Music Press
Issue five - March '98
Aqua Aquatic
As the hottest Australian summer in our living memory starts to show the
first signs of a slow and graveful fade, it's appropriate to cast our
minds back over the last few months. With some shock comes the
realisation that this will be remembered as the Summer of Aqua. Love them
or hate them, the Danish supergroup have not only proven that Barbie
Girl was more than a one-hit wonder, they've become a certified pop
phenomenon of Abba-esque proportions. Triple platinum and beyond, writes
Rachel Charm.
Lene Nystrom, lead singer for the squeaky-clean Scandinavian supergroup
Aqua is cute, vivacious, charming and quirky. And on the street, she's
dead from a heroin overdose. Like the Beatles' Paul McCartney 30 years
ago, the rumours that Nystrom is dead just won't go away. It probably
didn't help the death-rumour mill when she collapsed from exhaustion in
New York in September - but predicably the real culprit is the Internet,
which plays host to thousands of weird people who think stupid stuff up.
"I'm alive!," says Nystrom. "I don't know how rumours like this start.
At the end of the day you just have to laugh at it but sometimes when
things like that are said, people you know or have worked with in the
past, don't know if it's true or not and that could be a problem. I
mean, it's so ridiculous to say that I'm dead or even that I'm on drugs.
I don't do drugs. I think someone came up with it because it ties in
with that whole rock & roll image that some bands like to have. But for
me, I think drugs are stupid."
Because she's young and under tremendous pressure, the rumors made life
harder for Nystrom. "At the moment it feels like the world is closing on
me," she observed recently. For a group that has an unwritten law that
the band's public statements have to be as positive as their music,
that's quite a statement. Questions about dealing with the pressures of
new-found fame are usually dealt with by stock answers like 'We don't
feel any pressure because we're doing what we've always dreamt of.' But
recently the press have been circling around Aqua, looking not for
positive vibes but for scandal. It's all a bit reminiscent of The Spice
Girls, as if our pop stars are now only allowed 5 minutes in the
spotlight before they're torn back down to earth.
Aqua Nystrom, her co-singer Rene Dif and band member's Soren Rasted and
Claus Norreen have been public property since the sugary Barbie Girl
slipped into the charts and into the hearts of teenyboppers everywhere in
September. The song went straight to No 1 in Denmark, Holland, Norway,
Russia, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, New
Zeland, the UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy and Australia. Now Doctor
Jones has followed suit, in fact the song has spent so long at No. 1 in
Austrlia that it's already headed for sales of a quarter of a million
units. "There isn't really a chance for us to escape the fame," says
Nystrom sullenly. "Everywhere we go, everybody seems to know us. It
takes a long time to get used to this kind fo fame. The press are always
looking for something. Of course, you have the music journalists but
then you have the ones that are looking for some kind of scandal. You
have to be careful".
Love them or hate them Aqua have to be considered in any Band of the Year
polls. And the best thing about this quartet is that they are making it
easier for fans to respect pop. Unlike the majority of pure pop bands,
Aqua write their own music, play their own instruments and aren't afraid
to front up for live gigs.
"Groups like the Spice Girls have been very successful and done a lot
for the pop industry but we don't want to be like them," says Nystrom.
"They are manufactured. They show up and sing other poeople's songs.
We play pop music but we are somewhere between a pop group and a rock
band. In Aqua we write our own songs and we play our own music. We have
a rule : if you can't play it on the guitar or piano then we won't use it."
"We're always thinking about the future," she continues. "The biggest
difference between us and the Spice Girls is that we have control over
everything. We're not sitting back waiting for some producer or hotshot
manager to do something for us. We know what we want to do and we know
we can do it."
"Anyway, the Spice Girls are digging their own grave. They're focusing
on too many things outside of music. You're either a band or a star.
We're going to stay focused on the music. That's why we're going to stay
around for a while".
** special thanx to Rachel for this article! **
Copyright © 1997/8 by Serena Lee (ezee@rocketmail.com). All Rights Reserved.
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