Final Interview by The Ark Fun Page

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Interview to The Ark by The Ark Fun Page 12.05.2011

It’s a sunny hot day in Trezzo sull’Adda, tonight The Ark will play their last Italian concert.

We’re waiting for the band right in the backyard of LiveClub and here they come with their

colorful clothes, sunglasses and that relaxed attitude that immediately makes us feel at

ease. Sylle is splitting his orange while we sit in the shade, as Martin suggests, we share a

smile and a little chat to break the ice. Martin remembers well: it’s almost 4 years since we

last met in Italy . Sylvester tell us they were looking forward to come here, we seem all in ahappy mood. This will probably be The Ark last Italian interview, so let it begin!

1. In the album "In Full Regalia" you have mixed together the concept of modern song with

that typical 70's Rock sound. And you got this brilliant result, but Which was the factor

that led you to this choice? How did you come up with this idea?

Ola: I think that throughout our carrier our main influence has been music from the 70s,

but we always found it very important to mix it up with something modern… yes, to make

sure that the music should not be regarded as retro music. When doing our last album,

when we were doing “In Full Regalia” we thought, you know, yeah, we didn’t really have

that energy to try to make it modern (raises a laugh), we just thought like “let’s just admit

that we love the 70’s music, so why not let it sound that way!”. We still think that the

songs would be modern because they are written today and they deal with thoughts that

I’ve had, you know, in this time which would make the songs contemporary anyway I think.

But I think that mainly it was we… we let go of our ambition to make the music sound

modern, and maybe that’s also a sign that we didn’t anymore feel an urge to be one of the

bands competing to create the modern sound. When we were doing “In Full Regalia” we



didn’t know that we were going to retire the band, but… but maybe there was some… that

we didn’t feel as strongly anymore in an urge to make modern music.

2. Is there any thought about releasing a DVD with live sessions or official videos?

Martin: Yeah!

TheArkFunPage: Yeah?

Martin: We’ve never done it before and we really should do it…

Sylvester: Before it’s too late!

(laughter )

Martin: Before it’s too late yeah! Well actually the Swedish Television recorded one of our

spring shows, one show from Växjö, the city where we come from, so… and they actually

are gonna send like a dedicated programme show about The Ark on the Swedish Television

with some interviews and with forty minutes with live music and that could be also an

opportunity to use that material, but I think we should record some of the summer shows

as well and then find out which one we sure could have into our DVD.

TheArkFunPage: Yeah, that would be great! And we know that there’s a book that’s being

released by the author Christian Patrick, and that is a really good idea we think!

Ola: Christian yeah!

Martin: Yeah, we must do it!

3. The art work for Arkeology is your own half bust statues, some sort of eternal monument

in honour of The Ark. Anyway historically the monument represents a praise for

someone who belongs to the past. How do you relate to the concept between life and

death and which message did you really want to give through this art work?

Ola: I think it was a bit of tongue-in-cheek like now we’re retiring the band we’re no longer

contemporary players on the music scene, we no longer belong to the contemporary

scene, we don’t belong to the future anymore, we belong in the past and in this album wedig out the old gems from the past, old treasures, so we thought that we were like

archaeologists digging up all these treasures from the past and we ourselves are something

that, you know, that now soon is in the past… so that was sort of a humoristic way of

saying “that was to make us as antique roman statues…”

TheArkFunPage: A humorist way so that is!

Ola: So… so it’s a bit like…ehm… but also we wanted this… So in one way it was a

humoristic comment of us not… you know… of us soon belonging to the past, but also it

was… everything we’ve done we’ve done with an ambition to make something huge…

something timeless! And I think that’s also, you know, besides the comic thing about it, itwas also the serious thing about it was that we wanted too. Our hope is that these songs

will remain with people and that they… that they will not be… ehm… the “flavour of the



season” songs, but they will be something that is carved in stone. So I think that’s sort of

what we wanted to… yeah… communicate.

Martin: And by the way I think it’s the first time you’ve ever seen an antique statue with

glasses!

TheArkFunPage: Glasses… ?Martin and Ola: Yeah! Jens has glasses!

TheArkFunPage: That’s true!! (everyone laughs)

4. Every artist has his own idol. Who's yours?

Ola: I think we have many idols, we can mention one each…

TheArkFunPage: Yeah!

Ola: In The Ark we have had a lot of idols around the years… yes…

TheArkFunPage: Choose one…

Leari: Billy!

Ola: Billy who?

Leari: Billy Idol!

(laughter )

TheArkFunPage: Maybe Bowie?

Ola: Yeah, David Bowie is definitely one of the main… Queen, The Doors, Sly & The Family

Stone, Led Zeppelin…

Sylvester: The Who…

Leari: I think if we have to pick one I think David Bowie is maybe the artist who we have

been listening to the most…yeah I think David Bowie is the favourite on all groups.

Martin: Yeah maybe he’s the favourite for the band!

5. Which is your best memory about Italy? And the worst?

(everyone laughs)Martin: Actually to begin with the worst stuff, actually like the place where this club is. We

have been to so many places around Italy, like just a little bit away from the highway, in the

industrial areas, nothing to do, so we have been waiting for hours at all these places

around Italy!

TheArkFunPage: That’s the same for us!

(everybody laughs)

Ola: So, this is really nice to meet you, but besides this meeting you, this kind of situation is

probably the worst about our Italian carrier. Italy is so beautiful, but so much of our time

we’ve spent in Italy, we’ve spent in parking lots, in industrial areas…Martin: …buildings with nothing to do…



Ola: …buildings, waiting in places like this you know… because the venues are always away

from the cities and that’s a pity…

TheArkFunPage: That’s a pity!!

Ola: Yeah!! But besides that we’ve had so much fun in Italy and we’ve experienced so

much wonderful things…TheArkFunPage: The great experience of Festival Bar?

Ola: Yeah that was actually fun!

Martin: Yeah!

Ola: Yeah it was fun! You know, I remember the first time I played Festival Bar… I don’t

know if it was in the Arena di Verona?

TheArkFunPage: Arena di Verona yes! And Benevento too… yeah many cities actually!

Ola: Yeah!!

TheArkFunPage: Verona was the biggest!

Ola: Yeah in these ancient arenas… it was a fantastic experience and of course it was noproperly gigs, we played playback but it was still very fantastic and being you know among

really well famous artists and it was really fun and we also remember playing… ehm… we

once played at Piazza del Duomo in front of the biggest audience we’ve ever played for, I

think it was 70 thousand people… That wasn’t 70 thousand…?

Leari: I think that was 200 thousand!

Ola: Yeah it’s always... everytime we retell the story it’s more people!

Martin: Yeah but I think it was 70 thousand!

Ola: Yeah.. but if I have to pick one moment I remember we one night when we were in

Italy, I don’t think we played that night I think we were in Italy doing promotion… it was in

the late summer of 2000… no, no it was in the summer of 2001 and we were in charts with

this huge hit, with “It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane”, and we went to this restaurant which

was in a small small town, just I don’t remember where we were, and we went to this

restaurant eating really nice food and then when I’ve had a lot of pasta I was feeling like I

had to have a little walk (laughs)… I had to help my digestion a bit with a little walk! So I

went out for walk and a couple of young persons saw me there and they were like… I could

see that they recognized me and I went back to the restaurant and when we came out

from the restaurant they had probably told their friends I think, ‘cause when we came out

from the restaurant there was like 40 or 50 young people there and they wanted to meet

us and then we said hello to everyone and wrote some autographs and almost no one

knew any English, so no one really said anything, but then we walked into our bus and then

some persons started singing “It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane” and then all these kids

started singing this song! This really complicated song with a lot of complicated English

words! These kids who almost didn’t know any English started singing this complicated

text… to us! And it was almost like a revelation…

TheArkFunPage: It was a great hit in Italy!

Ola: Yeah, and to us it was so fantastic that these kids who knew so little English still had

learnt all this song by heart and that they would sing it for us.

TheArkFunPage: Yesterday we listened to “It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane” on the radio!



Ola: Yeah… that’s nice!

Martin: So they still play it sometimes!

Ola: That’s nice to hear!

TheArkFunPage: Yeah, also the video on TV…

Ola: Yeah? That’s nice…

6. The theme of many of your songs is religion and God. How has it changed your

relationship with God during these years?

Ola: Well… to me The Ark has always been one of the… One of my personal projects with

writing songs for The Ark was to… sort of… to deal with my religious roots, my religious

backgrounds. With The Ark I wanted to sort of create my own religion and writing lyrics to

The Ark… I wrote about stuff… I tried to figure out how I could use some of the things that I

had within me from my religious background in a way that would make my life better and

how I would get rid of some of the things that had to do with my religious background that

didn’t make me feel good. So, writing songs to The Ark has in many ways been to me like a

therapeutic project to deal with my religious background and one of the problematic things

with the religion, especially like traditional religion, is that there’s a concept of shame and

guilt which often is around… and when you’re a living modern human being sometimes it’s

hard to see, you know, to find your way in life and I think I just wanted to figure out how to

use the good things of religion and how to break free from the bad sides of religion.

7. You recently won a prize in Sweden for being a band who's inspired young people in the

Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual community not being afraid of being themselves. Italy still has an

high rate of homophobia. What do you think about it?

Ola: Well I think that… I think that… homophobia is a problem in society and not only for

the Queer community. It’s a problem for the whole society because homophobia is just

one example of the kind of fear that existed in society, fear of everything that is differentand fear of emotions and I therefore think that by fighting homophobia you’re essentially…

you know… fighting homophobia is important not only for the homo/bi/transsexual people

in society, it’s important for the whole society because a less homophobic society would

also be a better society, a happier society, a society where everyone is more allowed to be

themselves. So I think that’s very very important.

TheArkFunPage: What is your advice for those who still feel oppressed?

Ola: …it’s a hard question! I think… you should know like I say in Father Of A Son “If You

Fight Love You’re Always A Loser”? That’s a good way to think! Even if these people are

oppressing me for being different I know that if I live and fight for my right to love and livemy own kind of life, the ones who are against me in doing that they are the ones to pity.

Those are the ones… you know, those are the ones living sad lives. As long as I live the life I



feel is right in my heart I don’t live a tragic life I live an important, happy life. But the

people who are against me for living the life I know in my heart I want to live those people

are tragic persons.

TheArkFunPage: But it’s hard being happy… always…

Ola: Yes, it’s hard of course… yes and it’s always hard and I think that’s why this has beensuch a recurring theme in our music because, you know, encouraging people to live their

own life, follow their heart, follow their emotions sounds so banal, sounds so cliché,

sounds so simple, but it’s the hardest thing in the world! Therefore we’ve written all these

songs because… it’s… it’s not enough to say it once and then say it in one way you have to

say it again and again and again, find new way to sing it! That’s what we’ve been doing

very much with The Ark… So, so yeah, we know that it’s hard and I know that it’s hard and I

wouldn’t have written all these songs if it was a simple way, if it was an easy thing to find

to be yourself and to follow your heart. It needs constant encouragement!

8. Which is your meaning of life?

Ola: …mhm…

(they all look each other thoughfully )

Ola: …happiness?

(Leari approves by pointing Ola out, then we all laugh)

TheArkFunPage: We all agree!

TheArkFunPage: So that was it, we really thank you for your time and for coming to Italy

for the last time, it was important for us…

Sylvester: Sure! It’s the least we can do!

TheArkFunPage: Thank you!

Leari: That won’t be the last time…

TheArkFunPage: That won’t be..?

Leari: With the band it will be the last time, but I will visit Italy…

Ola: Yeah, the pleasure is totally on our side and thank you for “TheArk FunPage” and

thank you for making intelligent questions!

TheArkFunPage: Thank you!

Ola: Yeah, not ordinary questions, but really intelligent questions…

TheArkFunPage: Yeah, those were questions from fans, not from journalists or critics and

so on...

Ola: Yeah!

As we explain to Martin more about our Blog, Ola wants to thank us one more time

for the effort we put into it, but then we tell him how grateful we actually are foreverything that they have done so far. Time has gone by so fast, these 24 minutes



we want to share with you, Angelheads. The Ark know they will always be in our

hearts, now and forever.

A special thank goes to Sandra Nordin and Martin Ekelund who made this interview

happen. We’d also like to thank Ivan Heart and Maria Mariani for inspiring

questions.

Last but not least we’d like to thank The Ark once again, for their time and

appreciation and The Ark fans in Italy and all over the world because without them

“TheArkFunPage” probably would not make sense to exist.

Ola: "Let's go there to take a picture, there where there's flowers!" Sylle: "So you can say you've been at The

Ark ranch!"



Ola: "Now we make a funny face, ok?"

© TheArk FunPage.

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Final Interview by The Ark Fun Page