NO MORE ABBA - COMPLETE TRANSLATION
ABBAMAILer Gustav Sandberg in Sweden pointed out this article to me but he doesn't have time to translate. It's quite a long interview with Björn that was in last week's Expressen. ABBAMAILer Tony Becker helped out with the last part of the translation and also made some corrections to the first part. The final result - the complete translation - is below:
NO MORE ABBA
How does it feel to say no to a billion dollars? How does it feel to be constantly called Benny, although it’s not your name? Björn Ulvaeus, 62, knows. In an exclusive interview with Expressen, he talks about this and explains his involvement in the much-debated Humanist organisation:
- I am not on a crusade, but I am satisfied.
In a corner of the room stands a picture leaning against the wall.
Five framed platinum discs that the man of the house has collected for the sales success ABBA Gold.
- Oh yes, that, says Björn Ulvaeus, it isn't part of the furniture.
He is in the habit of using it to block off the doorway so that the puppy Laban doesn't wander into the adjacent library where he has his office.
- Actually, it’s sacrilege of course, he says and bursts out laughing.
The compilation ABBA Gold came out in 1992 and since then has sold 30 million copies around the world. Quite amazing when you realise that the group’s members went their separate ways in 1982.
- Certainly strange.
- It’s appropriate to think about why it is so? What on earth made it happen? Why we…?
These sorts of questions Björn Ulvaeus gladly asks. Although it is more often in a more complex context. In more recent years, he has raised his profile as a social debater mainly through questioning religion’s power in society. Recently, he crossed swords with former Expressen editor-in-chief Bo Strömstedt who, in an article, maintained that Björn Ulvaeus “fails everyone’s right to live their own way”.
Ulvaeus himself says that he, as a member of Humanist organisation, “stands up for the advances made during the Enlightenment and after that”.
- There is so much on earth and in the universe that is uninvestigated, he says. We have just scraped a little bit of the surface. That’s what should drive humanity forward, to get to know more about the unknown. Search for new knowledge, strive ahead. I think that that’s people’s driving force not to stand by something that was written 2,000 years ago and more: “This is the absolute truth! We have to live by these rules!” I mean, what the hell is that!? I don't understand how one can believe that. Instead of striving towards the light.
A culture writer called your opinion “a crusade against religion”.
- That’s a really bad description, not the case at all. Those who want to devote themselves to religion will obviously do so, if they become happier and get a better life because of it.
Sweden is one the world’s most secularised countries. Do you think that religion has had too big an influence here?
- Just a little, so it’s not a problem. There are some areas above all when it’s about a woman’s absolute right to decide about her own body, that children of both genders can attend physical education together, etc where those from certain parts of the world want to maintain ethics that come from religion. They say that it is Christian ethics that lie underneath, but I don't believe that at all. Our morals, our conscience do not just come from the Bible or the Koran.
- But the biggest problem in Sweden are the religious independent schools, where we know very little about what goes on behind the walls.
You wrote once that the type of independent school which is just as unreasonable is the type where there are communist or fascist independent schools.
- There are of course degrees of difference naturally. But say a socialist or new liberal school compared with that then, in our country in any case. In other countries, one can compare it with fascism. There is a hint of fascism when one says that “our religion is the only right one and those of us in this religion are better than anyone else”. Religions should be placed on an equal footing as ideologies, just my way of seeing it.
Have you had any religious experiences yourself?
- It depends on how you define that. Feelings of being a part of nature, of the incomprehensible universe, I have often had those. It is, I mean, a kind of religious experience. And I love to go to churches, anywhere in the world. You feel something, a certain spirituality, when you enter a church. It has happened that I have stood in front of an altar and looked at the figure of Jesus and thought: Imagine if I could believe in you, imagine if it was possible. But naturally, it isn't.
Björn Ulvaeus welcomes us at his villa, situated on an island near Djursholm. A privileged residence, he states: close to the city, at the same time as the view from the workroom gives a feeling of the archipelago.
Apart from the buttoned up, checked shirt, he is dressed like he’s about to run laps in short shorts and jogging shoes. After our visit, he will get a kayak delivered and then wait several hours to exercise with a personal trainer.
These days, Björn Ulvaeus works “fairly lightly”, even if it becomes more full-on at times. The years since “Mamma Mia!” conquered the world have meant more intensive traveling. His private jet plane stands at Bromma Airport, “a luxury I allow myself after September 11”.
This summer, there will be one or two trips to London, where the film version of the musical is being made right now.
- We have a kind of overall role, Benny (Andersson) and myself, we check in now and then and give our points of view. It is really exciting to get to be involved, since it is a film at the highest level of it all. It’s a real “major Hollywood movie”. Tom Hanks and his company are an ideal partner for us since we haven't made films before, otherwise we would have got lost in the Hollywood jungle.
Isn't it time for you to write a new musical soon?
- We have talked about it a little Lars Rudolfsson, Benny and I. Perhaps we should do something more. That feeling is starting to come back a bit, that we should write something new. But it is at that very early stage, what will come out of that I don't know. If all three of us can agree at the same time that “now we do something” then it will happen.
Have you and Benny been asked to write something for Melodifestivalen?
- It has happened. But I believe they understood that it’s not a current interest.
But Tommy Körberg stated a year ago that “Benny is working on something”.
- Yeah, yeah. Our dear Tommy Körberg…
Do you follow the schlager?
- Oh yes, I think it’s fun to watch. It has of course an enormous following in Sweden, but it isn’t worthy of the hysteria. The Beatles and Elvis were worthy of the hysteria. When Pelle and others from Swedish Idol provoke such hysteria in a short time… that is completely something else.
Is Swedish Idol also fun to watch?
- I don't like it. It is this audition process, even if they adopt the method to a musical context.. I prefer a group to grow organically, like the Beatles: they met, started to play together, noticed that they suited each other, developed over a long period of time together. It is a completely different thing than to go along the audition road. Then it becomes more of a product. For that reason, I'm not so interested in it. I don't think anyone has come out of it, either in Europe or in America, who is really here to stay. I mean a real, real talent.
As an old winner of the Eurovision Song Contest: What do you think of how the competition has developed?
- I think that many talents took part at the beginning of Eurovision’s history. It was a better craft when it was all about the songs. In England, the contest doesn’t have a special image, where they don't like it. The competition has lost its significance a little. Sweden is an exception along with all the eastern countries. But it is a fun TV entertainment.
A couple of years ago there was published a book entitled "Who is Björn and
who is Benny". How often are you being called Benny?
- Heaps! All the time.
How do you react to that?
- Sometimes I get tired of it. It happens that I don't reply when someone
call me Benny, because that is not my name. But most of the time I say: "No,
I'm Björn."
As personalities, are you alike?
- No, we're not. I believe Benny has a better self confidence than I.
Actually, it is a fact, but we don't have to get into how it appears.
Considering how successful you've been one would believe your self
confidence to be very strong.
- Yes, but it is like something that is within oneself. Something that is
achieved and strengthened while you're growing up, but for me it wasn't that
way. And then you have to live with it, and learn to deal with it. You learn
to tell yourself: "Now you're damned stupid, because there's really no
reason at all to worry about this." On an intellectual level. But
emotionally...
I ask as I recall an incident a couple of years ago when you got very
angry. You finished a phone call saying "then I'll kill myself", which made
the person you were speaking to call the police.
- That was a terrible misunderstanding that can't be retold properly. It was
a phone call with ups and downs during a very chaotic moment of time. But
I've never expressed anything like that. It's very far from the kind of
person I am to make a threat like that. It was a misunderstanding that got
out of proportion.
In which way has your relation towards Benny changed throughout the years?
- We're as good friends as ever, but on a different level. At the start we
saw each other socially, but halfway through the ABBA period it came out
natural that he had his social life and I had mine. The way we work together
has also changed. During the ABBA period I got more and more into lyrics,
and starting with Kristina från Duvemåla we've been working separately. I do
the lyrics, he does the music. It's a natural development.
What about your contact with the other ABBA members?
- I've met Frida at many occasions. She invested when Mamma Mia! moved across
the Atlantic, to Toronto, and since then she's invested in different
performances throughout the world. We are very good friends. As for
Agnetha I only see her when I'm visiting Linda and my grandchildren. Maybe
at Christmas or at a grandchild's birthday, that kind of occasions. We have
a civilised relationship.
Has it been obvious that you and Benny would go on cooperating?
- Not at all. The main reason for continuing has been our ambition to go
forward, to be a bit bold and to take on new challenges. As we've been very
successful there has been no need to change partners, although from time to
time it has happened that either one of us have been kicking over the
traces.
Obviously you're doing very well. We can read about your doings on the
financial pages as well as on the entertainment pages.
- As a matter of fact, this has been the case since the early ABBA years.
Even then there was much talk about the money. But I do not read about
myself - and above all, I would never dream about watching myself on TV. If
there's an ABBA video on I change to another channel.
How much of a businessman have you become?
- Very little, considering the fact that I've been involved in very many
projects. There has been other people around me being very much into
business. My focus has been much more in the creative direction.
Is it true that you some years ago were a billion dollars for an ABBA
reunion tour?
- Yes. And I know we all agreed that "we won't do this". I don't know what
motives the others had to say no, but for me it was the gut feeling of what
it would mean professionally, what we would have to perform. I almost felt
sick thinking about this. How was I to manage? I believe I would have aged
10 or 20 years. I felt an aversion to this, and the aversion was so strong
that if I would have gone along with this - it would only have been for the
money. Everything else would have been a bloody... hell.
But still: a billion dollars. What was your first thought when you got the
offer?
- My first thought was: What the hell is this? Can it really be done? Could
it really be good business for these people? Yes, they had been
calculating - and it would be. But it all ended in such a reluctance that I
said no. It wasn't worth it.
Could you write new ABBA hits today?
- No, I don't think so. I believe you need a relatively young man's talent
to write contemporary pop hits. To be attentive to what's happening around
you, to be a part of the pop music melting pot.
ABBA - The museum will open in Stockholm in spring 2009. In what way are you
involved?
- Not at all. All four of us have wanted to be at least an arm length apart
from this. We've said: "OK, if you believe this to be a good idea we will
participate to the extent of giving you things that we've kept." That's all.
I think it is important that you don't take part in creating a museum of
yourself. It would be so very wrong.
Isn't it fun with an own museum then?
- I've got mixed emotions. Partly a feeling that it is a very very long time
ago. But also a feeling of pride and humbleness, that the things you've been
doing will become objects of a museum. I just hope it will turn out well.
Imagine if no-one will go there?
Thanks to ABBAMAIL's Grant Whittingham, Sydney, Australia and ABBAMAILer Tony Becker, Helsingborg, Sweden
posted by Graeme @ 7:44 AM
