- If you had the recipe for how to do it, says Jan Norén while giving it a thought.
Kerstin Bengtsson Norén quickly adds.
- There have always been lots of music in the family. We've played records. There has always been someone playing piano anthe kids were always singing along, she says.
- And I loved The Beatles. I was a Beatles nerd actually. I would have been able to answer the 10 000 dollar question. Gustaf also turned into a massive Beatles fan.
Both Jan and Kerstin got music in their blood. "This is my grandfather who played in a band", says Kerstin.
Jan continues.
- He [Gustaf] got obsessed with them and the two younger brothers went down the same road.
Kerstin and Jan speaks effortlessly and analyzing how it came about that three out of four children became some of 2000s biggest Swedish music stars with their bands Mando Diao and Sugarplum Fairy.
Big interest for music
All kids got interested in music early, the youngest and least wellknown sister Josefine as well.
- One of Gustaf's teachers were involved in the music theater in Borlänge. She brought Gustaf with her and and after that his siblings came along as well, Kerstin tells us.
Trumpet. Fiddle. French horn. Double bass. Guitar. Synth. All the siblings have played plenty of instruments. They've made their own music since the age of 8 or 9.
- They've always written their own music. Everyone but Josefine. And everyone in the family can sing except me, says Kerstin.
Here, at Forssaklackskolan in Borlänge, went all of the siblings to school in music classes.
Early rockstar dreams
- I found a red binder not too long ago with lyrics Carl and Victor had written. It was page after page full of words that don't exist. Probably 20 songs that is written in some kind of English, says Jan.
When Gustaf was 11 years old and wrote an essay about wanting to be either a rockstar or a hockey pro, Jan and Kerstin thought it mostly a dream.
- He had written a detailed speech in the paper that he was to carry out when he was famous and explained that he already had songs that he was to give out, says Jan.
Victor, who is the youngest, aslo told them in young age that he was gonna be a musiciam or a profeccional fotball player when he grew up.
But none of them became a hockey a fotball pro.
"I stand for the music and you stand for the lyrics", says Jan Norén to Kerstin about why three out of four of their children beame musicians.
Likes to write
But the music isn't the whole explanation to why the Norén brothers went the way they did. All three of them got something to tell. Want to tell.
- They've all loved writing. They have that after you, says Jan and looks at Kerstin.
- Yes, I've always liked debates and I love writing. I write lots of letters to the editor page, she says.
-They're incredibly verbal all of them. I remember when we were sitting in the Volkswagen bus and everyone was talking. It was quite dull and I remember thinking "where is this gonna end?", says Jan laughing.
But there's something else, something none of them can explain. The confident way Gustaf since a kid takes on the world.
- He's selfconfident, Gustaf. I has always gone his own way and chosen his own path, says Jan.
- He wore clothes inspired by The Beatles and similar haircut even if it was a hundred percent unfashionable, yet he managed to get popular. He was the boy who joined the choir in fourth grade and got everyone to do the same. He's got leadership skills that are not from us, says Kerstin.
- No, we're both shy, says Jan.
That the younger brothers would choose the same path as their older brother was no doubt.
- There were probably thoughts like "if he can, then we can do it as well", says Kerstin.
"Björn was like a fourth brother"
All four kids studied music at Forssaklackskolan in Borlänge while attending primary school. When Gustaf went to high school, he met Björn Dixgård for the first time.
- It was like finding another brother, Kerstin tells us.
- They weren't much alike at all but together they made music. Listened to each other's ideas and got small gigs.
- They need each other and I think they're more aware of that than ever. Gustaf is the guy who talks a lot and end up in the headlines of a newspaper and Björn is more calm and get brilliant ideas when it comes to music, says Kerstin.
- I remember when they were going to Ljusdals demo festival. Maybe in 2001 or something like that. They were so excited and proud of going there. All record labels were going to be there, says Jan.
- Sahara Hotnights told them they were really good which they were very proud of, and Hellacopters was the headliner.
A spring in the 1990s. The brothers had already started writing their own music.
Sugarplum got early attention
But then the younger brothers got the attention. Their band Sugarplum Fairy got great reviews in the local newspaper and some important people got to hear about them and the 13-year-old and 15-year-old Carl and Victor soon got a record deal.
- They pretended to be rockstars and eventually became rockstars. It wasn't weird for them, says Kerstin.
When the British indie rock band The Libertines cancelled a gig at the Accelerator festival in Borlänge, they got to play instead and got a good time to play on the timetable.
- It was completely random. They had the right contacts, says Jan.
Gustaf was going to be a teacher and had applied for Stockholm University. But when Mando Diao also got a record deal, he turned the application down.
- And then it went straight forward for Mando Diao very quickly, says Kerstin.
Have you been worried about them?
- Yes of course. It's a tough life. They once toured 200 days a year, of course you worry they party too muh. But Josefine calmed my down and says students drink more. And now they live different lives. Gustaf has three children and only goes on short tours.
What would your kids be doing if they weren't musicians?
- Victor wanted to become a journalist. Gustaf had probably become a teacher. Carl might also had ended up as a teacher, or maybe psychologist, says Kerstin.
- Gustaf could have been a politician as well. He always got an opinion and can't shut up, says Jan.
- If he had found a party that suits him. Otherwise he might have started his own party, says Kerstin.
THINGS YOU (PERHAPS) DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE FAMILY.
- The famous brothers got a younger sister, Josefine, who is a nurse and who has never had ambitions to become a musician, says Jan and Kerstin.
- Josefine sings on Carl's solo record.
- She [Josefine] had the best grades out of the Norén siblings.
- Gustaf is a good artist and likes to paint.
- Victor likes writing.
- Carl is studying literature at the university.
- All of them were in the Student council. Carl was the cashier, while his brothers and sister were chairman.
- Gustaf would have been named Elin Linnéa if he would have been a girl.
- As a young kid, he had "such a fun and amazing personality", according to his parents.
- Calle was sweet, charming and happy as a child.
- Victor was called Vickevire during the pregnancy, "he was so calm and easy to deal with", says his mum.
- Josefine was an awaited girl, "we almost thought it was only possible to get boys, but then we got her!".
Published: on dalarna.se a few weeks ago
Love, Celine
