Mando Diao Signing Lesson

Thanks from Björn&Mats

Tack så mycket Björn & Mats

Interview with Björn&Mats (2007 November 23rd)

SPF-MD-Support: We heard that you love Austria very much, your mother told us. What do you specially like of Austria?
Björn: Austria, I mean … it seems you are so interested in culture and music. If you compare to Stockholm for example, Stockholm rarely take…I mean, of course these bands are coming to Stockholm but in Austria there are so many concerts. There are about 1000 a year. And Austria is smaller than Sweden. That’s very cool. We appreciate it to go here.
SPF-MD-Support: Have you seen much of Austria or just concert halls and airports?
Björn: Well, that’s always a problem, right?
Mats: Yes. I’m gonna have my tourist day tomorrow in Vienna. Then I’m gonna take the train to Salzburg.
SPF-MD-Support: Have you got a guide already?
Mats: A guide? Well I have someone who gonna take me around.
SPF-MD-Support: You won’t get lost?
Mats: No, I won’t get lost.
Björn: Yes, that’s one of the bad things while touring. There’s a lot of good things of course but it would be cool to see something more than this.We always see the nightlife so…
SPF-MD-Support: That’s not all. But next time we may show you around.
Björn: Oh yes, next time maybe.
SPF-MD-Support: Would be fun I think.
Björn: Oh yes.
SPF-MD-Support: Do you like reading? Books?
Mats: Yes.
SPF-MD-Support: Which kind of books?
Björn: All kind of Books. Musicbooks, just read Priscilla Presleys book it was very interesting, but also you know…crime books, historial books, Stieg Larsson.
SPF-MD-Support: Only two are in german…so we are waiting for the 3rd.
Mats: You are waiting for them.
SPF-MD-Support: Yes we do.
Björn: The 3rd one is fantastic! When you think that book will end just…you know it starts again.
Mats: They make film of it now in Sweden.
SPF-MD-Support: Do you know or like any Austrian bands or singers?
Mats: Not really.
SPF-MD-Support: Falco?
Mats: Falco…? No…
Björn: For some reasons we don’t get records in Sweden. You get more records in Austria.
SPF-MD-Support: We would like what your favourite drinks are?
Mats: At the moment I like …
Björn: Apfelschorle. That’s a drink for the tour in the tourbus. That’s Apfelsaft with bubbles.
Mats: I love Ginger Ale.
SPF-MD-Support: And you eat something?
Mats: No…not really.
Björn: Italian! Mando Diao always goes to italian restaurants.
SPF-MD-Support: Colour?
Björn: Red…
Mats: Yes…red…I actually got a green
Björn: Red, black
Mats: It’s something like green I think….it’s something new…I always dress in black. I have to find new colors.
Björn: We don’t like sticky colors. Like really pink.
SPF-MD-Support: That’s not for men.
Björn: For some men.
SPF-MD-Support: Do you have pets?
Mats: No.
Björn: No, I used to have a lot of cats when I was a kid, when I lived with my parents. And now I am living in an appartment in Stockholm. CJ has cats.
SPF-MD-Support: Yes, we saw that on the photoblog.
Mats: The slow photoblog. It haven’t been updated for a while. I will take care of that now.
Björn: Now we have some time off in the autumn and maybe we can take care of it.
Mats: Take a picture of you and put it on the photoblog.
SPF-MD-Support: Are you planning to do an unplugged album?
Björn: That’s actually pretty much what we’ve done now. I mean…from the beginning it was supposed to be.
SPF-MD-Support: Could you say some german words?
Björn: Yes.
SPF-MD-Support: Yes, please?
Björn: Super-mega-maxi-geil. Meine Damen und Herren.
Mats: Wie lange möchten sie bleiben?
Björn: Apfelschale. Apfelstrüdel. Die Mauer.
Mats: Kraftwerk.
Björn: Kraftwerk. Rammstein.
Mats: Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier
Björn: Dankeschön.
Mats: Bittesehr.
Björn: Bittesehr.
SPF-MD-Support: Did you learn it in school?
Björn: No, you can do it in Sweden if you like to but you can choose what you wanna do. You can choose french, german, music.
SPF-MD-Support: And you choose
Björn: Music ;)
Mats: I little bit french.
SPF-MD-Support: That’s not so funny.
Mats: Yes it was hard.
Björn: But german would be useful to learn for us, because we hear so much.
SPF-MD-Support: It’s little bit similar to swedish.
Björn: Yes it is. :)
SPF-MD-Support: Thanks for your time. :)

Björn&Mats: Thank you. :)

Thanks to Mats&Björn for taking time to talk to us (because we are sure you will read this :P ) Hope you enjoyed the campagner ;) If you read, please leave us a comment :)

News from SPF

they are working and preparing for the new album. More news to follow beginning of next year.

New merchandise is on its way - see the new upcoming webshop that will be announced soon on the website

(Thanks to Pär for the informations)

Interview with Sugarplum Fairy at Chelsea (18.12.06)

Here is the interview we did with Victor and Kristian at Chelsea at 18.12.06 in Wien.

It was a really funny time, and we want to thank Calle, Vic, Kristian, Jonas, David, Knoppen and Pär for the great time. The concert was really amazing too.

SPF-MD-Support: How is the feeling to be in Wien again?

Krille: Good. A beautiful city and everytime we have been here, it's been really good. Good concerts, good audience. We like Austria so we feel good when we are back.

SPF-MD-Support: Would you like to live in Austria?

Vic: No, not really. We like Sweden.

SPF-MD-Support: Why do you prefer the Beatles to the Stones?

Vic: Because they have much better songs. Stones have maybe 3 or 4 really good albums. And the Beatles…we just prefer them. We like that kind of music more.

SPF-MD-Support: Which books are you reading?

Vic: Swedish authors.

SPF-MD-Support: Astrid Lindgren?

Vic: Yes, we grew up with that. And you know so, Henning Mankell, I think it's really big in Germany.

Krille: I just finnished "Brave New World", but I didn't like it. (By the way Krille, I have read the book in english too, and I agree with you ;) )

SPF-MD-Support: Who is your favourite bookwriter?

Krille: A guy from Sweden.

Vic: I think it's not that famous here.

SPF-MD-Support: Which subjects didn't you like at school?

Vic: Didn't?

SPF-MD-Support: Yes.

Vic: Like………well, I never had a huge problem in school, but maybe like physics or something like that.

Krille: Yes, Physics. Maths, I had really problems with maths, so that was really not my favourite subject.

SPF-MD-Support: Have you been to the same school Kerstin Norén is working?

Vic: Yes.

SPF-MD-Support: Did you have to attend military service after you finished school?

Krille: No.

Vic: No, they are not that stric in Sweden. I mean, if you don't wanna do it, you don't have to.

SPF-MD-Support: What's the names of your pets?

Vic: I have a cat. His name is Zlatan. Like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the swedish football player. And my mum and dad have 3 dogs, they are called Oscar, William and Nils.

Krille: I've got a cat called Felix.

SPF-MD-Support: What can you say in german?

Krille: Actually I speak little bit german…but I don't know more than just a few words.

Vic: Yeah, we know the basics like "Dankeschön" and "Entschuldigung", "Bitte", "Cheese" (while he was looking into the camera).

SPF-MD-Support: Frohe Weihnachten?

Vic: No, what's that?

SPF-MD-Support: God Jul.

Vic: Oh, marry christmas.

SPF-MD-Support: What do you think about the Sugarplum Fairy-Mando Diao-Supporter Club?

Krille: Great!

Vic: Yes, great! It's pretty cool to have 2 bands in one supporter club. And good…nice J

SPF-MD-Support: Are you good dancers?

Krille: Oh yeah.

Vic: Yeah, I guess. I never dance professionally but we can shake on the dancefloor sometimes. Classic dances are not that popular in Sweden, because there it's too cold.

SPF-MD-Support: What is the best and worst thing about being in a band?

Krille: The best thing is that we are playing a lot, but the worst thing is that we get so little sleep.

Vic: Never sleep.

Krille: Dangerous.

Vic: I agree.

SPF-MD-Support: Do you have any questions for us?

Vic: Not yet, we didn't prepare any.

Krille: We didn't know that we will have this interview, we thought just a meeting.We just found out so we were not really prepared.

Vic: Do you have a webside.

SPF-MD-Support: Yes, in myspace.

Vic: In myspace…good.

Krille: Are you ready with the questions?

SPF-MD-Support: Yes, Thank you.

Vic: Thank you.

We hope you like the interview, and if you have any questions, just send them to us, and we'll put them into the next interview. Sorry to all people whose questions weren't answered. We promise you to ask them next time.

Thank you again Vic and Krille, for taking the time to talk to us, and the whole band for the great time. Because we're sure, you will read this interview, we hope you'll like it and are looking forward to your emails and answers.

Management

There are 2 special guys, we want to thank. Sugarplum and Mando won't be as good as they are without them :) We are very happy to know you, and that you also help us. And we also thank you for the great time we were able to enjoy :D

Thank you:
Pär Stavbog (Manager of Sugarplum Fairy)

Carlos Barth (Tourmanager of Mando Diao)

About Mando Diao

This is Mando Diao. The band we started in Borlänge, Sweden. In the mid 90's my dear friend, the great Björn Dixgård, formed a band called Butler. They played the kind of music loads of small towns don't have, sweet pop, raving rock'n'rolland soul music that ment more than life itself. After a couple of months I met Björn on a big party in a park. We were too young to go to bars so we pretty much lived in different parks. Björn asked me to join and so I did. Bang! We changed name to Mando Diao. God knows where it comes from, probably heaven. After a year of rehearsing we found Samuel on drums and C-J on bass. It was very important to become a clan, a unit, something more than just friend playing music. Corleone-style. We didn't care much about getting signed by big labels. We knew that that day was gonna come. So we started building our own studio at our former organplayer Daniel Haglunds basement. When it was done we recorded demos after demos. This was year 2000 and the music scene was very dull at the moment. But in some way we felt that there was something going on. Our strategy was to play so many gigs that eventually everyone whoud know about us. And so in 2002 we signed with Emi. We didn't care who or what we signed with, we just knew that nothing could stop us. We released our demos as an album, called it Bring 'em in and toured the world. That's the history. Here's our page and present. /Gustaf Norén