Per Gessle

Per Gessle was a guest on RIX FM on their Fredagsbubbel show on Friday. Program leader Martina Thun also invited Shirley Clamp on the program. Listen HERE!

Martina welcomes Per and Shirley and explains that she always starts by asking if her guests have known each other from before. Per says they don’t know each other, but he knows Shirley has recorded one of his songs. Shirley confirms. She says she was scared when she was going to do that, because they were waiting for an OK from Mr. Gessle. She thought it would probably be a no, just because she was quite young. The song was It Must Have Been Love. Ingela “Pling” Forsman translated the lyrics and the title is När kärleken föds. Shirley still sings it at her gigs. Per thinks she made it great.

It’s the first time Per and Shirley meet, at least it feels like the first time for PG. Martina says Shirley put on a lot of perfume to impress Per and turns to Mr. G to ask if he feels impressed that Shirley smells so good. Per says he is a bit impressed actually and he notes the champagne glass in front of Shirley and is wondering how many she has drunk before. They are laughing. Shirley says they have run into each other over the years, but never talked. So it’s very nice now. Martina says now they get the chance to get to know each other on live radio. She looks at Shirley and says she looks terrified. Haha.

Martina asks Per about his album release and how his week has been. PG says it has been quite normal, that is to say busy. Martina is curious what a normal week is in Per Gessle’s life like. Per says it depends on what you are doing. This week he has started rehearsals for Roxette’s tour next year with Lena Philipsson, Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist. They have run an acoustic rehearsal. Martina finds it exciting.

Per is also releasing an album today, so there has been a bit of promotion and stuff like that.

Martina turns to Shirley and asks how her week has been. Shirley can’t even remember what she has been doing and asks what day it is. Haha. It’s Friday, Martina says. Shirley is in the middle of selling the house and in the middle of rehearsing for Mamma Mia! – The Party, to jump in for Sussie Eriksson, which will be great fun. Martina thinks it’s such a perfect role for Shirley. Martina says they will talk more about Mamma Mia! and she informs that Shirley also releases a song that they will get to listen to in a while.

Martina turns to Per again and says his album contains a lot of collaborations. Per says it consists of duets. Before they talk more about the album, Martina starts playing one of the duets, Har pa? ka?nn by Per Gessle and Uno Svenningsson and says that’s a really long intro, but she doesn’t dare to talk during it when the artist is sitting here. After the song ends, Martina asks Per about how artists feel when program leaders talk over the intro on the radio. PG says it’s foolish. He doesn’t like people doing that, because you spend a lot of time making a very good intro. Haha. Martina informs that this song has an intro of 20.9 seconds, so there she has time to just talk and tell a funny anecdote about herself. Haha. She says Per could think about that in the future, if he doesn’t want people to talk over the songs.

Shirley says there aren’t that many intros in modern music. Per agrees. Shirley loves intros and solos and long outros. Shirley explains that she was sitting there listening to the radio when Per was at his best, in the beginning of his career and recorded the tracks. And then the program leaders talked both during the intro and the outro. It destroyed the whole thing. Then came Kaj Kindvall and was going to tell some shit about the song. She was so angry. Per laughs. Shirley says to Martina that she doesn’t want her to talk during her intro. Haha.

Martina asks Per how it is to work with other artists. Per thinks it’s lovely. The whole of Roxette is based on collaboration. Martina says that regarding Roxette, it was like the same collaboration all the time, but now it has changed. PG says when he starts doing anything, he starts from himself as a songwriter. That’s what they are building on. So was Roxette, too. When Marie came in and sang these songs, she turned them into her own songs, in her way, the way she sang. It’s a bit the same here when Per has chosen collaboration partners for this record: Amanda Ginsburg, Lena Philipsson or Molly Hammar. They come in and sort of make the songs their own. At least that’s the vision.

Martina asks Shirley about musical collaborations. Shirley loves it too. Even though she knows that she sings really well, she is afraid of asking for collaborations, because she doesn’t want them to say no. But now that she is 51, soon 52, she has promised herself to just ask the question. The worst can be that they say no, so what. She wants those collaborations to be as Per says, unique meetings. Then you can reach new levels together. Then it must be something that you haven’t heard before, she thinks. She has a list of people. Martina asks if she can reveal any name from the list. Shirley says Titiyo is one of her first ones that she would like to record something with, but she doesn’t know about it.

Martina wants to ask a thousand questions from Per. She is curious what it was like when he called Lena Philipsson and asked about collaboration in Roxette. PG explains Lena was in the studio with him in Halmstad and sang on the title song of his Swedish album Sällskapssjuk. Per was very impressed with her capacity, the way she thinks and the way she works. Then this token fell on him if she could imagine singing Roxette songs, because it would suit her very well. Per has been thinking for many, many years if he is going to do anything at all with the Roxette catalogue. Then he thought heck, he would talk to her. They met and he asked Lena if she wanted to… not to start a new band by any means, but mostly to go with Per and do concerts and sing Roxette songs. The girls ask Per what her reaction was. PG says she changed color. Haha. She disappeared rather quickly from that meeting, went home and thought for a bit. But then she came back after a few weeks and thought it was interesting. Then they met again.

Shirley thinks it’s an honourable task of its kind. Martina says it must feel so exciting to go out with this constellation. Per says that’s one of the reasons he thinks Lena went along with this. It’s something she hasn’t really done before. She has been around for so long, too, but she has never stood in front of 10,000 people in Melbourne or Cape Town. The girls say there aren’t that many Swedish artists who have had the chance for that.

Martina wants to know how the fans reacted. PG says there are of course many who wonder how it is possible to replace Marie. But she won’t replace Marie, that’s not the idea. As said, the idea is to manage the song catalogue. Per slowly but surely feels that people like this idea. A lot of tickets are sold, however, people don’t really know what they are buying tickets for. They are laughing. The girls say, but Per will be there. He doesn’t know what’s going on, but it’s going to be good, the girls say. It will be very exciting.

Here they play Shirley’s version of Blinka lilla stjärna. Martina thinks it’s very nice and emotional.

Martina and her guests start talking about melodies. She says this topic came up with other artists before, when they have a melody idea, they quickly record it on the phone. Martina wanted to listen to other artists’ such recordings, but they didn’t show them to her. Shirley says it would be fun if she sent one to Per and Per sent one to her and then Per would do her recording and she would do Per’s. Shirley says she hardly even understands herself, what she meant by some of these recordings. Both Shirley and Per sing in such cases. PG says it’s maybe one out of five that can be listened to. Four out of five sound like the vacuum cleaner is running. Haha. But sometimes it turns out nice. It can also be that you sit at home at the piano and then you come up with something and record it. But when the taxi is waiting, you just record it on the phone. Then you let it go and listen to it maybe three weeks later and realize it wasn’t that bad. Shirley says the vacuum cleaner demos that Per records usually turn out to be huge. Haha.

Martina is very curious about the archives filled with music, if Per and Shirley save everything or also delete files. Per says he listens to it and if he doesn’t get it, he deletes it. Shirley does the same. Only those remain of which you benefit from. If Per plays something on the piano, he writes what kind of chord it is or what date it is, because he won’t remember that three weeks later. Shirley says she doesn’t name the files, so when she scrolls down, there are files from the beginning, ever since her daughter was two. Then comes a file that says nothing, so she would delete it. She should go through the files and maybe name them now. Per asks her what she would name them then. Shirley says no clue. Maybe vacuum cleaner 241. Haha. Now that Shirley is cleaning the house, she found newspaper clippings as well and thought, why has she saved them. She is not the best at keeping things in order.

The girls are curious how Per is. If he collects things and if he is a hoarder. He doesn’t think so, but his wife is, PG says. Shirley doesn’t see it as a problem. She says that in Per’s case, he probably has a thousand awards and gold records and all that. Mr. G says he has only one gold record at home. It’s Flickorna på TV2 from 1980. All others are in a warehouse and at Hotel Tylösand. Martina asks Per what he collects at home then. Per says, as he said, he doesn’t think he is collecting anything. And he is pretty good at keeping things organized. He has his shoes where the shoes should be and the shirts where the shirts should be. Martina says he does seem like that. So this means Per doesn’t have a room that is filled with shit when you open the door. Per confirms there is no such room. Shirley says Hotel Tylösand sounds great for her stuff. She asks Per if she could have some space for her stuff there. They are laughing. Shirley realizes that she should get herself a hotel.

Martina says that during the songs they talked a lot about celebrities and being impressed by celebrities. Both she and Shirley have lived with Per Gessle and his music throughout their lives, so they have asked a thousand questions and praised Per a lot during the songs. Shirley has claimed that she is absolutely not one to run after celebrities and chase them, but there are two-three stories. One of them is related to Pink. Shirley tells a story when she met Pink in Sundsvall where they had a festival gig and went after Pink to the elevator and asked for a pic, but Pink didn’t want to have one. Shirley is not interested in celebrities, but Marie Fredriksson, Pink and Bette Midler meant a lot to her.

Martina asks Per if he has met anyone who has made him starstruck. Shirley laughs and says it was probably today, when Per met her. PG smiles and says, of course. He met some like Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen. These are big names, Martina says. She knows that Per is a calm person, but she wants to know if Per gets nervous when he meets these guys. PG says he becomes a little fan then and he would really want to sit down, have dinner with them and ask a thousand questions. But it never happened. The girls are happy to see that Per is human. He is a hit machine, but calm and human. They are laughing and Per says he is happy to hear that.

Martina says it turned out that Per is an ordinary person and it has also come to light that he is pedantic. They are the complete opposite with Shirley. Shirley likes it if there are a lot of things around her, while Per likes it to be clean, when there aren’t too many things around.

Per is also good at cleaning, he doesn’t stick to old stuff. Sometimes he finds himself sorting out old books from 1988 and old CDs that you never listen to. It just takes up space and you need space for other things. It’s the same with clothes. Martina was just about to ask about Per’s wardrobe. She asks Per and Shirley if they keep their stage clothes and clothes they were wearing at photo sessions. PG says he saves those. Martina says Per must have a lot of clothes like that. Per laughs and says Shirley probably has more. Martina asks if those clothes are also at Hotel Tylösand. Mr. G says most of them are at a warehouse. Martina says people would probably want to see those clothes. Per says they should expand the hotel. Martina says expand the hotel so that it becomes a museum with outfits and such. It would be fun.

Shirley organized a flea market where she was selling her clothes. There was a piece of clothes that she didn’t want to sell, just wanted to see how much it is worth, so there was an auction and the price went up to 25,000. She didn’t sell it in the end, it was a fake auction. Martina says it’s strange to joke with that. Shirley says it was very strange, because the one who put the highest bid there thought he got it. Per says, of course, because that’s how it works with auctions. Haha. Martina says this is not something she recommends, running fake auctions.

Martina turns to Per and asks him what he thinks, how it has been to get to know Shirley Clamp on live broadcast. Per thinks it was absolutely fantastic. They will be friends next time they meet. Martina asks Shirley how she feels. Shirley says what the listeners don’t see now is that she is sending some money to Per now to bribe. They are laughing. Shirley thinks it was great, it feels nice. Next time they meet, they will say hi. Shirley says Per seems genuine and he seems so nice. Some giant artists like hime are not so nice. Per says he is super nice. Shirley says she likes Martina as well, every time she comes here. Martina likes both her guests too.

Martina asks PG what his weekend plans are. Per says since he has released his record today, he has TV on Sunday. He will be on Efter fem. Then he will have a lot of IDs to record with Lena. IDs when you say „hi this is Per and this is Lena”. So they are filming these for Australia and different cities. And then there is F1 from Mexico. He likes F1. Martina says how exciting. But they just drive round and round. Per says they do, but it’s not that bad. Haha. It’s definitely not boring. Martina asks Per if he loves engines and cars and likes to drive really fast. PG says he likes cars, but he doesn’t necessarily need to drive very fast. Shirley says it’s good, because she wants to hear more music in the future. She laughs at how dramatic she was here, but if you drive too fast, accidents can happen and she wants to hear more music. It’s good not to drive too fast.

Shirley is free at the weekend. She might go to the flea market. Martina reminds her that she is cleaning the house now, so she doesn’t need any more stuff. Shirley says maybe she doesn’t need to buy anything, but she gets inspiration. Then there are rehearsals for Mamma Mia! – The Party.

Martina summarizes that there is a new album by Per, there will be Roxette concerts next year. Shirley asks Per how Martina and she could go to Per’s concerts. PG says he will fix that. Sommartider is available on Viaplay from November.

Here the girls and Per thank for the show and say goodbye.

Stills are from RIX FM’s instastories.