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Per Gessle presents Mono Mind – Q&A

Reposted from youtube.com on Tuesday, 8 January 2019

What’s the idea behind Mono Mind?

Well, the idea behind Mono Mind… it’s a very good question. I think it started as a way for me, from a writers point of view and a production point of view, to find a new way to make records. I was fooling around in the studio, trying to find another sound for my voice. And I was really pleased when I eventually found out that you couldn’t really hear that it was me, singing on these tracks.

That opened up so many doors for me and I could create something that was anonymous, which was really… gratifying. When I played this music for lots of friends they always asked “who is it?”, “who’s singing?” And I was like: “it’s so cool, they can’t hear it’s me”.

The characters

What about the characters?

Well, the characters came about just because nobody knew that it was me who was behind the project, so I thought it was a really cool idea to create a new band. I’ve always loved this… pop-art thing in pop music. All these characters, going back to The Archies, or even The Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night”, became characters. And I just made up these four names, and let those four characters be the faces of Mono Mind.

If you have characters like that, you can go anywhere with them. You can create their history, and you can create their future, and you can create their personalities. I thought that was really cool.

Who’s in the band?

Well, there isn’t any Mono Mind band, Mono Mind is based around my songs and my ideas. The whole idea is to work with different collaborators on different songs.

On the album I’ve been working with some friends from the Netherlands and France. But I started out with Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist, who’s very much been part of the whole project. Helena Josefsson is of course there, singing with me and I worked a bit with Andreas Broberger from the north of Sweden, very talented guy!

I can’t see any limits at all, if I come up with a song or a collaboration and I think it fits Mono Mind – I’m gonna put it in there.

The fame

What about the success in the US and France?

I was so surprised by the success in the States. I played this song for some people who worked at Sirius XM Radio and they just loved “Save Me A Place”. It went straight into the charts, and eventually it became number one on the MediaBase Dance Chart, for six weeks in the States, in the summer of 2017. It just blew me away!

And then we did a different remix of this song, by a French DJ called HUGEL. It became a smash in France as well, and that was really cool. I was just taken by surprise. Also, coming from my career, it was amazing to have success with something that is so far off, from what I’m usually doing.

What’s the future for Mono Mind?

I think it’s great that this album comes out. It’s gonna be released on my birthday, I think that is very fitting as well. This is like a birthday present, not only to the fans, but also to myself. This is something I’ve been doing for the last couple of years now.

It’s a very cool album, and it contains some of my greatest writing in recent years. So I’m just really proud of it, and I’m sure there will be new songs next year, and the next year after that. This is a project that I want to continue working with, for many years to come. I love this, and I love pop music, and I’d love to be a part of the whole pop scene, even though I’m getting old… Hahaha.

Alright, listen to the album, see what you think. I would love to hear some comments, on Facebook or Twitter or whatever. Send me a mail, or knock on my door.

Cheers!