the digital world while at the same time “going backwards” sometimes and staying with the acoustic and organic in my music. I’m interested in both ways because they bring out different sides of me and my creativity. I absolutely believe that as long as you have fun and work consistently, a certain amount of success will come naturally. But of course, if you want to reach the top of the charts around the world, all the stars must be aligned. It is completely out of my control.

Jan-Owe asks Per how he knows if a new song fits his solo project, PG Roxette or Gyllene Tider.

I actually try to write as little as possible. But I always have the antennas out. Sometimes an idea pops up when I’m strumming the guitar in front of the TV and I save the idea on my iPhone. When I’m working on a project, I go through everything I’ve collected and use some for what I’m working on at the moment. This is a pretty typical scenario how I write songs. I do puzzles.

I almost never sit down and write lyrics or complete songs if I don’t have a project going on. That way, I almost always know from the start what I’m looking for.

For the audience, Hux Flux, the album is brand new. But for Per, MP, Anders, Göran and Micke Syd, it is already fifteen months old when Per reveals which minute is the most important at a concert:

It is the last 30 seconds before the concert starts and the first 30 after it has started. Then the expectations are maximized and that is why the first impression is so extremely important.

There are more songs that can be played live this time compared to the last record. But at the same time, over the years, we have built up a treasure trove of songs that means we can’t skip “Leva livet”, “Tylö Sun” or “Sommartider”. People expect them as they have such strong nostalgia value and many have lots of memories and connections to those songs.

Then the old songs are on so many playlists. It’s the same with Roxette, we’re constantly increasing on Spotify. If we release a new single, it gets 30-40,000 streams in the first few days, while “It Must Have Been Love” gets 400,000 streams on any given day. Then you think: Why can’t people listen to the new song instead? But it doesn’t work that way.

That Gessle, when “Hux Flux” was finished a year ago, would take it easy and wait for it was not on the map either. Instead, he has spent the winter and spring completing his new solo record, which he just finished with a planned release sometime in 2024.

I wanted to finish this record before I enter the Gyllene bubble that lasts until September.

Per gives a hint of how it sounds:

It has a bit of a summery Mazarin feel. I play many instruments myself but have the help of many new acquaintances. It’s a super exciting project.

The start of filming for the new Gyllene Tider film is in the pipeline with the band bringing the cast to the stage at the sneak premiere at Leif’s Lounge last week.

It starts filming in August with a premiere next year and if the film is as good as the script, it will be awesome. The film is not a documentary depicting Gyllene’s enormously long career, but is about the early years, from when I meet MP and we form Gyllene Tider until 1982 when “Sommartider” is released. A lot of anecdotes and craziness run past, it really was a special time that I hope can be portrayed in an equally special way.

In autumn 2024, there will also be a premiere at Malmö Opera for the musical with Roxette’s song catalogue based on the novel “Got You Back” by the English author Jane Fallon and reworked for a musical script by Klas Abrahamsson.

I have met her a few times and she is fantastic. To my great surprise, I have discovered that my music works perfectly in a musical context. I’ve never been particularly interested in musicals because the style itself can be very pompous and slightly annoying. It’s never been my thing. But songs like “Spending My Time”, “Crash! Boom! Bang!”, “It Must Have Been Love” and not least “Listen To Your Heart” work superbly with a large orchestra and grandiose arrangements. They are big melodies with strong and intense emotions.

So I’m grateful that it happened. Back in 2015, we got the first offer, but it always turned out that the script wasn’t good enough. Up until now. Because this is a wonderful way to nurture Roxette’s music and the ambition is also for it to go abroad.

However, whether there will be a solo tour in the summer of 2024 before then remains to be seen. Per cryptically smiles and says he can’t say anything about it. But in Per Gessle’s parallel universe and future calendar, it may already be inscribed, Jan-Owe says.