Interview

Emil Jonsvik: “I wanted to bring out Marie’s enormous energy”

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We had the chance to interview Emil Jonsvik, the director of Marie’s latest video “Sista sommarens vals”, taken from her latest album “Nu!”. Emil told us about his career and the shooting of the video with Marie.

Judith: To start with, could you tell us about you? When and how did you get into filming and directing films?

Emil_Jonsvik_01_Emil: I was born in Gothenburg, Hisingen 1978. I started producing my first films at the age of 12. This was for Swedish television (ZTV) and the film was “Gold”, which was a skateboard movie. When I look back on it I see that I already then wanted to create drama in film. I used scenes with actors walking through smoke in slow motion with strong cinematic music. After that I produced the Award winning break dance documentary “Shindig” and two other dance movies, “The Book” and “No One Knows Our Thoughts”. They were about winning over your inner fears. In 1998 I went to a film school, “Film I Väst” (Trollywood), and started working with blockbusters as “Santa is the father of all the children” and “A Witch in the Family” as a lighting designer and set lights along with being the cinematographer on location. I met the director Daniel Fridell which started a long cooperation, among others I became a cinematographer on his award winning TV series “A Class Apart” as well as the movies “Sökarna 2” and “Blood Brothers”. After that I directed the very popular television program (with over 1.5 million downloads on YouTube) “Late Night with Pierre” with little Al-Fadji for Swedish television (SVT). After that came my debut as a feature film director with “7X / Seven Bullets”. This movie was about seven kids that find a gun with seven bullets. This is a multiple award winning film including awards for “Best film” and “Best director”. Now I’m in the final cut with my new feature film “Krigarnas ö” (The Name of the Game) with the great actor Kim Bodnia known from TV series “The Bridge / Bron”. An exciting drama / thriller.

J: What do you like about being a director?

E: I love the creating process. To take a idea, put it down on paper and then manage to make these scenes come alive, that’s where my drive comes from. I get inspired by many different kinds of films in different ways. I love movies like “City of God” and “La haine” but I can also find inspiration in films like “The Last Samurai” and “The Driver”.

Emil_Jonsvik_02_J: You started mentioning inspiration, but what do you want to tell with your videos? what do you think is your “trademark” and what makes you different from other directors ?

E: I get inspiration from people’s energy, music and films. In meetings with actors and artists, I often feel what they want to create together, it is important that I together with the team create the best energy on location for the shoot. Because of my broad experience with film production it’s easier for me to decide what to focus my energy on which makes my work very efficient.

This ultimately results in me laying my energy on the right stuff. I want to get the artist and the actors to have trust and feel secure with me in order to create magic together. That’s what makes every difference, and that’s my “trademark”.

 

 

Emil_Jonsvik_03_J: Now about the video you did for Marie:  how come you ended up doing the video? Did Marie or her management ask you?

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Tack för musiken, Marie Fredriksson

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SVT broadcasted the show ”Tack för musiken”, for which the recordings with Marie Fredriksson were on 27th August. Click HERE to watch it!

It begins with Niklas Strömstedt and the band performing ”Tro” live. Niklas welcomes Ms Effe only after this. They are sitting and talking about Marie’s career (solo, earlier bands, Roxette, Per Gessle), illness (she’s healthy now and grateful to be there) and her family. Marie’s husband, Micke Bolyos was sitting in the band, playing the keyboards during the show.

You can see how much Marie enjoyed being there and how fine she is. She was very relaxed, smiling and laughing all the time. Tears appeared in her eyes when Niklas was talking about her album ”Den ständiga resan” that there are 13 songs about darkness, but the last song, ”Till sist” is different. He read up the first lines of the song and asked who these lines are about. Marie pointed at Micke and told it’s about him. They looked at each other with so much love during the whole show.

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Marie started singing when she was a little child. She started the day with singing at 7 am, when everyone else would have loved to sleep. Later, at the age of 17 she wanted to be an actress. It was her dream. She was talking about how she loves writing songs, but after her illness it’s not that easy anymore. She talked about Lasse Lindbom, how much he means to her. They had a fantastic time and were writing a lot of songs together.

In the audience there were many familiar faces and at one point Niklas started talking about Argentina and the fans. Marie realized there were fans in the audience from Argentina, too and said that a lot of Roxette fans are here and they are fantastic. The fans are always by their side, following them and they are even here at this show. Marie told the fans know all the lyrics regardless of where they are coming from or which language the songs are in.

Niklas was joking about Marie’s name, Gun-Marie and pronounced it the English way: Gun-Marie from Roxette. Everyone was laughing.

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Long interview with Per Gessle in Livets Goda

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As Per already informed us some time ago, Livets Goda did a very long and veeery nice interview with Mr G. The December issue contains 16 pages of Per Gessle: awesome interview, 20 important songs, some wine tasting and hot photos of Per. Interview by Anders Enquist, photos by Erik Dahlström.

The magazine is available in Sweden at the newsstands from 10th December, but you can also have your own copy even if you don’t live in Sweden. Here you can buy the pdf version online for 50 SEK. (You can pay even via PayPal.) It is really worth it!

The interview is mainly about Per’s career in the music business, stories about how Gyllene Tider and Roxette started out, his solo projects, the 80’s when he met Åsa (he says it was the best thing that happened back then), The Look, the US, It Must Have Been Love, the Billboard, EMI, later years, Roxette comeback, GT comeback, how he became interested in wines, so briefly, kind of the whole story of his life so far. There are not too many real news in the interview, but it’s always nice to read Per Gessle’s thoughts and what he is saying about different songs, for example.

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THERE IS SOMETHING NEW: Per would like to record an acoustic album with some of his old songs.

Great news! 😉

You surely remember Mr Gessle was talking about the Top20 songs he was setting up for this article in Livets Goda. These are not his all time fave songs, but the ones meaning a lot to him. Here is the list:

1. Nina Simone: Wild Is The Wind
2. Heart: Love Alive
3. Air: Le Femme D’argent
4. Caitlin Rose: For The Rabbits
5. Big Star: September Gurls
6. The Young Rascals: How Can I Be Sure
7. Fleetwood Mac: That’s Alright
8. John Holm: Den Öde Stranden
9. The Beatles: Hey Jude
10. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Refugee
11. David Bowie: Lady Grinning Soul
12. Lorde: Royals
13. The Tornados: Telstar
14. Docent Död: Solglasögon
15. Divinyls: Pleasure And Pain
16. Joni Mitchell: Rainy Night House
17. Kenny Rogers: Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town
18. Frank Sinatra: It Was A Very Good Year
19. Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra: Summer Wine
20. The Buzzcocks: Ever Fallen In Love

 

Some probably think that I’m a super-capitalist who is just sitting there and earns a lot of money on nothing, while others think I’m a talented pop craftsman who knows far too much about pop music, a nerd … I don’t know …

There are many things I’m not talented in, but I’m good at melodies and writing songs. That’s what I can do, so I need people who are doing all the other stuff I can’t.

 

He also mentions in the interview that he always thought Marie is the world’s best singer since they met for the first time.

Per’s 5 favourite Roxette songs which are lesser-known (with his comments):
1. I’m Sorry – Great chorus, a hit in Brazil.
2. My World, My Love My Life – A damn good song.
3. It Takes You No Time To Get Here – Some country text and feeling.
4. Opportunity Nox – Our best pop wallop.
5. Sleeping Single – Marie sings amazing. She makes the album.

 

I have no idea why Roxette is still so big. Maybe it’s because of the songs, maybe there is a certain timelessness in many of the songs’ melodies. But why exactly us? Maybe it’s my Swedish poor self-confidence that makes me unable to respond to it …

Regarding the next Roxette tour he says that first Marie goes on tour, but sooner or later there will probably be a major Roxette tour. Bring it on!

 

Busy St. Lucy’s day for the fans

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You already saved the date in your calendar, as we already informed you that the 1-hour-long part of ”Tack för musiken” in which Marie Fredriksson is the guest will be broadcasted on SVT1 at 21:00 CET, 13th December. The show was recorded at the end of August and many fans could buy tickets and be there in the audience. It is going to be a fantastic show with Marie performing some of her songs live and a long interview with her done by Niklas Strömstedt.

Before you can enjoy watching Ms Effe on TV, you’ll have a chance to see another program on another channel, TV4. ”Gyllene Tider sommaren 2013” starts at 20:00 CET the very same evening. This will be an appetizer from the upcoming DVD. It will contain parts of the ”Dags att tänka på refrängen” tour, as well as some exclusive shots from the backstage. One bad thing about Swedish TV channels – understandably – competing with each other is that the GT stuff ends at 21:30. Fingers crossed that both programs will be available online after they are over on TV.

Oh, one more thing! Hopefully, history won’t repeat itself and we won’t have to wait another year for the GT DVD after this TV cut is broadcasted. 😉

MF_GT_13th_Dec_on_TV

 

Marie Fredriksson & Mikael Bolyos interview on TV4

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This morning at 10:15 am CET there was a short interview with Marie and Micke in Nyhetsmorgon on TV4. The interview took place at Marie’s & Micke’s home in Stockholm. Marie was talking about how grateful she is for everything and they both said they learned how to live in the present. Marie said she learned to live with the fact that it takes her more time to write and also that she can’t remember the lyrics sometimes.

It means a lot to both of them that they could make this new album, ”Nu!”, however, it took a long time to release it. When she wrote ”Sista sommarens vals” of course she was thinking about Micke and when Micke wrote ”Vad vore jag utan dig” he thought about Marie. Marie says this latter song is so beautiful. That’s her favourite off the album and it feels fantastic to sing Micke’s words. Watch the video how Marie is “touching” Micke when they are talking about these 2 songs. So lovely! 😉 Both Marie and Micke were in a very good mood and relaxed, Marie was smiling all the time during the interview.

They were also talking about the kids, how fantastic it is to have them and that they are also interested in music and they are talking about music each day. They also told the story of their meeting in Sydney and how they became a couple right after that.

While touring with Roxette she felt better and better, she got strength and she gained her self-confidence back. Marie – besides her family – is grateful also to Per who was writing new material for Roxette and believed so much in Marie.

Marie is longing for the tour. It will be fantastic to tour in Sweden with a great band she’ll have with her. Besides new songs, there will of course be old ones, too on the setlist.

Watch the video HERE! Don’t forget to check the wonderful old pic of Marie in front of Micke!

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