Nina Persson of The Cardigans MULTIMEDIA CNN WorldBeat's Brooke Alexander interviews The Cardigans Windows Media 28K 80K

Listen to a clip of "Love Fool" Audio clip: 115k MPEG-3 Audio clip: 160k WAV Video clip: 950k QuickTime

Listen to a clip of "My Favourite Game" Audio clip: 110k MPEG-3 Audio clip: 150k WAV Video clip: 925k QuickTime

Web posted on:
Tuesday, February 02, 1999 3:32:11 PM EST

NEW YORK (CNN) -- In the past decade, Swedish music acts have blazed their way through the music charts. This weekend, cool Sweden was the talk of the town during the 33rd Midem Festival in Cannes, with the Swedish contingent turning up in force.

Though they're perhaps the best-known Swedish music export right now, the Cardigans weren't there. Their song "My Favourite Game" has helped make them a hot property, and set them up for a successful tour -- which they begin this week, starting in New York. Over the next four months on the road, they'll also visit Europe and Japan.

Knitted together from the threads of a heavy metal band, Nina Persson's sugary vocals helped launch the band into global orbit with their third album, "First Band on the Moon."

CNN WorldBeat's Brooke Alexander talked to bandmembers Peter Svensson, Magnus Sveningsson and Persson before the band set off on their transatlantic tour.

PETER SVENSSON, THE CARDIGANS: We started out six years ago, and before that, the two of us were -- we kind of, you know, knew each other and played together, you know. But we were kids at that time, I believe.

MAGNUS SVENINGSSON, THE CARDIGANS: I think the biggest influence is ourselves and our producer. Throughout our four records we've always done what comes very naturally, what we are thinking or what we're doing, who's doing it. So I think it's wrong to mention any specific group or artist. It's more the inspiration we get from being together and playing.

Q: Let's talk a little about "Love Fool" and how that fit into the film "Romeo and Juliet."

NINA PERSSON, THE CARDIGANS: Well, "Romeo and Juliet" is one of the few films where you actually hear your own songs when they're on the soundtracks. You're so stuck into your own music, so you can't feel it's a natural part of the film when you hear it in the background, really. But apparently it was great, I mean, and after the film is when that song took off to some weird dimension.

Magnus Sveningsson

Q: How would you say this album differs from the previous three?

Q: The video for that, I understand, had to be reedited for certain markets, that it was a little too heavy?

SVENSSON: In the U.K., they took away 14 car crashes and one motorcycle crash. And I think in this country (the United States) they only took away seven.

SVENNINGSON: It was actually the director, Jonas who had the idea, and we just liked it, and said, "Go for it."

Q: What would you say keeps the band together?

SVENSSON: Every time we make a new record, that's when we sort of start over again. That's what it's all about, you know, playing together and recording and writing songs.