In the Cardigans' new video, "My Favourite Game," singer Nina Persson gets her cute little head knocked right off her shoulders in a nasty car crash. It bounces on the asphalt and stares blankly at the camera. And staring back at it, all you can think about is the weird and wicked guitar riff that drives the song and bulldozes over any memory of their last hit, an insistent little anthem of self-deprecation by the name of "Lovefool." |

As a calling card for the Swedish quintet's new album, Gran Tourismo, the song and video make a potent package. Pity you won't see the heads-a-rolling portion of the video, though, as MTV has censored it out. Move over, Marilyn Manson.

No bother, though. "My Favourite Game" stands on its own, as does Tourismo. And the Cardigans are doing just fine, thank you, even given the chore of a grueling day of interviews at Mercury Record's New York office. Their publicist pacifies them with Rangers tickets, and allows members Bengt Lagerburg, Magnus Sveningsson and Lars-Olof Johansson to leave early. Persson and guitarist/songwriter Peter Svensson must stay behind to endure another round or five of interrogation. Persson lights up a ciggie, Svensson kicks back, and the interviewer butchers the pronunciation of their small Swedish hometown.

So what can you tell us some about Jonkoping? How small is it?

Nina: How small is it? As small as 150,000 people, if not smaller. It's kind of the religious center of Sweden. It's got fifty-two branches of churches in that small city. Growing up, our classes in school would be twenty-five Christian people, and five non-Christian. We were the five non-Christian people from that town, so we had to form a rock band. (laughs)

How are you all perceived in Sweden? Are things on a completely different scale than in America and England?

Peter: Well, we've been around for a long time there, and here we have only two major releases. Over there we have four albums and loads of singles, stuff like that. But it's increasing all the time. This record is doing really good -- it's been out there for two weeks -- and it's our first No. 1.

So who's above you on the Swedish scene?

Nina: In the Swedish charts there's a lot of things that do really well above us, like these domestic artists like the Swedish Mariah Careys and the Swedish Rod Stewarts ...

Who's the Swedish Rod Stewart?

Peter: There's like this super trio of singers, and they write songs as well, called GES, it's like the first letters in their family names.

Like ELP?

Nina: It's like the Bee Gees.

Peter: Sort of, yeah. They're like the three worst guys over there making it together. There's a lot of stuff that gets more airplay than us, like Eurodisco and boy bands.

So did the success of "Lovefool" radically change your worldview?

Peter: Not to me, really. I mean, to us, "Lovefool" has been like a separate career. The album had been developing at its own tempo, and "Lovefool" was something that was on the side. We released it as a single all over the world and we got our record sales, and then it came out again on the soundtrack and we didn't sell any more albums -- it sold to people who bought singles and the soundtrack. So it didn't really affect us, because we had our own tempo from the start. If it affected us at all, it was only in a positive way, by bringing out the name of the band more. It's one of our best songs, and people like it. But I do wish some of the people who liked "Lovefool" and made it such a big hit would buy an album and get the whole idea of what we're trying to do.

And what are you trying to do with Gran Turismo? It seems a bit darker.

Peter: I think we wanted to do something more solid. Before, we worked a lot with contrast: a sad song should have a happy lyric, and sad lyrics should have a shiny production or an uptempo beat to it. This time we wanted to make the songs more even, with a straight line going through everything, not too much contrast.

You do Black Sabbath's "Ironman" on the last album. Have you added any new heavy metal songs to the setlist?

Peter: No, but we actually played 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' last night in Philadelphia, and I think we all liked that version a lot. In the beginning, except for the lyrics and the vocal melody, we didn't play anything from the original version like guitar riffs, but in some part of our version now, suddenly we've got the huge guitar riffs from the original version. So maybe within a year we'll have the original Black Sabbath version down.

You all have made a big deal about promoting the Cardigans as a group and not just Nina. Didn't appearing at Lilith Fair sort of go against that?

Peter: We were surprised, I guess, that they invited us, but on the other hand when we were there there were more boys than girls, because most of the musicians and all the crew were men, so that wasn't the weird thing. But it was very different from any other tour I'd ever done, because it was so smooth and easy and nice. There was very little rock & roll, and no one in the other bands would invite each other out to drinks or anything like that. And the Cardigans were the rockiest band on the bill, and people in front were going [covers ears and grimaces]. But we enjoyed it. It was the last major tour we did on the record, and we were really tired, and it was very easy.

One last thing. What possessed you to appear on Beverly Hills 90210?

Nina: We were asked, and initially we were like, "No way." But then we thought twice about it and thought that it would be a hilarious thing to have done -- more than to do -- I think.

Peter: At first we were like, "Beverly Hills?" But then somebody said, "They've had other bands, like the Rolling Stones." So, I think it's a cool thing to have done. It's something you can tell your children about in ten years or so, to say, "I've been in that!" It was really big, like, five years ago, and I think some of the band members were really into it.

You're not naming names?

Peter: No. It wouldn't be fair.

RICHARD SKANSE(November 6, 1998)