jobarth said on September 21, 2004 16:26:

I know only from Room Service:

http://www2.dailyroxette.com/article.php/597

RobS said on September 22, 2004 07:56:

Talking about tourism is a interview disc for radio stations about tourism (obviously), it has the same sort of thing that your talking about. I’ve never been able to find anything on the net or any place that has it. sadly not even a transcript of it :-(

ncurran said on September 22, 2004 17:21:

The “Talking about Tourism” interview was on the UK Queen of rain CD single.

RobS said on September 23, 2004 07:59:

any chance you could post a transcript of TAT somewhere??

Mary said on September 23, 2004 09:20:

You mean POP, LS and Joyride track by track? Oh, I must have missed it! Where is it available?
OK, I’ll transcribe the Tourism interview and post it here as soon as it’s done.

Mary said on September 25, 2004 00:26:

Well, it took some time and finally here is the complete transcript of “Talking About Tourism”. I’m sorry for some misspellings of names I never saw in writing; anyone more familiar with them correct me, please. Also there are a few words I still didn’t get even for more listenings but otherwise it’s fine, I think. So enjoy this; it’s quite long! LOL!

Tourism

When did the idea for the album come up?
Per: Well, the idea for “Tourism” probably came up in a bar - all good ideas come up in bars - in Australia; we were touring Australia just before Christmas. And we wanted to find a way to sort of capture the energy within the band and this... I don’t know who came up with the idea but... We wanted to sort of record songs in different studios and different parts of the world. Another idea was to sort of bring a mobile portable studio with us and... You know, try to record in hotel rooms, in backstage areas, dressing rooms, men’s room (Marie laughs)... Anything. So we sort of put those ideas together and... We didn’t wanna do a live album at all because live albums tend to be quite boring, you know, it turns to be like second-rate greatest hits albums. So we put all these ideas together and called it a tour album, you know. It’s got like 16 tracks on it and 10 of those are brand-new songs, 4 are live recordings and there’s another two songs which are like re-recordings of old Roxette standards.

108 shows across four continents in one year. Are you workaholics?
Marie: I think it’s very important to take care of success that we have now and do our best, and time flies, everything goes so fast, and so I think now the “Tourism” album is a wonderful album that for us is going to be a very nice memory from this world tour because we never know if we can do a tour like this again, you never know about future and...
Per: The idea with “Tourism” was to sort of capture the energy within the band, you know, when you’re on the road for such a long time, the things happening within the band, you know, the band obviously are getting tied to be also (?) when it comes to personal relationships, you know... It’s really hard to sort of go back into the studio after like six months and try to sort of have the same energy so I think it was a good idea to sort of... you know... be able to sort of take advantage of everything that’s surrounding the band, you know, the energy. And also most of the songs on “Tourism” were written for the band, you know, which is a big difference, cos the “Joyride” album itself was basically written for the studio. So if you listen to songs like “Keep Me Waiting” or “Cinnamon Street” or “The Rain” or “Heart Shaped Sea” it’s made for the persons in the band. So there’s lots of reasons why this thing worked out.

You seem to have become a big family over the years. How important is it to you to have an all-Swedish team conquering the world?
Per: Well, I think the sort of family thing that we have is crucial to our success. You know, we’re very proud of having all this success with Swedish musicians. We have our producer Clarence Öfwerman, is also a keyboard player in the band, he’s like the key figure, you know, And Anders Herrlin is the bass player and also the engineer, Jonas Isacsson, the lead guitarist, is responsible for this brilliant guitar work on the albums. And I mean, for us it’s like... It’s old friends, you know, and absolutely they got a big part and should take a lot of credits for our success. We got some more people in the band...
Marie: Yes, it’s Staffan Öfwerman, Clarence’s smaller brother, he’s doing the backing vocals and percussion and keyboards, and Vicky Benckert, and those two together is a very good team on backing vocals. And yeah, like Per said, we have known them for a very long time, and that’s important to work with people that you know as friends, I think then it’s much easier.
Per: And Pelle Alsing plays the drums.
Marie: Yeah.
Per: Great drummer... Terrible tennis player.
Marie laughs.

It must be easy with such a family of friends around you.
Per: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the whole band and everyone is like, you know, when you’re on the road for such a long time you have to know each other very well. Sometimes it is more important to work that it works more socially than it works musically, you know, because it’s... You’re living very close to each other, you’re traveling all the time, you know, and I’m really happy to say that after this tour, you know, we’ve been out for a year, we still talk to each other and we still enjoy our company, and I know that not many bands can say that after a year on the road. So that’s really a good thing, and it has to do a lot with that we’ve known each other for a very long time.

Every song on this record seems to have its own story. “How Do You Do!” for example.
Per: Yeah, “How Do You Do!” is... I was basically writing another song and “How Do You Do!” just jumped down on the desk. You know, it’s one of those songs you feel like you’ve written so many times but still it feels fresh. It turned out to be an interesting thing when Marie got involved with doing the chorus because we did this key change, this modulation, which sort of made the song happen even more, I think. It’s really fun and it’s... Actually I think that’s the song that is most produced on the record; it could be on “Joyride”, you know, because we spent a lot of time producing it, which you can’t really say for most of the other tracks; we tried to do it very simple, but “How Do You Do!” is a very produced record; it’s like a puzzle of sounds and everything. It’s great fun and it’s been fun to watch it grow during the tour, the summer tour, because when we started playing it the record wasn’t out, you know, and in the end it’s a big hit, you know; so it’s fun.

You seem to go back to the seventies.
Per: Yeah, well, I think “How Do You Do!” is a lot of the early seventy stuff, it could be like a Chinny Chapman song, you know, Madore, Sweet or whatever; it’s got that attitude, you know, which is... I mean, basically it’s the... We were teenagers at the time, you know, so it’s something that we like to listen to.

Fingertips

Marie: “Fingertips”, it’s one of my favorite tracks. And I don’t know when you wrote it, Per, it’s... But I remember first time I heard the demo version and Per singing the song and I fell in love with the great song; it’s very warm and the lyrics are so special, and that’s a song that I really hope that we can release as a single in the future because it’s very catchy.
Per: That was recorded in Rio de Janeiro in a studio just below the big Christ monument, was fantastic, you know, it was like... a very special feeling. It sounds a little bit like The Beatles meet Mamas and Papas (Marie laughs), you know, a lot of these Marie’s harmonies are really interesting. And it’s one of those songs that was around for quite a long time; I wasn’t really sure that the chord progression was good or bad, I couldn’t make up my mind, and I phoned Clarence, our producer, up to sort of play the chords for him on the phone, he said: “Well, that sounds interesting, sounds really fresh.”. And then when I played it to Marie she was like: “Yeah, this is a great track!”. And also it’s nice when... I always prefer Roxette songs when we sing both of us, you know, because the song sort of grows, takes the listener to a new dimension when you sort of exchange vocals like we do in “Fingertips”.

Per: Yeah, actually that was... the birds, you know, it was almost like a joke. We were fooling around in the studio in Rio and someone came up with this idea: we have to have birds; because Clarence heard... thought we had birds on the demo, which we hadn’t, you know; so let’s find some birds; so we found some Brazilian birds and put in there. That’s great fun. I can’t really remember when it was written; it was written this spring, I guess. It’s like a happy song, you know.

The Look

Marie: That’s a song that we’ve been living with since 1988; and I think it’s always going to be I think for Roxette the key song because that was the song that really helped us. And I think we had number 1 in 20 countries with that song. And I never get tired of “The Look”; so many other songs I get tired of Roxette songs playing, I mean 108 shows (Per laughs), it’s... “The Look” is, there’s something magic with that song, it’s always funny to do live. So we wanted to record that song live and have put on the album because it’s so much energy in it and also I think because it’s... it’s really Roxette, it’s how we started with that song.
Per: Yeah, I agree, I think it’s... even if today, I mean, you hear it once in a while on the radio and it still sounds like a hit record, you know, which is more than you can say for most songs that was recorded in 1988. And there’s definitely something special with that song, you know. Also, I mean, this recording was done in Sydney, Australia; obviously the audience’s reactions to this song always are enormous, you know, so it’s easy to sort of find a good version of it, you know, and also the band know it by heart, you know, so it’s a matter of finding the right night, so to speak, when the audience is 100% and the band is 100%; and this is like, I think it’s a good recording, captured what it’s all about.

The Heart Shaped Sea

Per: It’s a little bit different because it’s almost like a folk song. I wanted to write a song that was, you know, in a sort of Tim Hardin tradition, sort of late sixties New Yorkish folk tradition. Also it’s... we recorded that song in LA, and also the song found a new dimension immediately when Marie moved in and started to do vocals on it. It’s a little bit special and that’s one of my... I think one of the best tracks on the record. Also I’m really happy we got so much good response playing it live, even if the people have never heard it since it’s not out yet, you know. It’s an immediate (?) song, you know, and it’s great to perform with mandolins and everything.

The Rain

Marie: We recorded that song here in Stockholm; and it’s a very nice lyric and I think that now Per and myself, we’ve been working so long now together. When he writes songs for me, I think that’s a typical Marie song; the lyrics fit me perfect, the atmosphere in the song and the melody, the chorus is very special.
Per: It’s very much a small town song, you know, it’s basically about, you know, when you grow up in a small town that you really don’t give yourself the chance to grow because there’s always something that holds you down, you know. So, I mean, it’s a sort of a liberation song, in a much more intellectual way than “Dressed For Success” because “Dressed For Success” was also like, you know, stand up and fight for your rights; this is also the same thing but this is a little deeper, you know. It’s a very personal thing and I know that since Marie and myself are small town people; this is a subject that is very close to our hearts.

Keep Me Waiting

Marie: It’s a typical Per song, “Keep Me Waiting”.
Per: Yeah, I guess it is, it’s... what I like about that song basically is the lyrics because it’s... that sort of doesn’t really make sense and I like that (laughs). It’s like a fun lyric; I like the rhyming of “money meant” and “monument”; I think that’s great (both Per and Marie laugh).
Marie: But that’s really a nice side that you have, I mean, if I should sing that song it should sound terrible. I remember when Per was writing “The Look” a long time ago and he wanted me to sing that song and it sounded crazy; it’s... those kind of lyrics fits you perfectly.
Per: Well...
Marie: Cos you, I think you are crazy.
Per (laughs): No, but it... I think it has to do with melodies, you know, because Marie’s range is so wide and my range is very narrow. The song like “The Look”, for instance; we shouldn’t talk about it but “The Look” is like very: da da da da da (sings the verse melody), hardly any melody at all; “Keep Me Waiting” is sort of similar, you know (sings the verse melody again); it’s a very small melody, so to speak. Marie, she feels much more comfortable having a big melody, a wide range, lots of modulations. “It Must Have Been Love” or “Perfect Day, you know, songs that really need a big singer, you know. So “Keep Me Waiting” is obviously perfect for my voice, you know; it’s more like a deliverance than a performance actually. But it’s fun; it’s very hooky and the chorus is great, you know, it’s also... it doesn’t really feel like it’s something we’ve done before, you know, with the structure of the song; it’s a little bit different; and it’s always great to hear Jonas sort of going mad on the guitars, you know, with all this... lots of overdubs, you know, it’s great. It’s like a punkish attitude to this song, which is enjoyable.

It Must Have Been Love

Marie: Playing in front of 50000 people in Santiago in Chile and the whole audience singing “It Must Have Been Love”, I mean, that’s a memory forever. We’re very happy that we recorded that show and... because it’s so nice to have on the album and it’s a fantastic intro to the new version of “It Must Have Been Love”, the country version that we were recording in LA; also very special arrangements, it’s so warm, and it was very nice to sing that song again because it’s a very old song for us. And now since we have played that song so many times live I’ve changed the melody so many times so when we were recording it it was like I was singing it live, performing it live. Was all of us together sitting in the studio in one, two takes, I think.
Per: We were fooling around in the dressing room actually, you know, before a show in Canada, I think it was; and we were supposed to do an acoustic performance at a convention in New Orleans and we just sort of rehearsed the songs and someone came up with the idea, I think it was me, that we should do a country version of “It Must Have Been Love”, you know, because it’s got this old Neil Young groove to the song if you want it to; you know, if you play it on acoustic guitar it’s like (shows how it would sound). Oh, we already booked studio time in LA to do “Heart Shaped Sea” so we said: “Let’s do just the backing of “Heart Shaped Sea” and do another backing of “It Must Have Been Love” instead of just finishing “Heart Shaped Sea”.” And everyone said: “Yes, that’s a good idea.” Everyone in the band are sort of, more or less big country fans, you know. So this turned out to be a fantastic session. And I think, vocally I think this version is even better than the original one because it’s... you can hear Marie has become the song, you know, when she sings it. It’s not just like singing it; she is the song. And I think this is a great version. I know this version’s gonna surprise a lot of people; but that’s good. The whole thing with sort of putting the live version and the studio version together came from a Jackson Brown record “Running On Empty”, which he’s doing sort of the same thing with two tracks. Obviously it was... this idea came very easily with having a live version in front of the real version, basically because Marie’s sitting there with the piano and everyone is singing every night, you know, it’s like great. And wherever you are on this planet everyone knows “It Must Have Been Love”; it’s a great thing to have captured it on the record. Brings tears to your eyes. Hello, mom.

Cinnamon Street

Marie: Yeah, “Cinnamon Street”, we had little problems with that song in the beginning because I sang it first but it didn’t work. Sometimes you just feel that... no, that song don’t work for me and it was much better for Per to sing that song; so we have two different versions, but the last one with Per singing the lead vocals was much better.
Per: I think that also has to do with what we talked about before, you know, with melody, you know, it’s a small melody to it, and it’s more like a story, you know. Also it had to do with the attitude; the first version we did was little looser, a little poppier, you know; then we went into the studio in Copenhagen and recorded it once more with little bit more guts, little bit more harder edge to it; also we blended our voices much more in the second version; even though I’m doing lead Marie is there almost all the time, coloring it. The lyrics are basically about my old neighborhood when I grew up. So that’s also the reason why it was probably easier to deliver by me because it’s about me, you know. So it’s also, you know, a small town story, you know. Have to stop writing these small town stories (both Per and Marie start to laugh).
Marie: You have to move to a bigger city.
Per: Exactly (laughs).

Never Is A Long Time

Marie: “Never Is A Long Time” is absolutely one of my favorites as well like all the songs of course, but that one is special because it’s a very very old song; it was actually written for “Look Sharp!”. And I don’t know, we didn’t record it that time, it was...
Per: We made a demo of it in the studio here in Stockholm.
Marie: Yeah, but it was... I don’t know, I think we had problems with it to find a good arrangement, and so this time we said: “Hey, why not do it just totally acoustic?” So we ran to the nightclub in Sao Paulo in Brazil...
Per: Very ugly.
Marie (laughs): Very ugly, yes.
Per: ... gold, looks like a bordello (both laugh).
Marie: So Per, myself and Jonas and Clarence Öfwerman; Clarence was playing the piano, an old piano and Jonas acoustic guitar and you too as well, Per also playing acoustic guitar, and it was only one take. Sit down together, I think we had a rehearsal for a few times and we just recorded it.
Per: It’s interesting because we, Marie and myself, we went down first in the session sitting there in this empty nightclub and tried to find a good key for it; it was in the couple of beers and pizzas, terrible pizzas, by the way.
Marie: Yes.
Per (laughs): And Marie wanted to use a very low key, you know, almost like when she’s whispering, you know, when she speaks very very soft, which doesn’t really make sense if you have a big arrangement, but for this track and for this sort of low-key arrangement it felt like her voice creeps into you, which is really interesting; and that’s why I think this song lives in this version, you know, it really grabs you. And it’s one take, vocally as well. But I think we had a big advantage that we had recorded it; you know, we knew the song; you knew the song from before so it was very easy to get into it; it wasn’t any new song or anything. But obviously for everyone it’s a new track.
Marie: It’s so sad.
Per: It’s very sad. But still it’s nice; and we have this sort of ... slide guitar played by Jonas, which also sort of brings the song up to life, and Jonas is also doing mandolins in the choruses. So it’s a great track, but it was a terrible pizza.
Marie laughs.

Silver Blue

Per: Well, that’s a really good question. “Silver Blue”, it’s one of those songs, there are always songs that you feel didn’t really get the chance it deserved. We played “Silver Blue” live on the last tour and we got a good response throughout our fanclub in Germany for instance. We get all these charts, you know, the fans’ favorite songs and “Silver Blue” is always top 3, you know, so... All we did basically was to... We took the old version and made it sort of happen even more; we put more guitars on it and stuff like that, so... It’s a song that the both of us really like a lot. So it’s very beautiful; it’s almost like a song from a movie. It was also basically written for “Look Sharp!”, but then we wanted to do a re-recording of it so we kept pieces and added pieces.

Here Comes The Weekend

Marie: Suitcase song.
Per laughs.
Marie: “Here Comes The Weekend”; it was really fun to do. We were in Buenos Aires in a hotel room, the whole band actually, and had a lot of food and beer and coffee and stuff and sitting, really a party. And our drummer Pelle, he put together some suitcases where we put some microphones on and he was...
Per: There was lots of towels on them.
Marie: Yes, yes. So he’s playing on suitcases; and then Anders, our engineer, puts a lot of effects on it so it sounds very very special. Sounds really good. Yeah, so it feels like a party song.
Per: That recording sort of captured the whole spirit of this album, you know, because we wanted to... It’s a fun thing, you know; when you tell people that you did this... we did this recording in hotel rooms everyone says: “Oh, you getting drunk and doing some stupid stuff...” but it’s not like that at all; it’s more like everyone was in a really good mood, you know, we had a great time in Buenos Aires. And the only problem we had was that they were re-decorating the hotel at the same time so we had to sort of talk to the hotel manager to tell him to stop sort of banging on the walls, you know. The song itself is also quite old; it’s been around since the “Look Sharp!” days but we never really did anything with it. And I think this environment fits it perfectly because it’s very simple, it’s very sort of an obvious old-time pop song, you know, and if you go into the studio to do this song I think it would be like too light and too meaningless, you know; and in this environment with these suitcases and everything and accordion and there’s a lot of noises and coffee cups and everything, you know, it sort of makes sense in a funny way. In the end of “Here Comes The Weekend” we try to phone room service, you know; and if you listen very carefully you hear a guy saying: “Room service? Hi?”. We tried to sort of get this on tape and it’s there but it’s very very low. It’s fun.

So Far Away

Marie: Yeah, it’s in the same room, the same hotel room. That’s also a very old song for us; it was on our first album “Pearls Of Passion”, which was only released at home in Sweden; and in Canada. That’s a song that both Per and myself always liked a lot, and that was also a song that we just wanted to do like it is, I mean, very cool recording acoustic.
Per: We’ve been doing it like that on stage as well, on the last, not the “Joyride” tour but the “Look Sharp!” tour we did it once in a while and just the two of us. So we knew that the song sort of had a power to stand on its own right, just a couple of guitars and piano and vocals; it’s also one take vocal, which is interesting; sometimes it’s just the best, you know. The guitars are a little bit out of tune, though, but OK (both Per and Marie start to laugh).

Come Back (Before You Leave)

Per: Well, “Come Back (Before You Leave)” is... sort of jumped into the album basically because it’s one of those songs that we talked about before that didn’t really get the chance, you know. The only connection with this album is that it was recorded for “Joyride” and this is obviously the “Joyride” tour that we’ve been working. It was the B-side of the “Joyride” single so I guess a lot of people all over the world heard it but still it’s a fun track and... We had so much problems with it while we were recording it, you know, we had problems with the intro, we had another intro which is not on this version, which sort of screwed us up a lot; we spent like weeks sort of starting all over again, you know, and so when this song was done everyone was so fed up with it; we said we can’t have it on the album because we’re gonna hate it. But today, you know, it feels like it should be on the “Joyride” album, and especially I like the middle ... Jonas is sort of playing George Harrison slide guitar, sounds little bit like “My Sweet Lord” or whatever, you know. Great vocals as well from Marie on that one.
Marie: Thank you.
Per: You’re welcome.

Things Will Never Be The Same

Marie: It’s a wonderful song to do live and has been so nice in the show to have that in the middle to cool it down a bit and we do it just two of us. Where did we record that song?
Per: In Switzerland, Zurich.
Marie: In Zurich, yeah.
Per: We always look for songs to sort of take down into just like the simplest elements, you know, like an acoustic guitar and vocals, and “Things Will Never Be The Same” works very well. Obviously some songs are written that way, you know; “Things” wasn’t written on the guitar, it was written on the piano. The version we had on “Joyride” was very much a studio thing, you know, it’s very produced, very sequenced, so we just felt that this song could have another life, you know. And it’s always been like a show stop; if people come to hear the radio hits, the dance hits or whatever they really listen when the songs come up.

Why is “Queen Of The Rain” the last song on the album and not “Joyride”, which would have been a more natural choice?
Per: “Queen Of Rain” is last basically because we felt that if “Joyride” is the last song it’s gonna be like, it’s so obvious, you know; if we put “Queen Of Rain” at the end it’s more like the “SGT Pepper” thing, you know, we heard “A Day In The Life” as sort of an extra track. We always considered “Queen Of Rain” to be one of our best songs. And it was obviously recorded for the “Joyride” album, and people who heard the song at the time “Joyride” came out said: “You’re crazy, why don’t you put it on the album because this is a great track.”. But we felt that we wanted to tour with “Joyride” so we wanted “Perfect Day” instead because “Perfect Day”, it’s got this accordion and we needed the accordion thing for the stage show. “Queen Of Rain”, it has oboe and all those kind of instruments but still it’s a little bit more difficult to perform. So at that time we thought it was a better idea to use “Perfect Day” because we had so many ballads anyway so it was a matter of picking the right ones. But for this album we knew that “Queen Of Rain” has to be on it, you know, because we really like it a lot and I think if it comes in the right environment I think it’s gonna be a major track. It’s very beautiful and it’s very sad and once again Marie really creeps into you when she’s singing it.

And who actually is the queen of rain?
Per: Well, I think there’s a little queen of rain in everyone, you know. It’s not about a certain person, it’s more like a state of mind. The chorus actually is written by Mats Persson, who’s been collaborating with us for a very long time since 1932.
Marie laughs.

We can’t forget “Joyride”.
Marie: Yeah, “Joyride” had to be on the “Tourism” album because it’s...
Per: It’s the theme.
Marie: Yeah, it’s the theme. And do that song live, I mean, in the end of the show every night when Per is screaming: “Come on and join the joyride everybody!” and for instance in South America 50000 screaming: “Wow!”. That was a fantastic feeling. And everybody knows the song; it is like “It Must Have Been Love” and “The Look”. And then in the show we had all these balloons.
Per (sings like it is in the song): Wonderful balloon.
Marie: And all the audience and we had a lot of fun with those balloons and also a very very nice memory.
Per: It’s great to have, you know, it’s like a trademark song. At the beginning we had a lot of problems performing it because it’s very much a produced song, you know; we took it down to the eight of us and it works very well after 108 shows (laughs). And so it’s great, and this particular recording is done in Sydney, Australia. It’s nice with this type of song like “The Look” and “Joyride” and “Dangerous”, which are basically traditional pop songs; when we perform it live it turns into a little bit more edgier, a lot louder, you know, everyone is looser when they play it; you can hear it on “Joyride”; it’s sort of screaming, you know, it’s fun. Which is basically why we picked those four live tracks - “Joyride”, “The Look”, “Things” and “It Must Have Been Love”; it’s because they have a new life in live version; it’s not like replicas of the recorded version, the album version, it’s more like a new thing.

Is Roxette a rocky pop band or a poppy rock band?
Per: People seem to know all our songs, you know,especially when we go to the show they get really surprised: “Did you do that? Did you do that? We have that song at home, you know; I didn’t know it was Roxette.” But still I think that’s the price we have to pay because Roxette is so many different things, you know; Roxette is not entirely top 40 and we’re not entirely ballads, we’re not this or that; if you listen closely to the albums you find there’s a big big wide road between “Watercolours In The Rain” and “Small Talk” for instance, which are two different worlds, both lyrically and musically. And that’s what we like, you know, and that’s what we’re trying to show with this album as well, you know, doing like a folky thing with “Heart Shaped Sea”, doing a country thing with “It Must Have Been Love”, doing a sort of punk thing with “Keep Me Waiting” or really really really soft intimate thing with “Never Is A Long Time”. So, I mean, that’s because we’re two persons, two personalities and two very strong wills and different opinions; and that’s why I think it works, you know. Of course, sometimes you have a problem with it because people always want to put you into formats, especially in the States, you know, they want to stick to the winning formula, stick to your format, keep on doing those power ballads, you know; which is nice, but it’s only a part of us, you know.

Per: The whole tour on a scale to 10 we must give it 11, you know; it’s been a magnificent tour; everywhere, you know, from the beginning; we started in Europe and we felt the... we knew obviously that the album was big when we started touring, “Fading Like A Flower” was exploding, the second single, and we really felt that it’s happening; we started off, you know, in Northern Europe and went down to Germany and Holland, all those countries and we felt the explosion was there, you know; suddenly we started to sell out 15000 seaters, you know. And then we just moved to Australia, which was equally good, you know, our first tour there, and played the big places, and then we did North America after Christmas, which was our first North-American tour as well; we’ve played in a little small venues but still good reception everywhere. And I think for us the North-American tour this year was the same as the European tour in ‘89; we presented Roxette as a live band, people really didn’t know that we were able to tune our guitars, so this is like a presentation, a showcase for Roxette. And the Canadian tour obviously was big success.
Marie: And South America was for all of us so special, because, I mean, the countries over there, it’s so different from Europe and from Sweden, and so that was something very very special to play in North Argentina in two cities called Tucuman and Cordoba; they were closing the whole city; it was the Roxette day, and the kids...
Per: It was like Carnival.
Marie: Yes, and the kids don’t have to go to school, they should go to the Roxette concert; they never ever in Tucuman had a concert before, seen a live rock’n’roll concert.
Per: So we didn’t need a lot of ... to impress people there (laughs); it was great.
Marie (laughs): It was fantastic. And also in the school they were using the lyrics from the “Joyride” album to learn English, to know what we are singing about so they could understand us when we were performing.
Per: They speak very bad English there so they used this album to sort of get the kids to know English.
Marie: Yeah.
Per: Which says a lot about how big it is there. And we were really taken by surprise because obviously we knew that we were selling a lot of albums there but when we got there it was like a fever, a Roxette fever.
Marie: I think it’s the biggest tour in South America since Queen 1981.
Per: Yeah, it’s true.
Marie: So that’s... so we’re very proud of that we were going there and performing.
Per: Hope to come back and play.
Marie: Yeah, absolutely.
Per: It’s great.
Marie: And then after that we went back to Europe and playing out to arenas and it felt like coming home.
Per: Yeah, of course.
Marie: Everywhere in Europe it’s fantastic.

And looking ahead, what does the future of Roxette look like?
Per: Well, who knows about the future; I mean, what we’re trying to do is to sort of come back to normal, you know, back to zero after this sort of... almost four years of traveling and promotion and touring and recording; so what we’re gonna do now is basically to take a break for a while and hopefully in the spring we sort of start working, you know, recording, and hopefully I get some new directions and new ideas to sort of bring the Roxette ship to new oceans... But who knows? I mean, right now we just feel like we wanna sort of “go back to bed” (laughs).
Marie: I have to work on a Swedish album as well; I’ve been working for that for a very long time, and that’s for my Swedish all fans, and that’s something I must do, go back to singing some songs in Swedish, because I think it’s so hard to write in English. So that’s a good step for me in between all these Roxette albums cos then I get a lot of new inspiration and so then I feel hunger again next year to start to work on a new Roxette album. So I’m going to do that before Christmas; that feels like vacation (laughs).
Per (laughs): I think it’s hard to take vacation; I never really take vacation, it’s like... the line between being at home and working is very very thin, you know, it’s like... even if you’re at home and you’re taking time off you’re sort of constantly looking for ideas, constantly doing something creative. And it has a lot to do with personality, I think. I don’t see a big difference between my personal life and the Roxette life because for me it’s like one thing, and so...
Marie: And that’s a big difference between us because for me it’s not. For me, I have to have my personal life and my... you know, my private life, that’s something, I don’t want to be involved in Roxette or in my job, so we’re very different there. But I think that’s why we can work so good together because we’re so different. But sometimes of course we have problems because we... when I say: “Oh, now we have to have vacation.” and Per: “I don’t know what to do when I have vacation, I must work, I must work, I must work...” “Oh, come on...” And so it’s...
Per: That’s the way it is.
Marie: That’s who we are and what we are, and I think, like I said, that’s why we have all this success because we complete each other so well.

Zargo said on September 25, 2004 07:39:

thanks a lot Mary!

If you’d left out all the “you know”s it would have taken you half the time ;)

on_a_mission said on September 25, 2004 16:00:

cheers

AURYTE said on September 26, 2004 07:09:

You can find comment about HAVE A NICE DAY in ROXETTE Review Number 34, I think.

Thank you, Mary.

Why can’t I play the video stuff about ROOM SERVICE on my PC?