In the break between shooting of the video scenes Gravitonas kindly agreed to give an interview to our site.

About recording a duet with Roma Kenga by Skype and different versions of Everybody Dance

Alexander
It was not difficult to record a song with Roma via Skype. We had already written the song and we sent him our version, which was already a full production. Roma added his vocals and we worked on Skype to get the vocals right. We did several recordings until he was pleased.

Andreas
But it just went better and better.

Alexander
He was very good at that. And then when we got exactly what we wanted we finished one production in Stockholm which is going to be released as the Gravitonas Radio Edit. Roma made his own version which is more Eastern-European dance style and it is called Roma Kenga Radio Edit. There is also a third original version made by Adam Rickfors who is a great Swedish remixer and it is also very good. It is more Ibiza, more dancefloor. So there are at least three original versions of the song. There will be a couple of more radio edits and then, we hope, there are going to be a lot of different versions.

About duets and writing for other artists

Alexander
We are not planning to do any more duets now. But we have got a lot of requests from the record companies around Europe, because we both write and produce. I work with with Henrik (Wikstrom) and Andreas works with Ben (Smith). So we actually have more songwriters and producers for us in Gravitonas. So it is quite easy for us to write for other artists too and there are a lot of artists who want to make it with Gravitonas. It is a very modern way of work.

Andreas
We will probably make some duets on singles, EPs and stuff like that.

About working with other Russian artists and the remix contest

Alexander
There is a duet from Kaliningrad, Fagault and Marina, a guy and a girl who really liked our stuff. They did a remix of Youth Is Wasted On The Young, which is one of the winners of the remix contest. We had hundreds of participants of the remix contest, but there were six winners and Fagault and Marina’s remix is actually the first one that received a radio play. So it is going to be very interesting to see how the Fanworks EP goes. It will be released on May 25, the same release date as Everybody Dance single.

About the target audience of Gravitonas and its difference from the audience of previous Alexander Bard’s projects

Andreas
The target audience of Gravitonas are freaks (both laugh).

Alexander
The target audience of Gravitonas is the opposite to that of BWO. BWO was a very sweet band and we wanted it to be light for the mainstream people and have a lot of sugar and Gravitonas is probably the exact opposite. For me it is like going from God to the devil. Both God and devil are interesting, but I’m very much into the devil now (both laugh). We like good-looking boys and girls too. They can be our audience, that’s OK. About the other members of Gravitonas.

Alexander
We have a guitar player Ben Smith, who you saw in the You Break Me Up video, because there are great guitar solos in that song, so it makes sense to involve him in the video and he is also playing with us live on stage. We also need some drummers and keyboard players, but that could all be done by machines, so we have eventually worked out that as well. But that is not the issue. Personally I think and we feel that it is visually more interesting when I and Andreas are fronting the stage. Because the relationship of the two men that do weird things on stage – it is very modern and artistically it is very interesting to work with. The tradition of our performers – four guys which are playing the instruments and one is singing – it is all boring to work with, it is not very modern, not especially interesting. That’s why we think that the other guys also feel that it is great when Andreas and I are on stage.

Andreas
Hopefully Gravitonas turns out to be a big circus or something in a couple of years, more circus than a usual band.

About what is needed from a possible future Gravitonas member

Alexander
If you want to be our drummer, you should look great and be odd and play drums well. We are not compromising on quality. We can have our weird and wicked ideas, but at the end of the day, we can not be successful unless we write the world’s best songs and then have the best production ever and the best musicians. It is all very important.

About the changes in Russia in the past 20 years

Alexander
Russia has changed, let’s put it that way. Russia is a very very different country compared to what it was 10 years ago even more than compared to what it was 20 years ago. I’m not the one to say if it has changed for better or for worse. It is for Russians to decide, because they live in this country. I come to this country and I love being in Russia, but only Russians can tell it. I think it would be kind of rude of me to say what I think of Russia. It is up to the Russian people to decide what has changed and how.

About the party in Russia that bears the same name as the party Alexander is in (Liberal Democrats)

Alexander
I just think the name is similar, I’m not sure that the programme is similar. Andreas is a very political person, but he has not determined his political views yet.

Andreas
I’m just a lesbian.

Alexander
A lesbian anarchist, maybe. I think he is more anarchistic than I am. Aren’t you?

Andreas
Yeah, haven’t figured it out yet.

Alexander
We haven’t figured it out yet.

Andreas
We will

Alexander
We probably will, yeah. I can be gay or straight, he is a lesbian.

About revolutions in the Middle East

Alexander
What is going on in the Middle East is great. I mean, it is horrible that so many people get killed and I’m disgusted by the dictators who kill their own people. It is probably the worst thing and they should be sentenced in the International Court, in Hague, to be thrown out of space, because I hate them for it. But I think that what people are doing is very encouraging, is very promising and I can even feel sometimes that people in Europe are too cynical now.

Andreas
Yeah

Alexander
When I look at the Middle East, I love the energy and I like vibrations coming out of those countries.

About the possibility of such a revolution in Russia

Alexander
You know, I’m sure that people get really tired of their leaders, and the leaders get too corrupt. I think that revolution can happen in any country. I don’t think Russia is any different from Libya or Syria or anywhere else. Just because Russia has the most famous revolution ever doesn’t mean that revolution can’t happen somewhere else and they can certainly happen in Russia again. I hope they can happen in Sweden too, because sometimes, perhaps, Swedes are too passive about their society and things that are not right. Sometimes I think there is a need for a revolution in Sweden too, you know. People are very wealthy and well-educated and all that, but they are too passive about their own good sometimes. We have racists in the Swedish parliament. When a country has a racist party inside the parliament, I think that’s a wake-up call. They need to do something.

About suspicions of some of the fans that Gravitonas may transfer secret messages through the signs used in their videos.

Andreas
It could be true.

Alexander
Of course, we are. There are a lot of secret hidden messages in the Gravitonas videos. That’s on purpose, that’s exactly what we want.

Andreas
If you play the video backwards, you can have some stuff.

Alexander
Well, I think, we live in a society where a lot of things are so transparent they become boring, because they are everywhere. And I think it is important artistically to try to communicate to your own community and be loyal to that community and not that everybody understands what you are doing. Because that kind of exclusivity is very important. That’s what we call the Tribe of Gravitonas. Not Gravitonas, because it is not about us, it is about the fans and it is about the connection between us and the fans and how we connect with them, we love it. Somebody came with the word Gravitonians.

Andreas
We like that

Alexander
We love that word. We are Gravitonians too, but it is a word for everybody.

About physical releases

Andreas
WE will have one CD.

Alexander
You know, it is really up to Universal music, if they want to make physical record. The album that comes out in September would probably be a physical release in Scandinavia. There are some promotional releases that are physical releases. But we don’t want to encourage that. We know about the fans, that it is important that they have their physical part. But we live in a very digital world. In Sweden Spotify is so successful, it is incredible, it is really great for the artists. And the fact is that we can release all our stuff on Spotify, we can even release our fans’ versions also on Spotify. It is a great media. It would never be possible if everything was supposed to be on a physical CD, because it would be too expensive with distribution and so on. So streaming is the future of music and we want it to be the future of Gravitonas.

Gravitonas to the fans reading our site

WE love you