Today "Roxette Hits" and "The Rox Box" have been released, with Roxette’s participation in the “Världens barn” (Children of the World) gala tomorrow and some other playback shows in November and December.
The two new songs recorded in June 2006 at AGM Studios are "One wish" (a pop song) and "Reveal" (a ballad). LJdM staff thinks that "Reveal" is a nice ballad (it sounds a bit 'weak' and 'empty', though). We agree Per's words: "One wish" is not a "song Roxette will be remembered by of course". We think the 20th anniversary is important but they should not have recorded new songs if the circumstances were not good enough. We are much than happy about Marie Fredriksson's recovery but the needs of the Rox fans, desperatly waiting for new songs, are not a good reason to record new songs before it is all ready. We find a lack of energy in the songs; it seems they did not find the way to their own sound. After the natural sound of Son of a Plumber, new Roxette's songs sound even more artificial.
One of the most interesting tracks included in the “The Rox Box,” the demo “Anyone/I Love How You Love Me,” is actually half a cover of The Paris Sisters’ hit “I Love How You Love Me.” The song, written by Barry Mann and Larry Kolber, was produced by Phil Spector and was a big hit in 1961, when it reached #5 on the Billboard charts on October 30.
Per Gessle speaks about Roxette and about Son of a Plumber. By the way, Magnus Börjeson and David Birde, co-owners of Christoffer Lundquist's Junk Musik company, have begun the recordings of a new album.
The two new songs recorded in June 2006 at AGM Studios are "One wish" (a pop song) and "Reveal" (a ballad). LJdM staff thinks that "Reveal" is a nice ballad (it sounds a bit 'weak' and 'empty', though). We agree Per's words: "One wish" is not a "song Roxette will be remembered by of course". We think the 20th anniversary is important but they should not have recorded new songs if the circumstances were not good enough. We are much than happy about Marie Fredriksson's recovery but the needs of the Rox fans, desperatly waiting for new songs, are not a good reason to record new songs before it is all ready. We find a lack of energy in the songs; it seems they did not find the way to their own sound. After the natural sound of Son of a Plumber, new Roxette's songs sound even more artificial.
One of the most interesting tracks included in the “The Rox Box,” the demo “Anyone/I Love How You Love Me,” is actually half a cover of The Paris Sisters’ hit “I Love How You Love Me.” The song, written by Barry Mann and Larry Kolber, was produced by Phil Spector and was a big hit in 1961, when it reached #5 on the Billboard charts on October 30.
Per Gessle speaks about Roxette and about Son of a Plumber. By the way, Magnus Börjeson and David Birde, co-owners of Christoffer Lundquist's Junk Musik company, have begun the recordings of a new album.
We have such a strong catalog of songs and we’re professional (read “old”) enough not to release any crap. I’ve always felt there is life in any band/artist if you can come up with the goods. We do our best. What’s there to lose? Getting a bad review? I don’t think I’m underrated! I think you more or less get the reviews and rewards you deserve.
It has to be up to Marie and me to decide what to release. If you have a band and want to release 2,000 demos, be my guest! I won’t argue with that, it’s your choice. And, down the road, a little frustration and confusion among some fans only makes the whole journey a bit more fun, don’t you think? Have another coffee! There was an entire CD of only demos made for the RoxBox but everyone involved (EMI people, Marie and Clarence, myself, etc.) fell asleep listening to it. So we decided not to release it and only keep some of the goodies for the box. I still think that was an intelligent choice. But, of course, in due time, more stuff will burst out, steaming, through the Rox Shower! You don’t like Mondays??? Well, Roxette certainly do! Starting Monday October 30 (and continuing until Xmas) Roxette.se will give you the opportunity to listen to some extremely rare Roxette demos, straight from Señor Gessle’s hidden vaults. Every Monday we will bring you a new special track, never before released. And yes, they’re all in stereo and no, you can’t download them, only listen to them.
The lively Marie is gone. Of course she’s a different person today. It’s naturally a different Marie today. When something like this happens one reconsiders everything. It doesn’t help how many gold records you have hanging on the wall when you get ill. It was scary. There are different grades of cancer and of course one lived in suspense. I don’t even think the chance was 50/50 for her to make it. It’s amazing that Marie has recovered. The singing voice is back at full strength, but there are other circumstances. She has a problem reading fast and trouble remembering things. Everything goes a little slower. Maybe it can be worked on, but it takes time.
Now Roxette is back, even if on a different premise. When the compilation became viable it was Marie who suggested that we should record a new song. Actually we haven’t discussed if we are going to do something more. I don’t know what I want to do. On the one hand it’s fun, of course, but I have no idea if there’s a point in continuing. It doesn’t feel so tempting to go on promotion trips and sing playback in Vienna, Hamburg and Madrid. Who would’ve thought that. Now we’re actually back, and have really no idea where it’s gonna end. We’re open to basically anything. So far a few TV’s have been scheduled. I’m doing quite a lot of media, phoners and face-to-face interviews all the time. One day I have to stop talking!
I always say that everything I do is coming from “the same tree,” it’s just different branches I use all the time. If you work with other people in a band (in my case Rox/GT) you have to compromise a bit, but that’s fine with me. In this case we wanted, and needed, a duet and a ballad and that’s what I wrote and what we recorded. And that’s how we sounded those days in June. I think the old Rox sound is dead and buried. For good reasons. From an artistic point of view it would feel awkward to walk in the same shoes forever. You have to change. That’s the fun of it. The two most recent songs are basically done in the same way as we did Son of a Plumber. Same guys in the studio, same attitude. It’s similar with my writing. I don’t write like I used to. Today I prefer not to make demos, for instance. And I’m much more fuzzy regarding ideas. They have to be really interesting (for me) to shine through… to become a song… that will be recorded.
It's been a giant step for Marie. It was sensational, at least to me, that Roxette recorded again. So I stepped up to the plate and I wrote a few songs. We thought "Reveal" would be the Big Hit, but in the studio "One Wish" flourished. Not a song we will be remembered by of course, but still as good as we could do under these circumstances.
I still consider SOAP to be my best work. It sounds EXACTLY how I wanted it to sound. It’s a shame for the human race that it didn’t sell. So many people would have loved it if they knew it existed. It’s almost double platinum in Sweden but it never really took off anywhere else. At least not in any numbers that makes an old fart like me impressed…
I’m working on new things, new songs, new everything like I always do. I like to keep my head busy. I would love to do another SOAP album some day and there might be some more Rox music in the future. Beyond that, sorry, but I can’t reveal anything more right now. But the hammock sounds nice… sunny beach even nicer…
I’m sure there will be more tours in the future. I like playing and singing my songs. I like getting the reaction I usually get from the audience. It’s hard to beat. It’s like a great go-cart lap.
It has to be up to Marie and me to decide what to release. If you have a band and want to release 2,000 demos, be my guest! I won’t argue with that, it’s your choice. And, down the road, a little frustration and confusion among some fans only makes the whole journey a bit more fun, don’t you think? Have another coffee! There was an entire CD of only demos made for the RoxBox but everyone involved (EMI people, Marie and Clarence, myself, etc.) fell asleep listening to it. So we decided not to release it and only keep some of the goodies for the box. I still think that was an intelligent choice. But, of course, in due time, more stuff will burst out, steaming, through the Rox Shower! You don’t like Mondays??? Well, Roxette certainly do! Starting Monday October 30 (and continuing until Xmas) Roxette.se will give you the opportunity to listen to some extremely rare Roxette demos, straight from Señor Gessle’s hidden vaults. Every Monday we will bring you a new special track, never before released. And yes, they’re all in stereo and no, you can’t download them, only listen to them.
The lively Marie is gone. Of course she’s a different person today. It’s naturally a different Marie today. When something like this happens one reconsiders everything. It doesn’t help how many gold records you have hanging on the wall when you get ill. It was scary. There are different grades of cancer and of course one lived in suspense. I don’t even think the chance was 50/50 for her to make it. It’s amazing that Marie has recovered. The singing voice is back at full strength, but there are other circumstances. She has a problem reading fast and trouble remembering things. Everything goes a little slower. Maybe it can be worked on, but it takes time.
Now Roxette is back, even if on a different premise. When the compilation became viable it was Marie who suggested that we should record a new song. Actually we haven’t discussed if we are going to do something more. I don’t know what I want to do. On the one hand it’s fun, of course, but I have no idea if there’s a point in continuing. It doesn’t feel so tempting to go on promotion trips and sing playback in Vienna, Hamburg and Madrid. Who would’ve thought that. Now we’re actually back, and have really no idea where it’s gonna end. We’re open to basically anything. So far a few TV’s have been scheduled. I’m doing quite a lot of media, phoners and face-to-face interviews all the time. One day I have to stop talking!
I always say that everything I do is coming from “the same tree,” it’s just different branches I use all the time. If you work with other people in a band (in my case Rox/GT) you have to compromise a bit, but that’s fine with me. In this case we wanted, and needed, a duet and a ballad and that’s what I wrote and what we recorded. And that’s how we sounded those days in June. I think the old Rox sound is dead and buried. For good reasons. From an artistic point of view it would feel awkward to walk in the same shoes forever. You have to change. That’s the fun of it. The two most recent songs are basically done in the same way as we did Son of a Plumber. Same guys in the studio, same attitude. It’s similar with my writing. I don’t write like I used to. Today I prefer not to make demos, for instance. And I’m much more fuzzy regarding ideas. They have to be really interesting (for me) to shine through… to become a song… that will be recorded.
It's been a giant step for Marie. It was sensational, at least to me, that Roxette recorded again. So I stepped up to the plate and I wrote a few songs. We thought "Reveal" would be the Big Hit, but in the studio "One Wish" flourished. Not a song we will be remembered by of course, but still as good as we could do under these circumstances.
I still consider SOAP to be my best work. It sounds EXACTLY how I wanted it to sound. It’s a shame for the human race that it didn’t sell. So many people would have loved it if they knew it existed. It’s almost double platinum in Sweden but it never really took off anywhere else. At least not in any numbers that makes an old fart like me impressed…
I’m working on new things, new songs, new everything like I always do. I like to keep my head busy. I would love to do another SOAP album some day and there might be some more Rox music in the future. Beyond that, sorry, but I can’t reveal anything more right now. But the hammock sounds nice… sunny beach even nicer…
I’m sure there will be more tours in the future. I like playing and singing my songs. I like getting the reaction I usually get from the audience. It’s hard to beat. It’s like a great go-cart lap.
When we started Junk, we wanted to show that it was possible to record music one day and release it the following. Now, we want to show you some more. We want to invite you to a whole new show: the making of an album. Still, in 2006, albums are mythical. The whole process of recording an album is hidden in secrecy. But wouldn´t it be nice to actually be able to follow every step, to be able to hear the songs take shape? This is exactly what we are up to now. Welcome to our world & to the making of Metro Jets new album. Follow the sessions here at Junk in text, audio and pictures. We want your comments on this, so please, go ahead, let us know what you think. No one knows where this will end. Not even the band. But we start today and we hope you will enjoy the ride.
Anders Mildner
We want to do a Metro Jets album. We are about to find out how, when, where and why. Easy pieces :-) For the last 8 years I’ve been using Digital Performer as my main Digital Audio Workstation. DP is a great linear DAW. A couple of weeks ago I tried Ableton’s Live for the first time and bought it on the spot. It’s fun and easy to use. It has more of a non-linear approach so it seems to complement DP very well. So on the hard edged technical side, the album is gonna be made up of recordings made in DP, Live and on tape at Christoffers’s place. Goodbye demo and hello first draft. So what’s this then? We’re abandoning the notion of the “demo”. We’re calling the first thing recorded a “first draft” and then it’s just onwards from there. Maybe the first draft turns out to be very special, then we’ll keep it. Maybe the first draft has some good elements in it. Then we’ll keep that and move on to the 2nd draft. Maybe the first draft is notoriously bad, and all the elements in it are even worse. The we’ll have a great place for that. The trash. David and me has always had grand brilliant ideas and concepts about what to record, how and why. In our thoughts we’ve probably made 3-4 albums and at least 10 singles over the years. Followers of Metro Jets releases can compare that to the actual output…and smile…or sigh :-) This time David had one idea. Have no idea! Write and record. That’s it. So that’s what we’ll try to do. …. and Metro-David answers some questions ….
Magnus Börjeson - Junk Musik
What is it you want to do? – An album. We’ve been scheming for years. Now is the time to act! What will it sound like? – We don’t really know. We’re just gonna start and keep going until we’re finished. I’m as clueless as anyone about what this will sound like. It’s gonna be good though. Where does this idea come from? – From Norway, I think. Have you any rules for this project? – This project has been surrounded by different theories and dogms throughout. Now I think we’re down to: Lets use our inhouse equipment and talent (until we need outside equipment and talent!)
Ok, so the first day is done, and guess what? We’re starting with a cover! “Metro Jets” (suitable title, huh?) by Canadian glam-slime-dude Nick Gilder. The first sketch sounds like Prince meets David Bowie in a Miami marina 1982. But that says very little of what the final result might be like… Anyway, it’s a lot of fun and we’re really excited. Our dear friend Daniel Bexell came by and took some pictures that we’ll post here soon. Can’t wait for tomorrow (if Magnus just gets the hang of his new drum machine…) I can see his studio from my bedroom and I have a notion that the lights will be on for quite some time tonight. I think I will fall asleep tonight (after a couple of pages in Chuck Palahniuk’s excellent book “Stranger Than Fiction”) safe in the knowledge that he’ll have it all worked out for tomorrow’s session… I’ve been dreaming about the doobie brothers all night… scary indeed. Call me when you are ready to pop, Magnus.
So Metro Jets it is. In Meta. Wanted to try out the drummachine MicroTonic. Turned out it was fun and easy once I read the manual. But you try to put off reading the manual as long as you can. Don’t you? You’ve done it so many times. It’s like reading your tenth Beatle biography. You have to wade through all the “Liverpool after the war …” bits before you get to something remotely exciting. Anyway MicroTonic was exciting from the moment I double-clicked the installer. And now I have to pay up in order to make that annoying robot voice shut up. “You should consider buying Micro Tonic”. Kind of a nice touch though compared to the blasts of white-noise that most demo software fires at you every 30 seconds. All in all a good day. And a nice picture by Angry Uncle as well!
Magnus Börjeson - Junk Musik
Cover-versions are difficult. It’s very easy to fall in the trap: soft song = heavy version / hard song = soft version or maybe super arranged song = stripped down version. All of the above are quite boring, so we’re taking a smooth song and making it smooth in another way. Smooth is however difficult. There’s a little thin line between smooth and rubbish. But as always in pop music, it’s when you get close to crossing a border (whichever it may be) but manage to stay on the right side (whichever THAT might be!) that you get the best results. Music that don’t take any risks is pointless and the same goes for lyrics. Questioning yourself and your work is (for me anyway) a majort part of the process. If you feel completely satisfied with a song from the moment you start writing it, up to its release, there’s probably something wrong with it… (Or you’re Noel Gallagher) (Or both.) Anyway, we’re slowly moving on. Today we’ll do some singing, to see where we’re headed…
Ok, so here it is: the Metro Jets project has started. You will find the media player in the right column of Junk Musik Website. This is where the audio files will appear. The band chose to start with a cover. The first thing they did was to try out some fitting loops to catch the smooth sound they are talking about. I have no idea exactly what they mean by ”smooth”, but I´m sure we will find out soon. The pic above is from Magnus F.E.E studio. Thanks for commenting on this project. We need your input. Spread the word, and we will be even happier. Cheers
Anders Mildner
Today has been a “do other stuff” day. There’ll be plenty of those before this album is finished I’m sure. And we won’t bore you with details about the rest of our lives. Tomorrow though will be a “do this stuff” day and hopefully we’ll have something to listen to. If it will be very concrete or not…let’s say…let’s see.
Magnus Börjeson - Junk Musik
New week, new challenges… Work with “Metro Jets” - the song - continues. Prince has now left the Miami marina in rush, leaving Bowie behind. He went to Glasgow (!) and introduced his Linn drum machine to a couple of gloomy art students with badly tuned guitars… Yes, ok, enough! We’re moving on and it feels good. Soon we’ll be able to present more soundclips and by the end of this week we might even have started on the next song (working title: The Hymn). Thanks for your comments and, as Magnus said; please be patient with us. We’re as new to this as you are…
OK, in the player to the right of our web you can listen to what 30 seconds in Glasgow might sound like. And don’t forget, pads are the new black!
Magnus Börjeson - Junk Musik
Mom & Dad are Jens Jansson and David Birde, from BrainpoolRecording of a Mom & Dad album was supposed to take place this summer. But the Mom & dad-project is an ongoing process. It has not disappeared. We had to postpone the recordings to late fall. All music is written. Some titles: Was Ist Mehr Pop?, Childhood Beats, Frat Rock, mm … At the moment, Jens is in France. He’s playing with Peter Von Poehl as support act for top frenchies Phoenix. We all miss him desperately. Check out Peter: www.petervonpoehl.com
Like David says, it’s a little postponed. I’m in southern France and it’s great! Tonight we’re doing a show with Phoenix in Toulouse, which will be fun. If you’re in this part of the world, come and visit us! So far the shows have been really good, let’s hope that continues… But, in November it’s time for MOM&DAD recordings. En loop i handen är bättre än tio i skogen!
