Interview with Pieter Tham
This exclusive interview with journalist and author Pieter Tham was
conducted in Stockholm by Nicola Linza and Cristoffer Neljesjö during January
2017.
What is the meaning of life, and would you want to be immortal?
The Meaning of Life seems to change throughout the aging process.
When I was seventeen I literally and figuratively wanted to become John Lennon, or at least the leader of a world famous rock band. My desire was all about making millions of dollars and getting laid.
Then suddenly you’re married, with two kids and a third on its way, off to work each morning, planning meetings and living your life through a calendar, all the time secretly wondering like the singer Peggy Lee – “Is that all there is?”
Of course it isn’t.
As the children grow up and you get back your six hours of sleep per night your dreams and ambitions return. This time in a more mature way. You settle for a little less. A job promotion, a raise? Making the trip with your wife that you always dreamed off? Well, cruising along the California Pacific Coast Highway (Route One) wasn’t bad at all!
Yes, I flirted with the bourgeoisie dream, moving up the ladder in society, digging for gold – perhaps I sold part of my soul somewhere along the line? Most of the time I liked it. By the time I reached the age of fifty five the truth deemed on me - however boring it may seem.
Keeping up good relations with your family and friends, striding to work with something you find meaningful, that’s the meaning of life. Basta!
Having said that – would I like to become immortal?
Hell yeah! If it’s combined with eternal youth. Who wants to haunt the streets
if you’re a lonely geriatric on a walker?
Coco Chanel once said; Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity. What does luxury mean to you?
Luxury to me means having enough money enabling you to say no to working with projects that doesn’t interest you, never having to make up to bosses or for that matter people you secretly despise. Not to be mixed up with the freedom to treat people crudely or arrogant. The secret with enough money is that it suffices if you know you have it.
What would you like to remove from the earth's surface in a blow of magic wand?
Cancer. Can someone please wipe it out?
Are you doing anything interesting these days?
Yes! I’m currently writing on my fourth novel due for release later this fall.
Which time period had the best music, and why?
I believe that people listen to music most intensive and intently when they are young, let’s say between the ages of thirteen and twenty five. The music is all around you at all times and becomes the soundtrack of growing up which includes the both exciting and at times grueling feeling of falling in love for the first time. Naturally the music of your youth stays with you forever.
My period of youth was during the late sixties. Guess which music I prefer? Beatles, Dylan, Stones? Correct! I also happen to believe that the sound of the sixties was particularly exceptional in its receptivity to multicultural dialogue. Influences came from all over the place – black musical tradition, blues, jazz, country as well as Latin rhythms. It doesn’t get any better!!!
Tell us about a significant moment that changed your life.
My life changing moment came when I stepped into a shabby bar in Stockholm the fall of 1971. A live act played music much too loud. Everyone was high on beer dancing madly on the tables. My eyes were immediately drawn to a young woman clad in washed out blue jeans and a white blouse. She wore a red leather belt around her slender waist and moved sort of shyly but with a steady rhythm in her body. I stopped dead in my tracks and yanked at the shirt of the friend by my side.
“Sweet Jesus, have you seen the look of that girl?”
“Yes?”
“I swear to God. I’m going to marry her!”
And so I did.
Is love real or just a mental disease?
I would have to quote Vincent van Gogh on that one:
“Love is eternal - the aspect may change, but not the essence”.
If you talk about passion that’s another story. According to science passion lasts approximately twelve months, a period in which you are crazy, lustful, ecstatic, entranced and elated. In other words stark raving mad. Go for it if you wish - but it’s not love.
What are you drinking to: celebrate - reminisce
- forget?
My drinking has become somewhat of a ritual. The same procedure as every year James!
I light candles, even in summer. I tune Spotify on to
some good old music (why not the Doors?). I pull the cork out of the wine
bottle accompanied by the barking of our Jack Russell who doesn’t like the
popping sound. I take a long look at the wine label – pretending even to myself
that it really matters what sort of red wine is being served. I taste a
mouthful and wait for the bliss…
I don’t drink to forget or to celebrate. I drink because I actually believe the first glass gives me a more kind, perhaps even more true, perspective on life. Two glasses of wine makes me lay down my silly worries. The world won’t go under tomorrow. There might even be a God – somewhere.
Beware, don’t overdose.
If you could have your portrait done by anyone, who would it be and why?
Vincent, of course. He’s the one artist I would ask if I could have my portrait done. Why? Well, first of all, I would have a van Gogh hanging in my living room. Talk about life insurance. (Remind me to write a new prenuptial!).
Honestly speaking, I’m not a great connoisseur of art but standing in front of a van Gogh painting at a museum I feel something. His art touches my soul. In short, his brush work gives me the shivers. I can feel his genius in the wheat fields, the bright sunflowers and the starry starry nights.
Also, I must admit his myth gets to me; the romantic ideal of a tortured artist.
It is 1972, and we're meeting up at Château de Ferrières for the
Surrealist Ball. What are you wearing? In addition, whom do we want to meet?
Don’t tell anyone but I had never heard of the Chateau de Ferrières until you asked me who I wanted to invite to the Surrealist Ball. So, I looked it up through Google (like we all do in times of trouble?). Anyway, what a party! I can clearly see where Stanley Kubrick got the inspiration for his movie Eyes Wide Shut.
If I would have had the opportunity of getting invited I would have liked to meet the artist Yves Klein. This sort of festivities was surely to his liking. An artist ahead of his time, unconventional, uncompromising and misunderstood. I would have liked to share a bottle of Dom Pérignon with him.
The above interview with Pieter Tham 2017 © Manner of Man Magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduction is strictly prohibited without written permission from the publisher.
