If you have any interest in Jens Lekman, I encourage you to join his mailing list, as he is one of the more hands-on performers out there. Case and point: a recent post on his website offered insight into both his long awaited follow-up to Night Falls on Kortedala and an E.P. he also has in the works.
From the horse’s mouth:
I’m still working on my next record, I know it’s been a while. It’s taken a long time because it started to take shape only a few months ago. Up until then it was a cluster of everything. As if you would have dug your hand down your pocket and just thrown the contents on the table – sort of like my three last albums and there’s nothing wrong with them but this one’s an Album. It’s been trying to tell me that the whole time.
It’s been trying to tell me that I don’t have much say in this, that the process is not like building from the ground up, but rather like unfolding from the top down. I set out to write about anything but myself and ended up writing only about myself and maybe 3-4 other people who really don’t serve any other purpose than to reflect myself. It’s been trying to tell me that a self portrait is not just a dialogue between you and yourself, but it’s also a dialogue with a third person – the beholder. Or in a larger perspective – society. Yeah right album, whatever you say.
I set out to write about anything but heartbreak, and ended up writing almost entirely about it. I felt like a war correspondent, wishing for a small column about gardening. Putting on my helmet and my bulletproof vest one more day. It said: You’re doing a good thing, remember all the people who write to you with their stories. All they want is someone to tell them theirs so they know they’re not alone. I said : Yeah yeah yeah.
But we seem to agree on the sound. I said “aerodynamic”. It said “cool”.
The conclusion: “I’m gonna keep my mouth shut now because we still have a long way to go and I have no idea where it will lead me eventually. But my plan is to get this and an EP out this year.”
If you don’t feel included in the process by this guy, then you have a lonely life ahead of you. Hat tip to Tiny Mix Tapes. And I wasn’t calling you a horse, Mr. Lekman. It’s a saying…in America…
