Marie in special TDR interview: “I miss my fans so much!”
STOCKHOLM - It's a sunny day here as we arrive in Sweden's perhaps most beautiful city, and we go directly to Doktor Glas' gallery to check out Marie Fredriksson's art exhibit. It's at the very beginning of the lunch hour, and the place is empty. But the girls behind the counter explain that there've been lots of visitors. Among them all, two German girls and a Spanish guy. They also share that a critic came in and praised the drawings without knowing who had done them. More drawings arrive as The Daily Roxette is there. All drawings in the exhibition have been sold, and the catalog book is selling very well. Marie Dimberg, Fredriksson's manager, tells TDR that the book will be sold via musicshop.se and maybe a few other sites. The price will be the same, plus postage. Possibly they will print more copies. TDR, along with such other newspapers as Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs Posten had been invited this afternoon to the "inner sanctum" of d&d in Stockholm to conduct exclusive interviews with Marie Fredriksson. When this reporter walks through the office door, we're greeted by manager Marie Dimberg (suffering from a bad back) and a radiant Marie Fredriksson. Dimberg asks us if we want anything to drink so Marie asks for some tea and I get a glass of water. Marie is dressed in black with a nice leopard shirt. She looks just like the popstar we all know. Dimberg serves Fredriksson a lovely cup of green tea flavored with vanilla. "Yummy," Fredriksson smiles. I start by telling Marie that the first time we met was after a Gyllene Tider concert in Avesta (1984) where we discussed her being very nervous about releasing "Ännu doftar kärlek." Don't you think this is a bit the same? Marie laughs, "Gosh, that's a long time ago. But you're right, that's very clever!" Marie continues "I'm so excited about all this. Very proud about my first exhibit." How did this exhibit come about? A few years back I started drawing in charcoal, and I felt this was special, this was it, so to speak. And I felt I just had to let go. I drew tons of pictures!" Marie continues by telling TDR that charcoal is a great material to draw with. "It's so… raw and black… and yet… soft, you know?" We talk a little about her drawing "Trött" ("Tired"), and Marie laughs and says "Yes this one is a man, and he's so damned tired with his wife, because she nags and nags and nags. He's so tired!" No plans to start dabbling in water colors? "Yikes no!" she laughs. All through the interview Marie laughs now and then. You can tell that this is truly a happy person right now. So, is your new title "artist" or "popstar"? "Both," she smiles slyly, and adds "maybe a popartist?" Like Warhol? "Hmmm, no that doesn't work… of course." Why did you start drawing? "One day I felt the urge to go out and shop for pencils and large pieces of paper. Large! But now when I see the drawings [points to a corner of the office] I think 'Huh? I thought they were bigger?' I wish I'd made them even bigger!" she laughs. "I just love that big format!"
- Purchase "After The Change" (The book incl. postage to Europe costs 54 Euro)
This article was written for an earlier version of The Daily Roxette.
Technical errors may occur.
Technical errors may occur.
★ The author:
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★ Publishing date:
October 27th, 2005
Internal reference code for TDR's Good Reporters: [tdr 110935]
This article was posted here on TDR in these categories:
Archive, TDR:Exclusive, TDR:Marie Fredriksson, vintage.
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