The Sweetest Thing

THE PROBLEM with perfect winter soundtracks is that they tend to get trampled underfoot in the record industry s annual Christmas crush. Such was the fate of The Cardigans Gran Turismo: the Swedes fourth album was also their most fully realised, but ended up being rather unfairly overlooked in the Best-Of- 98 polls. However, time will undoubtedly be kind to the record s ten careworn songs, all graced with guitarist Peter Svensson s finest melodies, set against devilishly clever instrumental configurations. Winter Light indeed Gran Turismo is, if you ll forgive the obvious Scandinavian allusion, a Bergman kinda thing: the contemplative melancholia of Ingmar hitched to the frosty elegance of Ingrid.
And speaking of what Yeats once dubbed beauty like a tightened bow/ . . . high and solitary and most stern , Nina Persson s voice is the X-factor. Always an understated emoter, the singer coos but is never coy; her vocal performances possess an innately comforting quality, but are always too knowing, too wounded to qualify as mere sweet nothings. Hers is the voice of a lover telling you you ve lost the plot, whether in the eloquent articulation of a woman s prerogative that is Erase/Rewind , the weary Explode (where she croons Explode or implode/We will take care of it like a mother at once reassuring and chastising her errant son) or the opening Paralyzed , in which love is assessed as the sweetest way to die .
But then, The Cardigans have always addressed the sexual realpolitik with eyes wide shut. Take 1996 s Been It for example, where Persson and co-lyricist/bassist Magnus Sveningsson address the multiplicities of the female condition with lines like, I ve been your sister/I ve been your mistress/Maybe I was your whore . Later in the same tune, the pair further explore the harlot allusion with, I m your personal pro, you know , focusing on the depravities to which folk submit themselves in the name of love. Or in Nina s case, music. Today, she s beginning a long list of press duties at the decidedly un-rock n roll hour of ten in the morning, in an office in downtown Malmv, Sweden s third largest city, and the band s home for almost four years now.
But then early mornings are not a problem here; Malmv isn t a night-town there are only a handful of late night clubs (the band favour one called Tempo), licensing laws are strict, the landscape is flat as hell, and the architecture a contrast of the archaic and the grimly modern. The city s authorities are currently in the process of building a bridge to Copenhagen, 17 kilometres away, but in the meantime, ferries and catamarans provide the easiest link to the rest of Europe. Against this background, Nina Persson greets Hot Press with impeccable manners but an underriding sense of duty.
In the beginning we were extremely reluctant about everything that had to do with media, she begins. And because we hated it so much we were probably the most boring and stiff band to interview for ages. Eventually, without really knowing it or making any big decisions, you get used to it and start to, as you say, submit yourself to do things. And it is a little bit of a weird position to be in, because I m more or less a freak. I deliver stuff that I think is important, and stand up on stage and think that I m changing things, but I don t know if people are out there having a bag full of rotten tomatoes ready to throw at me any second. Definitely it is weird. You just get stupid after a while. I think it s also a matter of deciding, Now after seven years I have to finally make up my mind this is now my job, my profession. This is the deal.
It s rationalisations like these that lead the casual observer to peg Nina as a . . . sensible individual, rather than any kind of ice-pop Valkyrie gazing haughtily at the dolls designed in her image in territories like Japan. But does the fact that people scrutinise her image so closely make her hyper-aware of her appearance?
It does, in a very destructive way, she concedes. But that s also something you learn to live with, I think. I don t know one single female musician that hasn t had a period of photo-session depression verging on being anorexic or bulimic and all that. It s terrible, you re super self aware about what you say, and your complete appearance, and that makes you a very dull person. But then, I think I ve finally reached the point and apparently it has given fruit as well that when I m just relaxed, what the fuck? Who cares in the long run? Apparently, in media, people make up their minds that if you re seen on TV, then you must be a beautiful person. It doesn t matter whatever I say, the media is going to change it anyway. As long as I know what I m about when I m offstage and off-set, I ll be fine.
And if these sound more like the pronouncements of a Madonna or Mariah than an indie darling, let s not forget that Nina Persson fronts a pretty successful band. In Spring of 1997, the inclusion of Lovefool on the Romeo And Juliet soundtrack pushed the group s already healthy sales way into the black, and the re-release of that single reached No.1 in both the US and UK airplay charts. Consequently, the group s third album First Band On The Moon went platinum in America and Japan, shifting 2.5 million units worldwide. The resulting promotional and touring frenzy earned the band a place on the Lilith Fair tour, as well as slots on TV programmes like Beverly Hills 90210. ( We did it because we could, the singer later reasons. We refused to do it, until we one day realised, Why do we have to be so stiff? Why don t we just do it because it might be fun to see it? ) Such meet n greet marathons have fractured bands of a more volatile bent, but Persson remains confident in her colleagues ability to keep their heads.
I always brag about how good a band we are in terms of remaining sane, she declares, and I m gonna keep on doing it because I m fascinated by that. Of course it made us super-exhausted and very tired of being forever connected with Lovefool , and we badly needed to go home and make a new album in order to work at all again. But I think most of all, success has only given us a lot of self-confidence in making more material with even less affection for what people are asking for. Like, we could very well have made another album full of Lovefool , but I think we would ve more disappointed people who were into our whole back catalogue than pleased the people that loved the movie Titanic.
Nevertheless, Lovefool remains an outstanding tune, one that belongs to a grand tradition of pop songs whose end-of-tether sentiments are contradicted by the jubilance of the melodies. I m thinking of Blondie s Heart Of Glass , Abba s SOS , The Pogues Haunted ; records that sound like ice cream sundaes, yet read like Sylvia Plath. Ultimately though, the success of The Cardigan s biggest single propelled them onto entirely another plane, one they didn t necessarily feel comfortable inhabiting.
I had a period where I felt that I definitely had to quit because it was eating up myself too much, Nina admits. And it was terrible, I couldn t enjoy anything. Success to me was threatening, because the more albums we sold, the more photo-session depression I knew I would have to go through. But that was also the start to the journey up to when I started to enjoy it and care a lot less. I think it s also since this break when I made a lot of music on my own and realised that I actually have talent enough to not give a damn what s written about me.
The break she s referring to is the eight month lay-off The Cardigans enjoyed upon returning home from the mammoth First Band . . . tour in late 1997. Typically though, four of the quintet spent much of this time working on extracurricular projects, before reconvening in Malmv s Country Hell studio in June of last year to begin work on Gran Turismo with longtime producer Tore Johansson.
We never evolved as much as during this time, Nina testifies. We came back to make the album very much more as musicians, all of us. I think we had a much more mature and super-serious ambition about music. The paradox is that we were happier people than ever when we wrote this dark album, we were very self content with what we could do, and a little bit more focused, and also a little bit less afraid of failing. A little bit more big-headed, which was very sane. I think the darkness simply comes from that ultimately it s the biggest element in most music that we like and listen to, and that s what we still think is appealing to people in general.
That darkness also manifested itself in the videos for the singles from Gran Turismo, My Favourite Game and Erase/Rewind , both of which depict the band meeting their makers in various ways, whether being crushed by a contracting practice room, or reduced to roadkill on the highway.
It was actually never our idea that both videos would end with the death of the band, Nina counters. We didn t really plan to do it in Erase/Rewind , but then we just figured it would be a cool end, whatever. I think we were pretty much taking part in the process of discussing videos and, for instance, I m present in about 99% of the My Favourite Game video, and after six years in a band, that was an okay thing to do. But I m glad we didn t do it up until now.
Of course, that Jonas Akerlund-directed promo caused no amount of grief when it was submitted for release last October. The clip, which allegedly cost $850,000 to make, featured Persson in full-on death-trip joyriding mode, wantonly forcing other cars off the road, tossing cuddly toys out of her convertible, and generally behaving like any driving instructor s worst nightmare. It was shot with four different endings, the most violent featuring a severed head rolling down the road. After consultations with MTV who had rejected the original version Mercury Records edited out much of the offending footage, including a climactic crash scene, and an introductory sequence showing the singer jamming down the gas pedal of the car with a rock (which, in the final scene, clubs her on the head). Indeed, the band had to fight for the inclusion of scenes showing Nina driving with one hand on the steering wheel. Were they surprised at the controversy generated by the clip?
Actually, we were surprised, Nina confirms. I don t know if we were again, just ignorant and stupid not to have been able to foresee that, but I was. I dunno, I think censorship these days, especially through this video of ours, seems to underestimate the viewer quite a deal.
A sane and considered statement. Nevertheless, there s no denying that the promo does make joyriding look pretty cool.
It does yeah, she concedes. I dunno, I ve been having second thoughts about that as well. I have a good friend that has a three-year-old kid, and in the supermarket where they have these mechanical cars, he always rides them and he stands up like I do with his arms stretched out (laughs). So I guess there is some truth in that you actually do affect kids if you re considered a role model, but I don t really think that kids will actually take off their seatbelts when driving just because I m not wearing one.
David Cronenberg s film Crash caused a similar furore last year. Has she seen it?
Not yet. So many people have mentioned it in accordance to the video, so I guess I have to it s supposed to be pretty radical.
Does she find such violent images seductive or titillating?
I m definitely very attracted to that, she says, after some thought. I think people will always be attracted to what s dangerous and taboo and stuff. I think it has to be taken in, even in MTV.
How about acting in feature films?
Yeah, I ve had some offers.
Anything serious?
I dunno, I m a very big fan of film in general, so I still feel that it would be very insulting of me to do something like that, there s so many people who do it better than I. A tiny thing would be fun to try at some point, maybe, but it s been pretty serious parts that I ve been offered, and I don t have any training, I don t have the time, and I would be very uncomfortable in that position.
The Cardigans met as teenagers in the small Swedish berg of Jonkoping, a settlement largely distinguished by its 52 churches. In October 1992, bonded by a mutual love of Motorhead and Black Sabbath, guitarist Peter Svensson and bass player Magnus Sveningsson put the band together, but as their career picked up speed, they decided to move to Malmv. Success came quickly after an early indie release of Rise And Shine , the band signed to Stockholm Records and recorded Emmerdale, voted best album of 1994 by Sweden s leading music magazine Switz. Life was released the following year, with the single Carnival giving the quintet their first taste of international chart action.
For a group who ve had a swift, if occasionally bumpy, ride to the top, did their small town background give them a sense of perspective?
Yes, in a very good sense, I think, Nina considers. I m very happy that, as a person in the industry, I came from a small place and was raised very far away from American culture and all that, because when you re thrown into it, you look at it and you think, From a distance, everything looks extremely stupid and very shallow and full of airheads . And it s a terrible thing to say, but I think that s a great start (laughs), a great way to enter the music industry. Of course, after a while you begin to realise that there are a lot of good people and good things as well, and you learn your own way to deal with it, but me, myself, I m actually happy that I entered it unimpressed.
Is that often misconstrued as frostiness?
Yeah, probably, because it also provides you with what is the classic smalltown mentality, she maintains. I guess you re very much, Fuck the rest, I know what I m about . It s easier to be one person out of 11,000 than 11 million. You re sort of brought up with a sense that everything you do and say is very important and is listened to. Although sometimes we are perceived as being very frosty and cold and not meeting people very well, I think maybe that comes from the fact that we ve already made up our minds that we don t need them, and we re self-sufficient. I m always asked to do serious in interviews, so I just go ahead and do it. But I dunno, I can be . . . I think we re acting in a very subtle way.
But what can be frustrating though is when you re out in a bar in your hometown and people can come up to you and be unbelievably rude, when they would never have been if I was anyone else. They just presume that you re everybody s property sort of, and that it s everybody s right to comment on you behind your back, and also to you, and just ask you about the most intimate things. That s sort of weird, and also how sometimes, when you meet new people and get into a conversation, after five minutes they might look very surprised and say, Oh Jesus, you re actually very nice! as if it was obvious that I would be an asshole just because I ve been in magazines, being successful.
What kind of things have people said to her?
It can be anything from women and girls coming up and commenting on your looks, she offers. There was some point where a guy in a bar grabbed my ass really seriously, and I was asking what he was doing, and he said, Well, y know, I ve seen you in magazines, you re asking for that . Which was a very weird thing. But then again I m not really suffering from it that much, because I don t really put myself into situations like that. I try to avoid it as much as I can.
Has it made her wary of expressing her sexuality in videos or photo shoots?
A little bit, she admits. But then, again, I wish I don t have ever to think about that, because I want to be able to, y know, show my pussy, and still people don t have the right to grab my ass, and still I have the fullest right to claim being a feminist. I don t have any wish to undress or anything like that, but I hate it when I realise that I am almost deliberately making myself less attractive just to make sure I m being taken seriously, which is a terrible disease among women these days, I think. That vanity has become something that s ugly, as if you re playing the traditional role and you have to expect these little passes.
These days there s been a lot of debates about how fashion industry has a lot to do with it, and I think that is a big reason, and also maybe what I m doing in the music industry, but I think it s deeper than that. It s always been in fashion, if not aesthetic wise, then, how can I say . . . starving yourself and being skinny has always been like a glorious thing, and being fat and ugly has always been a thing that you can t be, especially to women.
Does she suffer from low self-esteem?
I think I do constantly, and to say that you re not would be a big lie. I know most of my friends do.
There s a profound sadness in almost all of Persson s vocal performances, but on Gran Turismo there are some pretty bleak lyrics as well, lines like, Do you really think/That love is gonna change the world/Well, I don t think so ( Do You Believe ). Does Nina ever feel like she s given away too much in the music?
No, I m very careful of not being that personal in the lyrics, she explains. It s personal, but still very waterproof, it s things that I can definitely talk about again. I would never write about things that I would not like to have brought up again. I think it also has to do with that we re a band of five people, and it s important that all of us can relate to the lyrics.
Emotive without being explicit a defining Cardigans characteristic. One suspects that Nina Persson keeps an image of prying journalists in the back of her mind while proofing her lyrics. And speaking of journalists, the singer s phone is going crazy we re well out of time. To conclude, I ask Nina if her band has changed much from the days when they used to share a house in Jonkoping.
No, I don t think it has, she decides. We live in the bus together most of the time. Even when we had this break for eight months that I ve been talking about, it took a week for us to hang out again. We re the important part of this big circle of friends: two of my three best friends are the girlfriends of two guys in the band, and we ve become like a family. We are very businesslike as well, but I think it s all about a certain respect for each other, and that has somehow worked for us. n
The Cardigans play Dublin Castle as part of the Heineken
Green Energy festival on Monday May 3rd.