P, C & C in a Rox-Plumber-Box (V): One wish and some lessons

The new Roxette single “One Wish” already got played in Germany’s radio stations on September 15 – unexpectedly early as the Swedish premiere was announced for next Monday. The video, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, was premiered in Sweden on TV4’s “Nyhetsmorgon”. Roxette’s new single “One Wish” is the highest new entry this week on Sweden’s Topp 40 chart coming in at #26. “One Wish” also debuted at #17 on the Nielsen Radio Topp 20 chart.

LJdM staff has listened to the new song. We are a bit disappointed. It sounds very artificial, not special at all. We wished something new from the AGM Studio. Anyway, we enjoyed today's blog by Adela Toplean (Happy Birthday, Adela!): yes, Son of a Plumber is better than Gessle ... and much better than this 'One wish'.

Updated 2007: There has been no news about new projects of P, C & C (Per Gessle, Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist) because Roxette is supposed to be the 'central issue' this fall. But we have known that P, C & C have been since September 2006 in the AGM Studio again to record new Gessle's songs, mostly in Swedish.

According to The Cardigans, NONS record has released today a Swedish Indie Anthology featuring 42 tracks. It´s called Svensk Indie 1988-2006 - En Svensk kärleks historia. ( A Swedish lovestory) First track is Happy dead men´s Silent sigh city from 1988. The last track is The Concretes´On the radio from early spring this year. The Cardigans are in the bunch aswell, with Rise and Shine from 1994! And Brainpool’s At school (one of their hits) or Radio Dept’s Against the tide are also ther (2002, when Per Blomgren was in the band).

cd 1

Happy dead men- Silent sigh city
Wannadies- The beast cures the lover
Easy-Cloud chamber
Eggstone- Wrong heaven
This perfect day- This friendship of ours
Popsicle- Hey Princess
Brainpool- At school
Suredo- Average cell
bob hund- Fem meter upp i luften
The Cardigans- Rise and Shine
Hardy Nilsson- Hela hjärtat mitt
Broder Daniel- Luke Skywalker
Honey is cool- Georgia
Kent- När det blåser på månen
Fireside- Left rustle
The Bear quartet- it only takes a flashlight to create a monster
Cloudberry jam- Elevator
Souls- Expensive
Yvonne- Modern love
Drowners- Summer break my fall

cd 2

Bad cash quartet- Amuse you
Club 8- Missing you
Doktor Kosmos- Le punkrocker
Plexus- Elektroplux
Håkan Hellström- Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg
First floor power- We are the people
David and the citizens- Now she sleeps in a box in the good soil of Denmark
Hell on wheels- Soda
Silverbullit: Magnetic city
The Knife- Kino
The Embassy- it never entered my mind
Marit Bergman- This is the year
Differnet- Conflictionary
The Radio dept- Against the tide
Suburban kids with biblical names- Rent a wreck
Andreas Tilliander- back to the USA
Jens Lekman- Maple leaves
The Tough Alliance- Take no heroes
Audionom- DC2
El perro del mar- This loneliness
Frida Hyvönen- Once I was a serene teenage child
The Concretes- on the radio

LJdM

Roxette sold a decent amount of records in South America, but nothing remarkable. Maybe 30,000 records in Brazil. But when we released tickets we sold 120,000 - just in Rio. 60,000 in Sao Paolo, 55,000 in Montevideo. Totally amazing! Porto Alegre was like Albert Hall only much bigger. Someone in the band had the stomach flu and threw up on stage. That was fun. And after a TV interview in Amsterdam we saw a guy in a window yelling ’I love your record!’ It was Tom Petty, my old hero. ’We love your records too!’ we yelled back. Everyone considered us a one hit wonder when we broke through with “The Look” in 1989. But we weren’t in our twenties, we were almost in our thirties. We owned our own publishing companies, we had chosen our management, we kept a check on things. When we got our foot into things, we hung on. The climate of pop music is totally different today. Almost no artists get time to make mistakes anymore, it’s more of a product thinking these days. Suddenly Roxette stand out as the real deal. It’s for real, we write and produce ourselves and people know all our songs. When I was in New York this summer and went through immigration, the officer asked me what I did for a living. ’Musician’ I answered. Then he wondered if he should know about me. ’Well, I wrote that’ I said, and pointed to the radio which was playing ’Listen to Your Heart’. That was fun.

Per Gessle

Helena Josefsson, backing singer at Malmö's studios (VII): District 1269 - Summertown, summer flop?

On July 1st 2006, District 1269 (Yonaz Grauholtz + Chris Jersey + Nick Raven), the band from Malmö, released their first single, "Summertown", that includes two songs: "Summertown" (featuring Helena Josefsson) and "As Happy as Me". The songs were recorded at Wonderland Studio, Malmö, with the producer Krister Larsson (Fast Future Records) in two very intense moths (April-May 2006). Yonaz and Chris initial happiness soon turned into sadness and sorrow, since Krister wanted to record dance, while they wanted to make more rock influenced music. They simply didn't get along with their ideas, and according to them, many verbal fights have occurred in the studio.

The band the CD cover photos in Copenhagen and the single has become available in the Wonderland Studio official site and in iTunes. But Yonaz and Chris are not happy at all with the promotion of the single: the result of the single became a sad compromise, which nor the band or the record company were actually satisfied with. Despite this, Summertown has been played in a few local radio channels in Sweden this summer (thanks to Yonaz, not the record company). You can listen to it in District 1269's myspace.

LJdM

Sandy Mouche's poems grow up abroad (IV): Johanneskyrkan, Malmö ... but focusing on countries outside of Sweden

* Johanneskyrkan, Malmö 2006 · 09 · 15

Comments by fans:

I went to Johanneskyrkan's concert in Malmö. It was huge and special: the music went directly into the heart!

Helena was very nice and gorgeous and talk with me and my friend. We had very happy days together and listened to Sandy Mouche's music.

Hälsningar från holland :)

Saar (aka Sarah den Rara),
from Alkmaar, Netherlands

Thank you for being in Johanneskyrkan. Some news for you beautiful fans... We are right now focusing on countries outside of Sweden. This means that there will be no concerts for Sandy Mouche in Sweden for the time being.

Our solo projects are in the making.......

Per has recorded several songs in Swedish. Listen here.

Ola has recorded a few songs to. Listen here.

Martinique is in the studio right now recording four songs.

Helena has finished the recording of her solo album. The first single will be released in november. Listen here.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

Adela Toplean wrote a great article about Sandy Mouche's albums. She is a very good writer, an even better painter and a fan of Sandy Mouche and Helena:

Sandy Mouche Curriculum ...

by Adela Toplean (September 16, 2006)

Yesterday evening, when I found out that Sandy Mouche was about to perform in Malmö, at Johanneskyrkan, it was already too late for me to get there. And pretty windy. And quite dark. Now, after more than 12 hours after the unseen event, when I’ve suddenly decided to write something about the greatest little band in Sweden, I’ve realized that I don’t really have any new Sandy Mouche-related ideas. I managed to shape and send all of them, months ago, to different destinations; from personal emails made for my friends’ eyes and personal conversations for my friends’ ears, to “sermons”, little reviews and guest books.

Now blogs have little to do with exclusivity. I need to believe (so please lie to me!) that mine is an exception: blurred, but spontaneous, not previously-thought (by me) no-man’s-land’s ideas, a place where I systematically (and dynamically) avoid my two basic preoccupations (and extremes): getting heavily theoretical and giving up to creative writing.

But how could I then justify the presence - here and now - of my old opinions on Sandy Mouche? Sorry, I can't. But unfortunatelly I’ve got no new ones either. Helena´s upcoming album (I wish I would know more about it, but I don´t...) will probably wake me up in a flesh from my false apathy. And I can only imagine they've already agreed upon some more mesmerizing ideas to be brought out for her solo album. However, in the mean time, here are a few of my old, but unworn Sandy Mouche-concerned sparks.

Unaltered musical instinct: Sandy Mouche, consisting in one girl and three boys, is (still) a somehow girlish band that cultivates a devastating excellence. I assume they did it both consciously and unconsciously; and in a very mature manner. I do not feel any groping in the way they write, sing and perform, as if they'd know very well how the tunes should sound like. Their inspiration has a "direction" which is, beyond doubt, something of extreme rarity. Some composers and singers are struggling half a life to dare to express themselves this way and also to dare to close a personal circuit showing their listeners that they have a coherent inspiration. Most of them are only able to give off sparks instead of a well defined "vision". What a huge difference to be noted between those who only (and quite easily) react through music and those who are actually able to shoulder and express a musical perspective that lays in themselves!...

The albums... Helena Josefsson´s voice, if I am allowed to slide down the lyricism, gives the impression of a sort of airy/watery medium, a container for Martinique's voice that floats and flies within, drawing gentle (but well-defined!!) lines. It's not a matter of combining or blending two kinds of voices so it is nonsensical to discuss whether they fit or not (they rather not...); because it is not about fitting, but about a mysterious way of containing each other. If you’d give it a listen, my words would sound less precious and more accurate.

Giving particular attention to each of their albums (White Lucky Dragon and ...and poems for the unborn), I could say that the latter pays more tribute to undertones of all kinds. It’d be almost vulgar to note that it is a more mature album, since it chronologically and logically comes after White Lucky Dragon. But I don’t know if it’s really (or only) about getting more mature musically. It’s like Helena and Martin, after testing their human and musical skills of blending voices and personalities in their first album, are now paying a special attention to emphasizing the other’s musical presence ; it’s like each of them, now having his and her very own musical standing point (“Spiderweb Suit”, “Fat”, “Fish Tale”, “Evening Wake, Morning Flake”), tries to contribute at the general coherence of the album through his and her very personal musical abilities. It’s like they grew on each other without the entangling efforts that seem quite clear in White Lucky Dragon. The song (single!) “Une Histoire” seems to hang between the two worlds; it sounds like making the linkage from one stage to another. So, as a conclusion, I believe that …and poems for the unborn gained in profound coherence while losing the surface smoothness of the White Lucky Dragon. Martinique’s voice from “Le Mistral” reminds me of the great steady voice of the latest Françoise Hardy and Helena´s voice never really reminds me of anyone else, except of herself. All my efforts to compare her with some other singer have, thank God, constantly failed. My absolute favorites: “Baby can’t stop”, “Fairies and Elves”, “White Lucky Dragon” and “Notes and Bills”.

Indie? After hearing their both albums, I felt like rejecting an – already unspecific if not directly annoying – label like indie. Because it's not particularly indie, it’s rather organic and emotional which are the attributes of any good music, regardless the stream; the year; the trends. It has an almost strange way of being exquisite, unexpected, straight, uncomplicated and sophisticated at the same time. The mélange tends to be a coherent paradox that could strike at least some of us.

It is also important to note (and to get amazed by) how Sandy Mouche have made me put aside any kind of "measurement" tools. Because I come, as a listener, from that wing of music still paying its tributes to the classic rock ´n roll, I could note that, in most of the cases I am familiar with, one can easily say what fits and what doesn't, what's coherent and “who” is the coherence spoiler, what drags him down and what pulls him up; but here, at Sandy Mouche, you have to give up anatomizing. It's not about cohesiveness and it's not about assortment either.

Their way of dressing doesn't even have to deal with their lyrics, they can freely go from an extreme to another, they could wear cowboy suits and come on stage riding horses, the very essence of Sandy Mouche is not altered. I know too little about them for really figuring out whether it comes from their pure talent or from their approaching the daily life (which probably requires just as much talent as music, by the way); many artists are getting personal, but that’s far from being the shortest way to good music. This being the case, I would assume that their manner of writing and performing is more about their being a unique filter-paper filtering the reality with fairy-tale-ish criteria. It must be all about Helena’s believing in elves...

All in all, the outcome is tender and easy-going at the surface, but it does conceal a definite soberness. It says a lot about the tragic and yet imponderable feeling of life.

Because I am very aware of the fact that singing and composing differently, or, from a more general perspective, doing things differently is NOT a guarantee in itself for creating a totally “something else”, I have never lent a generous ear to labels like indie. And whenever I did it, I’ve hardly had the impression of superiority; to my guess, it’s rather sad hearing too many people struggling to avoid a cliché, thuswise getting ridiculously intricate and incoherent. For such desperate moments, there’s always enough time and space to turn down the invitation and re-enter an open, old, secure backdoor to Harrison´s and/or Lennon´s universes...

“Making a difference” doesn’t necessarily imply a serious act of creation. Therefore, when stating the artfulness of Sandy Mouche, I was indeed expressing my amazement for realizing they’re not only making a difference (which can be quite easy from a certain point on), but also building a musical perspective of their own; and therefore it’s probably nonsense to talk about their music as opposing to the “main-stream” (whatever would that mean) since I do not hear in Sandy Mouche any definite breaking-ups with the good old pop; it’s rather about re-thinking and re-sorting out its elements – something that any creator, regardless the stream, should do in order to become

1. plausible,

2. original and

3. lovable by others’ ears. If the wind is auspicious.

Adela Toplean - A_T_ blog

Sandy Mouche's poems grow up abroad (III): à Paris, La Flèche D’Or (September 2006)

Promotion in France (I)

* La Flèche D´Or, Paris 2006 · 09 · 13
102 bis rue de Bagnolet, Paris 20e

"Free Entrance! We play with: Little, Katel, David Haircut Ltd (France) and The Tellers (Belgium)"

Pictures taken by www.sandymouche.com

During the promo trip in France (September 2006), Martinique and Helena in France was interviewed ¡in French! by Radio Neo

LJdM

Our first interview in France and in French =)

The already world wide known interview from Radio Neo. Listen here.

Martinique and I go to Paris to talk and sing on the radio! Our main goal will be to make great duo versions of Sandy songs and to visit some real Parisian cafés and the Eiffel tower of course, 'cause we have never been in Paris! It will be very very cosy I hope and believe!

Have a lovely day !!

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Pictures by Natacha Sardou - from Paris, FR

The Good Mornings back ... for a while

The Good Mornings, the Swedish band leaded by Dan Bornemark and Helena Josefsson between 1999 and 2001, have got their small revival. The band included Helena Josefsson (lead vocals), Dan Bornemark (keyboards, vocals, music), Jens Ståhlstierna (guitar, vocals), Figge von Wachenfeldt (keyboards, vocals), Rasmus Kihlberg (drums), Bosse Håkansson (percussion) and Björn Gustavsson (bass).

A song has been lately re-recorded in 2005 adding backing vocals by John P. Weathers (original drumer of Gentle Giant). It is Let Truth Reveal the Beast (Bornemark/Josefsson) and is now included as the opening track in the Giant for another hour CD (a tribute to Gentle Giant released on 31st August 2006). These are the credits of the song: Helena Josefsson: lead vocal; Paul Hoffax: guitar; Bengt Johnson: drums; Dan Bornemark: all other sounds except: John P. Weathers: additional backing vocals. You can listen to the song here: Giant Hour 2 (CD Baby)

Dan Bornemark wrote:

"Recorded in 1999 during our wonderful project 'The Good Mornings.' Dedicated to Tobbe Russlander and his right to be a father. Tobbe is still not wanted as the father he is."

P, C & C in a Rox-Plumber-Box (IV): a book and a life

Per Gessle is going to write book about his life. Co-writer Sven Lindström, who is a copywriter and music journalist (at Sydsvenskan) who has interviewed Per several times over the years, says that the book should probably arrive next year (spring of 2007?). Sven has also written several sleeve notes for Roxette. Anna Tillman, PR and information manager at publisher Albert Bonniers, says “For now we’re aiming for the Swedish market, but of course this is the kind of book we’re bringing to the book fairs in Frankfurt and London.” She continues “It’s an authorized biography. Everyone’s involved. Per Gessle has given us full access to his archives so we have a lot of material. It’s fun with artists that have documented so much over the years.” What to be expected? We do not know, but we like the article written by Adela Toplean in her blog. Read it!

Meanwhile, the tracklist of the upcoming RoxBox was revealed today and TDR received a maelstrom of mostly negative comments that have been answered by Per Gessle himself. The box includes two new songs (One Wish and Reveal) and some demos.

The Norwegian band CC Cowboys released this week their seventh album "Evig Liv". The album was recorded and produced by Christoffer Lundquist at AGM Studios.

LJdM

Dear Daily Roxers, hope all is well in the real world!

I’ve noticed, reading on my own and thru various mails, that some of you are unhappy, furious, hurt, suicidal and even displaying a very unpleasant attitude regarding the upcoming Roxette releases.

Roxette has been around for 20 years, this particular year we have decided to release 1 compilation album with our biggest hits + 1 box set which should give a more complete picture of the band and our ambitions. All for a wide audience of old + new fans and people who perhaps didn’t even know they were fans…

We have recorded 2 new tracks which we feel are up to the same standard as our best material. As well as these new ones the box will include 14 tracks that most folks living on this planet aren’t that familiar with. And they’re pretty good too. Yea, that’s about it. No, I forgot the extended version of MTV Unplugged recordings which will also be included in this mighty box.

It has never been our intention to have a box-release leaning heavily towards demos, remixes, song sketches or live material. Like I mentioned before the idea with this particular item is to present the big picture of what Roxette is all about. We don’t want that flow of quality productions to be interrupted by 7-minute remixes or lukewarm demos. Quality over exclusivity has always been our choice.

By the way, talking about demos: Most artists (that I know of anyway) don’t release demos at all. Just so you know, the demo is made by the writer or the artist to try out the song, to find out for oneself what it’s all about. It’s not necessarily meant to be heard by the public. It’s work in progress. Some of you seem to think that these, often primitive, recordings or rough sketches are made for your ears. They are not. They are made for ours. You can’t take for granted that the demoversion of every Roxette-song you like has to be released. That won’t happen.

So…I really can’t understand the dissatisfaction among some of you. If you don’t like it, don’t listen to it and certainly don’t buy it! Marie and I have to be the prime judges of our own music, our own lyrics and our own productions. That won’t change. It’s a beautiful day out there. Enjoy it.

Per Gessle

The son of a plumber writes a book about plumber’s son. More exactly, Per Håkan Gessle - from Roxette, from Gyllene Tider, from Mazarin, from Halmstad - writes a book about himself.
With a little help from Sven Lindström (I’ve read he’s a copywriter), he will do what every Q.I.P. (Quite Important Person) does at least once in his or her life: gather together the facts that made him look, stand and live the way he does it now. A typical success-story, that is. Which is always interesting to read for a few fans, but always boring for the general public. Why? Because the facts are always the same: these people tried and, to their own surprise, these people succeeded; so everything's the same, in spite of the different musical styles, different chart positions and different locations – be it Gainesville, Florida, be it Goldenburg, Germany, be it Halmstad, Sweden (no allusions, no comparisons to anything or anybody, I swear), the success story follows the same pattern.

What would make the difference between two or more success-stories in the end? Everything but the facts. Everything but those hallucinatorily exact dates that (I bet!) Gessle kept in his hundreds and thousands of drawers about when a certain line was written and how that line ended up in a hit, and how a potential hit ended up by being an actual hit and how America ended up by ignoring that hit and what time was it when he tried again and what time was it when he tried once again.

Since I'm a researcher (and that's nothing to be proud of), I know that, from a point on, the facts are, however, of very little help; even within a juicy area like anthropology.

This would a fortiori apply to situations in which the facts lead to a more than obvious point– i.e. fame, success, money – that is, in Gessle’s case, stark and clear even before opening the book; in my humble opinion, the predictable (and often well-known) facts should be mentioned in a (auto)biography only for justifying more subtle stakes. In short, in order to make a difference, a story needs reasons. Reasons that are completely unknown by the general public or average fan.

For instance, I’m almost sure I won’t get to find out - from Gessle’s autobiography, I mean - why did he actually decide to talk about his destiny really THAT early? Why all this excessive haste? Why couldn’t he wait for a few more chapters in his life to be closed? Another thing that is surely not to be found in his upcoming book: what exactly - from his personality or from his creed - makes him do unoriginal moves, why does he fail to be himself precisely when he struggles more to be himself (musically that is)? And so on and on.

The things supposed to make a difference in an (auto)biography, are, in fact, those that a human being like Gessle is not willing to share. And if he’d suddenly decide to be open (God forbid), he’ll end up backing up his book in precisely the same manner in which he upheld the Son of a Plumber album; namely, repeating over and over again– somehow in vain – a few sweet things about a little nerd who spent his childhood listening to the big brother’s vinyl collection… I expect you not to get me wrong, I love Son of a Plumber album, I think it's definitely his best album ever (and probably unrepeatable), but people failed to see any substantial connections between Jo-Anna, Havana and what it is like to be a son of a plumber in the 70’s... None would have guessed its personal imprint if Gessle himself wouldn't have mentioned it.

All in all, Gessle never succeeded in getting specific. This lack of specificity made him lose important credits among the listeners of the so-called "good music". And this might have been his very own goal after all. He never wanted to be himself, he always wanted to be “one of those” he admired. He's more a fan, a music-lover, not a creator; and so I always had to look for his originality in other places than those he pointed at. In other words, I had to retrieve him before starting listening to his music. I should praise myself for that.

I know he’s neither stupid nor totally unoriginal. But he simply read too many popstars trivia. He always wanted to be a legendary hero and, therefore, properly trivialized; that is, treated according to his musical hero status, originated in the old classic rock 'n roll league.
So, my humble conclusion is that he simply failed to put the differences between him and his idols to good use.

Taking into account his standards, I do hope his book will be “one of those” already written about his idols. Not better, not worse - just as he wants it. Taking into account my own standards (too much concerned with Serenus Zeitblom's concerns), I'm afraid his upcoming book will make no difference. Poor me, after all.

Adela Toplean - A_T_ blog