Per Gessle and Lena Philipsson were guests on Efter fem, TV4 last Sunday. HERE you can watch Anna Brolin’s interview with them.
The program starts with people from the streets singing Roxette songs. Anna says there is no doubt that fans are excited about the upcoming Roxette tour that starts in Cape Town in February. She asks Per and Lena how it feels. Lena says it feels good now. They have started the rehearsals and she is focusing on planning now. She has already started looking at lyrics to try to get into it already now. Per says it’s a test for Lena to learn all the lyrics. PG thinks it’s easier for him, because it’s complicated to learn all the chords, but he has a relation to the lyrics, because he has written all of them. He says they have started acoustic rehearsals and it’s really exciting. Anna asks them if the rehearsals go well. Per says they haven’t argued too much. Lena confirms. Haha. She says it’s going well and they look to the future. There are many songs to sink your teeth into, but it’s fun. She is really looking forward to doing this.
Anna asks Per how it feels to bring the Roxette catalogue around the world again. Mr. G says it feels fantastic. It was quite a difficult decision. He has been wondering what he would be going to do with it or if he would leave everything alone. It has taken him many years to decide. The main point is that there is a whole world out there that still loves this music. He has written basically all the songs that Roxette has recorded, so they are very much his babies in a way. But the token only fell into place when he worked with Lena a year ago in connection with that thing [he points at the new album that is on the table in front of Anna], the Sällskapssjuk album… In the studio he realized how good Lena is. She could sing these songs.
Anna says she is very curious about that call that was made after, but before they get down to that, here comes a little background info about both Per and Lena’s career.
Johan Macéus talks about Gyllene Tider, their first three albums, then the first connection between Lena and Per in 1986 when Per wrote the song Kärleken är evig, Lena’s success at Melodifestivalen. The same year, Per recorded the song Neverending Love with Marie Fredriksson. They called themselves Roxette and Roxette soon became a success in Sweden. In 1989 they also broke through in the USA with The Look. It Must Have Been Love was in the movie Pretty Woman and became a worldwide hit in 1990. Over the years, Roxette topped the charts again and again, they toured all over the world and have sold around 75 million albums. Lena won Melodifestivalen in 2004. Now the two stars unite. Last spring, they released the song Sällskapssjuk together as part of Per Gessle’s newly released duet album.
Per explains that the album is full of duets and one of them is with Lena. When PG worked with Lena in the studio, he felt that she was really good. Lena has all the qualities needed to be able to sing Roxette songs. It’s not the easiest thing, Per says. Anna asks him what qualities Lena has. Lena is laughing here, but Per says she has a personality and energy and she sings cleanly and nicely. She has everything a good singer should have.
Anna asks Lena if she agrees. Lena asks Anna if she really should answer that question. Haha. She says Roxette songs are quite extensive and demanding. They demand a woman.
Anna wants to know what made Per think that they should do something more together. PG says it was something he talked about before. It’s a decision that has taken a very long time to make and he needed these little things like feedback from the big Roxette audience around the world. Many have wanted this to happen. He notices from streaming numbers that Roxette is just keep getting bigger and bigger. Roxette is more than 30 years of his life. So when Lena came into the studio and he heard her singing, he thought, shit, that’s not a bad idea. He was thinking how he should ask her. He didn’t ask directly. A few weeks passed before they met again.
Anna turns to Lena and asks her how it happened. Lena says she was down there in Halmstad and sang this duet Sällskapssjuk. Actually, Per asked her if she would go to Halmstad or if she would rather record in Stockholm. Then Lena thought she would go down to Halmstad, because then she would be in Per’s environment and then they could bond a little and maybe have some dinner. It might lead to something more. Then afterwards, it didn’t take that long. Per says it was three weeks, Lena says it was a few days until Per contacted her and said they should meet, because he wanted to ask Lena a question. Lena doesn’t know what she expected. Maybe some tour together or some more songs together. She was very surprised when it was this particular question. She wasn’t prepared for that at all. Anna is curious what the question was exactly. Lena says it was a straight up question. Per asked her if she would like to join Roxette on tour. She was surprised and started thinking that it can be difficult, because then she has to sing Marie’s songs. She was wondering how it would be received. It’s not an easy task for another artist to step in and do it. Per was very excited and thought this would be fun. He told Lena that she should do her own thing. Then Lena was thinking for a little while and then she said yes. Per says it was a good decision.
Anna says they were digging a bit in the archives and found out that there is one thing that is common in Per and Lena’s creation of music. Both Per and Lena have created Sweden’s most famous na-na-na-na-na-nas. Here they show the two songs where they sing na-na-na-na-na-na. Per says he thought Anna was going to say that they had Sweden’s two strangest dialects. Haha. Lena says, that too. Haha.
Anna asks her guests what their relationship is to each other’s music. Per and Lena look at each other and they say na-na-na is apparently the secret link between them. Haha. Lena says they come from the same era and they have been in the music industry for a very long time. Per says the music industry is different today versus when they started. He adds that there is no 40-year age gap between them, they are both veterans. There are a lot of meeting points. Per doesn’t say it was better before, but it was different.
Anna turns to Lena and asks her about her relationship to Roxette songs in particular. These are very big songs, as she also mentioned before and they demand a woman. Anna is curious if there are any songs that Lena feels like it’s an honour to sing. Lena probably feels that with all the songs actually. She thinks the whole mission is like that, that she feels that it is important to shape up and do it really well. She absolutely feels that. It doesn’t apply to a specific song, it applies to everything. If she has to mention songs, then it’s the biggest hits, of course. That they make them so that it feels good and everyone is happy. It Must Have Been Love, Spending My Time, Dressed For Success.
Anna asks Per what the feedback from the fans was after the announcement was made and the dates were out. PG experiences a huge interest. One can see that in the ticket sales. People don’t really know what they are buying. Lena adds that it’s more like a pig in a poke. Haha. Per thinks it’s cool, because Lena is a magically talented singer and she is also magically good on stage. So if you don’t know who Lena is and you go to Melbourne or to Perth and see Roxette next year, you’ll be shocked at how good it is. Per is completely convinced of that.
Lena says she always finds it difficult when expectations are set this high. She doesn’t really like it, but she will do her best. She can’t do anything other than do her best. People around the world don’t know who she is. So she leans towards the fact that she is also Swedish and that it was Per who has chosen her, so it’s his fault. You can always blame it on him. Haha.
Anna says the tour starts in Cape Town, then they go to Pretoria, then around Australia, Munich and there are a few dates in Sweden, but only in Halmstad and Gothenburg. She asks what happened to Vetlanda. Lena is wondering too. Haha. Per says there will be more gigs in Europe next summer, but not all the dates are out yet. He can’t promise that Vetlanda will be there, but they can discuss it.
Anna says Per was on many world tours, he knows touring life very well. She asks what tips he has for Lena regarding a world tour. Per says it’s not much different than touring in Sweden. It’s a prerequisite that you like to be on tour. He thinks that both Lena and he does. It’s great to meet people. You get an enormously positive energy from being on tour. But you also have to take care of yourself. Sleep properly. There is a lot of waiting. Waiting at airports and waiting for everything. Per turns to Lena and says she has to go to bed on time. Haha. Lena agrees that there is no difference. It’s the same routine anyway. You check in at a hotel, rest before the concert, you go to the venue, sit in the dressing room and get ready. Then you have to perform and do a good job. It’s the same, just further away. Per says everything is about the concert. That’s the priority.
Anna says Lena and Per have known each other for a very long time. PG corrects her and says they don’t know each other very well. They have had parallel careers, they have run into each other at the Grammys, stuff like that, but they haven’t hung out. Lena says maybe they do that now on tour.
Anna says Per talked pretty nicely about Lena musically. Now she is curious what Lena thinks is the brilliance of Per. Lena says she doesn’t know how many songs Per has managed to write. It’s incredible! It’s crazy! He has exactly the same energy all the time. He is just as curious, just as interested in working as always, in a tireless, fantastic way. One is just full of admiration for this. Per says Lena is so kind and thanks for her words. He adds that it means he is very old. Lena says it means he is very talented.
Anna asks Per what the allure of going on tour with this incredible song catalogue is. Mr. G says that the journey Marie and he got to take part in is absolutely fantastic. If you look back at those eight years between 1988 and 1995, their heydays, it’s an unimaginable journey. There is almost no one who has experienced it from Sweden. So it’s clear that Per is longing to go back to that time. Now that he has the opportunity to hopefully be able to do it again, it just feels super exciting.
Anna wants to know what he is longing for most of all. Per says you are longing to come to new cultures, new countries, cities and people who even you don’t understand what they say, because they speak other languages, but they know every single song, every line of lyrics that you have written yourself. It’s an amazing experience, no matter if it is in Buenos Aires or in Warsaw or wherever.
Anna asks Per if it can happen that when they hang on to this a bit more, some more music can come from the two of them. Per says they don’t know. Anna turns to Lena if there can be more songs like this duet they released. Lena says she has no idea. It is Per who is writing. She has no idea what the future brings. They start with the tour and they will see if it feels fun and works well. So far it has worked great and they have so much fun. Per agrees.
Anna thinks a lot of people are excited to see the concerts. She says one just wants to go to Perth and see this. Per says she should come.
Anna thanks her guests for coming to the show and wishes good luck with the hanging, bonding and Cape Town in February. Per and Lena thank her for that.
Stills are from the interview
