Sven Lindström

Sven Lindström and Per Gessle continued their countdown of the Top30 ’90s songs from Sweden in the January episode of Nordic Rox. Positions from No. 20 to 16 are on the program.

The guys are sitting in beautiful sunny weather in Halmstad. They welcome 2026 and remember that Nordic Rox started 20 years ago. Sven asks Per where he was in 2006. PG has to think about it, but he probably spent most of his time in the studio working, recording. As always. Another year in the studio. Sven invites us to join them for 20 more years.

Before the countdown, they play some stinging new rock sounds from The Hives. Roll Out The Red Carpet is taken from their latest album The Hives Forever Forever The Hives, with the band dressed as medieval kings on the cover. Why not.

Always Like This, a new single by Sahara Hotnights is next. They got a new album coming out in February, called No One Really Changes. Then comes Waste Of Time by Smith & Thell, a wonderful song from November 2024, taken from their last album Chosen Family.

A band from Stockholm you might have heard of is next. Sven is teasing Per: it’s beginning with A and it ends with an A. Per joins in, he is wondering what that can be. ABBA, of course. For a brief period, they were into disco in the late ’70s and they did it very well. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! is actually one of Per’s favourite ABBA tracks. It was a single, but it wasn’t on any album. It just blew his mind when he heard it when he was really young. It’s got one of the greatest intros in the world. They released this single just before they went on their big world tour. A reasonable good kick-off to the tour.

Ifrån mej själv, some Swedish lyrics by Dundertåget or Thunder Express as they call themselves when they play in English. Per likes this song a lot, he thinks it’s a great track. The band is not around anymore, unfortunately. They packed in a few years ago, but their tracks are still available.

The guys get down to their ’90s list. They go to a town in Sven’s home county Småland, neighbouring to Halmstad in the middle of Sweden and a little town called Älmhult, famous throughout the world for IKEA. The Creeps are also from that town. They were a great band according to PG. They were supporting Roxette on a tour in the ’80s. Their Blue Tomato album is produced by Clarence Öfwerman, who is the Roxette producer. It was a big album for them. It came out in 1990 and here on position No. 20 Per and Sven play Ooh – I Like It! from this record. For a second, Sven thought Per was going to say ooh, I didn’t like it. Haha. Per says ooh, he did like it. He likes The Creeps a lot and it’s a really cool track. They were a fantastic live band and they had a great singer, Robert Jelinek.

No. 19 is Meja, a girl who had a breakthrough with this song, All ‘Bout The Money, and she made it big in Japan. Her debut album came out in 1996 and she wrote most of the songs with Billy Steinberg. Steinberg wrote a lot of songs with Tom Kelly, e.g. Like A Virgin for Madonna, Eternal Flame for The Bangles, I Touch Myself for Divinyls and True Colors for Cyndi Lauper. He is a fantastic songwriter. For her second album, Meja teamed up with a Swedish guy called Douglas Carr and this became a big song for her. Sven is not sure about how her name is pronounced internationally. Per says she is always going to be Meja for him – pronounced in the Swedish way.

Coming up at position No. 18 is a joint venture between Sweden and Denmark. Gör mig lycklig nu is a great song, one of Per’s favourite tracks from the ’90s. It’s a collaboration between Mats Ronander and Kim Larsen from Denmark. Kim Larsen was in one of Denmark’s biggest bands, Gasolin, but they never really made it outside Scandinavia. They sang in Danish, but they had a few songs in sort of Danish-English. Mats Ronander was connected with ABBA for a while. He was in the ABBA live band and he is a legendary musician in Sweden. He is a great guitarist and a fantastic harmonica player. He had some hit singles and this is one of the biggest ones, taking us back to 1992. Gör mig lycklig nu (translated into Make Me Happy Now). Per says this song certainly made him happy. Sven adds it put a smile on their faces in the Nordic Rox camp.

The guys are moving forward towards a group that really, really made it big in the ’90s. Somewhat unexpectedly, from basically nowhere to the top of the charts in the States. Ace of Base was in good hands, Per says. They started out early working with Max Martin and they had several big hits. The Sign was No. 1, their breakthrough song was All That She Wants, but Per’s favourite song from Ace of Base came a couple of years later. Sven would have voted for either All That She Wants or The Sign, but then Per having had four US No. 1 hits has the final say, the veto. The Hot 100 veto. Haha. Per says sorry about that. Life Is A Flower is his favourite. Mr. G doesn’t know if this song ever entered any charts in the States. Sven confirms it didn’t, but it was a big hit in Europe. Per just liked it from the first time he heard it. He likes this sort of music. First he says it was produced and co-written by Tommy Ekman, who was a member of the Swedish band Freestyle in the ’80s, a great musician and a great producer. After the song is played, Per makes a correction. Tommy Ekman was not the writer. The song is written by Jonas Berggren from Ace of Base. Tommy, however, was the producer. Per says he is sorry about that. Sven says everyone can make a mistake. He made ONE a long time ago, he laughs, so he knows how it feels. Anyway, since it wasn’t a big hit in the States, some of the listeners might not have even heard it. Now it’s No. 17 on the guy’s chart.

For the last song on today’s ’90s list, PG and Sven go down to the south of Sweden again. Against The Sun by Eggstone is No. 16. They guys think it’s a great band. Sven says the band set up the Tambourine Studios in Malmö where a lot of bands – e.g. The Cardigans – would record quite many hits. They brought English bands like Saint Etienne, even Tom Jones came to the studios in the late ’90s. He made a duet with Nina from The Cardigans, Burning Down The House, a Talking Heads song. It was the opening track on his Reload album. In those days you actually had a lot of young Japanese tourists in town and you wondered what they were doing there, but they all went up to Tambourine Studios to have a look and see if The Cardigans was there.

Here comes some more good-looking music. Good Vibrations by The Facer is next. Then Do You Feel Normal by The Hellacopters is played.

(Do You Get) Excited? by Roxette wraps up today’s Nordic Rox. It’s a track from the Joyride album. It was supposed to be a single, but it never was. However, they did a very nice video for it. You can check it out on YouTube if you are interested. Brilliant vocals as always by Marie Fredriksson. She was amazing on this one.

Sven and PG thank the listeners for joining them and they say goodbye. The show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Sven Lindström and Per Gessle continued their Top30 ’90s songs from Sweden series in the December episode of Nordic Rox.

The guys are counting down from position No. 25 to 21. Sven mentions at the beginning of the show that Per has a brand new single. It’s released by a duo called Per and Lena. PG confirms, but Sven keeps the listeners waiting. Good things come to those who wait, he says.

They kick off the program with some garage rock from Stockholm. Ain’t Coming Home by The Sewergrooves is played. Hemingway by Girl In Red is next. Then comes I’m Gonna Dance by The Mo and l.o.v.e by SHY Martin.

Woman & A Child by Mikael Rickfors, taken from the Judas River album in 1991, kicks off the five songs on the ’90s countdown.

The guys are moving on to a great song that Per really likes. It’s by Andreas Johnson. He used to sing and write songs in the band called Planet Waves. Sven asks Per who made an album called Planet Waves. First Per doesn’t realize what the question was referring to, but after he got it, he says it was Bob Dylan. Sven smiles and says it was just some quick pop quiz here. Mr. G continues that Andreas Johnson had a big solo career starting off with this particular album called Liebling in 1999, just in the final hours of the ’90s. This song that the guys chose was a big international hit for him in Europe. In France, for instance and in England as well. It’s called Glorious produced by Peter Kvint, a great Swedish producer. The song has a chorus you just can’t forget, according to Sven. Per thinks it’s wonderful, it stood the test of time. Sven says Per thinks that the chorus takes over everything and the verse is rather… not bland, but… Per tries to put it into words and explains that you need a neutral verse to get a chorus like that. He thinks it’s an amazing chorus. No wonder it became a major hit.

Sven and Per go into some Swedish lyric songs. Coming up first is a song called Lilla fågel blå (Little Bird Blue) by a songwriter and artist called Staffan Hellstrand. It was a big song for him, his biggest hit so far. Sven adds that it was backed by Swedish garage rock kings, The Nomads, which gave it an edge as well. PG thinks it’s a great song.

The tension rises, the guys are heading for No. 22. They picked Broken Promise Land by Weeping Willows. It sounds a bit of melancholy and that’s basically what it is, Sven says. Per agrees. It was their breakthrough song in 1997. They are still around, making new records, touring. Sven saw the lead singer Magnus Carlson on Swedish television a couple of days ago, so they are very much active.

No. 21 is a song by Marie Fredriksson. It’s another Swedish lyric song, a beautiful ballad called Tro. It can be translated into „faith” or „belief”. Marie made a solo album in 1996 when Roxette took a break. They took a four-year break after 1995, when they finished touring and Marie had her second child. She made a solo album and Tro was the first single. It was also part of a film and it was a really big hit for Marie. It’s a really wonderful song, an amazing song, Per thinks. Sven agrees and he says Marie tried to squeeze in a Swedish solo career between all the Roxette commitments, which were basically taken up all the time otherwise. Per adds that she wrote Swedish stuff that was not really in the pop style. She wanted to do things in Swedish as well. She never felt comfortable writing English lyrics anyway. She had lots of other things on her mind, which was great.

And that wraps up the Swedish ’90s list for this time. On the next show the guys are entering the top 20. So it’s going to be exciting further on.

James by Ex Cops, I Believed by Maria Jane Smith and Sweet Jackie by Sugarplum Fairy are played.

Then comes Bad Blood by Per + Lena. It’s the new single by Per and Lena Philipsson, who is singing with Roxette these days. It’s a little new piece of music that they put together over the summer season. Mr. G thinks it’s cool. Sven thinks it’s a great track and it sounds very inspired. Per says they were inspired and it was great fun making it. He co-wrote it together with a guy called Alex Shield. PG has been working with him a bit in the past on different projects. It’s got a sort of a Stonesy vibe to it. Per likes it and he also likes how Lena is singing on it. She is really cool, Sven thinks. He promises to sit down with Per and Lena to discuss the current tour and next year’s activities, which will be quite a lot. They will still be touring. It’s a big world, Per adds.

Sven and PG thank the listeners for joining them and they say goodbye. The show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Sven Lindström and Per Gessle started a new series in the November episode of Nordic Rox. They count down the Top30 ’90s songs from Sweden. The guys recorded this show in Stockholm before Per started the rehearsals for the autumn leg of the Roxette In Concert tour.

Per thinks the ’90s was a fabulous decade. Sven agrees. It’s actually one of his favourites, apart from the ’60s, the ’70s, and the ’80s. Haha. PG says, if you look back to the ’90s, it’s sort of grown on you over time. Sven says they are going to focus on the Swedish pop and rock stuff, which excelled during the ’90s. A lot of bands are coming up, not least a band called Roxette, which Sven can guarantee we will hear later on. Not today, because they are going to focus on positions from number 30 to 26 this time.

Sven asks Per what is happening with him, with Roxette. He says they are rehearsing for a new leg on the tour. They have been touring this year, they started in South Africa and Australia in the spring, and then did a big summer tour in Europe. And now they are going back to Europe again, playing the arenas. Starting in Budapest, Hungary, and going all over the place. 16, 18 shows before Christmas. Per says it feels good, starting rehearsing next week. They are getting the band together and seeing if everyone is alive. Sven will meet them up and check out their top shape at Wembley Arena in London. The band is playing there on 1st December. Per says Sven is most welcome and he can join Per on stage. Haha.

The kick off song on the program is a song that could be a theme song for the upcoming Nordic Rox shows, Back In The ’90s by the band Melodic Fluke. They are from Halmstad, Sweden, Per’s hometown. PG says they played Halmstad on the Roxette tour this summer and Melodic Fluke was their support act. They actually made a new album, and they sent it to Per. Mr. G listened to it and he thought it was really, really good. So he asked them to become the support act for the show. Sven says that’s what happens if you are lucky and send your new album to Per Gessle.

Hawaii Mud Bombers by Johanna Beach is next, one of Per’s favourites. Per thinks that it’s a great song. It’s like a surf, ghost punk. Sven adds that they got signed by Wicked Cool Records, Stevie Van Zandt’s record company. Stevie Van Zandt has this Sirius XM show Little Steven’s Underground Garage.

Then comes Dark Moon by Johnossi and Mon Amour by The Plan.

It’s time to check out the ’90s list. On position number 30 they have a female artist called Dilba. I’m Sorry from 1996 was a big hit single, a big radio single from Dilba’s debut album. PG thinks it’s an amazing song, such a great track. It stood the test of time for sure. It’s produced by Eric Gadd.

And Eric Gadd happens to be next in line with a song called Do You Believe In Me. It was his breakthrough song. He debuted in the ’80s, but this track is taken from his third album, which came out in 1991. The album was called Do You Believe in Gadd? Haha. Sven didn’t know, but interestingly enough, Do You Believe In Me was a dance hit in the Philippines. Per is curious how Sven knows it. Sven has got connections. Haha.

On No. 28, the guys have an amazing song that Per really likes. Precis som du, which translates into Just Like You, by a singer called Irma Schultz. She had a pretty big career in Sweden with her sister, Irma and Idde Schultz. But this is a solo single written by Mauro Scocco, who is a great songwriter. Sven says they had the pleasure of focusing on Mauro as a guest here on Nordic Rox a couple of years ago. He is a singer and songwriter in a band called Ratata, but he is doing solo as well. He is still around. He wrote this song, and this is a very typical Mauro Scocco song, and with a very typical ’90s production. Sven asks Per what a typical ’90s production is. For PG, it’s very much the style of the drum loops. Drum loops were used in a very special way. You can tell that this is like the ’90s. They did that themselves, with Roxette. They made the Have A Nice Day album, and the Crash album in the ’90s. Especially in the late ’90s, it was very much the drum loops.

No. 27. is Fishtank by a great little band called This Perfect Day. Typically ’90s. The song is from 1997, so this is where power pop, guitars, loud guitars, everything to the fore. It was a pretty big hit in Sweden in 1997, it topped the so-called tracks chart that year, which was the most important chart in Sweden at the time. The band is from the north of Sweden, and the song is taken from their third and last album. It’s called C-60. Sven asks Per if he remembers C-60 and C-90. PG remembers those were cassettes. The album surely came out on CD, the guys are not sure about vinyl. It’s a great song, Per thinks. If you happened to be in Sweden in 1997 and you turned on the radio, you couldn’t escape Fishtank.

The guys check out the debut album of Caesars Palace. They were called Caesars Palace when they started out and then they dropped the „palace” thing. Sven thinks there was a lawyer from Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, calling them up and say, they were there first. Haha. They changed their name to Twelve Caesars, but nowadays it’s just Caesars. They had a big song, Jerk It Out, a couple of years later on, but the song that Sven and Per picked is the opening track of their debut album from 1998. It’s called Sort It Out and the album is called Youth Is Wasted On The Young. Per thinks it’s a great track. It’s ’90s with a sort of garage touch to it as well. They are a very charming band, easy to like. They are featuring two future, or maybe they were current back then, members of the Teddybears. Klas and Joakim Åhlund. And Klas, of course, went on to become a great producer for Robyn, for instance. He is a songwriter and producer. He is also working with Ghost and he even wrote the lyrics to Piece Of Me by Britney Spears. Nice CV.

That concludes this show’s dive into the ’90s.

The guys still play 4 songs on the program, first Electric by a band from Sven’s old hometown, Växjö, Melody Club, then I Believed by Maria Jane Smith and Poetic by Seinabo Sey. The last song on the show is T-T-T-Take It! by Per Gessle from his solo album, The World According To Gessle released in 1997.

Sven and Per say goodbye and thank the listeners for joining them. The show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Photo by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Sven Lindström and Per Gessle are back on The Spectrum with the September episode of Nordic Rox.

Sven thinks maybe they should change the name Nordic Rox to Nordic Metal or Nordic Hard Rox for today’s show. Per doesn’t think so, but he says they are going to start off really loud with a Swedish band called Thundermother. The track is Driving In Style. Sven asks you to watch your ears. So the guys kick off in the heaviest possible style. Thundermother is an all female, Swedish band. Per thinks they are really cool and they remind him of The Donnas, an American band. This is sort of similar. He thinks it’s great to hear that this style lives on, untouched. Sven agrees and adds that if you watch their live clippings, you can see that they are fantastically good on stage as well. So it’s probably a good show to watch out for. He thinks they have to return to Thundermother later on in future shows.

Starry Eyes by Helikoptern is next. It’s a power pop classic according to Sven. Per has the original on a 12-inch. It was made by a band called The Records, produced by a very young Mutt Lange before he became that big producer producing AC/DC, Def Leppard and Shania Twain. Sven didn’t know that Mutt produced this one. He went into harder stuff later, but according to Per, he has always been a pop guy. PG finds this song really wonderful and he thinks Helikoptern is doing a great job. They have a little vocal support by Kerry Bomb and it has just been released.

Hey Winner by Lolita Pop from 1989 is the third song the guys play. Per thinks it’s a great band. Then it’s Royal Republic’s turn with Baby from 2016. Mr. G thinks it’s a great track. Sven thinks it’s produced by Michael Ilbert, but Per is not sure about it. He knows that Ilbert has been working with Royal Republic a bit though, and they have been recording in his studio, in the old Hansa Studios in Berlin.

Above The Candystore by Paola, an old classic from the early noughties comes next.

Dow Jones Syndrome by The Soundtrack Of Our Lives is the following track. Sven asks Per what exactly the Dow Jones Syndrome is, but Per has no clue. Sven says they will bring in a doctor for the next Nordic Rox show and see if they can sort it out. Per says he likes The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, they are excellent. Unfortunately, they don’t do much anymore, but you can always keep your fingers crossed for a reunion. Their album Behind The Music from 2001 is really amazing.

Getting back to Michael Ilbert, Per explains he used to work with Roxette as well, in the late ’90s. Speaking of Roxette, this brings the guys to Per’s solo project. Sven explains Per has just released a new Swedish single. PG says he couldn’t help himself. They started the Roxette tour in February in South Africa and Australia and then they had two months off, so he went into the studio and got four tracks. Sven smiles and says Per can’t just go on vacation. Haha. PG says he likes being in the studio. It wasn’t supposed to be anything, but he liked all those four tracks. He took two of them and made a single called Henrys gitarr (Henry’s guitar). Sven informs that Henry is a guy that’s been reoccurring in Per’s lyrics. Henry is a character that he has been writing about ever since the ’70s. He has been in and out of songs. Sven is curious about what the story is behind Henry. PG says it’s just a cool way of writing lyrics. You create a character that pops up every five years or so. And he has changed his lifestyle and his family situation and his drug abuse or whatever. Now he is back and he is playing a fantastic guitar. Per asks Sven if he likes the song. If not, he leaves. Haha. Sven thinks it’s a great summer track and another reason to learn Swedish.

Close To You by Velvet Beat comes next. [The guys don’t talk about this song, but it’s Sven’s band. /PP] Smooth by The Nomads is the following song. The Nomads are the kings of the Swedish garage rock scene and this one is a great track coming from Solna, one of the Stockholm suburbs. The guys continue with Bound For Glory by Elin Engdahl feat. Elitronic, then comes Waterboy by the Viagra Boys. Do It by Maja Ivarsson comes next, then Sort It Out by Caesars.

A Brand New Start by Miller Moon from Malmö wraps up the show. Per loves this song, it’s such a great track. It sounds a little bit like Billy Idol, Iggy Pop. But they have this computerized bass thing. This is really cool, mixed with all those guitars and that style of singing. Per has never heard it before, so he thanks Sven for bringing it to the show. Sven says it’s his pleasure, he always wants to bring out some cool stuff from the greatest city on earth, Malmö, Sweden. Haha. Per says: „Oh my God…” Haha.

The guys are out of time, so they say goodbye and thank the listeners for joining them.

Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!