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

About Sugarplum Fairy

"We want it all, to be able to stand and fall and shout out our doubt and when the sun goes down we stay out. And songs will be sung in the park by us the young" (From the song "She") As statements of intent go, its a classic. But then theres little about SUGARPLUM FAIRY that cant be described as classic. This is a band who revel in the concept: classic attitude, classic style, classic cheekbones, and, naturally, classic music. There are software programmes now employed by producers and record companies designed to recognise what makes a song a hit. But with SUGARPLUM FAIRY its instinctive, as their second album FIRST ROUND FIRST MINUTE proves definitively. The bands name is deceptive, one that initially seems inappropriate for a band that make such masculine, strident music. But as Beatles fanatics will know its a nod to their heroes: John Lennon counts in A Day In The Life with the words One, Two, Sugarplum Fairy The band grew up on the Fab Four, The Rolling Stones, The Who the great British bands of the 1960s whose records dominated the music collections of SUGARPLUM FAIRYs parents. In Borlänge, Sweden, where they lived, there wasnt much to do except play football or turn up the stereo, and these definitive examples of rock n roll set the bar for kids who aspired to escape this small industrial town. The arrival in the early 90s of Oasis, a band they could finally call their own rather than their parents, proved to them once more that there was a magical formula, elusive to many, that encapsulated all that was great about music. SUGARPLUM FAIRY set about discovering what it is. By the time they released their debut EP in August 2004, Stay Young, theyd cracked it. Brothers Victor (Vocals, Bass) and Carl Norén (Vocals and Guitar), alongside Kristian Gidlund (Drums), David Hebert (Bass, Organ) and Jonas Karlsson (Lead Guitar), announced their arrival with four defiantly classic rock songs, reminiscent of the bands they idolised and yet still very much their own. The title of the EP was prescient: theyd not even reached their twenties. Stay Young stormed the Swedish charts, its snotty, youthful vigour belying a confidence rarely justified. But there was more to come, as the release of follow up single, Sweet Jackie which followed Stay Young into the charts and their debut album, Young & Armed, demonstrated. Overloaded with anthems, it was unstoppable, their monumental melodies proving irresistible to crowds across Europe, Scandinavia and Japan. The hours spent practicing in a garage through their teens, endlessly riffing on Oasis Live Forever until theyd discovered the secret to its genius, had paid off. FIRST ROUND FIRST MINUTE takes things even further. It displays a belief in themselves that most bands fail to exhibit throughout their entire career. Despite undeniable pride in their debut we couldnt have made it better, they say they still wanted to improve upon it, and set about the task with the benefit of their experiences on the road and consequent wider horizons. Many things were different to how theyd been when the band started: three of them now lived in Stockholm, theyd seen their music embraced by people of many different nations, and they had lived through the kind of madness that only happens to bands. So much weird stuff happens on tour, Victor laughs disbelievingly. We played a show in a small town where a lion cage was placed on the stage with us! There was also a guy in the audience with a wolf. It was pretty strange. But of course there were simpler reasons why they had to move forward musically. The new album is different in the way that we have changed as people, they explain. You develop a lot from the age of 18 to 20, or 20 to 22. You see everything in a different way. This album is like the first album, but much better in every way. The age of YOUNG & ARMED was 18-20. But the age of FIRST ROUND FIRST MINUTE is 20-22. This band is not a teenager anymore. The band approached the writing process slightly differently this time around. During the writing of YOUNG & ARMED Victor and Carl worked separately but this time around, they state, we wanted to get more of a band vibe so we hooked up more. We worked more as a team, and even wrote some stuff together. We wrote songs like it was the end of the world and we needed to get everything out. The last songs were written over five years, whereas these songs were mainly written in our apartments and on the tourbus from the period that we released YOUNG & ARMED up until we started recording. Thats a period of only one and a half years. Their ambitions were clear. We wanted to make SUGARPLUM FAIRY bigger and better than before. And they make no bones about the results. We feel this album could make us so much bigger because its so much better. The title encapsulates their self belief. Its a reference to Mohammed Ali. In a way a good album or a good song is like a K.O. first round, first minute in a boxing match. You know the first time you hear it that youll love this music for a very long time. FIRST ROUND FIRST MINUTE is packed with knockout moments, the band taking on grand topics like love gone bad, revenge and loss of identity beneath the surface of their seismic, guitar-heavy approach: the bubblegum pop at the core of Shes relentlessly clipped tones sounds almost like The Strokes taking on Motown while Visible Karma subtly recalls the Liverpool pioneers experiments with Eastern instrumentation; Last Chance breathlessly combines Clash riffery with a compulsive melody and Illusions Of Conclusion offers a triumphant but playful swagger. It Takes Time, It Takes Two even manages to sound like Ziggy Stardust as performed by The Monkees definitely a good thing. And on top of all this, they can still pull off a tender and heartbreaking ballad like My Saviour, My Secret. There are maybe some who complain that bands like SUGARPLUM FAIRY, much like their idols Oasis, merely recycle old ideas, but the band holds such disbelievers in contempt. Those people dont understand music, they assert. Its not about what kind of tool you use, its about the songs. If we took out all the guitars and brought in synthesisers and weird sounds people might say that its fresh. But its still the same songs! We dont listen to sounds. We listen to songs. Any who still doubt the power of SUGARPLUM FAIRYs rock n roll need only catch them live to witness the ferocity and excitement at the heart of one of their shows: its blatant proof of their staggeringly charismatic catalogue and musical chemistry. Conversion is inevitable: this band never fails to win over disbelievers. Theres an apocryphal story from the album recording sessions that illustrates this, albeit in an unusual way. As they worked at Stockholms Cosmos Studio with Ollie Olsson and Henrik The Fox Edenhed, they attracted the unwelcome attention of a gang of teenage thugs from the suburbs of the city. They wanted to kick our ass, Victor smiles. But by the end of the album sessions, SUGARPLUM FAIRY had once again proved that they could soften even the hardest hearts. We actually became friends and played football with them every night! On the evidence of FIRST ROUND FIRST MINUTE its only a matter of time before, as the sun sets, SUGARPLUM FAIRYs songs are sung in parks across the world. These five young men from the little known town of Borlänge may not have long to wait before they can, indeed, have it all. Classic stuff, without a doubt