3/2/2005

MP3 Download: Pocket Full of Money

It is really hard, in this day and age, to label a musician weird; everything has been done before a million times and no one is shocked by anything. It is now time to bring in Swedish artist Jens Lekman and his unique brand of pop, nothing new here, but the mixture and his infectious lyrics have built together an inspiring blend of 50s pop and modern day folk. Welcome to the new sounds of yesterday. I had the chance to catch Jens in Austin, while he was touring with the Impossible Shapes, and find out a little bit about what makes him such an amazing artist.

Allalom Productions: So how is the tour going?

Jens Lekman: Amazing.

AP: Do any dates stand out?

JL: Umm, I like the small towns, like Jackson (Mississippi), that was a weird experience, I haven’t been called a faggot since I was in high school, when we first started playing this guy with a big ponytail comes up and moons us, that was pretty special. After we stopped playing everyone came up and bought the album anyway.

AP: How do you like touring with the Impossible Shapes?

JL: Oh, they are…I love those people, they are very good, friendly people.

AP: Your music is very different…

JL: Yeah I know, I know, I had been worried about that, because we attract different people; but I think…I was very confused in the beginning, but then I realized that they actually play pop songs. I hate rock music, but I feel that some of their songs are…could be…I would love to cover them sometime.

AP: It is really hard to compare you to other artists, who would you compare yourself to?

JL: Well, I don’t know – that’s your job…I really don’t know.

AP: True. So what is the difference between the American and the
Swedish audience?

JL: Umm, I think American audiences are more quiet,

AP: Really?

JL: Yeah actually, I don’t know, I don’t think there is such a big difference…

AP: When did you first get started with your music?

JL: Umm, I don’t know, I can’t remember…

AP: Well, if you hadn’t been a musician what else would you have liked to do?

JL: I went to art school because I wanted to be an artist, that’s why I do music now.

AP: You do music because of art?

JL: No, because art school sucked. I don’t know, it’s just that I went in and started studying something and all these rules and stuff, and I don’t like that, so that’s why I do music.

AP: So what are some of your biggest influences?

JL: My biggest influence is probably a Greek guy called Mikis Theodorakis that, eh… he is mostly famous for Zorba, you know that one?

AP: Yeah…

JL: It’s a crap song, I hate that song, he wrote a lot of beautiful love songs; they were like pop songs in the 50s and early 60s and they had really beautiful lyrics. I grew up with that music and that’s probably my biggest influence.

AP: So how did you get signed to Secretly Canadian?

JL: I came to the point where no one, not even my mom had heard my music; I really got frustrated because of that, so I decided to send them, because they were my favorite label, the only label that ever meant something to me, and I sent them a CD, the only CD I ever sent to someone…

AP: If you could put together a dream tour, in any decade, who would be on it?

JL: Umm, any decade?

AP: Yep.

JL: Umm…I like when some of the girl groups of the 50s and 60s started making pop songs out of classical music; like when The Toys did the song, you know…(Jens proceeds to hum a song)…

AP: Oh yeah.

JL: “The lover’s Concerto” I love that song, and when…my favorite one is the Shangri-La’s when they did “The Past, Present And Future” which was based on the Moonlight Sonata, so I would like to see Beethoven and Bach team up with the Shangri-Las and The Toys and …(at this point the tape becomes jumbled, and whatever Jens said was lost – so sorry!)… Because they are my favorite girl group in there.

AP: What are you currently listening to?

JL: I am listening to, umm, I have my Ipod right here…obviously I’m listening to Burtrand Russel, do you know him?

AP: No.

JL: He is great, he was a good New York musician who played with a lot of…like John Cale and people like that, but he never got any kind of recognition; he started doing some kind of weird disco with a cello, but he had the most beautiful voice I ever heard, and he started doing disco music. There are also a couple of compilations that came out a year ago…after that, eh I’m always listening to Jonathan Richman and Ariel Pink, do you know him?

AP: No, I don’t (by now I feel very stupid).

JL: He is a friend of Animal Collective…

AP: Oh yeah, yeah (redemption).

JL: …He is very good… yeah…

AP: So who came up with the idea for “The Department of Forgotten Songs” (Jen’s online database of mp3s)?

JL: I had an idea of releasing the songs, but that was impossible because we would have had to pay, like a million dollars to clear all the samples in those songs, so we decided to give them out for free. I love MP3s I feel that it’s the best song format actually…

AP: My favorite one was with the sample of Calvin Johnson (“Pocketful of Money”)…

JL: Oh yeah yeah…

AP: It’s great, it really is.

JL: Thanks.

AP: How many full-length albums have you actually released officially?

JL: Officially? Only one and that is the last one also, I won’t release any more (full-length) albums – I don’t like them. It’s just going to be EPs and singles…

AP: I think those are a lot more personal.

JL: Yeah, and you can release more records, instead of releasing just one record every few years…

AP: What contemporaries do you listen to?

JL: Contemporaries? There is this Swedish guy called Hans Appelguist, he is a musician who did an album last year (“Bremort”) that is one of the best albums I have ever heard; it’s a theme, or concept, album about a Swedish town, small town, that does not exist. It has small fragments of the town people talking, a couple lying in bed talking about their relationship, there is a sound of a train passing bye, all these beautiful and weird sounds; it’s a small town with like nothing happening really, when something actually happens on the record at one song that a couple goes out to a club and ends up having sex in a bathroom and they start breathing in the same rhythm as the beats in the background, it is just amazing.

AP: The US is really focused on style over substance (musically), is it the same in Sweden?

JL: I guess so, but it’s just the biggest artists and stuff like that, the Hives and them…

AP: Do you like The Hives?

JL: Umm, actually I have met them a couple times and they are nice people – but no, I don’t like them at all. They don’t play anything that I like, but they are a great live band.

AP: What is your opinion on the current state of mainstream music?

JL: I mean, the last fifteen years the only good mainstream music has been in R&B and Hip Hop, I like a lot of mainstream music but I don’t know that much about it.

AP: Where do you see yourself as a musician in ten years?

JL: I don’t know…

AP: You don’t look that far?

JL: No I don’t, I know that I will be writing songs…but I really don’t look that far…

AP: Well I think that is going to be it, thank you so much for your time.


To learn more about Jens and his amazing musical talents please visit him at www.jenslekman.tk, if you want to download some amazing songs not available on any album please visit his ‘Department of Forgotten Songs’ at secretlycanadian.com/jenslekman/dept.htm.