Life Outside London – Stockholm

For this week’s Life Outside London we’re taking a trip north. Really north. So far north we’re in Scandinavia, where the Swedes will tell you there is no bad weather, only bad clothes. So grab a beanie and a big overcoat and get ready to hunker down for the winter and get cosy with that bearded man you just met.

 


Our guide for this whistle-stop weekend round tour of Stockholm, the cosmopolitan capital of Sweden, is none other than DJ and promoter Pjotr, whose impressive big ginger beard is likely to get you hot under the collar (which is probably his intention to be honest). Let him whisk you away to the ABBA museum, teach you naughty phrases and where the best place to pick up boys is.

We’re going to run away to Sweden with you and go to the ABBA museum. How would you make that date gayer/more special/the best day of our lives? 

I would totally be a bore and hang out by the phone in the kitchen, which is one installation they have, where a lot of the songs were written. There they have a phone that apparently Frida calls in to sometimes!!! I would be so fucking stoked to talk to her. She is my favourite. Fiery and racy. Taking risks. Love her. If you are super bored after that, and feeling sexy, we could get a room upstairs and have a boink fest to each other’s favourite album by above group.

What’s the wildest thing you’ve ever seen at any of the parties you’ve thrown- from Polari to Cafe UFO to new night Cafe Polari? 

I guess this random guy who was so excited to be there that he just bit a girl on her arm. Really hard. Yeah, she was bleeding and had to go to the hospital to get shots.

Why Trädgården as your chosen party venue?

Cos it’s just great. The space is unique in Sweden. It has so many opportunities to do great things in. It’s situated under this huge bridge that carries a highway going out to the suburbs, so being underneath it and its massive flat pillars really gives the outside area the feel of even more space if you get what I mean. The people working there are so great also, always open to new ideas, continuously developing and also changing the space. Working with them is a pleasure.

Do you find the LGBT scene in Stockholm quite mixed or is it circuit types to one side, alt queer freaks to the other? And where do you prefer?

They’re not even mixed in the same place to be honest; usually it’s separate clubs. What we do is mixed with LGBTQ really, but it’s also mixed up with straight people, so it gets a bit different. It’s more about the music and people that you like that go. I prefer totally mixed, but with a strong predominant gay vibe. If you’re straight you know that it’s the gay people setting the rules. It’s so much fun when people mix that you would never have guessed, people do such crazy shit when they get let out of their cage. I love that.

With such a small population in Sweden, can the gay scene feel oh-so very small? How does one deal with slutty behaviour?

The slutty behaviour is totally fine. I mean people get happy from fucking, right? That I don’t think anyone has a problem with. But yeah, that it’s small is the one thing I have an issue with; less people means less diversity. Things get too “normal” here. I’m lucky I get to travel a lot; it keeps me sane and refreshed.

We know one of your fave chat-up lines is “Vill du följa med hem och käka skäggsmörgås?” (google it)… what new line has been working best for you so far this year? We need to add to our filthy Svensk phrase book.

When people randomly shout out “Hey! Jesus!” when they see me, I just go in Swedish “Yes it’s me”. It works miracles!

Late night tips? Where is the best place to pick up drunk boys at 2am? (Apart from Max Burger) Winter and summer answers please.

For me, from the DJ booth. Goes for winter and summer. Or on beautiful summer mornings here, we go swimming after the club, it gets bright already at 2am, and that is so good, you get some light folköl (“people’s beer”) from the corner store and you eventually end up talking to that cute guy. Otherwise in winter, drunk and mashed at an after party is always a cute look, I feel. You can pick up anything then. Really, a n y t h i n g .

Finally, can you sum up why you love Stockholm?

It’s just such a beautiful place. It is so harmonic. It has a beautiful flow with the landscape and the old buildings. I am not a seasonal person really, which you kind of have to be to enjoy Sweden to its fullest. I’m all for summer. But there is something very special to have such drastically different seasons. It sucks when you have to wait nine long months for three short months of summer. But when it hits, there is nothing like it. It changes you.

• Catch Pjotr playing at Les Poppeurs at Dalston Superstore (117 Kingsland High St, London E8 2PB) this Friday 23rd October, and like him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pjotr.dj

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