GF's editorial assistant Lucy caught up with Jonas Altberg (AKA Basshunter) to chat about his rise to fame and what he's got planned for his time in Aotearoa.

GF: Hey Basshunter, what time is it where you are?

Basshunter: Ten past eleven in the evening.

Wow, you must be tired!

No no. Hey I'm not going to bed until 7 o'clock in the morning anyway! Basically I sleep four hours a day except for Saturday and Sunday and then I sleep 12 hours. When I'm at home working in my studio, there's no time to waste, you know!

Where are you right now?

I'm at home in Malmoe, it's in the south west in Sweden. It's just next to Denmark.

Can you tell us about your journey in music so far?

Well basically, I'm 24 years old, I started producing music around six or seven years ago and it was a hobby. And around three and a half years ago I wrote the song "Boten Anna" and that's like the original song of "Now you're gone" in Swedish and I uploaded it on the internet and on my website etc for free download and it just exploded, and I've been doing this ever since!

So the internet played a big part in everything for you then, obviously?

Oh yeah, without the internet I would be like a fart in the wind!

You're from Sweden, was it hard for you to break into an English market?

I mean of course I didn't expect it to be that big and stuff but I have the best fans and the best supporters in the world and they helped me with everything so I had full confidence in them and they really really helped me out and made all of this possible. So I wasn't worried a bit!

Do you have a band that helps you create the music? How does it all work?

Alright, I'll do it right now. I will talk, you can write this in the magazine, that Jonas is sitting down in his studio in front of his computers (I'm just saying what I'm doing right now) and I'm starting one of my new songs that I wrote and produced a couple of days ago and I call it "Why". It's just a demo so far. Can you hear it? [plays his music through the phone.]

Yip I can hear it!

So you're the first person to have ever heard that song! I'm going to try to get it done until I release my new album after the summer. There is no one behind me, I'm producing and I'm writing everything myself. And if I have time for it I'm mixing and mastering everything as well. But the last album and the album before that, I had three weeks to produce each album so basically when you have three weeks to produce 12 tracks you don't really have the luxury of time to sit down and spend a week of mixing and mastering everything so you just hand it over to another studio and they just do it for you.

Who inspires you?

I mean since I was a kid I had the biggest dream to play in a rock band, but then I found out about computer games so it never happened! No I think my dad actually, he's not a musician [though]. I mean basically, if you show him a guitar he would think it was a flute! And he's not really good with computers either. I remember last year he had to have an email for his new company so basically I created an email for him, a hotmail. And when he went to his boss and they asked him for his email he said "Yeah my email is www.hotmail.com!" It's just so cute, but he was so upset, he called me and he said "They asked for my email and they just laughed at me! Why?" But anyway, he loves rock music.

What's something your fans would be surprised to know about you?

I have some really crazy after parties. Usually I DJ in my superman speedos. And some other secrets, well I can't sleep on my back, I have to sleep on my side or on my stomach.

What's the strangest rumour you've heard about yourself?

There was a girl writing to me from Montreal in Canada, she was at my concert earlier this year and she wrote me, like "Oh I love your show, remember me? And by the way, I found some pictures of you doing cocaine, just be careful of what you do!" And I was like, ok to be honest, I have almost every bad habit in the word except drugs. I would be less surprised if I heard "Basshunter running around naked in the square with a fire extinguisher!". But I know that I would never ever do drugs in my entire life so that was very weird.

There's a video on your MySpace page called New Zealand meets Sweden. Why did you decide to make that video for us?

To be honest, I mean I've had a pretty damn good career so far in the last three years but if anyone had told me three years ago, that I was going to speak to Lucy on the other side of the world in New Zealand and talking about my music I would've said "Get outta here!" I think it's just so amazing. And I thought, I want to do something special for all the fans and all the supporters to just show them my appreciation for everything and to show you guys my appreciation for doing this. I'm very very grateful, so that was the best thing I could do for you guys. And I love humour as well as you've probably realised!

What are you looking forward to most about coming to New Zealand?

Normally I always sleep from the airport to the hotel, but I'm going to stay awake and I'm going to spend every second to look around and just enjoy being there. I don't know for sure how long I'm going to stay but hopefully I'm going to be able to enjoy some culture, the landscape and the history. Because as I said on the movie, I don't know much about New Zealand and that's what I'm going to find out. I have a special folder in my brain and it's called "New Zealand". I mean, I'm going to fill all the missing gaps.

Do you get recognised much?

In say pop music and R&B music, it's easier to get the face and get the worldwide fame. If you compare it to dance music it's more like the tune and the sound that gets famous, and the name. And that's a good thing actually because I enjoy my private life but I do enjoy going out and have fun with my friends. I can't imagine being hardcore famous like a star, like I would say Britney Spears. She would never be able to go out and just party and have fun with her friends ever. And I think that would be really boring.

Do you have anything you'd like to say to your fans in NZ?

I just wanna say one last thank you to all the supporters and everyone who's listening. And a special thank you to all the computer nerds out there because I'm probably one of the biggest computer geeks ever in this business. Yeah, the internet rules!