RoxetteBlog.comAn interview with Per Gessle about songwriting, from Germany! ? /PP
Read it here: https://www.laut.de/Per-Gessle/Interviews/Popmusik-bedeutet-heute-nicht-mehr-viel-07-09-2018-1610
Part of it in English:
laut.de: - Is there a fundamental difference between singing pop music in Swedish and in English?
PG: - I think there are big differences. Traditionally, when you are my age, you are growing up with English-language music - the music of the '60s and '70s. English is more musical, Swedish is harder when it comes to consonants and pronunciation. But there is this other aspect as well: for me as a Swedish native speaker it is of course more difficult to write in English than in Swedish. Of course it also depends on what the text is about. But if it gets very personal, I can dig much deeper in Swedish. I can put things much more precisely to the point. The texts on "Small Town Talk" had their origin in Swedish, then they were translated into English. I couldn't translate six of the texts into English, I had written them in Swedish precisely, but needed someone else to translate them. This is a typical problem: if you put a line of text to the point, you can't translate it.
laut.de: - You would have to start from scratch again.
PG: - Yes exactly. And that's impossible: you can’t start again. One would have to do everything again, write from a different angle. That is too difficult. The same goes for music: if you have the best verse in the world but you can't think of a chorus, then it's best to look for someone else and ask him to help with the chorus. If you're stuck, you're stuck, that's the way it is. That's why you leave so many songs somewhere, at least that's what my work is all about. You make mistakes and they are irreplaceable. You have to leave things behind and perhaps return after a few years.
laut.de: - As a songwriter you build on strong melodies and choruses. When you write the music, do you already have the language in mind? Or do you sing fantasy lyrics and nonsense lyrics to get on the hookline?
PG: - Many do it that way. I have a publishing company with some songwriters and many send demos with nonsense lyrics just to demonstrate the song. I don't do that, I almost always have a project in my head. I need an intention behind it. I'm not the guy sitting behind the piano for six hours a day to see what comes out of it. I had the idea of going to Nashville with acoustic songs - to see what they sound like when I play them with Nashville session musicians. That was the idea: it should also be in Swedish. Then I simply wrote and wrote, for this purpose. I know early in which language I want to sing and which project it will be.
