Per Gessle was contacted by Fredrik Eliasson at Musikplats Stockholm on Swedish Radio and they talked via phone on the 23rd August show. Listen to the conversation HERE! It starts at 1:42:52 into the program.
Fredrik greets Per and congratulates him on his new song, Nyper mig i armen that became song of the week when it was released. Per thanks for that. Fredrik asks Per what it was like doing this song with Albin Lee Meldau. PG says it was fantastic. He had seen him and heard him, but he had never met Albin Lee before. When Per wrote this song for his upcoming duet album that will be released in autumn, he immediately thought of Albin Lee, so he contacted him and Albin Lee came to Halmstad. They had a great day in the studio and a good dinner. They shot the video for the song in Per’s garden in Halmstad. It was nice.
Per thinks his new album is a wonderful project. He was working with different female and male singers on it. It’s lovely.
Fredrik is curious what it has meant to Per to do these collaborations with Molly Hammar and Lena Philipsson among others. PG says he has always liked working with other voices. With Marie Fredriksson, Helena Josefsson and others. It’s mostly fun from the songwriting point of view. It’s fun to see what happens to a song when someone else sings it. When someone else interprets it. It’s a challenge and it’s exciting to do something that you don’t do every day.
Fredrik mentions the bridging generations, getting input from, for example, Albin Lee and Molly. He wants to know what has been the most educational for Per during these collaborations. Per says it’s fun to have some young blood. There are also some slightly older partners on the upcoming album, so it’s a mix. Fredrik thinks it must be cool to mix like that. PG confirms, it’s great fun. When you have a song and someone else sings it, all of a sudden it changes the energy, it changes temperature, because it’s interpreted in a completely new way. Per finds it cool and interesting as a songwriter.
Fredrik informs that there is a lot going on around Per. On 6th September, Joyride – The Musical, a Roxette musical premieres at Malmö Opera. He asks Per how it feels to him. PG says he is there at the rehearsals every now and then and it’s a fantastic journey to be a part of. It sounds wonderful. Last week he heard how it sounded with the orchestra and the band and it was magical. This week it’s costume rehearsal. He is incredibly happy to be part of this.
The premiere is in Malmö and the musical will be played there until spring. Fredrik asks Mr. G if they will take the musical to Stockholm as well. They certainly will. The whole idea of ??the musical is to take it all around the world. That is their ambition.
Fredrik asks Per what he thinks about his song catalogue in this context. What strikes Per musically is that much of his music fits very well in this context. It’s pretty grand music. It’s old-fashioned pop music that he writes, there is a lot of modulation, big themes, the ending. There are new musical parts all the time. Today’s pop music is very form-oriented. Other musicians write in a different way. Per’s music fits the format with a large orchestra, many voices and a good band. It’s great to be a part of it.
Speaking of Roxette, Fredrik says Per is going on a world tour with Lena Philipsson. PG says he has been thinking for many years what to do with the Roxette catalogue. Then when he was working with Lena, he thought she would be great to sing Roxette songs. They talked about it and did some testing. It sounded absolutely magical, Per thinks. Lena is a wonderful singer. Not as old as PG, but she has been around for quite some time.
This is not about forming a new Roxette or starting a new band. It’s about going out on tour and playing the Roxette catalogue from back in the days. It’s very exciting. They have brought the original Roxette band together. It will sound amazing. They start in Cape Town, South Africa at the end of February and continue in Australia. Then they will see what happens next. The demand is huge, Fredrik adds, for Roxette’s music live on stage. Per says ticket sales have been going great, so they are a bit overwhelmed by that. PG does notice that Roxette’s music is being played. When Marie passed away, there were only two ways to go. Either you shut down Roxette or you try to find ways to continue. He feels the same what Fredrik says, that there is a lot of interest. Then he feels, why not go out and play a little. He has written all these songs, so it would be fun to play them live for people. They will see how it goes, but it feels like a really fun project too.
Fredrik thanks Per for joining the show and they say goodbye to each other.
It Must Have Been Love comes as the next song.
Photo from Fredrik Eliasson’s Instagram from February 2024.
Side A
