A Conversation with Anders Wendin aka Moneybrother

This is the original transcript of the interview, only minor editing has been applied for readability. This has been the basis for articles but has never been published in the original form.

Wortraub: So, last interview of the day, you still feel fresh?
Anders: Yes, actually since it is the first day of interviews this still feels fresh. After several weeks of this, you don’t need questions any more, you just go off anyway. So, in a way, you might get a more honest interview today than you might have gotten in a couple of weeks. I don’t know the answers beforehand yet.

Wortraub: Ok, so you did not practice or get training before this interview tour?
Anders: No, I am not an artist like that.

Wortraub: This is very personal to you then?
Anders: I spend all of my time awake being Moneybrother. This is very personal to me. I don’t want to come off as a joke.

Wortraub: There is a difference though in what you do and the person Anders Werdin, right? You did choose to release the album under the name Moneybrother…
Anders: Yeah, there is a difference. It is personal, but it is also a show. There is the music, it is supposed to be like that. The show is supposed to be like that. But it is not all me. I like that fact that when I come walking down the street, and people in Sweden recognize me, they see Moneybrother. They don’t even know my name. They see this character.

Wortraub: But this character needs to be authentically based on yourself …?
Anders: Yeah, I mean, I am creating everything so it has to be me in there. But by calling it Moneybrother it makes it more intense. It gives it more power.

Wortraub: If your records reflect your life and the last album was darker and more melancholic and this one is rather a party album … What happened in between? Has your life changed this much?
Anders: Everyone has days like that. You can have the worst day. You wake up, the first six hours is like hell, your toilet is broke and you spend time literally wiping up shit. And still, in the evening it could be the best day of your life. You wash your hands and you go out, meet the right girl, drink, have fun and party. Life is like that. And the album is picking up on this. It is about coming back, it is about seeing where everything is. I am thirty years old now and came back from tour and most of my friends, they have kids. I call up: Hey, you want to go out for a beer? No man, I don’t drink beer any more, I got kids man. So, I had to get everything back together. Meet new friends, get work done, party. I had some really good times with it. I mean, I know what this business is like. I party, have a good time, and make the best of it while it lasts. In 5 or 6 years nobody will care about my music any more, then will have a shitty job and this is over. But right now, I take in everything I can.

Wortraub: Do you have the feeling the life has passed you by in other aspects? Kids, family? Are you missing out on this?
Anders: Well, since I am a guy: no. Charlie Chaplin had kids when he was in his seventies. But yes, I have met some really special persons over the years and our relationships have not worked out, because I was gone all the time. That is a fact. But is ok, since there will be a time when I can do all this. Like I said, I only have a couple of years doing this before it is over.

Wortraub: So this album reflects a mood of ìtake it as it isî?
Anders: Yeah, maybe it is. Maybe it is the mood of being really reckless one year and then hanging back the next. It is about facing a lot of problems and coming out of it still standing.

Wortraub: This album is also very much dealing with loosing the woman you love. Something that happened to you, when writing the songs?
Anders: It is something that everybody knows. Everyone of us has loved and lost. So everybody knows what it feels like. Even I do. But yes, it is a personal experience. I mean, I have to stand in front of an audience and sing it. So it has to be personal experience. If it wasn’t, I would not be able to sing my heart out.