Interview with Andreas Carlsson
(Malmö / Sweden, Nov. 29, 2009)

Julian: Hey, it's Julian from cheiron-music.com and I'm sitting here with no other than Mr. DANDY himself - it's Andreas Carlsson. Nice to see you!

Andreas Carlsson: Hey. It's nice to be here. We were talking about DANDY, right?

J: Right. Tell us a little bit about DANDY.

AC: Well, my sort of salespitch for it is: he's the perfect artist because he doesn't age, he sings whatever I want, he shows up on time... I'm joking! But it's a project that's driven by books and the books are coming out in Sweden to start with after the summer. We were thinking about the spring but Idol and this book that I've just released, called "Live To Win", has had such an impact and I think it's better to pause it for a while, let the first book do its business and then we come back after the summer. It's books, it's music that will come out - probably not as CDs but it will come out in some form. It's a fully developed musical with a script that I originally wrote but which has been refined by a very well-known and established broadway writer. I have a production team in Vegas and my next phase is to raise production money but I already have interest from people who want to be involved with that. It's something that I have nurtured and developed for almost 3 years. It's very dear to me and it's something that I had to do. It's sort of a natural developement from being just a songwriter that writes for other people to actually write something that will live for a longer time and not depend on an artist. That's the beauty of a musical: you write something that could be played and performed in many countries at the same time. And like I said - not writing on somebody that gets old, doesn't show up and doesn't wanna sing what I write so I think for a writer a musical is sort of the creme de la creme of your work as an artist.

J: So we can expect a release about next year?

AC: I think the funny thing once you start putting something out, once you start putting the energy out in form of these books, if that starts growing it's gonna interest people in the music - and I know a lot of people really wanna hear this - and that's gonna spark the musical and that's gonna spark all the products - the Happy Meals or whatever you wanna do with DANDY. It's only limited by your imagination and that's what I really like about it. It's a parallel world that I would like to escape to sometimes. Seeing this Michael Jackson movie ("This Is It") the other day - he says "All I'm doing is escapeism. I'm giving the people something to escape to in their ordinary life", their work day or whatever. And I think that's what's missing right now - something that gives you a little break from reality. And that's what DANDY is!

J: Talking about the book - is it going well? Is it gonna be released in English mostly in other countries aswell?

AC: We have an approach that I always believe in having success in your own country first. I think we'll be at 100.000 copies after christmas. That's the goal. It's gonna keep growing. Once it has an important impact in Sweden I move to the next country. Then I come to Germany and I go to England... But I think it's like the music business: once you start pushing artists in another country without success in your own country it's like "Why aren't you successful where you come from?" I think that's imporant. It's also a way of letting your experience grow. It's important to do something in Sweden first. I'm very thankful and honoured that the book has received such an unbelievable welcoming as it has. The book is actually...you know I've become somebody that people recognize through Idol but the book lives on its own just because it's a good book and that's the best thing about it.

J: The book is partly of course about the start of your career - CHEIRON. I would like to know if there is a favourite moment of CHEIRON that you remember.

AC: Well, every day was a favourite moment of CHEIRON because it was a magic place that let 7 or 8 or 9 young people live a life that was so out of the ordinary. A life that was... where everything was possible, rather. It was just a magic moment in time that we lived through for a couple of years.

J: Can you tell us anything about any artists or projects that you have been recently working with and that are gonna come out anytime soon?

AC: I did write a song with Tokio Hotel ("Strange") and it was recorded by Tokio Hotel and another artist. I hope that will see the light of day. It didn't make the album. I haven't been as involved with established artist. The last thing I did was the band Europe from Sweden because they were a favourite band of mine as a kid and I was asked to write a couple of songs. That's been doing really well here. But besides from doing Idol, doing my new show called Made In Sweden that I'm doing with my 2 good friends Anders & Laila and I've just established a new [launced a new] company that have about 10 different TV concepts, sort of new ideas that we wanna get on with. And writing books, DANDY as a novel, my life in the states and so on... I don't have enough time! But I'm gonna get back to the music and once DANDY's out there's gonna be a lot of music - it's 25 songs. It's sort of my main priority. I would love to be on the new Katy Perry record once that's starting. I've talked to Katy and hopefully we'll get that together. But dividing myself between Sweden and L.A. is difficult. If you wanna be in the very top of the music business you really have to see yourself as a sportsman - somebody who's training for the olympics because the chance of getting up there and having number ones takes a lot of training and a lot of focus. And the way I'm working right now, I can't be in that competition - it would kill me...

J: Thanks a lot for your time. You guys remember to keep checking cheiron-music.com and of course andreascarlsson.se for the latest news.

AC: Thank you.

J: Thanks for your time. See you soon.