Recently got this interview from the Swedish magazine "Min Värld", issue number 10, 1973.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad about her struggle with hopelessness and depressions:
BENNY GIVES ME COURAGE IN MY DARKEST MOMENTS
- Last summer it wa something began to happen with me, says Anni-Frid Lyngstad. I had a new inner security, something I've been missing before. A new harmony in my existance.
- I had taken the whole summer off and my two children were here with me. I was able to relax and felt very good. And the whole time my relationship with Benny was also very nice and harmonic.
- Then, when I started to work in the fall - on a tour with Roffe Berg - then I suddenly felt the change. Suddenly it was such a joy to work. I dared to let go like never before. I felt more free and more secure.
Frida has had some success lately, both as a solo artist and in a group together with her fiancé Benny Andersson and their best friends Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus. Just recently they had a number one hit on Europatoppen.
Anni-Frid has had the chance to travel around in the world. This winter she sang in Japan. Recently she participated in a song festival in Venezuela for a week. She has done television in Austria.
- In some way it feels much more fun to sing this year, says Frida. And what I'm most pleased about is that it's going so well for the four of us. I like it best when I sing together with the others. Then I get a feeling of security from them. We have a security among us. I don't have to feel alone, little, scared and nervous. And it's wonderful to work together with Benny.
- Benny means so much to me, both in private and in my work. He is always there for me. He gives me strength.
- I used to think it was difficult to work and live together. That it would make you tired of each other when you're together all the time. But now, when we are more settled in our relationship and we feel safe with each other, it's just comfortable.
- Benny and I are quite different, and naturally there has been conflicts and missunderstandings sometimes. Benny is more outgoing, happy and positive. I'm more of a serious kind of person.
- I'm sensitive and can get depressed, fall into dark periods when everything feels difficult and insurmountable. Last spring, for example, I was having a time like that. One thinks everything is pointless and boring. You want to reinvent yourself. Maybe change what you are doing. Sometimes I have even thought about giving up the singing. I've been thinking "what am I doing"?
- During times like that Benny is always there for me and he gives me new courage. He won't accept that I let myself fall down into darkness and despair, instead he makes me do something. And I have become much move even tempered now, calmer.
- Benny has a lot of patience with me, and with everything. He is warm and tender. I can talk with him about anything, I don't have to keep feeling bottled up inside. When you feel that someone like Benny cares so much for you - then it becomes an enormous strength. It makes you strong. And safe.
- I could never live on my own. I have a very big need to live together with someone. Before I met Benny - after I left my old life in Eskilstuna - I was alone for quite a while. It was horrible! I could never stand to go through that again.
- The most important thing for me is together with someone and make it work. The career comes second.
Anni-Frid has been married before and has two children, Hans, 10 years old and Lotta, 6 years old. They mostly live with their father in Eskilstuna, but regularly comes to visit Anni-Frid and Benny.
- Being together with my children is also very important to me, says Anni-Frid. If I didn't have the children, my life would seem empty! Benny and the children are the best I have.
- I have a very good relationship with my children. It's very good when you can have that arrangement after a divorce. It has never been a problem for us. Never any conflicts or a tug-of-war over the children. We have arranged it the way we both feel is the best for the children. And now they are old enough to understand how it works.
- Sometimes they can be with me for weeks. It's good for their father to get some rest every now and then, since he has them most of the time. Naturally, I have missed them terribly sometimes, but we do have each other. We talk to each other over the phone several times a week. It's such a nice feeling when I pick up the phone and hear "- Hi it's Hans, how are you?". They tell me about everything, their likes and dislikes. About when they recently had the chicken pox. How Hans is doing in school. He is in the fourth grade now. I like it when they turn to me, I enjoy giving them advice and help.
The children often comes and visit Anni-Frid and Benny at their house in Vallentuna, where they moved about a year ago. There the children have their own room. Sometimes during the holidays both Anni-Frid's two children and Benny' s two come at the same time. That makes for a lively time in the house.
- It's wonderful to live outside of the city, says Anni-Frid. We have the woods just around the corner. It's everything we dreamed it would be. We often take long walks and go skiing when there's snow. It's such a difference to the small city apartment and the air is so much cleaner.
- Last summer the children spent a lot of time here with me. Hans went to camp for a while, but Lotta was here all summer. We spent almost all of our time at the local swimmingpool, swimming and sunbathing.
- Benny and I don't plan on having any more children, we already have four together. But I guess you never know.
We are still working on the house. There is still a lot to be done. It takes time to get a house in order. We have done alot of the work ourselves. We did the new upholstery on the couches together and I have been sewing curtains and covers for the furniture.
- I enjoy doing things around the house. It's mostly me who does the cooking. I like experimenting. Benny is not so fond of cooking, but he doesn't mind cleaning. We live like most families in our spare time. We watch TV, talk, read, take walks with our dog. I draw and paint and I enjoy sewing. I have always liked that. Last year I went through Tillskärarakademien to learn how sew professionally.
- We have discussed getting married. But we haven't - as strange as it may sound - had the time to do it yet! Mainly because we have decided that once we do get married we will have a three day long wedding party! We will invite all our friends and have a great time. The ceremony itself is really not that important to us, but we want that as well. We do want a church wedding and I want to wear a long, white dress.
- We talk a lot about music at our home of course. It's both a hobby and our profession. Lately the four of us, Benny and I and Björn and Agnetha, have spent almost all our time together. Especially since we are neighbours here in Vallentuna now. And it's working out great. The first time when we worked together it became quite heated, it was on a restaurant tour a couple of years ago. Back then we didn't know each other that well. But now we have learned to discuss without any hard words among us.
- We really ought to get a group name. Right now we just use our names, but Björn, Agnetha and Frida are difficult to pronounce abroad. Right now we are working on an album in English together. And this spring there will be a TV-show and a radio show where we will be hosting. During summer we will go on tour in the folk parks for three months. But it will only be Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Benny and Björn are working as producers during the normal weekdays. I plan to have some time off and I think the children will come and visit me again.