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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)