Jens Lekman

Last Night Jens Lekman played. I love Jens Lekman.

Here is a video showing a little of the kind of charisma and musical style he has, it is similar to the performance last night in that it was pretty much just him. Although last night he had a friend accompanying him on the bongos and he had an electric guitar. But you’ll get the idea…

Below is a story I was trying to write for Rip it Up, but for reasons that will become apparent it never quite got finished. So it is rather at the draft stage -- but I share it here to try to spread the Jens message!

Whenever the sun comes out I reach for my favourite summer album.
It is called Night Falls over Kortedala and is by a man named Jens Lekman.

Not everyone seems to know about Jens. But they should.

He is a Swedish native. He started out recording his own tunes and distributing them on CDRs. A few of these tunes got going on Swedish radio and next thing you know he was a hit.

His music is unlike any other music. It is a little like Morrissey and a little like what I Imagine the Love Boat would sound like if it were a song.

What he does is he tells the most intriguing stories involving wordplay, humour, prosaic everyday occurrences or seemingly nonsensical off-hand comments and threads behind them a level of epic production – strings, horns damn near choruses of angels. He has used samples in place of a band – and once he got the chance he has used what feels like an old Radio City orchestra for Night Falls Over Kortedala.

One of the favourite stories/songs of his for me is the song A Postcard To Nina. In it he tells of a trip to Berlin. It was meant to be a social trip but his friend Nina takes him to dinner at her fathers’ apartment. Nina is lesbian and wants Jens to pretend to be her boyfriend to deflect attention. They devise a system whereby if he is asked a question he doesn’t know he looks to her to see how her eyebrow is raised as to what the answer is:

(Here it is with the full album production -- so you can see what I mean about the kitchen sink approach)

Oh God, Jesus Christ
I try to focus on your eyes
we’re having dinner with your family now
keep a steady look at your left eyebrow

If it’s raised, it means yes,
If it’s not it means take a guess
Hey! You! Stop kicking my legs
I’m doing my best
can you pass the eggs
(A Postcard to Nina)

It is everything I love about Jens – ridiculous, optimistic, playful, funny, over-produced to all hell, upliftingly nonsensical, the out-there followed by the down here (can you pass the eggs) thought provoking and beautifully sung and scored.

I had read he was living in Melbourne. I was actually considering heading over there to try to see him play. But he doesn’t play an awful lot and some of the news you read can be somewhat mischievous -- you see Jens likes to weave unusual stories that may be fictional or may be truer than we know through his songs. He also does this in his life. He announced at one stage that he was quitting music to work at a bingo parlour. Officially, he lasted two days before hading back to music. He also contracted Swine Flu. I think that one is true, but how would you know?

Another of his songs that I love is called Maple Leaves. In it he tells the story of mishearing the words Make Believe as Maple Leaves. It is this poignant funny song, one of his more melancholic – that I always think talks about the way people sometimes just don’t match up, even though they’d want to. Like I say, I like this guy’s music.

I think you’re beautiful
but it’s impossible
to make you understand
that if you don’t take my hand
I’ll lose my mind completely
Madness will finally defeat me

She said it was all make-belief
but I thought you said maple leaves
and when she talked about a fall
I thought she talked about a season
I never understood at all
(Maple Leaves)

So it was with great excitement I learnt he was heading to New Zealand to play in shows in support of Joanna Newsom – and even a solo show in Auckland!

I quickly dashed off an email to try to score an interview for this piece.

I asked for a phone interview, saying I was a big fan and wanted to spread the message ahead of the show. They were polite but said that seeing as we were dealing with the Holiday season it’d have to be written questions.

No problem. I fired off these questions with more than two weeks before the Jan 4 deadline.

I was pretty excited to get the chance to ask Jens about some of these things:

Jens! So cool you are coming over to New Zealand -- tell me -- -are you living in Melbourne and is that a wee way from home originally?

What led you there?

In New Zealand we have a habit of always asking people from overseas if they like New Zealand and if they have been to Piha (a West Coast beach with black sand and brooding hills). So -- do you like NZ and have you been to Piha!

What have you been up to since the excellent Night Falls over Kortedala?

Can I ask you a few questions about your songwriting? I love the way the lyrics sometimes on first approach sound understatedly prosaic almost kind of afterthoughts or thoughts on the fly but the composition and production are so orchestrated -- -is that contrast something you work at?

Tell me about how you write the songs -- do the words come first -- do you think of a story to tell, do you remember a conversation or scenario or do you hear the tune?

I really enjoy the stories you tell -- -like in Maple Leaves or Nina, do these stories relate to real happenings -- did you really have diner with a Lesbian friend to be her beard in Berlin and did you really mishear Maple Leaves?

Who are you listening to -- -where do you draw the more dare I say schmaltzy love boat style sounds that are in NFOK from?

What are you working on at the moment, when will we have more music from you?

What can we expect from your New Zealand shows -- are you going to invite local musicians to join you as you have in the past or are you bringing anyone?

Is there anything you would like to talk about or that you think we should know?

Please tell me about the backyard shows you have been doing -- what a cool idea! And also about the newsletter you have to stay in contact.

That last question related to this cool newsletter Jens has. You sign up to it through his personal website. A site that he maintains and updates himself. On it he has a blog: smalltalk that he posts photos, news and the rest of the things people blog about up on. It was through this I saw he had done some backyard concerts in Australia. Now that would be cool – Jens, at a backyard party! I’d like to know how that came about and how they went.

Weeks went by. No reply. I harassed the label people a bit:

Hello!

Any word?

Cheers!
Simon

Little passive aggressive apostrophes litter the emails.

Still no word. They hoped he was getting back, maybe tomorrow, so sorry. Another couple of weeks go by. We push the deadline out. The dates are fast approaching. The editor is losing his patience.

The questions weren’t too annoying I hope. It is always a problem for artists like Jens – they get asked the same broad questions for every mainstream publication -- - and then obsessively detailed questions on fan forums. I went on to these and found answers for a bunch of mine. Maybe he was just bored of answering them.

One last shot – sent on the 18th of Jan. But it is a no-go. He hasn’t answered the questions or sent anything back. Looks like we’ll just have to maintain the sense of mystery and the half-explained that he creates in his songs.

Although he hasn’t talked to us this time he does talk a wee bit on his blog: and he has that newsletter. Sign up to those maybe. And on his website he also has a page called Presents For You, which is a whole bunch of free downloads. Go check him out and maybe  next time he comes I’ll see you at his show.

—--

So that was the story as far as I got it. Obviously it would be a bit better if he had replied -- and because he didn’t the story never ran so I miss out on the work, but I’m not mad. The show last night was smashing -- -and maybe the fact that he is a bit secret and little-known means that it was a smaller more intimate affair and the better for it.