Introduce myself… hm … OK! I’m a 42 year old male with four children (with three different mothers) living in Stockholm Sweden. I used to be a radio show host or program leader doing my first one at the age of thirteen on SR P3 (the equivalent to BBC Radio One) in 1978. I quit the radio talking in 2004. I was also the drummer in one of Sweden’s first punk bands in the late 70’s and have been doing music on and of since that time. Today I write children’s books as well as doing a most serious album for kids. It’s my belief that kids get poisoned with all kinds of trash, so I’m doing an album with proper music and proper lyrics for kids. I’m doing most of the song writing with the keyboard player from the Swedish band Europe. That’s kind of strange because we most certainly do not share the same musical background. But when it comes to taste in music, we have a lot in common. Other collaborators are Par Wiksten from The Wannadies another Swedish band that had some success in GB and Jens Lindgard who engineered the first Franz Ferdinand album. A lot of Sweden’s finest musicians and singers are on the album as well. But all of these things have nothing to do with the reason why I’m here.
Except for being on the radio and doing music that got media attention from an early age I had the most horrible childhood you can have. I was abused in every possible way (no not every, but bad enough). All of this should not be of importance here if it wasn’t for one thing, John Foxx actually saved my life and he doesn’t know it since I’ve never met him.
But the first time I came across his music was in 1978 when Ultravox played in Stockholm. The show opened in a very traditional rock n’ roll way John saying “hello Stockholm”! But in a low almost whispering voice, then he begun strumming the guitar singing “I want to be a machine”. It was the opening of a new musical word to me; pop could be arty and still be pop or rock. It wasn’t the ten minute eposes of Yes or Genesis and it wasn’t the simple head banging rock the Pistols were playing (even if I really like Sex Pistols). The three Ultravox albums John did and his firs solo albums were constant on my stereo. It wasn’t that he sang about my life, on the contrary he was singing about everything else and with music that was the thinking mans pop music. So John is one of the three persons in this world that showed me that there is something else than alcoholic dads, bully boys beating you up at school and abusive youth leaders. The strength that the music and lyrics gave me just by presenting a more interesting world to me is something that followed me through my life. So maybe music can’t change the world but it can certainly save humans and I’m forever grateful.
Dyslectic regards
Bo (Bosse)
