Ace Of Base is something as uncomplicated as a pop band, that doesn’t try to be, appears to be anything else than that. They want to make their listeners feel good when hearing their music. They don’t have any heavy messages, even if the songs obviously have become better crafted and substantial over the years. Simplicity isn’t easy. The fact that Ace of Base has sold over 30 million albums and 15 million singles proves that they know what they’re doing.
In the early autumn of 2002, the band returns with a new album, Da Capo – They’re first with all-new material since ”Flowers/Cruel Summer” (1998). The new album combines the group’s classic pop sound with new, more thoughtful dimensions.
”Ever since our last original album was released, we’ve had our minds set on making this album. People may have thought that we have split up, but those things rather apply to the rest of the music business”, Jenny smiles, referring to the last few years’ acquisitions and mergers among the major labels. Something that without a doubt has slowed down the process of finishing the album.
”The lion’s share of the album has been finished for quite a while”, main songwriter Jonas ”Joker” Berggren confides, but you tend to come up with more stuff as time passes, and some mixes tend to feel a bit old when you’ve lived with them for a couple of years. Making pop music is a little bit like painting, you can keep adding stuff forever, but at some point you have to decide that you’re done with it. A lot of time is spent working on details that the general public usually don’t notice anyway”.
In order to find the right balance of styles, quite a few producers have been enlisted: Swedes Jonas Von Der Burg, Harry Sommerdahl at Pile Studios and Pontus Söderqvist, Martin Hedström and Nick Nice at LaCarr have produced as well as co-written with Jonas Berggren. Other producers include German producers Axel Breitung and Thorsten Brötzmann. During the four years it took to finalize this album, the band wrote more then 150 songs, of which the 11 strongest songs plus the cover song “Wonderful Life” was chosen to become the final album listing. Jonas has written a few songs himself and a few with the band. “It was a great way to rediscover each other as people and writers after a long break from writing together” says Jenny Berggren.
The album showcases the band’s variety within the accessible pop format. The strength of the band’s song writing shows in the first single, “Beautiful Morning”, a slice of pure, classic Ace Of Base pop. ”Ordinary Day” is a classy, harmonious tune with a laid back quality that Jonas’s wife helped him re-discover when he played her some older songs. The album titled ”Da Capo” is a fun up-tempo tune and remains Jonas’s and Ulf’s personal favourite. The ballad ”The Juvenile” is a slow, dramatic thing that was initially written for a James Bond movie. However, the band’s then record label in America persuaded them not to be involved. Instead, a new lyric was written. ”I really like its message, Jenny concurs: ”Basically it says: if you don’t take care of the young now, they’re not going to care for you later on”…
Ace Of Base consists of four distinct personalities. Jonas is the family man, married with two children. Apart from being a typical songwriter, he loves domestic life and interior design, preferring old furniture to modernity’s. Jenny is the more extrovert of the Berggren sisters, she loves dancing in clubs as much as singing in choirs, Linn tries to live a normal life outside of the limelight and is the band’s most low-key member. Both Jenny and Linn see themselves as singers first and foremost and constantly try to evolve by injecting their experiences to their craft. Since Ulf and Jonas wrote the first album, the girls started to show their strengths as songwriters on the band’s second album. They want to inspire everyone to have a go at song writing.
Ulf and Jenny will be doing most of the promotion for the new album, traveling around the world together (as Jenny points out, most bands tend to be represented by two members when it’s time for the promotional trips). ”Ulf is the traditional pop star of the band”, smiles Jonas. ”He loves traveling, mingling and parties and is probably the one who lives up to people’s expectations when it comes to how a pop star ”should” act”. A Jenny ad that there’s more than meets the eye: ”Ulf has always been interested in people and business. He is an entrepreneur and has over the years been given quite responsible roles outside of the band as well. He is an ideas person and a doer and is very good at strategies. Ulf himself agrees with a bit of both descriptions. ”I have chosen to build my life around all this and, since the band opens doors, I have met and got to know a lot of interesting people in all kinds of areas – presidents, actors, musicians, business gurus, and I realized early the value of building a strong global network reaching the whole spectra. I work with several different projects, including my company Legion that is a commercial asset creator, creating entertainment and sports properties for bluechip companies. I was also the senior advisor to Team SEB in the Volvo Ocean Race, which brought me round the world once again. However, these are the fruits of Ace Of Base’s success and Ulf hasn’t lost focus. He is more engaged in the musical aspects than some may think. Constantly traveling, he is the one who can see how pop and club music develops among the young. He has also written or co-written at least 30 songs since the last album. ”Of course I would love to have more of my own songs on the new album, but my main priority is that the album as a whole is as good as it can be”.
Contrary to some reports, Ace Of Base never split up. Most bands spend time apart once in a while. ”I think we’re as close as any band”, says Jenny. ”In addition to that, three of us are actually family, which, to us, is more important than anything else”. ”There’s this myth that members in pop bands always hang out together, live together and wear each others’ shirts” smiles Jonas. ”I think that those are a rare breed, most bands get together to write, record or travel”. Jenny and Linn have also had the unique possibility of often having access to their brother’s studio, The Barn (situated in a barn that used to belong to Jonas great grandfather) for vocal overdubs when they were in the mood to sing. Other vocals were recorded in Stockholm at LaCarr Studios and Pile Studios, but also in Hamburg, where some production work was done as well.
Ace Of Base is one of the world’s biggest bands, one of those rare bands whose name is a well-known brand wherever in the world you go. Their fans, so called ”Acers”, also show a passionate interest in the band. Earlier this year, some of them flew in to Gothenburg from all over the world to get together, share views and opinions on the band, check out the studios where the band has recorded and walk the streets where Ace Of Base grew up.
A brief history
The Ace Of Base story started in the early 90’s when the three Berggren siblings formed the techno band Tech Noir. Next to their rehearsal room, Ulf Ekberg played in another band. Soon, Jonas and Ulf hit it off, started to write and produce together and Ace Of Base as we know them were formed. After having recorded a demo of original songs, including ”All That She Wants”, the band went to Stockholm where they visited all major record companies. No one showed any interest. (Jonas later remembered somebody explaining that the songs were ”too obvious, too simple”). Next step was Copenhagen, where Mega Records immediately saw the band’s potential and loved their positive, uncomplicated and slightly reggae-tinged pop music.
During the production of their first album the band got to know Denniz Pop, an ex-DJ who had enjoyed international chart success as a writer and producer for Dr Alban. Denniz had listened to the demo of ”All That She Wants” in his car stereo every day going to work at Cheiron studios. Denniz got involved in Ace Of Base’s album that was the start for the international recognition of Cheiron and followed by successes like Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, N’sync and Five.
Ace Of Base’s very first single was ”Wheel Of Fortune”, followed by the major worldwide hit ”All That She Wants”. ”The Sign” and ”Don’t Turn Around” also became international hits. The band first made it in Denmark, then the rest of Scandinavia, Germany, the rest of Europe and Asia before conquering The US and Canada.
In all, the debut album ”Happy Nation/The Sign” sold 23 million copies and remains in the Guinness book of records as the best-selling debut album ever. Achieving numerous of awards such as 6 World Music Awards, 3 Billboard Awards, 3 America Music Awards, several different European Grammy Awards and two American Grammy nominations! To mention a few!
On April 2 1994 both album and single ”The Sign” topped the Billboard Top 100 Charts simultaneously. ”The Sign” remains number 3 at the Billboard’s Greatest Hits chart (Top 100 Billboard 100th Anniversary August 4th 1958 - June 25 1994), only beaten by Whitney Houston’s ”I Will Always Love You” and Boy’z’2Men’s ”End Of The Road”. When Billboard summed up the most sold albums of the 20th century, ”Happy Nation”/”The Sign” ended up top ten, being the most popular non-American album of all time… ”One thing that was unique is that it was the same versions that were played at clubs/discotheques and by radio. No remixes or tailor-made versions”, Ulf remembers.
When beginning to write and record for the second album ”The Bridge”, the pressure was on and everybody wanted to have their say. Everyone realized that the phenomenal success of the debut would be impossible to repeat. With the help of hit singles like ”Lucky Love”, ”Beautiful Life” and ”Never Gonna Say I’m Sorry” and promotional trips around the world the album ”The Bridge” sold 5 million copies, a number most musicians only dream of. Ace Of Base had proved that they had come to stay. ”We reached a level that we’re comfortable with. We’re a pop band and not an industry”, Jenny states. ”After the extreme initial success we now have the time to enjoy what’s happened”.
Back in Sweden the band returned to the studio to write for the band’s third album ”Flowers”/”Cruel Summer”). The first single was ”Life Is A Flower”, which was an immediate success. It got an award for the most played song on European radio in 1998. The lyric was changed in America, where the song was called ”Whenever You’re Near Me”. The Bananarama cover ”Cruel Summer” became the title track of the American album, the single reaching the American top ten. Other hits included ”Travel To Romantis” and ”Always Have, Always Will”. Notable is the fact that three of the singles from ”Flowers” reached top ten in England, where the band have performed on the famous show Top Of the Pops an astonishing 18 times!
In the autumn of 1999 the greatest hits album ”Singles Of The 90’s was released, including all the band’s worldwide hits and some new songs. ”Every time It Rains” had only been included on the ”Cruel Summer” album and was previously unreleased in Europe.
30.th. of September 2002 marks the release of an all-new album from Ace Of Base – an important cornerstone in the Swedish music export.
