19 December 1980 .. CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY .. ONE MAGAZINE .. interviews translated from Swedish
FRIDA: A professional mask is necessary, says Frida.
Östermalm in Stockholm is embedded in snow. It's like a world of its own, a small town in the big city. The Polar Empire is also a world of its own, a world that is quite difficult to penetrate in order to reach the people who are there.
Therefore, I am quite surprised that no one asks who it is when I press the intercom, but Sesam opens immediately. I mean, I could have a bomb in my bag or an assault rifle under my arm. That is not the case now. I'm going to meet Frida and I'm only equipped with a tape player.
Frida is on the phone with Japan when I arrive, a phone interview.
"Understanding Japanese people who speak English is not the easiest thing," says Frida when she arrives.
English with a Japanese accent, I giggle a little.
We enter Stikkan's room. It's quiet there. Just like Frida. She exudes some kind of calmness and doesn't seem at all like she's going to run off to an intensive French course in an hour.
Frida attends an adult high school and enrolls in a three-year course in French in three months.
— I have always dreamed of having time to go and learn languages, I enjoy languages very much, and now that Linda was about to start school and Agneta wanted to be at home a little more, I thought it could be a good fit. It has been extremely hard but fun.
Frida is the one who does the most stuff besides ABBA. Before, she danced several times a week. Now she runs, bodybuilds, reads French and takes singing lessons.
— It's important to do something else, and maybe it has to do with getting a certain distance from the ABBA person. In some way you don't want to consider yourself a star, it's not about that. I've never seen myself as one, neither have any of the others in the group, by the way.
— It is so easily magnified in newspapers. It's really about people who aren't me. You stand outside and watch.
Through the logic of French verbs, we come to the conclusion that Frida is a logical person. But still an emotional person. That's probably a bit of what she appears to be as well. Stands with both feet on the ground. Is adult and sane. Living family life. Going for ABBA as a profession, not nine to five, but a little in that direction. Sees himself as a professional in his field. An efficient professional woman in her career.
FABULOUS
Suddenly it occurs to me that ABBA should actually be called FABB. It's been a while since Frida was called Annifrid. She did it when the two girls drove on "Hey old man" with which the two guys ended up on the Svensktoppen. The first real thing the four did together was "People need love".
— We were surprised and insanely happy when it made it to the top ten. Back then it was a bit more baller than the Swedish top, says Frida with an ironic emphasis on "baller".
— In a way, I yearn back to that time. Then you had that hunger that you don't have now.
On their first tour, the four of them called themselves Festfolket. They ran a kind of pub show where Peter Himmelstrand was responsible for most of the material. The idea that ten years later they would be found as toy dolls in the shops and not be able to walk the streets of the world's big cities in peace would probably have seemed utopian.
What they dreamed of then is today a glittering reality. Although among the sparkling there are also dull parts.
— Sometimes it's hard to always feel watched. If you put the mask on because you know you're going out one evening, then it's fine because then you know it before you leave home. But if you're just going out privately to shop or sit down at a restaurant, it can be difficult if you're not in that mood.
— I have a professional mask when it comes to ABBA. I must have that. If I've had the world's biggest fight with Benny before I leave home or something else has gone terribly wrong, I have to put that mask on. But maybe it applies to everyone, if it applied to you, maybe you would screw up going to that party because you feel lousy.
— I have to do it because it is part of my job.
Frida observes herself. Throughout our conversation, she looks me straight in the eye. Maybe she's trying to check out what I'm like, what I might write. And surely there is a certain measure of caution when she answers the questions. Frida is by now used to seeing her name and the other ABs' names in the columns. sometimes it can be too much.
— Just because you happen to be a member of a group that is world famous, it should be written about us. No matter if it's just a small piece of shit, it makes headlines. It takes on such strange dimensions, which do not appeal to me in any way.
You actually stop and think it's time to take it easy and lie low. Because that is the only way to influence. We do it now, lie low and don't give interviews and stuff like that.
The light from the window falls on Frida's red hair. She leans her face in her hands. I have no bubbly spontaneous person in front of me. But it seems to be a straight and fair girl.
And somehow cute. Almost so you feel like telling about yourself. But it is Frida who will tell the story. We start talking about the fact that ABBA are frugal with the tour.
— We are not a concert act but more of a studio act. Actually, I think it's fun to be on stage. But I don't like long trips, I'm a real homebody. Don't want to be away from the kids, friends and everything else here at home. Would never want to live in any other country than Sweden. People here know what we are. They have seen us from the beginning.
Never looked
Money, money, money, is always mentioned in connection with ABBA. Monarch, real estate, art. Frida is interested in business operations. But only to a certain extent. She attends a board meeting once a month. Otherwise, she tries to avoid as much as possible. There are others who take care of that part.
The money first and the music second or vice versa.
— The musical is and has always been the most important thing for us. It has been that way from the beginning. That's where you get the kicks. When you lift off the floor because it feels so good. Nothing can change that. It's a rather funny thing about us that we have always worked based on our own conditions, what we think is good, without looking anywhere. We have done what felt right.
Now Frida's tone is more determined. This is how it is. There really isn't much to talk about. With some things, it is what it is. It doesn't help with eyebrow angles and, as I notice she thinks sometimes, negative questions. Frida is Frida in ABBA.
She doesn't long for the good old days, she doesn't think it's miserable to be a celebrity, she likes their music, she's not desperate to do something of her own, she doesn't think the ABBA empire will grow to too big, she has no great desire to write ABBA's songs or lyrics ("Björn and Benny are such skilled songwriters"), she is not nervous when she is on stage.
Although ABBA has a big impact on a lot of things, they can't do much about the way the world looks.
— You feel this anxiety in your stomach. It feels heavy just like there is no future. It doesn't concern me so much but my children, you wonder what it will look like when they grow up. It is a hopelessness that infects the whole society. You feel powerless as a human being all this big.
— When the politicians can't handle it, how the hell am I supposed to be able to handle it, what can I say then that people listen to more.
— Somewhere I think it's fun to be in a group like ABBA that can bring people a little joy and positivity. I notice that in letters I get home. People think it's amazing that our music exists. When they are sad or depressed, they turn on our music and become happy and fulfilled.
Sex symbol
It is the emotional Frida who cries over the hopelessness instead of putting things in writing or shouting out what she thinks.
— It is redemptive to cry. It's my best way, to get rid of it all. Then I'm clean inside and can stock up again, so to speak. A few years ago I was more violent, but I don't have much aggression left in me. It has been muted. You have learned to be nuanced.
The girls in ABBA are perceived differently than the boys, at least abroad. Their body parts are commented on in the press. The audience looks at the girls in a different way.
— Sometimes you feel that you are regarded as a sex symbol. That the male, and also the female, part of the audience sees you as such. It feels like you don't have a part in it, just like a lot of other things. Because I have never perceived myself as a sex symbol, it is so far from my way of thinking about life, girls and in general.
The magazines that talk about girls as sex symbols should not be allowed to exist, they are horrible.
Frida starts to hurry so as not to be late for the French lesson. We make company out. Stikkan and Görel Hanser are there. Frida stops and talks to them. About dinner for the kids. About a party she has to go to in the evening.
I wonder in my quiet mind how she is coping. But she is used to and enjoys that life. So Frida puts on her red fur that matches the tone of her hair. And I, who hate furs in general and dyed ones in particular, can't help but think she looks elegant.
We hurry and part ways outside in the street. When I get a little way, the red figure that is Frida calls out to me.
- Do you want a ride?
But I'm going in another direction and I'm in no hurry. From the slightly secluded corner of town, I trudge off towards more noisy parts.
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