MP, Anders, Micke and Göran wandered around freely, talking to the press. The press conference was scheduled for 5:00pm, at which time the guys sat on the stairway to one of the houses, and fooled around in front of the cameras. The mood was very relaxed, when a "fashionably" late Per came walking in 15 minutes later. He sat down as well, and the cameras started to roll.

Per kept looking up at the sky, joking that the rain would come pouring down at any second. He even brought along an umbrella, just in case. It did eventually begin to rain, and so the meeting was moved inside.

After a question and answer session in Swedish, of course, I was allowed an interview--GT's first ever in English. What follows is my 20 minutes with Gyllene Tider:

Lana:
I've understood about half what's gone on here, so I'm really scared I'm going to ask you...

Per:
The same questions, yeah!

Lana:
Yes, but this is really something else that's happening. I mean, as early as, maybe, a year and a half ago, people were asking you "Will Gyllene Tider get back together?". And you were always saying that, no, one of the guys works in the band (Roxette), one of the guys plays bass in the band...why do we need to get back together? So what started it?

Per:
Good question! I think, you know, when this compilation album was supposed to be released, we wrote 3 new tracks, and those turned out to be really cool, really good. So we thought, why not? Turned out to be a big success and we started out just doing this show for the press release party, for the record. And when this festival came to place, we thought, "Let's do it!".

Lana:
How long ago was that arranged?

Per:
I don't know--4 weeks ago, 3 weeks ago?

Lana:
Did they come to you, or did you say, "Hey, we want to do something for our home town!"?

Per:
No, they came to us. But it was also because we did this promotion party and it was just, like, 180 people, and I got lots of fans, letters from fans, saying that "Hey, we want to see Gyllene Tider.". A lot of people were disappointed, so we thought, let's do a proper show, and STILL a lot are disappointed because all the tickets are sold. So next time we'll do, like, 150,000 (laughs).

Lana:
Well, it's not hard to see that the "magic" is really still there. I was telling one of the reporters earlier that I'm also a big fan of The Police...but I think to see them doing a concert now would be a big mess, because they're not "together"; they're not...

Per:
You have to be together as persons.

Lana:
So you have really stayed in touch all these years...

Per:
Yeah.

Lana:
What else are you guys doing now? Göran?

Göran:
I'm working in pictures... (To Per and Mats) Vad heter det?!? ("What's it called?!?") (laughter)

Per and Mats:
It's scanning.

Göran:
Scanning pictures to...newspapers.

Lana:
Are you still doing things musically? Of course you can never really stop once you've gotten so involved.

Göran:
The last 2 years I haven't played very much.

Per:
You can hear that when he plays...no! I'm just kidding. (laughter)

Lana:
To see video of the old days of GT, you were always jumping around and getting the crowd going. Is it going to be like that tonight?

Göran:
I don't have the power... (laughter) The strength!

Per:
That's why we only play 30 minutes...because Göran can't take it!

Lana:
We heard that it was going to be 45 minutes or so.

Per:
Yeah, whatever...we'll see what happens.

Lana:
And of course, what IS going to happen, with the possibility of a new album and a tour...?

Per:
No, I don't think so. I mean, sooner or later we're going to do something together, but not now.

Lana:
This is enough!

Per:
You shouldn't, sort of, overdo it. It's easy to turn out to be overkill. With this concert and this compilation album Gyllene Tider is bigger than ever...so let's relax...

Lana:
...and wait until it happens. Have you got any sales figures? Any idea of just HOW successful it's been?

Per:
Well, it's platinum in 3 weeks, so it's going to sell, like, about 300,000 copies I guess. We're happy!

Lana:
It's really great that the magic still can come back. You can hear that in just the 3 new songs and the long lost track that got piled under... WAS that true? It got piled under a bunch of tapes?

Per:
Nah, we just forgot about it! When we did that box set in 1980-whatever...we forgot about that track somehow. We just talked about it--"What happened to that song?". We realized it was fully recorded and everything so we just edited it down.

Lana:
When I first heard the song, I didn't know that it was from the "Puls" time. And it really sounded like it could've been just recorded, which really proves nothing much has changed...

Per:
But it's a fresh mix, so it sounds like it's...

Lana:
What does the old mix sound like?

Per:
More, sort of...weaker. Most of the songs on the album are actually remixed. Even though they sound similar, they sound better. A little heavier, more bass...

Lana:
More crisp, exactly. Well, I don't want to go into a lot of Roxette...but basically 2 questions: the collection record that you've mentioned a couple of times for December. Is that still going to go through?

Per:
Yeah, it's going to happen. It's going to include 2 songs recorded for "Crash!", and 2 or 3 new songs as well. So it's got 4 or 5 new tracks. It's going to be released in October, late October.

Lana:
And then is there going to be promotion for that?

Per:
We're going to do promotion for the single, the first single is going to be released in September. So we're going to do promotion for that. It's going to be called "Don't Bore Us, Get To the Chorus".

Lana:
Of course, people are going to be wondering if you're going to tour for that. Everybody's scared that you're not going to tour again.

Per:
We're going to tour. We start work recording in February/March, so there's going to be a tour in 1997 for sure.

Lana:
And then the inevitable: Pearls of Passion. People still want it!

Per:
I was always in favor for having it out. I always felt like it was a good idea to have it in the stores. It's just an EMI decision to... it's actually a political issue, because we always had, like, one album contracts, 2 album contracts...so as soon as we finish our contracts they still have the opportunity to... (he thinks a moment) If we signed with Warner's, they're going to put out Pearls of Passion, too, at the same time as we release something new. So it's like a political, sort of...weapon to use. That's why it hasn't been released. I've always been in favor to have it in the shops, because I think it's ridiculous--it's available on bootleg now.

Lana:
That's really horrible.

Per:
I think it should be available for, like, a medium price, because it's old. It's going to be released... If it's not going to be released this fall--maybe not, because of the compilation album--it's going to be released in the spring or something. Sooner or later. And maybe we'll find something...forgotten tracks.

Lana:
B-sides, etc.

Per:
Yeah, so we can make it a little bit, sort of...extra.

Lana:
And now with Gyllene Tider so popular again...

Per:
But it wouldn't have happened unless those 3 tracks would've been...we wouldn't have released it, because it has to have a connection to 1995, otherwise it's just nostalgia. If it's just nostalgia, it's fine, but it's nothing to do with us.

Lana:
A lot of people would complain that it's just a record company trying to get money from the fans. You've already released Instant Hits, and if you release something else, then it's like, why are they doing the same thing twice within 5 years?

Per:
The reason for that is that the Instant Hits, 72% of Instant Hits was sold on vinyl records, so most people have it on vinyl. So this is for the CD.

Lana:
What's going to happen to the Pers Garage tracks now? It's going to be a big rarity--everybody's after this!

Per:
That's actually deleted now, Instant Hits. Maybe we'll put something together with old Gyllene Tider stuff that's not on the albums.

Lana:
Yeah--another box set!

Per:
No! Just another CD...B-sides, bonus tracks, fan club singles.

Lana:
You're aware that old demos are very much in circulation among fans now, too--some of that stuff is really fantastic.

Per:
Yeah. I don't know how they got it, though!

Lana:
(To Mats) For instance, your birthday album...

Per:
It's very expensive! (laughter) It's like, 5,000-6,000 Swedish crowns.

Lana:
Did each of you get one of those birthday albums?

Everyone
Yeah.

Lana:
(To Mats) Only yours has made it out!

Per:
I think the people that got that was...the people at the party, I guess. Some journalists, some friends. (To Mats) I don't know how many you have in your cupboard!

Lana:
Everything that the fans have heard--they like it.

Per:
If you have a catalogue, everything should be there; everything should be available. If you're a fan, you want the whole stuff. You shouldn't pay a ridiculous amount of money for...getting a song that you want.

Lana:
Yeah, but you know people do.

Per:
Yeah, that's terrible. That's why I think Pearls of Passion should be out there. Not the demos...some demos are on the B-sides of singles. But most of the demos are just for, you know, "work in progress", so to speak.

Lana:
I was going to ask you guys if you were ever planning on singing in English again after what happened with The Heartland Cafe. (laughter) I mean, that was a really great album...

Per:
It was a terrible album! (more laughter)

Lana:
I guess you had to be a real fan to appreciate it, and your real fans did. After that, things just went "goodbye". Do you ever plan on singing anything in English, just like will Roxette ever sing anything in Swedish?

Per:
No, I don't think so--we don't have any use for it. I mean, Gyllene Tider's strength, I think, was a lot with the Swedish lyrics, and a lot of it got lost as soon as we changed to English. If that album would have been in Swedish, it would be much better. It's the same with Roxette--there's no point in Roxette doing anything in Swedish.

Lana:
Yeah, you have the best of both worlds!