TOUCHING BASE
Ace of Base Rebuilds Bridges After a Scare
By Phillip Zonkel

    By most accounts, the members of Ace of Base had a career that was all they wanted. Especially since the 1993 record "The Sign", with its infectious melodies and lyrics, became the biggest-selling debut album worldwide, with 8 million copies sold in the United States.
    But in early 1994, life in the spotlight for the Scandinavian pop quartet (Ulf Ekberg, 25, Jonas Berggren, 28, and his sisters, Jenny, 23, and Linn, 25) took a drastic turn for the worse. A German fan went to Gothenburg, Sweden, and broke into the Berggren home while Jenny was asleep.
    "Jenny woke up with a big bowie knife at her throat," Ekberg says. "[The woman] dragged her upstairs and woke up [Jenny's] mother. [The woman] stabbed her mother in the hand and there was blood everywhere."
    When Mr.Berggren awoke, he, Mrs.Berggren and Jenny wrestled the woman to the ground. Jenny called the police.
    Now, Ekberg says, the woman is banned from Sweden for 10 years. "She's in a German hospital," he says.
    Meanwhile, Jenny has been healing her scars. "The physical wounds weren't so bad. It was the psychological," Ekberg says. "Jenny couldn't sleep for almost a year. She's getting better."
    One way Jenny coped with the trauma was through songwriting. She wrote three tracks on their sophomore release, "The Bridge", including "Ravine", which was inspired by the assault.
    Jenny says, "I find [writing songs] difficult and that is why I love it. It's so very important to write songs. You speak to yourself when you write songs. You come to your own conclusions that you need in your life. It's actually like going to the psychologist."
    Perhaps those cathartic writings have helped her develop a healthy attitude about an album's commercial success. "The Bridge" has sold 1.5 million copies, but those sales are several million behind "The Sign". Nevertheless, Jenny takes it in stride.
    "I'm a bit disappointed, of course. In one way, I'm so greatful that we sold so very much the last time. And I'm a bit angry at myself because if ['The Bridge'] was our debut album I'd be overwhelmed," she says.
    "But since we sold so many last time, even if we sell 10 million records, it will be less than ['The Sign']. So anything that comes out of this album will be a disappointment for everybody in some way," she says with a laugh. "You get a bit spoiled."
    Unfortunately for Ekberg, who produced dark, aggressive records before Ace, he's been spoiled in a different way.
    "Last summer I was sitting in the studio hoping to do something really, really heavy like Ministry or Skinny Puppy. [But] mythinking of how you make a single work on radio and on the dance floor took over me. I lost that edge to make something heavy," Ekberg laments. "It's inside of me somewhere. It's going to take me some time to put it out again."

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