A For Anni-Frid (Swedish Radio 1975)

Lasse Berghagen:
      Back then she was a litlle aloof from the audience. I had the feeling that she never really crossed the line into the audience. She had, and still has, a remarkable voice.

Lasse Lönndahl:
     - She sew her own stage outfits and wore wery daring back then. She had already a very, very good taste when it cames to clothing.

Ulf Elfving:
     - Yes, here we are with the 4st and last ABBA-member, Anni-Frid Lyngstad. And you, Anni-Frid started really early (just like the rest of the members of the group). Your first appararnce was  at a Red Cross Soaré in Torshälla. You were ten years old when you entered the stage for the first time. What persuaded you to do that?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
     - I guess it was the drive in me, to show people what I could do. I thought it was fantastically fun to sing and perform, and back then there was no fear to doing it. All I had to do was to get up on that stage and deiver my song. The song was called "I believe I was 14 years old".

Ulf Elfving:
     - But in real life you were only 10.

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
     - Yes, that was right.

Ulf Elfving:
     - Were there any other musical influences in you family or among your closest friends?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
     - Well, I heard that my grandfather played the violin, my father played some acccordion and my mother was very fond of sining and she was very good at it. So I guess I came from a good stock.

Ulf Elfving:
     - And those are things that do get inherited?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
     - I'm not sure about it, but I don't rule it out. More often than not children from muscial families become muscially themselves.

Ulf Elfving:
     - What were your dreams and aspirations at suh a young age?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
     - I wanted to be a singer

Ulf Elfving:
     - Aldready back then?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
     - Oh yes,

Ulf Elfving;
     - There were never any discussions in your home about what you wanted to dedicate your life to?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
     - No, we never discussed anything else, it's quite funny when you think about it. I really decided very early on, at 6 or 7 years old that I was going to be a singer.

Ulf Elfving:
     - Do you remember when you made your big debút in Eskilstuna, the town closest to Torshälla, as a singer in a musical program in front of more than 50.000 - 60.000.?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
     - I'm sure you remember it much more vividly than I do.

Ulf Elfving:
     - I was on assignment to write about you and you were really an accomplished singer back then. The head lines ran over several columns. Were you never, in any way, nervous to get on stage in front of all these strange people?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
     - Not the way it became nervwrecking years later, when I became a professional singer. That depended on the fact that you didn't feel any pressure, it was OK to make a fool of your self, and it wouldn't mean then end of the world. It was much more relaxed, a failure wouldn't mean the end of the world. Because of that it became a fun game in a way. I didn't take it too seriously myself.

Ulf Elfving:

     - How early on did you know that you had exceptionel voice capabilities?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:

     - Well, I don't think anyone ever called them exceptionel.

Ulf Elfving:

     - But now they do.

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:

      - They do? (laughs). Naturally I got a lot of praise and what was written in the papers about the show being a success made me believe a little more in myself. I remember the first time I recorded my voice, what could I have been 9-10 years old and we were visiting a family who had a tape recorder and it that was quite unusal back then. So I was giving it a try and I and I sang a popular tune that was "in" at the time, and I thought it sounded so horrible I started to cry! So it wasn't  a fun experience, it became much more fun later on.

Ulf Elfving:

     - Your first band who were they?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:

     - My first band was the first band I worked with professionally. I started my first band when I was 13 and the name of the group was Evald Eks. And it was a band of the old style; accordion, clarinet, vibrafon, base and drums. The soundsystem was two boxes with an amplifier in between. So there was nothing fancy. There was only one microphone, which was for the singer.

Ulf Elfving:

     - The singer would soon go on to bigger tasks, one days she was discovered by Gunnar Sandevärn, world famous in Eskilstuna as a band leader.

Gunnar Sandevärn:

     - It was at a a school dance in Läroverkets gymnasium in Eskilstuna. I think it was around 1960. And Anni-Frid was singing with a smaller band. She sang "Sju Vackra Gossar", as I remember and I remember thinking that she did it exceptinal well. I could hardly believe my ears that such a young person could sing so professionally. I don't think I had ever heard anything that good at that time.

Ulf Elfving:

     - It was a cooperative group lead by Gunnar Sandvärn. Everyone in the band owned their own instrument. Which wasn't much at the time. But it was enough; a piano, drums and singing. There were three people who started this band, Frida, Gunnar Sandevärn and the vocalist's boyfriend Ragnar Fredriksson.

Gunnar Sandevärn:

     - Frida and Ragnar went away for their honeymoon and during that time I made so many bookings I could. So when they returned, we were fully booked for the rest of the year, a band that noone had heard. Anni-Frid, she had to work as a musician, she took part in every song and if she wasn't singing she was playing the tambourine. So she really had to work hard. She had no chance of taking a rest, she had to be on stage all the time. So I guess it was a hard time workingwise for her.

Ulf Elfving:

     - How many years did you work as a vocalist, quite many, right?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:

     - Yes, I worked as a vocalist for more than 10 years, with different bands during that time.

Ulf Elfving:

     - And I assume you learned a lot during those years?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:

     - Yes, at least I developed a good routine of singing, but it wasn't especially developing in any way. I was "locked" in the role as a vocalist. Performing others songs and what was popular at the time. So in a way I felt I stopped developing. It was then that I realized that I wanted to do something else, if not just for my own sake. In a way, I thought I was good, I felt I had to take the chance and try and to something else than just continue as a vocalist for the rest of my life.

Ulf Elfving:

     - Were these ambitions your own or was someone behind them, supporting you?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:

     - All the people I worked with in these different band were very supportive and they thought I shoud try to go for something more, and they never discouraged me even though they were afraid of losing a singer because it was hard to find good people to work well together with even back then. But there was always a safety behind me so I darked to take the next step. And then there was the competition "Nya Ansikten/Barnens Dag". I saw an ad in the local paper and I thought I should give it a try. So I filled out the form and then I carried it in my purse for several weeks, before I dared to send it off. I got a reply and an invitation to come to Stockholm for a test.

Ulf Elfving:

     - You did all of this yourself, both artistically and privately you have been very independent. Has that been a good thing?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:

     - Yes, it has been very useful and even if I sometimes have been absolutely terrified for different situations it has meant that I have forced myself to simply move on in life. It was like a need in me I just simply had to do it.

Ulf Elfving:

     - The single "En Ledig Dag" became Anni-Frid's first. It was the result of the Skansen competition which she won, she won the competition in Stockolm on the same day Sweden started driving on the right side of the road (3 September 1967). She was transported to the television show "Hyland's Hörna" that same evening, when she got to sing her winning melody "En Ledig Dag" in front of a  live for the Swedish TV-watchers and a group of recordingproducers.

Olle Bergman (producer):

     - At the time I was working for EMI. And we were really excited about  her as a performer. Yes, I thought she had something special to become a big artist. We wanted to make a string of records with her. We wanted to sign her then and there, but she sort of disappeared in the crowd, she went back home to Eskilstuna. We couldn't get in contact with her that evening. So I called her up early in the morning and told her that we wanted to sign her. I told her that I would cold come over and  get her to sign a contract.

Ulf Elfving:

     - The profesionall artist career had started for Anni-Frid. Lasse Lönndahl became her first folkparkpartner, how did that begun?

Lasse Lönndahl:

     - It was on a radio station, we were recording "Våra Favoriter" and then Frida had won the talent conest on Skansen, but I hadn't seen the show, but somehow she was invited to "Våra Favoriter". And it was a pretty, talented girl so naturally I asked her what she was going to do the following summer. This must have been in January or February 1968 and she said "- No, nothing special.". She had some lose plans but I asked her if she wanted to tour with me. "- She said, I love to!" and I was thrilled because she was a very talented girl and she had a fine quartet that played with us; Bengt Hallberg, piano, Rune Gustafsson, guitar, Rune Carlson on drums and Lasse "Peta" Pettersson on bass, so she found it very tempting to tour with such a great band.

Ulf Elfving:

Is there anyone of all the people you have worked with through they years that has taught you more than anyone else?

Anni-Frid Lyngstad:

      - I really do appreciate Charlie Norman highly. I think he was a good teacher in many ways, both musically and performance wise. He was a bit of a "Dad" for me in that way. He is very particular with wich he does especially when it comes to work and he wouldn't accept any negiglence, you had to know what you were doing and that was of course very usefull.

Charlie Norman:

     - I don't think I've learned her anything, because she was, a pretty girl, sung beutifully, used cutley when she ate, so then there's nothing much else to learn somebody. Apart from being on time but that goes for all of us. I know that there are several individuals who say that they have learned things from me, but I find that hard to believe and I don't think I'm using any "schoolteacher" tactics and try to make them to this or that.

Brush up your Swedish? Do you want to pratice your Swedish?And here some of the rare tracks Frida sings. Listen to these 4 tracks from the interview: Track 1, Track 2, Track 3, Track 4.

Comments

[Anna]

I loved the way she had fun on stage -- sometimes it seems that she was the one who enjoyed to be on stage the most. "Why did it have to be me" is the greatest example for this :)

[mikespeir]

Oh, yeah, I love the live version of "Why Did it Have to be Me," too. Not to slight Agnetha at all, but with her out of the picture Frida was free to cut loose. It's thrilling!

[Anna]

Dear Micke,
Thanks a lot for the continuation of this interview -- it's pretty interesting to read about the group members' early years before ABBA, this is something that has been the least discussed in the media and by the group members themselves. Keep up the good work :)