The Hardest Working Swede In Showbiz
By Andrew Clayman
Published in Chicago Innerview, November 2007
A leading purveyor of weak-in-the-knees, wall-of-sound indie pop, Jens Lekman is currently moving out of his old apartment and up in the world— thanks to a deluge of love for his latest studio effort, Night Falls Over Kortedala.
“I’m actually standing in my empty apartment right now,” says Lekman, 26, speaking via landline from the aforementioned neighborhood of Kortedala, near Gothenburg, Sweden. “I don’t know if you can hear the echoes.”
Sensitive chap though he may be, Lekman isn’t shedding any tears over his imminent departure from Kortedala. If anything, the almost shameless warmth and romanticism of the album he recorded there came about in spite of its surroundings.
“Well, the thing is, the title of the album came up about five minutes before we sent it to the factory,” he says. “After that, I had second thoughts about whether that was a good thing or not—to name it after the neighborhood. Especially because I really don’t have a connection to this place, apart from the fact that I’ve been mugged a couple times and don’t find it a particularly cool place to live.”
Rather than an homage to a neighborhood, then, Night Falls Over Kortedala is really just the brainchild of a very imaginative guy in a four-cornered room, mixing Motown with the Magnetic Fields while hiding from his neighbors. “I did sort of make up my own world here inside my apartment,” he admits, sounding just the slightest bit nostalgic.
The critical and commercial success of Night Falls (the album went to #1 in Sweden) is also a testament to equal measures of patience and persistence from Lekman, who toured and recorded relentlessly, even as the album’s release date was repeatedly delayed due to sample licensing issues. Lekman became frustrated with his American record label, Secretly Canadian, at the time, but has since taken on a far more positive view of the situation.
“I think it actually opened some doors for some rethinking a little on some of the songs, making them a lot better than they were” he says-- a statement backed up by the final versions of standout tracks like the bouncy, string-laden “The Opposite of Hallelujah” and the Smiths-like “Your Arms Around Me.”
“So, in some sense, it actually worked out. I do consider myself the hardest working man in showbiz, though, so it’s just part of who I am.”
Lekman wasn’t exactly emulating that James Brown work ethic two years ago, when he abruptly quit the music business and, as legend has it, went to work at a Gothenburg bingo hall. At the time, he was trying to bring a sense of control back to his life after tracks like “Maple Leaves” and “Black Cab” had made him a star in his homeland. When he came to his senses and re-emerged shortly thereafter, however, his perspective had changed entirely.
“After that, I came to a new conclusion,” Lekman explains, “to embrace everything that was out of my control— all the misunderstandings and misinterpretations.”
This new philosophy included the rather rash decision to abandon his Myspace page earlier this year, a move that subsequently sprouted dozens of Jens impersonators more than willing to take his place.
“I’ve found it really beautiful,” he says, “all the Jens Lekman clones. It’s like an army of me, doing their own things and coming up with their own ideas. I’m in love with it.”
“I am encouraging people to make up stories now,” he continues. “In fact, if you want to make up a story or change any facts, you’re welcome to. Go crazy if you want.”
As with some of Lekman’s strangely light-hearted but heartbreaking songs, it’s a tad hard to tell when he’s kidding at times. Nonetheless, the man once killed a wildebeest with his ukulele, so we will take him at his word.
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