Lay your love on me, the song with which BWO participated in this year's Melodifestivalen, was released in the UK last month and the band hope to repeat the success of Sunshine in the rain which charted in the UK in March. As the song is a favourite on Radio 2, Alexander Bard, chief songwriter, spoke about the band, Madonna and of course Eurovision, or his beloved gay soccer tournament as he calls it.
"I miss good songwriting." Alexander says when asked if he misses ABBA and the Roxette, "Pop music today tends to be too focused on the production being hip and with it, but what really counts at the end of the day is the quality of the songwriting. If you want to have a lasting quality to do what you do, and you want to get up onstage ten years later and not have people say, 'That's terribly dated, get off the stage!' you have to focus on the songwriting. BWO is very much about the joy of good pop songwriting."
Does he feel there is a chance for BWO to be successful in the demanding UK market? "I've absolutely no idea. Someone asked me the other day if they thought we could 'crack the market'. That's the sort of expression I expect to hear from a cynical A&R man at a major label – I don't expect that to come out the mouth of a fan or a journalist. I'm not cynical about making music and the fans aren't cynical about our music. These days it's interesting because you can have a really good niche following in lots of countries if you use the internet wisely and you don't have to worry about being top ten this week or top ten next week." Alexander Bard says.
Radio 2 does not often play BWO music, but still this time they make an exception, what was it that mad that possible? "I think what they like is that we're not manufactured. We've had too many Idol winners and too many boybands and too many girl bands. I hate manufactured music, I like music that's organic and real. With BWO it's obvious we're real because a major record company would never put together a group featuring a 47-year-old man, a 43-year-old woman and a 26-year-old guy who looks like he's brought mum and dad on stage with him."
"You're confessing on the dance floor, you betray your heart when looking my way" sings Martin Rolinski, the band's lead singer, in Lay your love on me, a line that is a clear reference to Madonna's Confessions on the dancefloor album, was that deliberate? "Of course it was! I did a track for Alcazar called Crying At The Discotheque and Madonna mentioned once in an interview that she loved it so much she wanted to make her own Crying At The Discotheque – that's how she came up with Hung Up. I thought, 'If Madonna's stealing from me, I might as well be inspired by her and name-check one of her songs'. 'Lay Your Love On Me' has nothing to do with 'Hung Up' as a song, but obviously when you listen to the production there are similarities. It has that same filter-disco feel." he says.
BWO are ardent fans of the Eurovision Song Contest. They have already tries three times to represent Sweden by competing in Melodifestivalen since 2005. They were also once invited to compete to represent the UK but refused as they were not allowed to enter with a song of their own: "They sent us these really crappy songs written by second-rate British songwriters and we said, 'Why would we do this? It would be suicide to perform this crappy song."
Alexander Bard believes that the UK stands a fair chance to win the Eurovision Song Contest if they put in more of an effort : "I love Eurovision – I call it the gay soccer tournament! What you need to do is get rid of the rule that the UK entry has to be written by UK songwriters. If you allow foreign songwriters to submit entries, you'll have much, much better songs competing. Andy Abraham placed last this year because he had an awful, awful song. The reason he got to be the UK's entry is because the other songs were even worse."
"If you put in more of an effort you can win it. If you put in a good song with a good performer you have a chance. You can't put in a second-rate artist like Andy Abraham singing a really crappy song and expect people to vote for it. Come on, that song was so, so awful." he concludes.
Bodies without organs- Lay your love on me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d63oOSOxr_s&ap=%2526fmt%3D18&rel=0
