She came fresh from her three-week-long holiday on a Swedish island, she was tanned and eager to talk: Popcorn correspondent Mathias Danneels met Agnetha Fältskog – who will introduce her new single ‘Wrap Your Arms Around Me’ in the TV show Wetten Daß on September 3 – in Brussels and heard astonishing things...
After Frida, you have now established yourself as a solo singer as well. Will the two of you have any desire at all to keep on working as ABBA’s ‘choir singers’?Agnetha: “Well, for the time being it will definitely remain that way, but it certainly can’t last forever. In the meantime, each one of us is having so many own ideas and interests. For instance, I’ve ventured out in the acting business – the movie Raskenstam, in which I’m playing the lover of a Swedish Casanova, can actually be seen in Swedish cinemas right now. This movie making was enormously exciting and it was much more fun than filling up the empty spaces in the ABBA sound.”
Does this mean that you’ve had enough of singing with ABBA?
Agnetha: “That’s probably a little exaggerated. But I want to be able to breathe within the group as well. I experience every break from ABBA as very pleasant.”
What is bothering you about ABBA?
Agnetha: “Everyone knows how things are with us. The boys are writing the songs, they are doing all the work in the studio and they only call us when we have to sing. In the long run that’s not satisfying. Because I have a lot of good ideas as well that I can’t execute with ABBA. That’s why working on my solo album was so much fun for me, because I’ve been creatively involved from the first note to the last one.”
Do you believe that Frida thinks the same way?
Agnetha: “I can’t speak on behalf of Frida, we don’t see enough of each other for that. But either way, more than ever Frida is doing her own things too. She is working on her second album and just now she has started filming for a movie in Stockholm. It’s going to be a comedy and Frida is playing the secretary of an industrial executive. Frida as a secretary – you couldn’t even imagine a thing like that...”
No one believes that there will be live performances or a tour anymore. Can we still speak of ABBA as a group?
Agnetha: “Concerts and tours are not the trademark of a group. I have always considered ABBA more as some kind of studio band. Sure, being on stage for two hours and seeing how happy you are making the audience is wonderful. But the travelling and the separation of my children Linda and Christian, the whole stress of a tour is simply too much for me. We have worked so hard in the past ten years that you only realize afterwards that there are so many things that you have had to pass on.”
You are talking about the last ten years as if this period is over permanently...
Agnetha: “In a way, it is. I have tons of wonderful memories but I wouldn’t have the energy to do it all again. I am 33 years old now, I want to concentrate on things that are far more valuable than success.”
In hindsight, what was the most important thing for you in these ten years?
Agnetha: “Definitely the success. And that we have proved for ten years that we are creative, that we are not a one-hit-wonder. After our victory at the Eurovision Song Contest, we were not sure if we would make it. I wasn’t even confident about my voice. Actually, it’s only now – by working on my solo album – that I’m convinced that I’m able to reach a wider range than with my ABBA voice.”
What are your next goals?
Agnetha: “For me, my solo album is the first step on which many others will follow. I want to compose more myself, I don’t want to exist in the heads of the ABBA fans as just a singer. In the near future, I will work a lot in the studio. For me, that’s some kind of toy that the ABBA boys have denied me up till now...”
Will you go on tour at some point?
Agnetha: “There are no such plans. I want to be there for my children Linda and Christian permanently, I think that’s very important. In Sweden there are so many sad stories about young people who are addicted to drugs, alcohol or trying to commit suicide. When I was young, I didn’t even know what suicide was. I will do everything to raise my children with a positive attitude.”
No comments:
Post a Comment