Son of a Plumber is an album released by Swedish pop-rock singer and composer Per Gessle. It is the first album by Gessle to use a pseudonym artist name; Son of a Plumber. The album, which was officially released on 23 November 2005, is a double CD album packed with deeply personal and highly inventive music according to Gessle.
There were three singles released from the album. A double A-side, "C'mon"/"Jo-Anna Says" which was released on 7 November 2005, the second single "Hey Mr. DJ", on 1 February 2006 and the final release was "I Like It Like That" on 24 May to the Swedish radio stations.
Background and recording
Per Gessle is the lead songwriter of Swedish acts Gyllene Tider and Roxette. In addition to this, he has released material as a solo artist; his 2003 album Mazarin is his most successful solo record. It spent thirteen weeks at number one on the Swedish Albums Chart, and sold over 335,000 copies in Sweden as of January 2005. In 2004, Gyllene Tider reformed to celebrate their 25th anniversary, releasing the studio album Finn 5 fel!, their first new material since 1996. That album was also successful, selling 230,000 copies in Sweden by January 2005. Finn 5 fel! was promoted by a concert tour of Sweden, with the band performing to over 58,000 people in a single night at the Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg, breaking an attendance record previously held by Bruce Springsteen.
Rather than release his next album as a solo artist, or with Gyllene Tider or Roxette, Gessle chose to work under the pseudonym Son of a Plumber. Producer Clarence Öfwerman initially suggested the idea of working under a pseudonym, saying that recording an album under a new name could liberate Gessle creatively. Gessle said he was reluctant to release another Swedish-language album following the success of Mazarin and Gyllene Tider, and that he wanted Son of a Plumber to "feel like a debut, for my own sake. Because I'm afraid people will get tired of me." He chose the Son of a Plumber pseudonym as a tribute to his father Kurt Gessle, who worked as a plumber.
The album was recorded between November 2004 and August 2005 at Christoffer Lundquist's Aerosol Grey Machine studio in Scania, and was produced by Gessle, Öfwerman and Lundquist. They mixed the record at the same studio from August to October 2005. Gessle claimed the studio – built in a 16th-century farm house – is haunted, and that he experienced multiple paranormal events during recording. The album was recorded by many of the same musicians who contributed to Mazarin, including Lundquist and Öfwerman, and vocalist Helena Josefsson.
Son of a Plumber differs from Gessle's previous work, in that he created only three demos for the album. Gessle said this was done at the behest of Öfwerman, who had worked with Gessle since 1986 and complained that he was "far too prepared before recording sessions". Gessle elaborated that he often created "very advanced demos. Demos that sometimes sound exactly like the end result." Instead, he performed the songs live in the studio on an acoustic guitar, which he said gave Öfwerman and Lundquist "a much better chance of influencing" the songs during the recording process. Two of the demos – "Something in the System" and "I Like It Like That" – were created during sessions for Roxette's 2003 compilation The Pop Hits, while a demo for "Jo-Anna Says" was recorded in January 2005. All three demos were released for free download on Gessle's official website in 2006. Two of the bonus tracks were also previously recorded: "A Girl Like You" was demoed for Roxette's 1999 album Have a Nice Day, but was not included on that record, while "Keep the Radio On (This Is the Perfect Song)" appeared on 1995's The Lonely Boys, a collaborative album recorded alongside Nisse Hellberg of Wilmer X.