Z100 USA Radio Interview 1994
And direct from Sweden, guess who joins us next! Ace Of Base, right here on Z 100!(DTA)
Ace Of Base is here!
Jo: Hello.
(people saying hello fast, hard to recognize the voices)
P2: Hei-da-haida-hou!
Ulf: That’s Swedish.
P1: Yes it is!
Ulf: It is? What does it mean?
Jonas: Tell us.
Linn: Do you mean the word for bye, hej då?
P 2: That’s exactly what I said!
P1: Of course!
Ulf: Hej då!
Linn (laughs)
P1: Congratulations first of all for the success here, this is huge!
Li: Thank you!
P1: 2 singles, The Sign and now followed up by Don’t Turn Around. By the way, here’s a little mystery singer. Listen to this, tell me who this is singing this?
(DTA in another version. Some guy singing.)
Li: Cover of the original… Must be a straight cover from the original.
P 1: Yeah, Neil Diamond. Who did the song originally?
Li: Warren.. Diamond. No, Hammond and Warren.
P1: Diane Warren? Wow, I didn’t know that. That’s obviously a huge song here. So I mean.. Are you guys living over here in NY or are your just visiting..?
U: We live in Sweden, actually. Gothenburg. West coast, very nice. The best part of Sweden.
P1: The best part of..?
U: The best coast. (laughs)
Li: He’s so funny.
Jo: You’re supposed to tell us(??) (laughs)
P1: Now why do they call you Buddha?
U: Ah, well it’s..
Li: The belly. His wisdom.
(Jo and Li laugh)
U: Probably ten-twelve years ago in school, I think it was a religion lesson. I said something stupid as usual, and the girls started to call me Buddha. I forgot about it after school, but then I picked it up when we choosed some nicknames.. artist names.
P1: And well, Linn, and we got the Joker..
Jo: Yeah.
P1: And Jenny…So where’s the Joker come from?
Ulf: Very bad humour. No humour at all.
Jonas: Very good humour! Terrific humour! (laughs)
Ulf: Very bad. One of the baddest humour in the world I think! He needs a prize.
Li: Do you know what he can do? We can sit in an aeroplane and he says some…
Jonas: I can (?) (laughs)
Li: Can I speak?
Jo: Yeah, you can speak!
P1&P2: Oh, whoa…
Li: Thank you very much, sir!
P1: Yes.
Li: OK, then he goes like..says something very loud as a joke, and nobody laughs, but he bursts into such a big laughter, that’s his humour. Always only him that jokes and laughs.
Jo: Yeah.
P2: I go thru that every morning, man.
Jo: Yeah, I my whole life! (?) (laughs)
P1: Now is there any leader to this group or is it just anarchy?
Je: No, it’s just anarchy.
Jo: Chaos.
Je: Pure anarchy
Jo: I’m the oldest, but in here (?)all is anarchy.
Li (laughs)
P1: Is it democratic or..?
U: You can’t see his ??
Jo: I look too gent (?)
Je: No, but we actually try to find out.. the.. what we wanna do together, so we don’t have a leader or anything, but of course our manager is a great contact and a great leader in that way.
P1: The manager. So the manager pretty much gives you the agenda..
Je: We decide what the manager should do and he does it. And then he says ‘you get this.’ I don’t know who’s the leader. We’re just fighting and have this anarchy thing and everything works.
Ulf: But if anything goes wrong, it’s his fault.
P1: You blame the manager?
Jo: We take all decisions and after that we blame the managers. It’s very good.
U: It’s very good.
P1: Absolutely. We’ll take a quick break and we’ll be back. We have Ace Of Base..
(break)
P1: So what’s your itinerary, you’re in NYC for a few days?
Je: Yeah, we’ve been here for 3 days and we’re going to LA this afternoon actually.
U: More promotion. And we hope it’s better weather there..
P1: Yeah, and how many times have you been to the US?
Jo: 3 times.
U: For me it’s the 4th time, or 5th time actually. (?) United States.
P1: Which cities do you like the best?
U: New York.
Je: New York…
P1: You like New York? You find that to be a very dynamic city?
Jo: I like Miami best, actually.
P1: You like Miami!?
Jo: Yeah, the beach and..
P1: Are you crazy? Do you know what they do to tourists in Miami?
Jo: (in a hoarse voice) They kill them. (laughs )
U: He likes that.
P1: You stand a better chance of swimming naked thru the everglades, than running a car thru Miami.
Jo (laughs)
P1: All right, true or false: the only Swedish group to hit nr 1: Ace Of Base.
U: False. It depends on what, single or album?
P1: Album.
Jo: True.
P1: You are the only Swedish band as successful as people remember ABBA as being, but with an album, they never hit number one!
U: Never hit top ten, either, I think.
P2: Hahahaha…
P1: The other was Roxette.
U: Roxette, they were 12, as best.
P2: You guys gonna rule the whole country.
Jo: In a way, I’ve heard..I’m not sure about this.. that we are the first non-native-English-speaking band that have become nr 1 in the States.
U: With album and single at the same time.
Jo: With album anyway.Ireland, England and ppl from the the States.
P 1: Is it better not to think about it at all, how many units or how many CD’s you’re selling, you don’t want this to go to your head?
Je: I think it’s best that you just lie this success on the shelf and when you grow old and you grow mature..
P1: You can look back on it.
Je: You have something to tell your granchildren. But now you have this big nose instead sticking up in a cloud and..
P2: I’m sorry you have a big what?
Je: A nose.
U: Like a shark, yeah?
P1: You could be snooty about this..
P2: Yeah. OK.
P1:Do you ever run into ABBA?
Je: No, we’ve never met them.
P1: You’ve never met them?
Je: No, we’ve heard they’ve been speaking about us in magazines at home in Sweden..
P2: Oh, they hate you.
Je: No they don’t, actually !
P2: No, kidding. (laughs)
P1: Where are they from?
U: Stockholm.
P1: And you are from..
U: They’re from east coast and we’re from Gothenburg, the west coast. It’s like LA and New York.
P1: Cos you would have thought that your paths would have crossed at some points, recording studios or .. you know, parties or something.
U: They don’t record so much, the girls have quitted.. Annifrid is beginning now recording a new album.
P1: And Bjorn and Benny?
U: Bjorn and Benny are doing musicals..
Je: Chess. (sings) “One night in Bangkok..”
P1: Oh yeah yeah yeah, sure! And Roxette?
U: We got a fax from them…
P1: Per and Marie.
U: Per and Marie, yeah. We got a fax from them and it said “Welcome to the club, dear west coast..”
Je: Inhabitants.
U: Inhabitants, yes. And bla bla bla.. And because they’re also from the west coast, just south from Gothenburg.
P1: Well, let’s take you back to the first one here, huh?
(ATSW)
P1: Z 100 with Ace Of Base.
Jenny, Linn, Buddha and the Joker. And I guess while you’ve been in the US, you’ve been interviewed by ..Time magazine?
U: Yeah. Time magazine, MTV..
(pause in tape)
Li: ..for the first time in that very house, because last year they worked in the house next door.
Je: And on the way back, we had this Rolling Stone interviewer, and we were sitting in a big limo, so we didn’t hear what he was asking.
Li: Big limo.
P2: Plenty of alcohol..
U: Exactly. A lot of whiskey..
P2: Right on!
Jo (laughs)
P1: Like having a telephone on the front seat and the backseat..
U: Yeah. (?) telephones. He hung around the whole day to talk to us.
P1: Well all this is fun, isn’t it? I mean, you’re being treated as big rock stars, obviously.
U: (??) is sleep.
P1: You can always pick up on that later. Absolutely.
Je: We don’t need sleep.
P1: Rolling Stone, did they tell you what issue that is?
Je: In three-four weeks, I think.
P1: The next month or..? And the MTV interviews?
U: One or two weeks.
P1: And I know you’re doing a thing at HardRock.
Je: Yes, we’re doing that…
P1: This afternoon?
Je: I guess it’s 1:30, we’re gonna be there..
P1: Right. And it’s not.. I mean, I don’t think it’s open to the public..?
P2: No, no, getting in there (?) rules.
P1: This is where the.. you know, radio stations, I guess press are given out invitations, things like that. But..how do they treat you in your own country, Sweden?
Je: They’re a bit.. umm.. It’s like you can’t be a prophet in your own country in one way, and that kind of thin gis happening right now in Sweden. But I think ther’es a lot of interest in us anyway, because we’ve achieved so much things that a band hasn’t done before so that is interesting to the Swedish population. And also..
P 1: Do people wait outside and throw rose petals at our feet?
U: We’re very very calm people in Sweden, actually.
Je: Very calm.
U: We don’t run after famous people and so on. We are.. maybe.. we are recognized in Gothenburg, in the whole Sweden maybe, but people kind of.. sing our songs behind our backs and so on.
P2: So it’s like here in New York.
U: Yeah.
Jo: Swedes are a bit shy..
U: They don’t run after us for autographs and so on. These things happen too. It’s really nice that you don’t need 15 bodyguards when you’re going down the streets. It’s very nice. You have some private life, but not so much.
P1: Really? Wow!
Jo: The Swedish mentality is ..very.. uhh..like the Japanese, we don’t say too much, we’re a bit shy. Like Ulf said.. Buddha said.. People sing our songs, “all that she wants” and then they “hee hee hee”, you know..
P1: And giggle.
Jo: Right.
P1: Just like that.
U: Quite often actually, people come to you, they talk to you and say, “We’re very proud of you, we really hope… bla bla bla, we’re proud of you because you’re from Gothenburg” and so on. Then we know that people say a lot of opposite things too, of course. But it’s very nice to hear that things that..
P1: It’s gonna be great. I know all the fans that have tickets to see you are gonna look forward to seeing you at the Hard Rock Café… Do you eat stuff like that, do you eat hamburgers and French fries…
Je: I ate yesterday .
P1: You ate, what did you have?
Je: I ate… I hate.. (laughs) I ate the..
Jo (laughs) I hate..
Je: What do you call it? Cucumber..no, no, barbeque…
P2: Did you have that pig-out sandwich?
P1: Yeah, the barbeque..
Je: Chicken.
P1: Ah, barbequed chicken.
U: I heard about that sandwich.
P2: Yeah, that pig-out sandwich is great.
U: Yeah, I heard that.
P1: Hamburgers in Sweden are different?
U: Well, we have Mcdonald’s and Burger King.
Je: Yeah!
U: A lot of it. Everywhere. In Gothenburg with 700 000 people..We have five, six, something, more I think, seven or eight Mcdonald’s.. maybe more, ten..
P1: And do they serve their hamburgers any differently in Sweden because..
U: Yeah, very good meat…but it’s probably very good meat here too. It’s more (?) Double prize.
P2: Some people might call that meat.
Li: And you know.. I’ve heard that there is a lot of rats in New York.
P1: There are, five rats per each person.
Li: And I know this guy who’s been living here for some years and he’s never seen a cow in the whole of States. What kind of meat is it, really, in the burgers? New York and rats…
P2: If you get a tail, just push it aside.
Jo (laughs) Appetizing. (laughs)
Je: In Sweden we’ve had American culture for very long, so we’ve been brought up with McDonald’s and Dallas.
Jo: The Flintstones.
P1: Yeah, that’s gonna be huge. [The first Flintstones movie was just coming.]
Uh.. Let me ask you Jenny, we had a report here that you had a stalker that woke you up in your own bedroom? What is that? That came across the wire service, it was like the most bizarre story.. it was almost like the queen that time, she woke up, someone was in her bedroom or something? What happened with that?
Je: I just woke up one night and there was this half-loon, in my opinion, by the bed..
P1: A man or a woman or..?
Je: No, a woman that was as tall as the tallest man I’ve seen, so she was very tall and.. She just wanted to speak to my parents and she threatened me with a knife, and I didn’t get a clue, so I just got up and get my parents and.. my mother just took a knife from her and my father held her til the police came.
P1: Wow, how scary was that? What time, I mean.. was that like in the middle of the night?
Je: Uh, yeah. 4 o’clock in the morning. I mean, 3.30, 4 o’clock. I didn’t look at the time.
(laughter)
P1: And how did you know hse was there? Did she actually wake you up?
Je: She woke me up. With a knife to my throat.
P1: With a knife to your throat? Wow.
Je: Yeah. [She says something more but I can’t hear it]
U: Quite scary.
P2: She just wanted to talk to your parents?
P1: I mean.. Do you stil have nightmares about it?
Je: Yeah. I have not only nightmares about that, I have nightmares about everything. Like this morning I was dreaming that I ate feet.
P1: That you ate feet?!
Je: Old feet. They looked like the Mexican Nacho chips. (alughs) Disgusting
P1: You ate feet? You mean like human feet?
Je: Yeah .
P2: That looked like Nacho chips?
Je: I didn’t eat them..
P1: They smelled too bad, of course not.
Jo (laughs)
Je: They were yellow.. No, but like I have very twisted dreams. I think that’s..
P1: Wow. Now is that post this incident, I mean, post this woman doing this to you?
Je: I dunno. Maybe. Maybe that is a way of ..like, handling things, getting evil things that I have in my mind, out.. cos I’m quite a nice person, I think. That’s my opinion.
U: I don’t.
Je: Yeah, well, you shut up.
(laughter)
Li: I’m her sister so I shouldn’t talk about that.
Je: No, you shouldn’t.
(laughter)
U: That’s the bad side of ..to be famous.
P1: We were all, on this radio station, reading that story, it was so bizarre, you know?
Jo: Yeah.
Je: You just wonder why.
P1: How did she get in?
Je: She like.. carved..
Jo: Stabbed thru the door.
P1: Just stabbed thru the door?
Je: It was a wooden door, so she was just.. You know, where the lock is, right.. she was like handling the knife..
P1: Why did she want to get to your parents?
Je: That is the question. I think she’s not very.. she’s been, she had been sneaking around the house one week. Everybody, all the neighbors that had spoken to her, they found her very strange. She was going home, I mean everybody she spoke to, she said she was going home. And I’m very glad I had German classes, cos I don’ tknow what would have happened..
P1: She was German?
Je: She was only speaking German as well. So I’m very glad that I know some German.
P1: It had nothing to do really with your celebrity or anything like that?
Je: Um.. dunno.
P1: Boy. So what happened, what was the disposition, what’d the law do?
Je: Um…dunno, dunno at all.
P1: You dunno at all, did they throw her in jail..
Je: No, I mean..
U: She’s arrested.
Je: The police came when my father held her. So we’re going to a trial.
P1: That’s still coming up? Wow. That’s very disturbing. Well, so, you have got a busy day ahead, and we just have two quick calls here. Hello?
Girl: Hello?
P1: Hi, real quickly, Ace Of Base is here
Rebecca: Yes, you know in Happy Nation, I was wondering..the first four lines, what do they mean?
Je: The Latin choir?
Rebecca: Yes, it goes “Laudate omnes gentes..”
Jo: It’s me singing something about happiness over time. It’s Latin.
Je: The Latin parts..
Li: Laudate omnes gentes, it means “all countries”…
Je: Praise..
Li: What do you call it? Celebrate?
Rebecca: And I have another question. When am I gonna be able to see you guys here?
Je: 95..
Jo: We’re here now. (laughs)
Rebecca: I mean there..
Je: No, we’re coming back in 95 to do a world tour. But we have to have two albums in our, you know..
Jo: Back.
U: In our pocket.
Jo (laughs)
Je: Back.. So are you coming 95?
Rebecca: Definitely.
Je: You’ll wait that long?
Rebecca: Yes, I’ll wait. I’ll wait forever!
Je: OK, thank you.
Jo: That’s long!
Je: You don’t have to wait forever.
P1: Z 100, is that…George? George are you still there? –No, we lost George. But basically, I think he was looking for the same thing, they just haven’t announced the Ace Of Base concert schedule.
Je: That will be coming up very soon, I think.
P1: Well, the best of luck to you all and..
Li: Thank you very much. Good day!
U: Thanks, bye bye..
P1: Everybody’s rooting for ya.. 3 huge singles here, and this is the biggest of them all. The Sign on Z100.
(TS)