On the 24th of April Per was in Holland for the promotion of his single “Do you Wanna Be My Baby”. We had a little talk with him in the restaurant of Dutch music channel “TMF”. With him was Mr. Tor Nielsen, from EMA Telstar.

It was very busy in the little restaurant and Per and Tor were in a good mood. We had bought Per some Dutch cookies called “stroopwafels”, which he tried to pronounce and then translated it into Swedish. “Mmm, they’re very sweet, it’s really something for you, Tor”, Per stated, while pointing at Tor. And indeed Tor liked them! We promissed to bring Tor some as well, when we will meet him again.

Then we gave Per a promotional T-shirt from his own album, which he didn’t have yet. He really liked the shirt. “There are also these big towels”, he told us. “They also have this logo. I ordered a lot of them for the hotel!”.

Fan Club: Aha, for the hotel! We heard that you ordered 100, we were wondering what you needed 100 towels for!

Per Gessle: Actually it were 150. People buy them. People were asking for stuff at the hotel, they always want to buy something. And they are bading towels and the hotel is at the water, so…

FC: There are also disposable camera’s, with your logo on it.

PG: Camera’s? I didn’t see those!

FC: We saw you on MTV on Tuesday.

PG: Yeah, I was there. I did the select-show.

FC: Yeah, I was zapping and then I ran into it, I though: ‘huh?’

PG: (laughs) Yeah, I didn’t know I was doing it actually until I got there! I did a lot of things for VH1 but then I found myself sitting in that select-thing!

FC: Surprise, surprise!

PG: Yes, Surprise, surprise!

(Tor keeps on eating the “stroopwafels” and Per takes the can away) “Don’t eat them! They’re mine!”

They’re very nice!

Tor Nielsen: I like them!

PG: Yesterday I got this nice chocolatebox from EMI and he ate it all! (pointing at Tor)

FC: Well, we’ll take some more of it to Stockholm…

TN: Yes, and some jenever! And Gouda-cheese!

FC: OK, we will!

PG: Not jenever! (to Tor) You drink jenever?

TN: To gratefish,(?) yeah.

FC: For breakfast?

PG: No, gratefish! (again to Tor:) Really?

TN: Yeah!

PG: Well, jenever is nice. But it only tasts good when you’re here! It doesn’t taste good when you bring it home!

FC: Did you hear many positive reactions on your single yet?

PG: Yeah. It’s just been released. It was released a week earlier in Sweden, but it’s already number one in the charts! That’s great, but it got fell to number 2 yesterday. Oww! ‘Cos it’s a brand new charts yesterday.

FC: did you see on MTV, your video was…

PG: Blurred, yeah. Otherwise they wouldn’t show it on MTV. So we had to do it special blurred for MTV. It’s silly.

FC: Yes, it is silly, because it’s not real!

PG: He’s doing it for real! You know, that guy that is…

FC: That’s eating knifes and stuff.

PG: Yeah, he’s actually doing it for real! He’s doing several shots in the video. He claims that everyone can do it, because your head is constructed like that. So you can actually put something in there! (He points at his cheek and his nose while saying this).

FC: It looks scary!

PG: Yeah, but it’s all for real! Actually when he’s performing he’s going on a one-wheel-bicycle on a wire, with 2 forks in his nose and swollowing the sword! (laughs) At the same time! He’s the worste! He’ll be performing at the party on Tuesday.

FC: I was told to make pictures of you alone, Per… without Tor on it! (laughter)

PG: Tor has to be on every picture! He’s actually on my passport, sneaking up from behind!

FC: The second question, well, you already talked a bit about it but it’s: We heard that ‘Do You Wanna Be My Baby’ is number 1 in Sweden, did that surprise you?

PG: Well, it surprises me, because it was released on Friday and the charts-report is on Sunday. So it had only friday-afternoon and Saturday to sell and it went to number 9! Which is quite high for just 1 and a half-day. And I though: “Shit, now it won’t go to number 1”, because most fans bought it the first day, but it went to number 1 anyway, so I was like… wow!

FC: How long had it been on number 1?

PG: Just for a week, it went to number 2 yesterday, which is official today. But I don’t know, they’re playing it on the radio like crazy back home. We try to get it on the radio everywhere. England is going with ‘Stupid’, they’re not gonna release this one

FC: It’s a good song too!

PG: Thanks! We’re doing ‘Kix’ for the rest of the world. It’s the second official single. So we’re doing a video for that one in early May. Probably MTV won’t show it either, because it’s kind of scary, but it’s fun!

FC: So it’s disgusting too!

PG: It has to be disgusting! (laughs)

FC: Of course!

FC: How’s Åsa doing, because we heard she’s pregnant?

PG: Yeah, she’s the fattest in the family now! Which is cool. No, she’s doing very well. She’s actually in the hotel in Amsterdam.

FC: Well, congratulations!

PG: Thank you.

FC: How does it feel, you’re gonna be a father?

PG: It’s sort of strange, but it’s a new face, a new chapter. It’s nice. It’s hard to say, because right now, for me it’s no difference. It’s a female thing at the moment, but it’s fun… I think.

FC: You’re not going to do pregnancy gym with her? (Tor laughs loud!)

PG: Pregnancy gym? Just like: Breathe in… breathe out? (He takes a very deep breath and breathes slowly out again) Well, I try to avoid it, but we talked about it the other day. But I don’t know, I don’t know. I think we will have someone for that. I don’t see myself doing that… Maybe I should use it in the video… (laughs)

FC: We wonder, what is the strange and funny part at the end of your new album that has the same lyrics as ‘Kix’?

PG: That’s a ghost-track. It’s just something Clarence and I did in the studio, because we found an old instrument called ‘melotran’ so he just played on it and I had a mic and sang a sort of Elvis-like.

FC: You sing it?

PG: Yeah, I sing it!

FC: Really?

PG: Yeah, that Elvis-thing!

FC: I thought it was Elvis!

PG: (sounds proud) It sounded like Elvis, didn’t it?

FC: Yes!

PG: But it’s the ‘Kix’-lyrics. It was the first lyric that was on the table, so I just sang what’s on the paper! We just made it up while he was playing.

FC: It sounds funny!

PG: Yeah, it’s funny! We called it ‘Kix-cha-cha’! (laughter)

Yeah, ‘Kix-cha-cha’! And it had to be on the album, because it’s funny. When you play the album it just pops up, you know, you can’t really find it on the album, because it doesn’t have a number.

FC: yeah, we have this EMI-tape of the album, and when I first listened to it I thought that EMI copied it on a used tape, and in the end you hear the music that was on it before your album.

PG: Oh, you thought it was a left-over?

FC: Yes…

PG: No, it’s actually… it’s me and Clarence, having lots of fun! I actually played it for a friend, because he was so curious about the new album and he wanted to listen to the first single. I said: “This is the first single” and I played ‘Kix-cha-cha!’ So he was like: Hmmm… interesting! He though I was weird!

FC: There are all those strange characters on your video, where did you get them from?

PG: It’s a circus, a Swedish, Stockholm circus. Sort of a freak-show. They are doing all that silly stuff like climbing into balloons. It’s very poetic, you know, it’s not agressive or anything. When you see that guy with the forks, he looks like somebody you can pick up from the street, but if you see the whole show it’s like… it’s not a ballay but it’s very poetic.

FC: I like the guy with the plumber tools on his head…

PG: (laughs) Yeah… they’re doing all weird stuff.

Then we make some pictures for the fan club. It was too dark in the restaurant, so Per suggests going into the light. So we make some pictures in the hallway, and of course one from Tor as well, and then we say goodbye, wish Per luck with the TV-interview he’s doing next, and leave the building…