Photo. Caroline Johansson

Mäbe and I have followed each other for over 20 years and I have been with him throughout his solo period. But I've never interviewed him as a solo artist but now it's happening.....August 2025

Tell us a little about the person Mäbe, age, work, previous bands etc?  

-It might be my worst sport, to talk and tell about myself. But, anyway, I'm approaching the second half by leaps and bounds. I do what I have to do to get by financially and have been a member or live session member in a lot of bands over the years, but since quite a few years now it's mainly solo that counts. Music, lyrics, writing and creativity have generally always been what drove me forward throughout the years. And that's really the only thing I'm interested in talking "publicly" about. The person Mäbe is pretty boring nowadays.

We have been in contact for many years and the first time was when I interviewed you in 2002 when you had the group Twoface in 2002, what has happened in your life in these 23 years?  

-Oh, damn. Is it that long?! Yes, how do you sum up 23 years... haha. Everything and nothing has happened. It feels like a different life if you think so far back, which I rarely do. A lot is the same and other things are totally different, I guess. In any case, life is much calmer these days. The pub, for example, is not quite as attractive now as it was then. I've done a whole lot of music, records and gigs since last time anyway. And I wrote a book during the pandemic. A kind of diary about what happened, and what didn't happen during a year. It was damn interesting and gave those years some kind of meaning. The book is called ”Jag skriver, därför är jag” and came out on a small publisher but I have the remaining books to sell myself now if anyone would be interested. It also contains, among other things, flashbacks to things that have happened in my life plus a whole bunch of music tips and what I listened to during those years. By the way, thank you for all the years of support! It means a lot!!

Ever since you started playing solo, you've probably been told that you sound like Thåström from time to time, are you tired of that comparison?  

-I guess it's hard for many to find other references. And it enables me to be close to a lot of other things without anyone seeming to notice. I don't really give a damn about it. I still can't do anything about how people perceive neither me, my music nor Thåström. It's simply up to others whether they want to scratch a little more and find what's under the surface or not.  

Which other artists/bands are you compared to?  

-I actually don't know. Someone mentioned Killing Joke around the first album, I remember anyway. I don't usually take in much of that kind of stuff. There are certainly references in reviews but nothing I remember so far.  

Do you think that Thåström's records still is good... Which is your favorite record with him?

-Yes, I really think so. And live above all. Favorite record is difficult. I think he has kept an extremely high and consistent level ever since PLP - Red sonic underwear. But I guess I'll say Skebokvarnsvägen 209 then.

What is your relation to punk, is it only a word, lifestyle or just a style of music?

-I have to say music style then. Have never been punk, but like the rebellious and the uproar in punk. And thrash, which I have always loved, always had a big element of punk even if you maybe didn't always perceive it in the 80's. I have a close friend who constantly introduces me to punk, especially British 70's and Swedish 80's, but it doesn't have a huge rotation in my music listened to nowadays even if there are lots of bands and records I like as hell. It's probably more post-punk nowadays for me. The Lords of the new Church spins diligently, among other things.  

If you were to tell someone about your music, how would you describe it to someone who has never heard you?

-That's the hardest thing I know, to describe my music or even worse myself. But as someone wrote before the first album: dark, suggestive, beautiful and dynamic hopefully sums up the whole quite well.  

Do you have a permanent backing band or is it just loose constellations nowadays?

-It has varied over the years but right now I have a solid and brilliant backing band live again. Awesome musicians who allow you to try things you haven't been able to do before.

is there a lot of live gigs? What kind of people do you draw in such cases when you play live?  

-Unfortunately there are a little too few gigs for my taste. I would like to get out more. I'll try to change that. It's hard to find anything consistent in terms of audience, but usually middle-aged men and women who really listen and take in what we're doing. And that's the kind of audience you might want these days. But it could just as well be some 16-year-old who finds his way there and hopefully gets something out of it. And that's just as fun. Everyone who gets something out of what we do is more than welcome.  

You release a new record now, but only digitally, is no one buying records anymore or what is the reason? Could you think about it again? It's incredibly good by the way... I would love to have it on vinyl.

-Thanks! Glad you like it! The reason that it is only released digitally is as boring as it is simple. Financially, it costs more than it tastes. We simply have to print a certain amount of records and since it will be a fairly small edition, each record becomes expensive to make and even more expensive for people to buy and it simply does not add up to what we sell right now. There is a crowd that buys everything I release, but that crowd is simply not enough. It should also preferably cover studio costs, mix, master, etc. The album I released in 2018 – När rösten i radion sa hans namn – ended up on the Swedish top list's top 10 of best-selling vinyls the first week it was released, but still it was far from making ends meet financially. We simply have to look forward, nothing is written in stone, I could definitely think about it again. The more gigs that generate income, the greater the chance that it will be released on vinyl. All the money that comes in goes directly back to the creative I do.  

Your lyrics are almost a bit poetic sometimes, what inspires you?

-Of what I experience, read, see and hear. Everything and nothing can become a text. Sometimes a text is vague, sometimes concrete. The lyrics are becoming more and more important, I notice. I almost always have to have an entrance in the lyrics for it to be a song at all nowadays. Usually just a phrase, a title or a word, but something that triggers the process. But where it itself comes from, I don't really know and probably don't want to know either. As long as it goes on, and it usually does, I'm pretty happy.

Tell us a little about the following songs from Stilla vacker oändlig

Pessimisten:

-A pretty good and telling way of how I about my producer Jonas (Beijer) work together. I really only had an idea on both the lyrics and the way it should be performed but not so much music more than a simple verse and chorus. The lyrics would simply carry the entire song was the idea.   Beijer took over the responsibility and built the main part of the music around the little I had. Then I finished writing the lyrics and we adapted the music together accordingly. Quite simply, a rewarding collaboration. The text is a summary of a whole bunch of people that you have met over the years who see things from a usually dark perspective. Many of these people are also some of the most interesting people you have come across at all. If you don't carry any darkness, you haven't lived and then you're very uninteresting in my world.   Feels like a song that is unlike anything else I have done before and it is always interesting to do.

Kom, bli mirakel:

-One of those songs I have wanted to write for a long time but haven't really gotten around to before. A ballad that really just simmers on but where it still subtly grows a little all the way. The strings make it feel big in my ears. The lyrics are old and to a completely different song really which was meant for the last album but we didn't think we got it right. We picked it up again for this album and twisted and turned it but it didn't work now either so I modified the lyrics a bit and wrote a whole new song from it instead. The penultimate song that was finished for the album.

Kort promenad :

-Last song we wrote for the album. It was written in one morning. Very fast. I had verses and the chorus, if you can call it a chorus, then again Beijer took over and put his magic over the song. The end with the wind is perhaps my favorite part of the whole album. That's the kind of thing that makes it still fun to play records. When a whim just works. The text came by digging where you stand, so to speak. A short walk through the area where I grew up.

Do you have a real favorite lyrically in music?

-Bob Dylan, Nick Cave are the ones who show up first in the head here, so I guess I'll have to say them. But there are an incredible number. I think David Richard writes good lyrics if you are going to speak in Swedish, which I think very few do well. There are a lot of good lyrics on Totta Näslund's records even if he didn't write them himself. And Tomas Lindberg(At the Gates) gets way too little cred for his lyrics I think. He paints and evokes images in my head with words, which I appreciate very much. Christian Kjellvander also does a lot of good. That said, there are many...  

Are you a stranger to mixing politics into your music? Which is your most political text?

-Yes, I probably am. At least clearly political. I'm far too poorly informed to think that I could fix it in a credible way. And I can think that political texts rarely age well. That said, Bob Dylan's Masters of War is perhaps the most timeless of all, if it is political and you could say that it is in its own way, so there are of course an incredible number of exceptions. And you should probably write something about all the devilry that is going on in all corners of the world right now, but I might rather choose to run away from all the things in my texts. På andra sidan midnatt from the album is an example of that. Some kind of hope that it can get better, and that you yourself have a responsibility for it to be so. I don't think I have any direct political lyrics that I can think of but maybe Världen uppochner (bonus track on the CD version of  När rösten i radion sa hans namn ) then.  

What do you think about living in Sweden today? What is the best and the worst?  

-There are always things here and there that you can think should be changed, but overall I like it here. Both here where I live and when I travel around the country. There is a lot that is really good and there are a lot that is really bad, but I guess that applies to most democratic countries. In the end, it is just a matter of being your best self and trying to control your own life in the best possible way based on morals and conditions.

What is your dream with music, you have been doing it for a very long time......?

-To have dreams in music I have probably stopped, but total creative freedom has always been the goal. Then to get to a level where you can play a lot live without having to sell yourself would have been nice.  

Are there any labels that are interested in releasing your records? Because you've always released them on your own, haven't you? Or are you not interested in record labels?

-I actually haven't checked for many years. It actually started with me getting such incredibly bad offers for the first album so it simply felt better to do it myself - with great help from Sound Pollution. Then it has simply rolled on. It would have made it easier a hell of a lot to let someone else take care of the practicalities and perhaps above all financially. Maybe until the next release....  

Mäbe, where does that name come from, how did it come about?

-It's a nickname that has stuck with me since I was 8-10 years old. Got to inherit it from a guy who was a few years older, so there are actually two of us. Strömstad was one of those towns where everyone had a nickname at that time. Almost no one has called me anything else since then, except my mom possibly, even though she also uses it sometimes. Nowadays it is also part of my full name. I don't know exactly how it came about but it probably just grew out of some kind of inflection of Matte, Mappe, Majpe etc. I would think. Or maybe it was just a misstatement... haha. Then it just happened that I used it when I was going to play live here in town with this project for the first time. I was probably thinking about having a band name later but it rolled on, and it was still meant to be "my" project and vision.

Do you have any really good bands from Sweden to recommend?

-Gösta Berlings Saga has released the best album of the year so far with Forever Now. Instrumental and incredibly good! Their entire catalog is magnificent so if you don't know about them, you should check it out. Then I like Kanot's new album Vind. That too is instrumentally. They were also really good live which is a big plus in my book. Of course, there are lots but I often strike a blow for my underrated buddies in Germ Bomb. Rock hard and heavy for real.  

Do you buy any records yourself these days?

-Oh yes!! Has never really stopped, but now in the last 5-6 years it has increased significantly again. Both new and used. I go to a lot of record fairs, especially in Norway. Still love to browse through records and find bargains!  

Tell us a little about the following albums and what you think about it today.

The first record you bought or got?

 -The first record I went and bought with my own money was Killing machine – Judas Priest and I still love that record. Both for nostalgic and purely quality reasons. One of Priest's best albums according to me. I was probably around 8 then I can imagine. Before that it was Kiss, Wasp and Ozzy but I had to nag my way to them.

The album that changed your life?

-Have to say Master of Puppets – Metallica. I was 10 years old at the time and it changed everything and made me want to play myself. Metallica and thrash and later death metal ruled my life for many years after that. Still a gold record even if I probably never need to hear it again. It's kind of already built into me.

Last album you bought?

-Alan Parsons Project – Pyramid and Joe's garage – Frank Zappa, was bought at the same time a few weeks ago in a record store in Karlstad. Both very good records!

The album you're ashamed of?

-I'm not really ashamed of anything, I bought them for some reason, but I have some very questionable death metal records in my collection. The kind of thing you bought just because it was death metal. The quality fell quite sharply on death metal when the trend hit.

The album that makes Mäbe sound like you do?

-Is there not just one absolute answer to that question. It's everything I've heard and liked over the years that somehow comes out of my body. And it varies and hopefully develops.

The album that always has to be on the tour bus?

-It's probably more playlists than specific records. I'm the type who wants as much variety as possible. So much new that you haven't listened to before mixed with favorite songs/bands. And preferably all kinds of different styles of music. But if I should say an album, I say Sabotage - Black Sabbath. Some days it's the world's best record simply and then it can always be with you.

The album that you would have liked to have played on?

-Fields of the Nephilim – Elizium

Now back to Stilla Vacker Oändlig....Djävulsmusiken must be one of the heaviest songs you have done because you almost get run over by it? Is it meant to run over the listener?

-It's not a specific thought I've been doing... haha. Djävulsmsukken is just a part of me that maybe hasn't come out enough on previous albums only. I love heavy music, and I've done much heavier stuff with other bands. It's an extremely big part of me. I just let that part of me out, but in a way that I still think fits into the context. It was actually released as a separate single a lot of years ago but I never thought it was particularly good then, so we picked it up for this album and made a more satisfying version. And the album needed a song with that kind of energy it felt like. The text came from the fact that I saw a documentary about Robert Johnson. And according to some, I have devoted myself to devil music for many years.  

What do you think about Spotify and similar streaming services, do you make a fortune there?

-I like the idea of Spotify and the like. That you should be able to easily find, listen and discover virtually all music that exists. As a serious music user, I discover things daily on streaming services. If I were to buy everything I listen to there, it would ruin me both in money and time. But a lot of what I've found has led to me actually buying physical records and I hope that more people do. Then of course there are a whole lot of negative things. You hear stuff about Spotify every day. You simply have to find your own feeling about all that and what you want to use. I want my music to be available to everyone who wants to hear it and for me it's always about the music and the musicians themselves. Ideally, that bands and artists can survive financially and create new things. A fortune, or even something, is really not made by doing music at all. With my own record label, I get at least the big part of the very small pie myself. However, it is mainly gigs that make it financially possible to make new records at all.

When you play live, what is the list of things for what must be backstage?

-Decent food and something to drink goes a very long way.  

What is the strangest band musically that you have shared the stage with?

-G.B.H maybe. At a festival in Uddevalla. Their bassist borrowed my basists bass because there was some trouble. Fun guys to hang out backstage with anyway. It was mostly weird because it was one of those bands that you have always heard of but didn't really think existed in our sphere, or that they would play right after us in Uddevalla. Just a little unreal. Then we didn't really share the stage but Magnus Uggla and Markoolio played just before and after us on a stage right in front of ours at some festival. It was a bit strange and interesting when their audience streamed by. However, many stopped to listen and check.  

Do you think music can change someone's life, I mean lyrics etc? Do you have any song that has made you change your mindset?

-Yes, basically I actually think so. Or at least hope. Of course, there are lots and during different periods of life. Texts about a specific event, feeling or person can make you check out more and hopefully learn from. And texts can be written to question things. War, religion, idiots who will try to control your life etc. Like then for example the aforementioned Masters of war, or maybe a song like Keops pyramid. However, I generally have a hard time with texts that are supposed to tell you how you "should" think. Pointers rarely belong in music. Texts that make you think for yourself are good texts.

Playing music, is it a good way to get out frustration and become an even better person?

-Yes, absolutely! At least for me, to be able to shout out things you carry inside you. For me, it has simply been a way of communicating at all in periods. I don't know if I'm necessarily a better person for it but it has definitely ventilated. Then I don't know if it's like that for everyone of course. You probably just have to find your thing. However, more people would need to have a creative way to get out of frustration. Stress and pressure from all sides make people seem to feel worse and worse overall. Music and creativity are important!  

Future plans with music?

-Right now it is to try to play live a lot. Then I've already started writing a little for the next project. Whether it will be detached songs, an EP or an entire album, only time will tell. However, I'm pretty convinced that it will and must be something different from this album. Feels like I'm pretty much done with that type of production now for a while. It will probably be much more stripped down and laid-back. But that can always change... And then I'll possibly take on a completely different band project that has been on the back burner for many, many years. But then more in the extreme metal direction. I'll see if I can get my fingers out.  

Future plans with your life otherwise?

-Right now I'm going to walk the dog. That's about as far as I plan. One hour and day at a time for a while to come. But you have to hope for some explorations around Sweden. It's always rewarding. And maybe write some more book about it, even if there is no concrete plan for it yet.  

Words of wisdom?

-Follow your own will without compromise.  

Something to add?

-No!

MÄBE - På andra sidan midnatt - singel UTE NU!

MÄBE - Stilla, vacker, oändlig - Pre-Save! - release 12 september

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MÄBEs book Jag skriver, därför är jag was released december 2023!