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One of the two men who put the Bs into Abba talks to Tom Cassidy about the Swedish pop sensation and the secrets of the Mamma Mia! stage show's success.
TOM CASSIDY
Published: 9:15am, 21 Sep, 2014
TAKE A CHANCE ON ME We (Benny Andersson and Ulvaeus) started off as friends. We had the same interest, writing songs, so we started doing that, but the friendship was the most important thing. As the years went by, we became almost like brothers. We always wanted to write that wonderful, great melody and if we could do that better together, then so be it. When a song became a hit, that was just lucky. Out of 12 songs on an album, not every one was hit material but a few were and we were just lucky that people had the same taste as we did.
THE WINNERS TAKE IT ALL After we'd won (the Eurovision Song Contest) with Waterloo in 1974, we had not only artistic freedom but financial freedom and there was no one breathing down our necks any more. The record company would say, "You have to be ready by this or that time," and we didn't say, "F*** you," but we said, "No, it's ready when it's ready." The creative side of it was on our terms completely.
THEY HAD A DREAM We stuck to an idea and a dream that we had. We found that we could be the people who were writing really good pop songs. In the same way as The Beatles, we wanted every album to be a step forward in our development and I think we achieved that. And then when we felt finally that we didn't have as much fun in the studio anymore, that there was something missing, we said, "OK, let's do nothing for a while." And that's what we did. I thought we'd hear the occasional (Abba) song, but more or less we'd be forgotten. This is the most fantastic thing of all, that you and I are speaking here today.
THE SONGS WE'RE SINGING I rarely put on an Abba CD. When I turn on the radio and something (we wrote) is played, I listen. That's mostly how I hear (Abba's music). With a few exceptions, from the beginning, it sounds surprisingly fresh. I think that's because we were such perfectionists in the studio - the final mix is the best we could achieve at that time with the equipment we had. In the 70s, recording studios had such better equipment than in the 60s and that's why 60s records sound the way they do. From the 70s onwards they could be from any decade.
THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC Music is universal. You can strike a chord with someone in the deepest jungle in Africa. Having written something way up north, in Sweden, you can still strike a chord anywhere in the world if the music speaks to you. And I think the sound of the two girls (Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Faltskog) together, the voices have a kind of exuberant, uplifting quality and it speaks to the whole world.
FEELING LIKE A NUMBER ONE (The paparazzi are) much, much worse today. It's an incredible difference. They more or less let us be. We were, as two couples, not really interesting - we had more trouble with (the media) after the divorce. I was a bachelor for one week - I got straight into a relationship, which has lasted to this day, so I was boring - but Agnetha was very interesting to the press.
KNOWING ME KNOWING YOU I like the space (in Sweden). We only have 9.5 million people in the whole country; in Stockholm there's only about 900,000. It's manageable. You're not queuing wherever you go. It's the most beautiful capital city in the world. It's surrounded by water and it's got everything I need. Stockholm is buzzing with creativity. Technology is at the forefront. Spotify is from Sweden, Skype is from Sweden, so there's a lot of that going on. These days, producers and songwriters from Sweden have incredible success around the world. We are per capita the No2 music exporting nation in the world, even above the UK. People say Abba started it all.
MASTERS OF THE SCENE In the 80s, television producer Judy Craymer said she would like to produce a special hour based on Abba songs with a new story. I said, "Yes, if you can find someone who can write a script that I can say yes to." There were several scripts but nothing was good. We started discussing if maybe we could do one of those family shows that the Brits have over Christmas. When Judy introduced ( Mamma Mia! scriptwriter) Catherine Johnson to me, the idea came of a fully fledged musical. I said, "You cannot change the lyrics but you can choose any of the songs that are from the catalogue." You don't have to use just the hits. A lot of the songs have hidden stories within them. Catherine said that is why Mamma Mia! works so well, because she could take those little stories, put them in another situation and it still would work. There have been so many jukebox musicals after Mamma Mia! and they have failed miserably. I told Catherine, "Never forget that the story is more important than the songs." And that was the ground rule: first story then song. A lot of people have tried to do it the other way round and it shows.
NOTHING PROMISED, NO REGRETS We all have responsibility for our own lives - we decide what to make of them and there's no one else who does that for us. We can't label anyone but ourselves. We want to live in secular societies where anyone can believe in anything they want, but lawmaking must be neutral and the state must be neutral.
IF I HAD TO DO THE SAME AGAIN You never stop wanting to express yourself; to create things. I started in this business when I was 18 and since then I've always tried to create new things, and I think it's in my blood. I will die with my boots on, I'm sure.
Tom Cassidy
Mamma Mia! runs from Wednesday to November 2 at Lyric Theatre, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Tickets are available at
hkticketing.com
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Bjorn Ulvaeus
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