Interview s Björnem Dixgårdem, které je rozhodně o Něčem, přeloženo z němčiny úžasnou Marishou Kazaryan! ;-)
Let´s be honest : The people who saw Mando Diao live during the Festival Summer 2009, at some point, especially as fan, had to start wondering. The big success of ´Dance With Somebody´ didn´t always seem to be good for the band.
What happened there? Nowadays, they were always on german Television, but what did the five do at the Klitschko-Gala, singing ´Fight with somebody´- oh dear or at Gute Zeiten Schlechte Zeiten? And anyways, the five? Why did often only play four of them? One member just let himself be replaced by somebody else- practically there is Sugarplum Fairy, like this somebody can always jump in and replace someone, if you as band member have something better to do.
What about live? Mando once used to be the band, which played a different and surprising setlist at all their concerts. But now they always played the same songs. Along with Gospel Background singers.
Of course, everyone besides Mats became fathers in this summer, so you set different priorities. Also you start to develop and to expect from Mando, to still sound like the rebellious leatherjacket guys of ´Bring´em In´ after all these years would be silly. But something went wrong here. It seemed as if the guys would just take it but as if the passion was only a byproduct.
That is why the Unplugged- stories of MTV are so important. Because this show , I was there, me, the lucky little jerk, finally had this intensity again, this urge, this magic for which we all were so overwhelmed by Mando once. In addition, guests, surprises, an unexpected setlist. The guys have put much thought into this show. This wasn´t something they had to do, this was an event. You will all be able to see the proof very soon on MTV.
Our Interview takes place a few weeks after the show. Björn ( And CJ who didn´t take part in this conversation) visited Berlin for a couple of days which didn´t exactly make the Label happy, that actually wanted to have more members taking part in the promotion in Munich, Hamburg etc. But the others are still mixing in Stockholm or take care of their families.. That´s how it is.
Björn I wanted to talk to you about something you said right after the Show. You said, that this show was after 1 1/2 years the first time that you actually were proud of Mando Diao again.
Yes, and this was also correct right in this moment. But please, understand me correctly: I am always proud of Mando Diao. Otherwise I would´ve had to leave the band a long time ago. But this Unplugged show - I still don´t know how we managed to do such a great thing. These vibes, which we created. Everything that we managed with Mando Diao before this event didn´t matter that night. We were just high on Music- so I may have overstrained it a bit. Either way this was one of the absolute Highlights of our career.
So is it possible that this show could point out the direction for Mando Diao in the future? Getting old in a classy way.
Well I think we always had this acoustic thing in our blood. That´s how Gustaf and I write our songs that´s how people do it for over one hundred years. That´s a very natural side of ours. For this we didn´t have to practice long. If we suddenly had the idea to record a Synthesizer-Record we´d have to work hard, we´d have to work ourselves into areas where we haven´t been yet. But we don´t need to do that when it comes to acoustic stuff. That is why there are absolutely no reasons that everything has to be unplugged from now on. But to combine our other styles with the unplugged style would be a great thing.
But you guys see now, that one can also function as an older band n because when I had my first interviews with Gustaf, he insisted that all the bands had to be young. That older bands wouldn´t mean anything nor feel anything anymore and that bands would much rather break up than getting old?
This was only Gustaf who gave this a lot of thought n and the reason for this was, that at the
beginning, everyone talked about how young and fresh we were. This became something very
important to him. But now, as we get older n and especially after the Unplugged n Show- we feel as if we could go on forever. Definitely. If we as band always develop, I don´t see an ending. That doesn´t mean, that we have to become boring, or every gig has to be played us sitting down.
I think for Gustaf it was all about the naive Punk/Garagerock from our early years n I can´t really imagine to play it exactly the same way as we did when we just started up. But now as we get older, we don´t really think about it anymore. We just make music. We will start with our new Record next year, and the older I get the less I interest myself in anything else than music.
Back then I always had the impression that Gustaf was the driven one of you two and you were the cool, easy-going kind of guy. I also thought that this was the reason why you complemented each other that well, that you calm Gustaf down a bit and that he makes you work harder. Is this still the case today n or was it even correct back then?
I like what you´re saying - that could be correct. But if we just talk about the music, I´ve always been very ambitious just like Gustaf. That is why we write the songs together, that is why we´re such good friends. It was the music which got us together and itís like the cliché. He was always the one, who talked more in public, he was the one who was transparently ambitious - but this has changed now we´re much more alike. We had the same goals, and the same emotions, but now our chemistry is even stronger. Back then we have completed each other, now we´re more balanced and have a calmer relationship. It´s not like he´s the barking dog and I am the quiet one.
Haha that´s exactly what I wrote back then. I wrote Gustaf was the Pitbull which barks in front of the door. Björn is the mastiff that knows: At some point you have to get out?
(He laughs) In the early days it may have been like that. But today we´re both very focused on the music. Back then he was very focused on the media, now we have the exact same goals namely to just make music which sounds good to our ears and which other people like as well?
Because what happened after the success of Give Me Fire...well we of course were happy that the record and Dance With Somebody were so successful. How could it be anything else than fantastic? But it carried a lot of touring and everything happened in much bigger Dimensions with background singers and blowers and so on...but even during the seven years before that we never really had time to ourselves. So it was that the electric part of our set somehow became steady. That´s why it was now such a kick to finally be able to work on the arrangements again. This definitely made us advance again, we needed the change.
I am glad to hear that you agree with me - I wasn´t content with a few of your festival shows anymore, but I probably wouldnít have said it like that. Anyways, your shows just didn´t seem that essential anymore.
During this summer a new big mood started in the ´band camp´ instead. It was like -but again, of course there were great shows with the singers and blowers. But this summer we just played a few concerts. Maybe seven or eight Festivals. And for these shows we just said: Only the band! No more Choir-girls, no more blowers! We want the chemistry back, which we know from our rehearsal room.
Back then we already knew about the unplugged shows so the whole summer became a Rehab-program to get the band back together. I want to point out again, that we had great moments with the choir girls and the blowers. But now it was all about to make the band become a band again.
Mando departed from the things for which one actually became a fan.
Yes, it was interesting to try it out. But today we wouldn´t do it like that again. We´re at our best if it´s just us five. The recordings of our career on which I am most proud of, are the ones we recorded live, just the five of us. We also had string players for this unplugged concert now, but they weren´t a big part of the show. Our chemistry anyways works best if we´re just five. We might however try it again with choir and blowers in two years, who knows? You live in the moment and at the moment I am into us, as unity, us five and I think we should leave it like that. This festival summer was great it has been a while since we had such vibes in the band.
I wanted to talk about something we talked about a few years ago. I said that your former Label-guys were so happy, because it was so easy to work with you and Mats just answered : ´We just don´t dare to say ´No´ to things´. Now only you and CJ are in Berlin for the interviews and you make less promotion, than your label actually would like to. So you´re starting to say ´No´ ?
Haha yes nowadays we do that. We said no to several things already - and that wasn´t even that bad. The label accepted it without any drama. We never used to say No, to anything, not to an interview, not to a concert. But if you do this for ten years, you go crazy. So we now use the opportunity to say no but I sit nevertheless since nine o´clock in the morning here, and do interviews and will do the same thing again tomorrow. We just say no to the things, which would kill us and to the gigs which would kill us. That is something we finally understood: If you accept every single Gig and it gets too much, at some point only 65% of the shows are really good and the rest is just of sorts. And this isn´t so great for the audience either.
So you would also say no to NGute Zeiten Schlechte Zeiteni today?
Ha, I noticed that this made the fanbase a little bit insecure. This was such a typical ´yes´-thing. The record company told us that it would be good for us. We are not familiar with German TV shows, we just had to trust them on this and they hid a little what this show was really about. The moment we noticed we all were pretty angry. We wouldn´t do it again. In general we just want to play music, and for my part, give interviews, which spread the word. On the other hand there are so many crappy journalists. So we will be more jackass like to the label from now on. They will have to tell us in advance for whom the interview is and what we can expect from it.
It´s actually correct to make yourself scarce- you have to protect for what you as brand stand.
Ach I never cared about the Credibility -story. I say: If I can make music in a TV show, it can´t actually be bad. The program should of course have a certain quality. But I can´t really regret that we were a part of GZSZ, because it has happened now. However I have never seen it either.
Me neither. Not even on Youtube or something. Well, change of topic. How did you guys prepare yourself for the Unplugged - Concert?
We basically had to learn the whole set a new, when we arranged it that differently. That was like recording an album, but that´s how we wanted it to be. The record company and MTV have told us:
´Hey this is a recording, we can repeat the songs if something doesn´t work out´ but we said: If nothing really major happens with the technique then we play the set as a complete show. And exactly for this we were working for. We chose 35 songs reduced them again to 24 and practiced and practiced. We know each other by now and we know, we sound best if we´re played in well and if the first beat works. Because the audience is very important during an Unplugged-show n one would notice it in the audience if we play a song for the fourth time.
Are there any plans for a pure Unplugged-Tour?
Well, I don´t know yet, we´ll see. If the people want us to and if we find good locations - maybe in a theatre or churches, we could talk about it. Maybe next year.
Besides this whatYs going to happen in the next year?
Right now Mats and CJ produce records of other musicians - for example the single of Calle (Sugarplum Fairy). Gustaf bought a summer cottage in Dalarna like I have already one. Now sometimes we meet there and concentrate on writing songs like we hadn´t done for five years or so. Sometimes in these situations we write songs for other artists. Not long ago I wrote the song for Adiam Dymott for instance.
Oh, this song is written by you? I watched the video in the internet - the part where the actor sang with your voice was very funny. Cause in my head I see you when I hear your voice.
Yes, I wrote that one but it didn´t really fit to Mando. In the earlier times songs that didn´t fit to Mando Diao had been placed in the drawer. But now time is right to give them to other musicians, right? I think I gonna write more songs for Adiam.
I wanted to talk about the clothes which you were wearing in the show, these swedish traditional clothes. I am sure there were thoughts behind them, right?
Naja, I don´t like the word that much, but technically the stage was a Mando Museum. There were so many things from home, so many souvenirs n one room for example looked pretty similar to my children´s room, in which we used to hang around. So we went to ´Skansen´ this huge stage in Stockholm, they have many many clothes which they borrow and there we borrowed them. This is fest day clothing from the 19 Century people wore these clothes on weddings and fests – that´s good party clothing because you can easily open the pants.
Ö did I understand this correctly? Open pants? Partying? What kind of parties were these?
Noo,man, to pee! If you drink a lot, you have to pee a lot and it´s just crap if you have to finger on your pants forever. But of course, people also had easy and fast sex. Anyways you can easily open these pants, so you can pee easily. But I actually didn´t manage to try this out.
You mentioned all the details in the stage decoration n is there anything which is really
important to you and on which we should pay attention to when we watch the DVD?
And how much excess luggage did you have on the airport?
Well all of this got transported to Berlin with a Trailer. The stage designer came by the studio and we just picked the stuff anyways: The things I´ve seen so far from the recordings, look amazing. There were ten cameras, many of them in the rooms. I hope that they somehow use the pictures in the DVD Menus or in the Extras.
But I don´t think I could point out individual things. I myself haven´t seen everything and I was in this studio for five days! This divided into small sections detailed thing is something we like. Visually anyways. That is why we have this painting as Cover of ´Ode To Ochrasy´ on this, there are so many things happening, that you almost don´t discover it. But concerning mastering and listening, there I prefer it simple and raw. We wanted a timeless sound, an honest one. And in the end it sounded like I imagined it. So it happens that something´s whistling or hissing n I would love to keep that on the CD, Dogma-style. When we mix it
probably many of this will get lost but if you just ask me, I would leave it. When Ray Davies says something there is for example a Feedback n but I don´t want to mix this away. After all this perfection of ´Give Me Fire´, where the beats got played into Klicktrack I would now like to have the opposite. Just Dogma.
Right now you mentioned Ray Davies - what was it like playing with a hero like this?
Of course, it was fantastic! He still has fun in making music and he was really nice - but he´s almost 65 right now. So when the show ended he directly went home and didn´t talk that much to us. But when we played together it felt so natural, just like he´s just another Bandmember - this is the magic of the music!
Juliette Lewis was fantastic, too. She is such a warm-hearted person! She went to the venue very early so we had enough time to practice the song together. On the stage she was a "monster", besides her we looked like children. And she is e of the voices of her generation. So we picked "High Heels" for her, cause this song is very cinematic, too.
And you had another guest-one nobody expected. Your first Keyboarder Daniel Haglund, who you once kicked out of the band, with whom you haven´t had a good relationship at all.
Oh yes, I mean we fired him. It´s been hard for four, five years. Then Samuel called him up one day to clear the air and Daniel said ´Hey everything is okay, I forgave you´. And then we all met again. He also played with us at Peace&Love (the annual festival in MD´s hometown Borlänge, at which Mando playes every year for a long time), and ever since we have a good relationship. It was very important to us, that he´s a part of it, because the show was something like an overview about Mando Diao´s history until today n that is why we had this stage design n and he just belongs to this. I mean, HE was the one who founded this band. It says everywhere that it was me, but that´s not true. He did so much for us, and to meet him again at such an event, was just perfect. In the future we will for sure make more with him, we used to be buddies n even Mats, who replaced him back then. Those 2 are no
enemies.
I remember an article of a journalist who went to Borlänge to be with you. When you were
driving through the street where Daniel lived you all were hiding in the car just not to be seen of him.
Yes, that´s right since Samuel called him. I mean we fired him in those times - and then we didn´t communicate for 5 years. This was very hard for everyone of us. At those times our personalities didn´t fit togehter. He didn´t want to do so many things which we wanted to do. He didn´t want to tour that much. Today we are similar to each other again.
Today he is a teacher, and somehow he seems like one. One can really not imagine him on tour with you guys.
That´s just not his mentality. It even was like that back then, the whole imagine thing never really interested him.
It even was obvious from the outside. In the booklet of ´Bring´Em In´ he just didn´t fit into the band pictures. You four were the stylish guys and he was the normal one..
He actually never felt as if heíd belong there. He always said: ´Hey I can play music with you guys and record it, but I will never be like you. I will not be a part of your style.´- and this was at the end the conflict. So for the new records, we for sure will get him back on board. But he just is the Pete Best of the band. He was wearing on stage the exactly same thing as he was wearing the last time he played with us, before the break up!
