12 Mar 2007

P, C & C ... Who's the "Händig Man"? (I): a new project while Junk Musik is sleeping

As previously reported, Per Gessle, Christoffer Lundquist and Clarence Öfwerman (P, C & C) are "out" and have been recording a new Gessle's album since September 2006. The new album is "En händig man" - ("A Handyman") and if everything goes as planned, it will be released on June 12. And after a two-summer break, there will be a "En händig man på turné" tour this coming summer.

Händig

In 2003 Per released his first solo album in Swedish in 18 years, "Mazarin", which was a great success with almost 400,000 sold albums. "Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)" was the Song of the Year and the hastily organized summer tour became the Tour of the Year 2003. 2004 yielded yet another biggest record – the gigantic Gyllene Tider GT25 tour – which became the most successful tour in Sweden of all times. Almost half-a-million Swedes attented, saw and celebrated. Tickets will be released March 15 and are 370 SEK plus service charge.

The band Per Gessle will tour with:
  • Clarence Öfwerman - keyboards
  • Christoffer Lundquist - guitar
  • Mats MP Persson - guitar
  • Helena Josefsson - backing vocals
  • Jens Jansson - drums
  • Magnus Börjesson - bass
En Händig Man Turné - Tour dates:
En Händig Man pa Turné
  • 11 July – Halmstad - Örjans Vall
  • 13 July – Linköping - Stångebrofältet
  • 14 July – Sandviken - Högbo Bruk
  • 15 July – Leksand - Sammilsdal
  • 17 July – Borgholm - Idrottsplatsen
  • 19 July – Helsingborg - Sofiero Slott
  • 20 July – Västervik - Gränsö Slott
  • 21 July – Göteborg - Slottskogsvallen
  • 22 July – Strömstad - Vallen
  • 24 July – Visby - Östers Gravar
  • 27 July – Skövde - Bolougnerskogen
  • 28 July – Christinehof - Christinehof Slott
  • 29 July – Varberg - Fästningsrundan
  • 1 August – Jönköping - Elmiafältet
  • 3 August – Karlstad - Mariebergsskogen
  • 4 August – Växjö - Evedal
  • 5 August – Malmö - Mölleplatsen
  • 10 August – Västerås - Lögarängen
  • 11 August – Örebro - Behrn Arena
  • 12 August – Stockholm - Sjöhistoriska Muséet

Meanwhile, Anders Mildner gives up Junk Musik and the future of the online company of Christoffer Lundquist & friends is uncertain since they are working in many other projects.



I suck at most things like that and people know this, that's why we chose that title, "a handyman". There's a song called that too.

As I did with 'Mazarin' and 'Son Of A Plumber', I have recorded the album at Christoffer Lundquist's in Skåne and, of course, Christoffer together with Clarence Öfwerman are my closest collaborators this time as well. Through the years we have found a feeling and a way of working which is very special and it felt natural continuing this creative trip together.

We've only recorded Swedish material… 21 songs. Some are even over three minutes! The fact is that we are mixing as we speak. I'm an old man, so it's the same inspiration, same influences as ever. But there are a few rocky Gyllene Tider-power pop numbers as well! We're still in the mix and we've also recorded material live in the studio, because it's so much fun to sing and play at the same time. But I'm really a bit nervous. What if the album isn't good? Some of the material we haven't heard since September… then it might not be done in time? But they wanted it in the press release so they could sell tickets.

It's great to tour in our beautiful summer-Sweden. It's been four years since the 'Mazarin' tour and it feels very inspiring to go on tour again. Musically it will be a fireworks display of everything possible, new songs, of course, but also many of my Gyllene Tider songs which I know people want to listen to. A tour. That's right, it's been four years, isn't it time again? Yes, my feeling exactly, it's so much fun to play, we have a damn hunger [for that] now, after four years… and MP is with us this time. He was on the album but we remixed him off of it! Although some Gyllene Tider songs can't be played without good old MP. And Christoffer can't play 'Det hjärta som brinner' so… This Gyllene Tider thing is hard, you can't play for example 'När vi två blir en' without a bouncing Göran Fritzon behind the Farfisa, can you? Well, "(Hon vill ha) Puls" sounds quite decent with Clarence behind the keys. We've been considering playing some Plumber live, because it would sound great. On the other hand, it's hard to mix languages because you may lose the focal point. Besides that we have tons of material to choose from. The Swedish media will probably call this tour a flop as we'll never get the numbers that Gyllene Tider got in 2004.
Per Gessle




Two years, A LOT of singles and EP:s, two audio books, almost a thousand posts… In some ways, your recent past defines who you are. I am glad that I have had the opportunity to – in a way – be this web site.

When we started the Junk project back in 2004, no one knew anything. Itunes did not exist. Radio only played songs from the record stores.

And believe it or not – there were no blogs with three columns. We wouldn’t let that stop us, though. After one month we found a 19-year old guy in northern Sweden who knew something about Wordpress. He was, apparently, the only one. He helped us out & we sent him our first singles as payment. We got our three columns & slowly learned how to write the code.

Junk was the first Swedish music company to abandon the cd-single & go for download only. We released some great music that the world has not discovered yet. Then we suddenly forgot that we were supposed to produce music & headed for the book shelf. We didn’t think that much - we just wanted to do things that interested us. It wasn’t our plan, but Junk became the first Swedish company to release an audio book novel as a download as well.

Thinking back, I remember late nights sitting in front of my computer, emailing covers, audio files and screen shots back and forth, trying not to fall asleep during endless iChat-sessions.
We have all learned a great deal from all of this & I have made some new very nice friends. Junk will probably continue to exist, but for me, it is time to say goodbye.

I’m proud of what we have achieved and the fact that I know so much about the world of music / download / blogging/ web2.0/ DRM/ copyright/ file sharing thanks to Junk (I even know how to type that code nowadays!). Running a daily blog for over 1,5 years (after that I slowed things down a bit), also taught me about how much work it is to post. post, post, post, post.

But writing these words, I realise that I will miss it like crazy. Really. I will miss posting on this site. I will miss reading your comments.

At the moment Junk is a sleeping project. It may wake up this spring, this summer or this autumn with a Metro Jets record, a Mom & Dad-release or something completely different. That is the fun part with Junk – you never know. I am not a guy for sleeping projects, though, so for me it is time to move on.

Thanks Magnus Börjeson, David Birde, Christoffer Lundquist & Jens Jansson for letting me in. Thanks everyone out there for reading my words and making all my work worth while. I would be happy if I sometime see you at my personal blog.

Love to you all,

Anders Mildner (Junk Musik)
Anders Mildner

Thanks Anders! It’s been a lot of fun! Without you this blog will be very empty. Indeed. If it will continue at all… Let’s see what happens. Anyway, you’re doing the right thing. See you in another project soon I hope! And thanks again for posting and posting and posting and posting …

Magnus Börjeson (Junk Musik)
Magnus Börjeson - Junk Musik



Junk Musik was an early attempt to release music on internet only. That was the idea. It was a great idea but none of us are really business men and it fell apart. The problem was nobody bought anything, so we didn’t earn a penny! So Junk Music is completely K.O. The great thing about it was that there was nothing about music in the blog but about everything else. So that was the idea, attract people due to the blog and have them buy music, but that never happened. We had so many readers, but people didn’t even listen to the songs.

Starting your own record label IS the new way and it’s good. But the bad side is that artists that aren’t good with that stuff, they can go and die in a corner, because they can’t do it all by themselves and it’s a bit sad because you not only have to be a good musician, but you have to be so much else. As soon as there is some big record company involved…but that’s great about Per and Marie. They don’t care about that. They do what they like. They have always done things that feel right in their hearts and never compromised. Never released anything that was an attempt to please anyone. And that’s a huge thing and for me it’s an explanation why they both are so successful.

2 comments:

LJdM said...

Thank you to all the team from Junk Musik and thank you, Mr. Beagle Anders. Keep dreaming. Keep writing. It’s worth it.

LJdM said...

We took Christoffer Lundquist's words from a marvelous interview in roxetteblog.com (December, 2009). Thank you, Judith and Kirsten.