Jens Lekman

“My songs don't deal with locations that specifically, even if there are very specific references to them in there; they're sort of just where stories happen, not the stories themselves.”

“Ever since I started writing music, I've wanted to know what the songs are about and to be able to tell stories.”

“Really, to me, a really good evening would be a comedian, followed by a band, followed by a really good DJ.”

“I like telling stories with a sense of humor. But humor can also distance you from the subject you're writing about. I'm interested in using humor as a portal to something a bit more serious.”

“My old songs used to take place in Gothenburg; then, when I lived in Melbourne, the songs just naturally took place more in Melbourne.”

“I remember when I grew up and Dad would take me to kindergarten in the morning, and you could smell the chips in the air from the factory nearby.”

“Nirvana was a band that led you somewhere, as opposed to all the grunge bands that began and ended with themselves.”

“If there's two things I will never do, it would be grow a beard and pick up the uke again.”

“For me, it's sort of like a cultural democracy or musical socialism to take a stand and get out of the major cities if you can.”

“Sometimes you have to burn yourself to the ground before you can rise like a phoenix from the ashes.”

“'Postcards' was just a way of slapping myself in the face and saying, 'You can do anything! Just go for it!'”

“I have a very nice voice.”

“When I was a kid, I had a period in my life when I was eight or nine when I was so scared of dying that I wouldn't go out of our house for a whole year. I refused to step out of the door because I thought something would happen. I had all these compulsive thoughts or whatever, and my head was really messed up.”

“I was in my early 30s, and I longed for real friendships and real relationships, and I started asking myself why I didn't have that. I had a couple of male friends, but every time I would hang out with them, it felt like there was something keeping us apart.”

“I think all the best songs do that: they offer some sort of hope and light in the darkness.”

“Every wedding is slightly different from the other. But you always get to meet the funny uncle and the weirdo relatives, and there's always someone trying to beat you up for not playing enough Beatles songs or something.”

“It was never part of how I imagined my music, and I watched in awe at how this ukulele troubadour image suddenly devoured the Jens Lekman I had planned so carefully.”

“You always try different versions of yourself through songwriting. It can get a bit annoying to see them walk around and do their thing when you feel like, 'I'm not that person any more.'”

“I think a lot of my anxieties and fears are things that are very abstract.”

“I try and take it for what it is, and I'm very at peace with the fact that when I'm done with the songs, they don't belong to me anymore. They belong to the listeners.”