Swedish song lyricist Bosse Carlgren co-operated on Agnetha's solo album EIfva Kvinnor I Ett Hus. This interview was conducted by Jeffrey de Hart at Visby, Gotland, Sweden on February 11 th & 12th 1998, The interview has been printed as as well in the Agnetha faltskog Worldwide Fan Club magazines.
The first segment of this interview that deals solely with Bosse Carlgren's work with Agnetha Faltskog, was printed in magazine #63.This is the second and final part.
PART 1
PART 2 :
How do you feel that you and Agnetha complemented each other in the songwriting?
What makes my work interesting to me has always been to try to blend my own interests and knowledge with other people to get, well, when one and one become hopefully three and not necessarily two! In order to do that you must try to understand the other person and to really honor them and what they put into the project. It's give and take all the time to achieve something that we both feel is right. We never had any problems as I see it. We could discuss openly and had lots of things to say to always get it better and better. It was no problem to tell her that I thought "this should be another ending here". I always could.
She only altered things if she felt she really could or wanted to. [chuckles] The same with me. I would have got up to fight for a line in my lyrics that I thought was the best, but I could also give in and change things that were not that important in order to achieve something that we both wanted. There's almost always more than one way to do things.
What brought Agnetha to the process that impressed you the most?
Most of all her sincerity, that honesty. All of her music to me is really true. There is no fabricated work like she's been looking at others, or you must have this element and this and that. I always thought and felt that she did it from her guts. That's what she really felt that she wanted to write and that's what she did. That quality is very inspiring and she really made me feel I wanted to do my very best to find the right words. When I recently listened to all her old songs I really tried to hear when the lyricist had captured the person Agnetha. When did I feel that this was another person writing for her, wanting her to say things that she really shouldn't say? When do I really feel that this is Agnetha singing to me?
One was a Stikkan Anderson lyric. It was a very good lyric, but for an older woman. It should have been
sung by a more experienced singer. I just looked to see where it was going and I sort of slowly recaptured, oh, yeah, I heard that one in those days, but,well, who was that? He wrote things that he knew, but she couldn't have any idea. I think there were very few times anyone but she herself really got the right lyric for her songs. There were some that really knew what they should write for her, to get the real Agnetha.
Maybe a couple of times I managed to do that as well, but it's very sensitive work. Then again, I have my own view of Agnetha - I guess others have their views - so that's very personal what you think is her. Having met her and worked a lot with her, I think maybe I did as good as many others. At least in those days when all this was written, because today I must admit that I don't know her at all. I haven't seen her for many years now.
Why didn't she write the lyrics herself?
I guess she felt like most people that I know who can write music. "Well, I can write music. That's no big deal, but, oh, the lyrics!" I think she felt it was safer to have other people do that because that was too difficult. Maybe that will come to her later in life, that she feels more confident. If she really wanted to do something like that again, maybe now she could feel that she can write her own lyrics, which would be, of course, the very best.
A part of the brilliance of your writing is taking an idea, making it so simple and at the same time giving it such diversity that people can mold it to interpret however they want.
I am very happy you have realized and noticed that, especially the last quality there. I hope I have it someplace anyway. You must leave something to be in the eyes of the beholder. That's the way I paint my watercolors too, it's not photographically correct. Sometimes you really wonder what I have been painting! Probably you will get your own idea and something will come across. Maybe in these songs the lyrics are
fairly direct and descriptive because that was the object, to portray these women, but all of the time I was thinking the people listening will have the opportunity to read a history or something of the kind in the album. They would get to know this person a bit and therefore I could leave out things. When you don't have all the information you have to picture it yourself. That's also good, but I wish I could have it all!
Your sketches and "biographies" were never used.
No. All of that was taken away, much because of the ABBA success. After that nobody really wanted to put that much money or effort into this project, so we couldn't make the album the way we really wanted to. It became so small in comparison to what had to be done for this international career. We had to fight to get the album completed and we couldn't get the money to make it as advanced as we really wanted to. Neither Agnetha nor I were really very big on demanding, so maybe we were too nice to them. It was a dream for both of us to get this album afloat. For awhile it was like, "What will happen? Will we ever finish if?" We didn't want to Jeopardize that because it really was important for her to do her own album ,not just to be
another ABBA member.
How far did that get in the project? Did you have to give up well before you got to the end?
If you look through the notes here you can see we left the names of the girls rather early. "You can't have that much space", they said. I wasn't angry or anything, but this wasn't half of what we wanted to do. The idea couldn't be explained in the four or five lines on the back of the album. That was all the space we got, and I think many of the lyrics have been misunderstood and misinterpreted because of this. People never understood what we tried to do. For instance on "Tack for en underbar, vanlig dag" there has been a lot of debate as a result of that. When people thought it was Agnetha that had those ideas in the lyrics, they either
thought that she was nuts or untrue to herself. It must have been the case in many of the other lyrics, too. If they didn't know this was a kind of theater where she is impersonating other people, how could they really take the songs the way they were supposed to be received?
Why wasn't all the material on the album yours and Agnetha's, as planned?
The SOS idea came after Brighton ,a long time after, I think when this project was reopened .Maybe a year or more after ,when the last tracks were recorded.we didn’t want SOS on there .Agnetha did not.it was an ABBA song ,they even used the same backing track . My own notes tell me that she was, at first anyway, disappointed. She had wanted it to be her own music through and through. Maybe, it came to the point where everyone told her “if you want to make this solo album you’ve got to have a well known ABBA song on it because we want to sell records”.Or maybe she had a choice and was happy with it,because SOS is a great song. However, it didn't fit into the concept with the women living here, the character gallery of women with different types of personalities. It's more of an ordinary pop song lyric. This one is a very anonymous person.
Did they consider asking you to write the lyrics for it?
Agnetha was never asked to do that. Maybe Bjorn had done it from the start already. Anyway, I see here
in my notes that Lars-Johan Roundqvist called the 8th of September 75 and told me that SOS was going to be on the record and there would be only 11 songs. I can tell here that I wasn't pleased to hear that. I thought about it again and then I decided not to give up the original idea. I called Agnetha and she agreed that it was a pity that we should only have 11 songs. She also wanted us to continue with our original idea for the album. I did a sketch for the cover and I wrote the text that should be in the windows and inside the gatefold Jacket and everything. I showed it to Lars-Johan the next day and I sort of kept on protesting about SOS .He liked the cover and would show it to Agnetha, but she had other things going on so she didn't see it until many days later.
Do you have any special memories from recording this LP with Agnetha?
I remember that Agnetha always was very pleased when the strings were called in, how fast they could read music and capture the feeling of the song and record without retakes.I shared her enthusiasm and appreciation of good studio musicians of any kind.
I think I never attended recordings as often as I did then, and maybe it was almost the first time for me, too.
Based upon the demos you played for me, I assume that she was not unlike the strings herself, she would just walk in, open her mouth and immediately record a great take.
Yes, but if Micke knew she could get into it more he would ask her to do it again. She was never reluctant to do that. She trusted him 100%, so she always worked hard and wanted it to be the best. As I remember,
she did many takes sometimes until everything was ready. Having said that, she is an incredible singer and very professional, so she always did it in a short time.
Who were some of the other people that were important to the project?
The arranger, of course, Kajtek Wojciechowski,. His ingenious arrangements made this really differ from the ABBA sound. If you listen to her own demos you can agree that he captured the sound and the arrangements she really wanted. You can hear it even if she's only playing the piano. Also Sven-Olof Walldoff was a great asset of course, I guess his name is here because of SOS and maybe also Disillusion if they used the same transcription. The musicians that are participating are top musicians from Sweden. We have names that perhaps are not as familiar to the American or the international audience, but they are considered to be the top musicians from that time. Many of them still are. There were ABBA musicians like Ola Brunkert, Janne Schaffer and Rutger Gunnarsson, but also Anders Glenmark is on the album doing some background vocals. BJorn J:son Lindh plays keyboards. He is a Swedish musician and composer, even a crossover composer as he is doing more serious music, classical almost. Malando Gassama, a percussionist, really great. Of course, we had the wonderful man Micke Tretow at the controls. He's a genius of an engineer and much more because he's the real producer of this, as I see it. He certainly had a very, very big part of this, as he was in the ABBA material. He made the ABBA sound, the way I see it, to be what it was.
He also did here as well. I attended many sessions when this album was recorded and once I even took over for him!
You were the recording engineer?
Yes! He sent me into the studio with Agnetha to make her giggle and laugh when we did Gulleplutt. It was supposed to be me doing the male voice. He wanted me to do it, but I think I was too shy to really do the good work I should have done. I really didn't know how! I felt a little awkward. Although Agnetha and I knew each other fairly well, we were very much like each other so being there trying to produce a natural giggle from her - how on earth do you do that?! I tried to tickle her. I tried everything, but I just wasn't funny enough, I guess! Micke said, "Stay here, look at these things so that they're not going anywhere and I will do this." And he did, like the master he is...
He just pushed the right buttons!
Yes! He's a very funny guy. I think he could do anything and, of course, he could do this, too.
So I have been at the controls for ten minutes here! That's a nice memory. I guess it's quite alright to say that Michael Tretow was, in fact, the one that directed and got the best out of the artist at the recording sessions. He really knew if something was missing. He could hear if anything was badly played. He would never miss it and would request a retake. If he knew that Agnetha could get some other energy, more energy into it or anything else could be enhanced, he would notice and tell her and get her to do it again until it really was the best. You could totally rely on Micke that he wouldn't let it out of his hands until it was the best we ever could do. As you know, he is also an expert at mixing the material after it has been recorded. He should have a lot of the credit for this being a good recording.
Lars-Johan Roundqvist is also formally listed as the producer. Perhaps he was more responsible for administrative decisions than creative?
Yes. I think you could say that. I hope that I don't take away too much credit away from him by saying that of the songs on the album, which do you think is the best?
Whew! It's difficult because they are so unalike! One of my favorites has always been Mina ogon because, as I've said, I think it is so Agnetha. I like "Visa i attonde manaden" for the same reason and because I think the
message in this song is dealing with a big problem. [Editor's note: While watching the news of a war on TV, a woman sings to her unborn child that some people say it's wrong to bring babies into the world. She asks how she could ever turn down the gift of giving birth? Should she really let the killers stop her from having a baby? It was a great problem for people then and I think it might be today, too. I like "En egen tradgard" because it
is a quite unusual thought! If I had to mention a few, it would be these. Many of the songs are not the usual popular songs, just to be merry and bright when listened to. Some of them could get to you and make you think.
Even though Elva kvinnor still has yet to be released on CD, it seems to be Agnetha's most well known Swedish album.(it has been on CD since)
Yes, sometimes I am surprised that so many people know the songs. For instance, one of our most famous artists from Gotland, Susanne Alfvengren, said to me, "Wow! Did you write that? I have owned this LP since it was first released and I have been singing together with Agnetha when I am cleaning or doing the dishes". She knew every word of it and she used it to warm up before going on stage. It sort of became her own material for rehearsal. That's something! I knew it had sold quite a lot of copies, but it must have been the quality of it that at least made them not throw it away! After a couple of years they have kept it and listened to it.
No other collaboration came with you and Agnetha following this, but was it ever discussed or was it a possibility?
When the ABBA rocket went way up into outer space it wasn't possible. I think we mentioned it, but both of us knew that she would have too little time. As I remember she would have really wanted to because it was very important to her to express herself through her own music. We wanted to do more but it got out of hand. We couldn't control this and if she had any time left for anything I guess she had her family, her children and all. She wanted more than to make a new album.
Maybe you have what it takes to get her back into the studio!
No! I don't think that I could get her to write new songs. Even so, she knows I wouldn't say no if we were ever to try it again. We have both grown older and wiser and, perhaps, better, too, as writers. It would be a challenge and something very attractive for me to try, but still, Agnetha's holding the cards. I remember I heard her on the radio one day ten or so years ago. She was giving a live interview in the studio and I was thrilled to hear her speak. I really wanted to say hello, so I called the radio station and asked them to please get her for me. But she had already left. I wrote to her once or twice but did not get an answer, which, of course, I respect. I really would like to work with her again because there are few songwriters and singers that I have felt that their music is so true to them, to their character.
End
JEFFREY DE HART (ABBF mag )
