Nu!

Roxette Brasil interviewed Jokke Pettersson: ”Marie and I are very close since I was a child.”

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Roxette Brasil (Bianca Cappelletti) did a nice interview with Jokke Pettersson, Marie’s nephew, who is going to be part of Marie’s band on tour. Here you have the translation:

 

Marie is the youngest child of the Fredriksson family. Her sister Anna-Lisa (who died in a car accident when Marie was 8) and Ulla-Britt were much older, so Marie had a closer relationship with Tina. In fact, they were inseparable! The family has always lived in a very musical environment and it seems that the tradition is being kept. Jokke Pettersson, Marie’s nephew will play the guitar in the band that will accompany her on tour in 2014.

Jokke kindly gave an interview to Roxette Brasil and here it is:

Roxette Brasil: – Hello, Jokke! For a start, tell us a bit more about your musical background. Has music always been present in your life? When did you start playing? What are your biggest influences?

Jokke: – Yes, music has always been a large part of my life. I started playing the drums when I was 8 and the guitar at the age of 11. In my family we were always playing music and singing, so it was natural for me to play the instruments, too.

Roxette Brasil: – We know you have a strong blues influence, but you also play great pop and wow … heavy metal? Can you tell us more about your style?

Jokke: – I started out as a big heavy metal fan and I was listening a lot to Metallica, Pantera and stuff like this when I was a kid. At a time in my life I thought that it was not enough and then learned to play all the other styles such as blues and pop. I always liked guitarists like John Scofield, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hendrix and others.

Roxette Brasil: – In 2011 you gave an interview to a newspaper in Helsingborg, related to a United Nations day show. You were asked about playing songs from Marie (Tro, Sparvöga , Ett hus vid havet, Vinterangel and Ännu doftar kärlek) and you said that the conductor of the choir proposed the songs, who revealed that Marie is your aunt and that your mother was in the choir, too. Can you tell us more about your relationship with Marie? Are you close to each other?

Jokke: – My mother is Tina. Marie and I are very close since I was a child.

Roxette Brasil: – Tell us about your band, Ladah.

Jokke: – I and two friends are the members of Ladah, where we played jazz-rock fusion. I’m currently working a lot with my band, Karavan. We released two albums that can be found on Spotify. We toured with American Hunter Perrin and now we’re on tour with Cameron Ochs. I also have a metal band called Kayser. We will release our next album in February. I love playing different styles.

Roxette Brasil: – For those who are wondering if you’ve worked together with Marie earlier, you played the guitar on some of the songs of Min bäste vän album, right? How did she invite you to accompany her on tour?

Jokke: – Yeah, I played on Min bäste vän and also on her new album, Nu!. She called me to go on tour with her and of course I said YES! It’s an honor!

Roxette Brasil: – Marie has one of the most beautiful and the most recognizable voices in pop. For this reason, she has many fans around the world and we know that many fans will travel from their countries to join her tour. Do the pressure and anxiety increases for this reason or the fact that you are her nephew makes you more relaxed?

Jokke: – Tough question. I think the biggest reason to be calm is that I know what I’m doing. But I love Marie and her personality and it is very good of course.

Roxette Brasil: – As a final question, what are your expectations for the tour?

Jokke: – Play great music, meet cool people and have fun.

Marie Fredriksson – TV ad and PR for ”Nu!”

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Lygrell & Silver Productions is the company that made the short video we could see on Aftonbladet’s website last Friday in which Marie and Micke are talking about ”Sista sommarens vals”.

Warner Music Sweden decided to do different PR for the album than usual, so besides some interviews in magazines, there are 5 videos about different topics. Good news is that all 5 videos are available online! (4 of them were removed after this article was published.) The PR videos are fantastic and it’s a great idea to do something different indeed. The productions company informs, Warner will spread them via social media sites.

Here you can check all the videos (note that now only Sista sommarens vals has a valid link):

The videos are shot at Marie’s & Micke’s home in Stockholm, in different places of the house. One of my personal favourites is the one with ”Kom vila hos mig”, where Marie is singing in the studio. Pure awesomeness!

The other is the longest video (15 minutes!!!), where she and Jonna are talking about mode and style. We already shared Jonna’s blog post with Marie some time ago on our Facebook site, so now we know why they were sitting together in Marie’s wardrobe. 😉 In the background you can see many clothes Marie was wearing in old videos (e.g. Anyone, The Big L., Joyride, Milk and Toast and Honey) and on tours or photo sessions. You can see in the video how much Marie loves her hot clothes. Good that she keeps them all.

Besides the 5 PR beauty videos, Lygrell & Silver Productions also made a 20-sec-long TV ad, which can be seen on TV4. Absolutely fantastic! 3 songs can be heard in the ad: ”Det är nu!”, ”Kom vila hos mig” and ”Sista sommarens vals”. Click HERE for watching!

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Update 15:30 CET, 1st December: the PR videos besides the one in which Marie and Micke are talking about Sista sommarens vals and the TV ad were removed. Ooops. Warner will probably share them one by one, so please, be patient. They should be out very soon.

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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Marie Fredriksson chats with fans: “Successful because of my fans”

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In a 20 minutes chat on Aftonbladet Marie Fredriksson answered some questions today.

Most of the fans asked about her tour which starts in February. Rosa from Barcelona wanted to know if we can expect any surprises on the tour, but Marie didn’t reveal anything and said: “If I told you know, it wouldn’t be a surprise.”Luiz Gimenez asked how Marie feels about the fact that a lot of fans will come from Brazil to Sweden to see her shows. Marie replied she is also looking forward to the tour and seeing the fans again. A Russian fan wanted to know how many new songs Marie will play at her shows and Marie let us know that she plans to play at least two new songs. RXB admin Judith asked if they are already rehearsing and have prepared a setlist for the 2tour, but so far they are only thinking of several songs and haven’t started rehearsing yet.

RXB team member Patrícia asked about a rumour we have heard several times now – that Marie is working on a biography, but it seems it’s too early to tell about it since Marie couldn’t or didn’t want to say anything about a possible release date of this book. Later on, Evgeny Perekopskiy asked about a dream she has and which dream she wants to come true: “Maybe to release a book about my life in the future.”

Being asked about her favourite song on “Nu!”, Marie replied that it’s “Vad vore jag utan dig” (see our interview with Mikael Bolyos) which “means so much to me”. The main difference between “Nu!” and her previous albums? Easy question for Marie: “I have only written one song.”

Julia from St. Petersburg asked about Marie’s other passion – painting – and if she is planning another exhibition. But it is of course obvious that Marie is busy with other stuff: “I’d love to have another exhibition when I have the time.”

A user called Mia wanted to know about artists Marie likes or give her inspiration – Marie says it’s Rufus Wainwright and Veronica Maggio. Funniest answer: “My friend Pär.” Guess the question.. “Do you still have any connections with Halmstad?”

And the most touching answer comes with Miedy’s question “You always look so happy and in a good mood when you meet your fans. What’s your secret?” – I know that my success is because of you.

Miedy also asked about possible Roxette recordings, but Marie seems not to be involved so far as says: “Nothing new with Roxette, so far.”

 

 

 

 

Interview with Mikael Bolyos: “Working with Marie is a blessing”

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Marie Fredriksson’s album “Nu!” is out since Wednesday. Reason enough to ask her husband, Mikael Bolyos, who wrote most of the songs, to ask some questions about the process of recording and some well-known names who came with “Nu!”.  Thankfully he made a slot in his tight agenda to answer our questions. We appreciate that!

Mikael, we saw that you collaborated with 4 other songwriters. How did you choose them? Did they offer their texts or did you kind of order them? We remember Ulf Schagerström, who wrote Mot ökända hav and Aldrig som främlingar. How come you worked with him and the others and how was working with them?

Mikael Bolyos: I quite recently started to express myself in lyrics. It’s not that easy for me, so it takes mostly a while to finish a song. I always liked the simplicity and poetry in Kenneth’s lyrics, so when I had the song ”Bara 3 ord”, I just gave him a call and asked if he was interested in helping me out. Luckily he wasSkavlan. He is such a talent!!! Johan Kinde was the singer in a band I used to play keyboards in (Lustans Lakejer). We always got along wery well so it was easy asking him for a text. To me ”Stjärna som brinner” is one of the best texts on the album. Uno and I met during the Roxette concert in Göteborg 2011, and we talked about doing something together and Ulf has, as you know, been working with Marie since day 1. He contributed on several songs that we recorded, but only 3 of them are on the album.

Good choices. The lyrics on “Nu!” are really impressive. And how and why did you decide to produce the album with Christoffer Lundquist and how can we imagine the producing process? Have you been to Skåne or did he come to Stockholm?

Mikael: As you know, Christoffer has during the years made an exceptional good job in recording Marie with Roxette. They are such a great team in the studio, speaking the same language (Skånska). Although Marie is such a great singer, I wanted to improve the vocal part from what we’ve done before. Chris became more & more involved in the process so we decided to produce the album together recording in AGM in Skåne and Atlantis in Stockholm. We are both (Marie and me) so happy working with Chris.

When I first asked you for the interview you wrote that you are satisfied yourself with the album. Now that it’s released, what are you most satisfied with? Which song is your favourite song and why? And which is Marie’s?

Mikael: I must say that I’m very satisfied with how the leadvocal turned out. Thanx to Chris! Favourite song ? Hmm … maybe ”Kom vila hos mig”. I think I managed to say something with the lyrics and I like the beat. Marie says her favourite song is ”Vad vore jag utan dig”.

To get more insight (since we are very curious, of course). When Marie writes a song, does she do it on her own and presents it to you when it’s done or are you evolving it together? Speaking of Sista sommarens vals! How did you develop this song?

Mikael: Marie writes on her own and presents it to me when it’s more or less finished. We made a demo on the song and then we re-recorded it in AGM with Chris.

How did you choose treview_DIhe first single, “Kom vila hos mig”?

Mikael: Marie wanted an uptempo song and “Kom vila hos mig”  felt like an excellent choice.

From the lyrics and looking at you 2 we know how you feel towards each other, but how would you describe working together with Marie?

Mikael: Working with Marie is a blessing. She is so patient and a great source of inspiration.  She is amazing in her concentration and has extraterrestrial singing skills.

Do you have demos to all songs? Are you considering to release them all?

Mikael: Mostly, we record a serious demo that we can develop into the final version.  Like put real bass & drums into it instead of programmed. We never thought of releasing the demos.

Are there demos with your voice to the songs you wrote for “Nu!?

Mikael: Yes! Some of the songs are with my vocals on it. I can assure you that those demos won’t be released as long as I’m alive.

Three words you think describe the album the best?

Mikael: Life is good!

After I read most of the reviews of the album in the internet I really didn’t know what to think of the Swedish music journalists. Some wrote it’s one of the best albums ever, some wrote it’s weak and nothing special and most important: all of them picked different weak or strong songs which shows that it’s really only a thing of taste and nothing else. Do you care about those reviews? Do you read them at all or is indeed the most important thing that the artist is satisfied with his work?

Mikael: Yes, I admit that the reviews have been different from each other, but no one has been really nasty so far. Still it’s interesting, as you say, that they pick different songs as their favorites. To your questions I answer Yes, Yes, Yes! I read them, I care about them and after all what matters the most is to be satisfied yourself. (Another review on the left)

Final question. Is there any question you want to be asked about the album that we didn’t ask? Feel free to ask and answer yourself. Maybe we missed the most important aspect!

Mikael: Hmm. I really don’t know what that could be. Maybe that the first two songs we recorded were already mixed in Jan 2010. We thought the album would be released in 2010/2011, but as you know something else came between.