Wednesday May 14th 1997, about 11 am.R = Radio Eins P = Per Gessle At first "Do you wanna be my baby?" is played. R: Hi Per, welcome in the studio. P: Thank you. R: Where is Marie? P: Well, Marie is in Stockholm and taking care of her family. She's got two kids now. We decided to take a break after the Crash!Boom!Bang!-tour in 95. R: Are you going to work together again? P: Absolutely!! Yes, we just take a little coffee break, you know. [laughs] We actually start working again in november. And we're preparing for a new album which comes out next year. R: Do you think that the style of Roxette-music is still in time? P: Well, it's our job to make it in time. You have to update your stuff all the time. And I think that's not hard to do because you're obviouslyliving in the 90's and in today. So you listen to new music and you changea little bit with every album you make. R: When I listened to your album, I was surprised that it sounds a lot like Roxette. Why? P: [laughs] Basically, because I write all the stuff for Roxette,so it's my style of writing and it took me a long time to get here. It's something I like, I like this sort of music, Power Pop. For me it's quite a difference there from Roxette, since all these songs are written for my voice and I basically did this album with a band live in the studio. Roxette is much more about technology and computer and sequences. Roxette is much more sophisticated than my solo-album is. R: But you would have had the chance to do something completely different,why didn't you do something different? P: Because I love this sort of music and this is very much myself. I'm a child raised on the 70's and 60's music and that's where my heart belongs. There isn't a Per Gessle who's a jazz addictor or a techno addictor. No darkest side I wanna put out in my music. I really like these heavy choruses, instant choruses and this Power Pop thing that I was raised on. R: We're going to hear something live in the studio... P: Yea, we're playing a song from my album, called "Stupid". Per and Micke "Nord", who is also in the studio, perform "Stupid" live. R: Per, you sold about 45 millions of records. Why don't you just lay down, relax and live? Why do you still work? Why? P: [laughs] Because I didn't start this because I wanted to retire. I started this music thing in my life because I love music and I was been like that.....Pop music is very much...it's not a job, it's my life. Ithas nothing to do with money, it's just something I have in my system,I have to do it. R: How do you write your songs? Do you need a special mood to do writing? P: Well, these days I only really write when I really feel like writing. I'm not like getting up in the morning and write a song every day. I have to be in the mood for writing. I think to be a writer, you have to be a magnet. You have to collect ideas all the time. It's a 24 h thing. You can go to the movies and pick up something from the film, or have a conversation with the taxi-driver and pick something up or overhearing something ina bar and you just collect it and use it in a song. R: Was there a period of time you weren't able to write any song? P: Yea, I find it actually hard to write when I'm on tour. I need the privacy and I need to be very relaxed and on tour it's always a big mess. Your life gets so...screwed up. R: You still live in sweden? P: I live in Stockholm, yea. R: Why? Why dont you live in London or L.A. or somewhere? P: Oh, I like Stockholm. I like to be in Stockholm. I have all my friends and my family in sweden. There isn't a problem these days to be based in Stockholm and have an international career. It's not a big problem. Also I think, part of the success of Roxette is that we've been using swedish musicians and swedish engineers and have a very swedish sound to it. It's very easy to get lost in the shuffle if you go to L.A. or London and you sound like everyone else. R: So you can do a good production-work in sweden? P: Absolutey, yes. It's first class. Definitely. Per's signing his album which you can win later in the show... P: It's done!! Thank you! It's an honour..it's an honour! R: It's an honour for us too. Thank you for coming. P: A pleasure. R: We're going to hear another song? P: Yes, we're doing another ballad from the album and this one is called "Whish you the best". Per and Micke "Nord" perform "Wish you the best". |