Voyage 2002

"Dude, what's your problem?" March 2002 / Benny

"What a prick you are at times," Björn said, as soon as they stepped into the room with blinded glass that overlooked the studio.

Benny shook his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

Björn sighed and looked through the window at Frida and Agnetha who were still in the recording room. Agnetha, meanwhile, was sobbing.

Benny felt bad. It was his fault...

They had been working in the studio for about a month, not on a daily basis, only once or twice a week, but still. Frida had made every effort to coach Agnetha, but it didn't come naturally. The only thing they had achieved so far was that Agnetha sang, occasionally. Into a microphone that was. Unfortunately, though, almost exclusively on Frida's pitch. She hid completely behind her. Once in a while she would pick up the octave above, in her high voice, and then they would hear something that somewhat resembled the ABBA sound, but those were exceptions.

Björn and Frida, more patient than he was, had done all the work - as far as guiding Agnetha was concerned - and were more impressed with her progress.

That morning they had worked on I Still Have Faith In You again. A ballad with fantastic lyrics, he thought. It had everything in it; their friendships, the renewed energy seventy-five percent of them were experiencing and the fear of whether they were still good enough, but that line was mostly about Agnetha. And he, with his 'hulk's head' - the words Frida would surely throw at him tonight - had been unable to hold back at last and had made a comment that had hurt Agnetha.

Although Björn had been extremely mild and sensitive, Frida had warned the both of them every time before a session, with comments like 'you guys keep it down' and 'no comments, not today either' and up until five minutes ago, that had worked out well...

But he had slept poorly that night and had not had enough for breakfast, so he was not at his best.

When Agnetha finally sang somewhere an octave higher again and he suddenly heard what he wanted to hear - at least, almost - he had asked if she could belt it out. Frida's look had spoken volumes, but he had ignored it, and when Agnetha whined - in his opinion - that she couldn't, he had suddenly become very annoyed. Unkindly, he had let slip that she might as well go home then.

With eyes spitting fire and jaws clamped together, Frida had flown of the handle, "Get lost! Go home yourself, you bastard!"

He had apologized immediately, but to no avail. Agnetha was shocked and Frida cursed him. So much for this session...

Björn had walked away with him, but was obviously angry as well.

And now Benny was pacing around the room. He had actually wanted to go outside, but it was still quite cold and Björn had gone straight into the 'incognito room', a room that hardly anyone knew about. A room with blinded glass that looked like a mirror, just like in an interrogation room. Agnetha and Frida both didn't know they were there, because they didn't know that it existed. They were both used to Polar and were not yet among the few people who knew about it. But Björn obviously did and apparently wanted to stay informed about what the ladies were doing.

And that was not a very happy scene to witness... Agnetha cried and Frida consoled her. "Hush, he's just an asshole at times, but he doesn't mean it. It has to do with his own bad mood."

He grimaced. That was one hundred percent true, unfortunately.

"You're doing so much better than before, Agge. Don't give up now," she went on, and he felt like he was becoming a bigger 'hulk's head' by the minute. Björn wiggled his leg nervously and looked at him with a dirty look.