Jens Lekman Quotes

When I was between seven and 13, I hated music. I wasn't interested in music at all. I'd tried to listen to it just because all my friends were getting into pop music and everything, and I remember I just wasn't interested at all. I liked drawing and science.

I would cut off my right arm to be someone's lover.

What's broken can always be fixed What's fixed will always be broken

I hate when songwriters refer to their songs as babies.

You don't get over a broken heart/ You just learn to carry it gracefully.

I would never kiss anyone/ Who doesn't burn me like the sun.

I could've written songs about, for example, the Paris attacks as they happened and have the song out the day after, but doing this project and following the news made me realize how much I miss deeper nuances in the news reporting. There's already so many quick opinions and angles being thrown in your face, so I avoided writing about things like that and tried focusing on the smaller, more seemingly insignificant things. The things you would find in the back of the newspaper or the back of your mind.

I realized I needed to work with other people instead of doing everything myself.

I make a living from storytelling - if you're a public person and you sing songs about getting married to get a visa, and you are actually doing that, you're gonna end up in trouble.

The beauty of the collage technique is that you're using sounds that have never met and were never supposed to meet. You introduce them to each other, at first they're a bit shy, clumsy, staring at their shoes. But you can sense there's something there. So you cut and paste a little bit and by the end of the song you can spot them in the corner, holding hands.

Vocal arrangements are something I'm working a lot with for the new songs.

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 really think I need to find a home. I don't know if that includes a girlfriend or not, but first I need to find a home, definitely.

I love a lot of old disco because it's aerodynamic, smooth, and very seductive.

Family and friends always need to be bigger than your music career, and in that sense, your music will be bigger because you respect your family and your friends more.

The fate of a song is often established in the first 15 minutes of writing.

When I performed the songs in front of an audience at the end of each project and I knew the storytellers were in the crowd listening, that was hard.

I think all of my songs are either based on personal experience or will be based on personal experience, because I do write a lot of songs prophetically.

I must admit that it seems like my mind really reconstructs some things, and in a very - I just know that it seems like some things are not as I remembered them when I do some investigation.

I think to find an escape route out of a music industry that is becoming more and more focused on making money.

I'm not too fond of the typical Australian activities or culture. I'm not into surfing.

I've always been against recreating or re-recording samples, but I managed to re-record one or two that were just too expensive and it was just ridiculous.

I wanted to create a more spontaneous outlet for my songwriting to have alongside the more long-winded process of making an album. I wanted to have some fun.

I think the cynicism that you have when you've just gone through a break-up is a luxury that you allow yourself for a while.

I lived in a suitcase for a year, and then a relationship brought me to New York for about four months, then I lived in Melbourne. Then I moved back to Gothenburg because the immigrant laws are strict for both Australia and the U.S., and I would have to marry someone to get into those countries. But I wouldn't really be able to get involved in a sham marriage without being able to tell anyone about it.