Now I´m going to be quiet

Gustaf pro švédský časopis Chic... 

 

o... Using the ego as a tool:

This business feeds on elitist thinking. We´re dependant on radio stations and people seeing us live, so the oxygen in popular music is that peole like what you´re doing. And because of that, there´s a lot of pressure on the front men and the hit songs. My job is to find the ego and put it as far ahead as possible.

Loving the job:

My passion for Mando Diao might not be as big today as it was when we started, but I´m still passionate about what I do. If I don´t want to be on stage, I get off it. If I don´t want to be on tour, I go home. I´m more selective nowadays, but when I´m on stage I have to be passionate about it to cope. The process of creating music has grown over the years, but the rest I don´t know... Being a rock star has lost its charm.

Working with Björn Dixgård:

Me and Björn have always worked well together and we´re very close. That feels incredibly good. Some people are always on their way to cross the line, one more mistake and I´ll never talk to them again, but Björn is nowhere near the line. We fight, scream, argue and cry, but it never makes me want to end our friendship.

Why he likes listening to Hip-Hop:

Hip-hop speaks to the dirtiest feelings we as human beings have and that´s exactly what I want to satisfy. I want to listen to music with the same part of my brain that does things stealthily, the part of my brain that I don´t want to show to other people. Swedish indie music is too correct. It´s like when mum is in the couch with her little dog watching ´Fråna Doktorn´

The backside of fame:

In my position it´s easy to act like a diva unintentionally and sometimes I´m mean to people who like me, to fans. It´s often about doing something at the wrong place and wrong time. I feel like a cold manager for a big company sometimes when I have to say no. If I know I could have acted differently, I feel like an idiot, kind of like a king´s buddies. It´s about misusing your position.

His most annoying characteristic:

I take so much space. Sometimes when we´re doing interviews and Björn is about to say something. I take the words right out of his mouth and cut him off, just like that. I sometimes decide that ´Now I´m going to be quiet´ but ten seconds later I´m thinking ´What the hell is he saying?´ and I have to interrupt him anyway.

Alcohol:

I don´t like the intoxicant alcohol. I like having some wine or beer because it tastes good, but I don´t like to get drunk and I´m not drunk very often because I hate the way I act when I´m. I hardly ever reach that state now though, I go to bed instead.  

The reputation about his arrogance:

Many people think that I´m arrogant and people who meet me often say that I´m not. ´Oh, you´re so nice and kind,´ they say, in a tone of surprise. But I don´t think that means I´m nice, because I´m not that nice. I just think it means I´m nicer that they thought I would be.

The love for his kids:

I can wake up in the middle of the night and have my little daughter lying next to me looking so beautiful that I just have to wake her up, even though I know that means several hours of chaos. I just can´t help it.

They were with us from the very first moment…

V průběhu 90 let kytarista a zpěvák Björn Dixgård spolu s Danielem Haglundem (keybord) založili v jednom malém švédském městečku jménem Borlänge skupinu ´Butler´. Z této skupiny vzniklo v roce 1999 Mando Diao. Na začátku stáli kromě dvou výše jmenovaných i Gustaf Norén, Carl-Johan Fogelklou a Samuel Giers. V roce 2004 byl Daniel Haglund nahrazen jiným hráčem na klávesy jménem Mats Björke.

Po tři roky musela skupina koncertovat ve své rodné Skandinávii než si její existence všiml hudební průmysl. Ale hned jejich první album ´Bring ‘Em In´ získalo obrovský mezinárodní úspěch.

Intenzivním koncertováním nejen po Evropě jsi Mando Diao postupně vybojovalo místo v srdcích milovníků rocku po celém světě. Jejich tajemství, to je mix retro rocku, soulu, brilantních melodií, severské chladnosti a značné dávky arogance.

V součastnosti Mando Diao patří mezi nejúspěšnější hudební skupiny ve Skandinávské hudební historii.

Unplugged album ´Above and Beyond´ je jejich první (a doufejme že ne poslední) živé album.

 

Was this unplugged show for you a long-cherished wish or a nice possibility to do a concert in a different way?

Gustaf: Both.

CJ: You can actually say we’ve been waiting for this for some years without artificially speeding it up.

Gustaf: Two years ago we saw a TV show with Johnny Cash. This totally blew us – the way of performance, the connection between the guests, the background, the entire form of presenting his music and person. So since then we wanted to make something similar and discussed numerous details about it. So when later MTV came with the offer, we put two and two together and had our idea of a successful unplugged show almost ready in the drawer…

CJ: … because it was absolutely clear for us – this traditional way of sitting on a pair of bar stools and singing the usual songs a bit softer wouldn’t do. We wanted to make something different of it, something bigger.

So, you had, so to say, the “Beyond” part almost ready in your head – with four screenplays, the guests, the costumes?

Gustaf: More or less yes. What was missing came overnight. For example the idea with four rooms literally suggested itself.

CJ: When you have understood for yourself that as a rock band you want to give your fans something more than other bands do, you always have such ideas in your head. The art was to sort these ideas and to check their feasibility. So there was no lack of ideas but rather the possibilities to accomplish them all.

Are there other unplugged performances that you’ve set as an example for yourselves?

CJ: Not really. This Cash show was also in its special way an unplugged story…

Gustaf: … and then we of course were already influenced by the Nirvana unplugged show. We were 14-15 when they played unplugged on MTV and I speak for all of us when I say: that show was and is unbeatable. There can’t be a better unplugged. Not only because it was one of the first but also because it’s incomparable in its intensity. We also got inspired from that show concerning the sound and technical aspects because their acoustic sound is what it should be in our opinion: rough, direct and eternal.

Mando Diao stands out for five characteristic features: melody, tempo, keeping to the basics, tension and intensity. The first three can be easily transferred into acoustic but what about the last two qualities – without losing the tension? 

Gustaf: Good question. The most important is not to think too much about it. Otherwise you’ll go crazy and it’ll lose its natural feeling.

CJ: Both mentioned aspects largely depend on the interaction between the band and the audience. And during that evening this was really special – I don’t know how that evening would have been without that crazy excited audience. They were with us from the very first moment…

Gustaf: … and have made their input to make this one of the most intimate as well as intensive shows we have experienced so far.

Was the selection and invitation of the guests – among them Juliette Lewis, Klaus Voormann, the leader of The Kinks Ray Davies and almost-forgotten ex-band member Daniel Haglund – as simple?

CJ: Absolutely. These were exactly the people whom we wanted there and they all agreed. With Ray Davies it was uncertain for a longer time, almost till the end – there was no final confirmation. Then he suddenly appeared one hour before the beginning of the show and said: “So, here I am. What do I have to do?”

Gustaf: For me it was really special that we had our first keyboarder Daniel on the guest list. Yes, we’ve had conflicts before and haven’t spoken to each other for years. But this happened years ago and media would blow it big till today. We can only draw a line there and say: Alright, we like each other very much again.

How was it with the equipment? Each of you plays one and the same instrument all through the show. Was it difficult to find something appropriate for each case? 

CJ: No. We have an acoustic expert in the hindquarters…

Gustaf: … a crazy guitar doctor as we call him…

CJ: … with whom I worked in close cooperation during the preparations.

What’s his name?

CJ: That’s a secret. You better keep such good contacts to yourself or it’ll spill out [grins]. Anyway we were looking for something that sounded purely acoustic but was actually semi-electric. He suggested Lace Helix guitars of 1951 that we’ve had for some time already but had never used. For the purely acoustic parts we used Gibson Nick Lucas and for the rest – Larrivée. In my opinion these are the best acoustic guitars of the present times. A bass was a problem because in my opinion there is no one single bass that has a really good acoustic sound. So I bought a semi-acoustic Höfner President of the 60ies, which looks like an acoustic bass but at the same time has the intensity of a real bass. And so we had already collected what we needed.

How much influence will an unplugged experience have on your next album?

Gustaf: Only in the form that we have finally determined: we are at our best when we stand together in one space and keep playing. I want to say once again: there won’t be anymore a record of ours that will be recorded “track by track”. We want it live, direct and unvarnished. On the whole we knew it earlier but now it’s obvious: we’re never better than when we play a concert together.

But I will always be the one that holds you in the end….

It was a year without any sense. The year of that I remember only three moments. The year I spent alone in my own world, the wasted year. Don´t ask me why, I don´t remember. In those times I wasn´t that crazy about Mando Diao and mostly I was only listening to Ode to Ochrasy album. My very first album and my only one. The special one.

Just now when Mando Diao is practically the first though in the morning and the last idea I´ve got in my mind when I go to sleep I suddenly realize that the two of these three moments that I remember from the whole year 2008 are connected with Mando Diao.

As the moment when I was wandering through the strange places of this city, completely alone only with Mando Diao in my ears. It´s ´You don´t understand me´ what I remember, horrible wind, package of cigaretts and ´If it was true´.

Or the moment with ´Song for Aberdeen´ on the way home. Thousand times played that day giving me the feeling of sense, giving me the feeling that at the end nothing is that lost like it might seem.

Now I see... They were with me all the time, just a little bit apart, a little bit hidden. Even I hadn´t any idea of citizens from Mando Diao official page and their community, I was a part of it. At least in my heart.

Mando Diao were with me when I was crying...they were with me when I bleeded. And still they are. 

 (Photo from: Sziget 2007)

Brothers in hometown makes no sense

Well I wouldn't mind the lack of change anyway

Pokud jste čistě náhodou zabludili na tento blog a vůbec nic vás nezaujalo, můžete alespoň hlasovat pro Mando Diao v soutěži RockBjörnen v následujících kategoriích;-) 

Årets livegrupp: Mando Diao
Årets Svenska låt: Mando Diao - Down in the past (Mtv Unplugged)
Årets konsert: Mando Diao - Peace and Love (July)  

Odkaz ZDE po kliknutí...

A pokud vás hlasování baví, můžete hlasovat pro Mando Diao i zde: ...stačí kliknout...

Při troše štěstí a německé národnosti můžete vyhrát lístek na koncert v Mannheimu dne 25. 2. 2011...

( Jak ráda bych jednou mohla říct, že má Mando Diao koncert blízko místa kde bydlím...)

Dále se nachází odkaz na rozhovor s MD, ovšem opět velmi inteligentně překládaný do němčiny, takže je slyšet vždy jen několik slov....co na to říct...? (Ale alespoň je na co se dívat) Odkaz zde...

We made love behind old fears

 And now it´s US against the rest....

Q: How come that Gustaf is so hot?
A: He was born Hot.

Q: How would you desribe the feeling to stand in front of the crowd of 10.000 people?
A: It´s better than any sexual thing in the whole world. 

Q: When someone of you guys wants to quit the band, would the others still go on or would you look for another guy?
A: If someone wants to quite, he´ll die.

Q: Hey Björn, how would you describe Ochrasy?
A: Dark and pink, dangerous and happy. All at the same time.

Q: Where do you get your inspiration?
A: From eachother.

It´s You and Me forever

Nový rok 2011 je tady a s ním i staro-nové interview, tentokrát podrobnější a v tištěné podobě. Gustaf a Björn před koncertem v městě Leipzig o plánech do budoucna, o Vánocích a sobě samých...

Happy Ochrasy New Year!!!!

You wouldn’t believe it: just a couple of minutes ago these friendly young men were crashing guitars.

I had missed their performance at the birthday celebration of MDR Jump. Nevertheless, the evening in the Haus Auensee in Leipzig revealed many interesting things on the subject of Mando Diao. Short before the beginning of the celebration I met both frontmen of the band, Gustaf Norén and Björn Dixgård, for an interview. It was difficult though to divert them from their backstage hobbies – drinking wine, playing Wii and crashing white Gibson guitars (no idea why they don’t keep this to be done on stage). But then they revealed in the interview that they consider themselves to be Siamese twins, have recorded a Christmas song which probably will never get released, and that after all they find rock bands… ehm… boring.

  

Hi! I’d like to talk to you a bit about Christmas, time for reflection, but also time for looking back. Was 2010 a good year for Mando Diao? 

Gustaf: To tell you the truth I can’t remember that much.

Then it must have been a really good year.

Gustaf: Probably. My God, I really can’t remember anything!

Björn: We did MTV Unplugged. That was good. It felt good. But the details of it? Gone.

Was the unplugged session the highlight of the year for you?

Gustaf: Absolutely. There was something else which I liked: when we played Southside and Hurricane in summer – it was one of the best experiences I’ve had on stage for a long time.

Do you like Christmas? Or does it irritate you?

Gustaf: I like it. Christmas is the only time in the year when we don’t have to play concerts because no one invites us. That’s why we use the possibility to spend some time with the family.

This sounds almost like you’d prefer to be on stage on the Christmas Eve.

Björn: No, of course not.

Gustaf: But basically we find it very difficult to reject concerts. Standing on the stage is simply the essence of what we do. That’s why it’s always very difficult to say no when someone wants us to play at a show.

Björn: This would be like rejecting our own personalities.

Is it then not difficult all of a sudden to get used to the quiet lifestyle during the holidays?

Gustaf: Earlier it was like that. When we were 23-24, it was of course more difficult for us than it is now.

Björn: Every time it was like falling into coma for two days, when you came home. Now it got better.

How should one imagine Christmas at Mando Diao’s? 

Björn: Very snowy.

Gustaf: As a cliché. We celebrate it in the woods of Dalarna. It looks like a Disney film. Christmas trees all around and tons of snow.

Björn: And these are not plastic Christmas trees. They’re real and they’re huge.

Gustaf: A couple of horses run around. It’s very dark most of the time. And early in the morning people go to church.

That really sounds like a cliché. And definitely like one can get sick and tired of it after a couple of years.

Gustaf: No. Christmas must be like Disneyworld. The idea is that we all become kids once again. That’s why we like Christmas so much: we can act as if we’re young. We sing, we get presents, we act like we were happy.

Björn: When we write songs with Mando Diao, we try to create a very similar atmosphere. A bit of naivety, innocence, a feeling of childhood.

Gustaf: When I was in Disneyworld, it reminded me about making music. There was so much to discover everywhere. You couldn’t really say what was the coolest thing there but the feeling is cool. It’s the same about music. There are lots of people who can’t sing even a bit but still they love music.

Do you bring out guitars and sing during Christmas? 

Gustaf: Actually no. This happens during Midsummer night.

What about the presents? Do you prepare small surprises for the other members of Mando Diao? 

Gustaf: No. We actually don’t like each other. The biggest present is that we don’t have to spend so much time with each other during Christmas. (laughs)

Can you imagine writing a Christmas song sometimes? 

Gustaf: We already have one.

Björn: It’s in the drawer, probably we’ll get it out one day.

Gustaf: It’s not a Christmas song in the sense of “Oh wonderful jolly Christmas time”. But the song tells a story that happened on Christmas eve.

Then can it one day become a Christmas single by Mando Diao?

Gustaf: No idea. We have so many songs about which we’re still not very sure what to do with them. They’re simply there. Some songs are actually not for publicity, they’re just for us.

Björn: Probably one day there will be a chance to bring this song out. This happens often to us, an unexpected possibility opens up. It happened with MTV Unplugged. The people from MTV asked us and then we said: we’ll do it.

Will the experience of the unplugged session have an impact on the sound of Mando Diao? Can the next normal album also be a bit acoustic? 

Gustaf: Yes. Rock bands themselves are pretty boring. All the time you have to play in the same way.

Björn: At least it’s true for some bands. We try of course to avoid this.

Gustaf: We’ve been trying for a long time to get away from the Mando Diao image. That’s why we’re always looking for something new. And more acoustic elements is one of the ways for that.

Even before the unplugged album you had a part at your concerts during which you played a couple of songs purely acoustic on a small stage among the audience.  

Gustaf: This is the best method to show the audience how the song was actually meant. All our songs are composed very simply on piano or guitar, and then they grow and develop. When we play acoustic it reminds a little bit about going through a photo album: you see how the song looked when it was very young and just came into this world. It’s the same with the photos: babies are much more beautiful than grown up people.

Do you have plans for the New Year’s Eve?

Gustaf: I’ll try to do just nothing. Exactly like during Christmas. Just relaxing. But Björn will celebrate: he’s going to a wedding.

Björn: That’s true. One of my rather eccentric friends gets married. It’s the first time since long that I’ll celebrate the New Year’s Eve. Definitely since about seven or eight years. I don’t really like it. Everyone is looking for an ultimate party, and then it’s always a disappointment, as you expect too much.

And what’s there in store for Mando Diao in 2011?

Gustaf: We’ll get together shortly after the New Year and prepare an action plan. We’ll see what new songs we have and if we can probably make them into an album.

So one can expect a new Mando Diao record already soon?

Gustaf: Probably. We release every album like it could be the last one. So it also could be that nothing comes after Give Me Fire.

Björn: The songs simply come and they tell you what’s good for them and in what context they’d pass well.

If you have so many songs that don’t fit Mando Diao, you could also release them in another way. For example, as a solo album.

Gustaf: I don’t believe that it’ll work out for us. We’re like Siamese twins. If I want to do a solo album, I’ll like to have Björn to write a couple of songs for it and also to sing some. I’d like to have CJ on bass. And probably a producer with whom we’ve already worked as Mando Diao. That’s why a solo album wouldn’t really make sense. At least not at this point.

So you’re not jealous of your brothers who both have already made records on their own?

Gustaf: No. They work in an absolutely different manner. They both write for their own selves and then try to find a compromise. In my opinion it’s not the right way to make music.