Famous for its music, design and enviable social democracy, Sweden is an idyllic-yet-modern country to spend some time in. I caught up with Ulf Ekberg, best known for being co-founder of Ace Of Base. One of Sweden’s greatest international successes, they are in the Guinness book of World Records for having the best-selling debut. He’s also famous for having girls scream over his good looks, and while he knows how to party, he also happens to be a great businessman—he’s been Volvo’s and Ericsson’s ambassador. In a way he’s the perfect ambassador for all things Sweden is famous for. Ulf takes us on a tour of Stockholm and shares us some of his secrets about the town. The way Ulf describes Sweden with such an eye and detail; it could only be an artist talking.
Victoria Aiken: So Stockholm?
Ulf: Sweden is very beautiful and built on many islands, 20.000 islands in Stockholm archipelago and 60.000 on the east coast. Stockholm is a beautiful city its 800 years old, the old town is the core of Stockholm, and Stockholm castle is very beautiful, our history is amazing, a great museum is the national museum.
VA: Best way to travel around Stockholm?
Ulf: Best way to travel around Stockholm is on foot as its so small, Norrmalmstorg is the center of Stockholm and easy to access Stureplan (party square – Sturekompaniet etc), Biblioteksgatan (boutique stores), NK (like Harrods), Strandvägen (expensive real estate
area in Sweden, on the water), Djurgården (a beautiful Island that belongs to the King, with restaurants, parks, animals and an amazing fun field Tivoli called Gröna Lund), the Old Town and the Royal Theatre and Opera.
VA: What are the best Shopping areas?
Ulf: Our Harrods is called NK. A great street for shopping is Biblioteksgatan, which means Library Street; it has many fashion stores, and watch brands.
VA: Where is the best place to stay?
Ulf: a great hotel is Nobis, the services is great, and are the rooms and it’s very central it’s a 2-minute walk from NK. Berns is also good, great for after parties, and they have good suites. Also the Lydmar, it over looks the royal castle, its trendy and full of fashion people.
VA: Ulf, weren’t you a chef, before being a rock star? What are the best restaurants in Stockholm ?
Ulf: Ha ha, sort of. Italian food Papas, it’s a small restaurant and it’s so good you need a reservation. another hip place is Teatergrillen, its very trendy and a lot of actors go there, they offer great Swedish food such a fish and meatballs. La Rouge in the old town has amazing food. Another more hip-hop place East: it’s on Stureplan, which happens to be owned by Max Martin the famous producer. At the bar there they play a lot of hip-hop music. On the weekends, Vassa Eggen is a great music bar.
VA: What are the best nightclubs in Stockholm?
Ulf: A great nightclub, which as been going for perhaps 30 years is Café Opera it’s a beautiful opera house that’s now a nightclub, it also offers fine dining called Opera Källaren. It over looks the castle and the restaurant also catered the food for Crown Princess Victoria’s wedding. Another great club is V; its part of the Sturecompanie, there is a VIP area on the 2nd floor. From May to September, there is an great club called The Wall, on the terrace, it’s the most amazing club in the world, unbelievable, people come from all over the world to party, and its sound system is the best in Sweden, the energy in such a small place is amazing. In a way Swedes aren’t affected by the seasons, if the weather is bad, well then people still go out. A great party island is Gotland, On Gotland people have to visit Kallis during the day (voted the best after beach party in Europe 2 years on a row before any Ibiza parties!), really mind blowing. Brazilians have discovered it, and many come here in the summer.
VA: After hours?
Ulf : Hell’s kitchen—it’s a cellar downstairs in Stureplan. Also the Write Room, Solidaritet is a underground club where people like Swedish House Mafia play.
VA: Best thing to do on Sundays:
Ulf : for Sundays, its great to walk on Strandvägen, and to visit in the 6 months of the year when the weather is warm. Djurgården,a great museum there is the Vasa Museum, and Junibacken is a children’s museum there, mainly focused on Astrid Lindgren who created Pippi longstocking. In the spring it’s great to take a ferry or rent a boat we have twenty thousand islands to visit. Vaxholm has beautiful castles on the island. Sandhamn, is partly made of sand and is famous [for] its sailing. Many sailing competitions take place here.
Sweden and Music
Sweden is of course known for having produced some of the best bands in the world such as Abba, Ace of Base, Roxette and Robyn, and now the best DJs in the world such Swedish house mafia. I took the opportunity to pick Ulf’s brain on the field that made him famous.
VA: Why do you think Sweden has had so much success with music?
Ulf: one of the reasons [for] our ability for hook lines is that melody chorus is in our folk music, and our language is melodic. Our folk music schlager is what whole euro vision song contest based on.
Another reason is our support system in the 60,70, 80, 90 our government supported music education schools, schools offered basic music education and you could take any instrument, and extra classes if you wanted to. Also rehearsal rooms, equipment you wanted to buy [was] supported by the government. This helped people focus on music.
Another reason why musicians in Sweden might be so successful is because Swedes speak English, so when we write lyrics in English it’s more simple. Sweden as a brand is simple, our design is simple [. . .] so even people in Japan, or Germany can understand our lyrics. Sometimes when the English or Americans write songs, they write complicated lyrics, whereas everyone can understand what Swedes are saying in English. If a French, German or Japanese group can only sing in their own language they might only be a star in their own country.
But when our big stars become successful [it] isn’t really thanks to the Swedish record companies, it’s more thanks to the bands themselves – there is a huge talent pool in Sweden, from Max Martin the man behind Nsync, Britney Spears and Katy Perry, to other mega producers, Andreas Carlsson to Anders Bagge. And many big stars travel to Sweden to work in our studios here, such as Max [who] has the Maritime Studios and now the biggest producer of them all, Red One, who produced Lady Gaga. Most of the team in his office in LA are Swedish.
Another incredible Swedish music talent is Jonas Åkerlund, he’s a video director, who created many Madonna, Lady Gaga and Britney videos and he’s also created many different world tours such as U2’s. His wife Bea is behind all Madonna, Black Eyed Peas’ styling and Gaga (except for her last album)!
Front page photo: Skeppsholmsbron, Stockholm, with Strandvägen in the background. Photo by Mats Haldin, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.