Jens Lekman Quotes

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.

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

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 kind of like polishing the songs that I'm working on. I'm really working hard on some specific songs.

I don't have a girlfriend. No, I don't. I haven't had a relationship in years, actually. But yeah, I'm still looking. It's kind of nice to be looking for a home at the same time.

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

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

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.

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

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

I didn't have a home in the world, so I wanted a home in a person. I felt like I had found that, and then it was taken away from me.

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 wanted the album to be aerodynamic, like an airplane taking off from a runway - all of a sudden you're in the air.

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.

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.

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

I was trying to actively get away from music, I guess. But I recorded a whole bunch of instrumental piano songs.

It's time to find someplace where I feel like it's home.

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 hate when songwriters refer to their songs as babies.

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 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 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.

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.

I've established a certain voice over my albums. It can be an obstacle, but in the end, I think it's a strength, because I can build upon that voice, which is ultimately very much mine.

I went to Legoland in Denmark when I was five, I think, but I went to Germany when I was 17 to have a little adventure after graduation.

Christmas music is usually more concentrated pop music in a way. It's meant to make us feel good, and it's meant to make us like we belong somewhere.

Goteborg used to be a not very cool place to live. The culture centered around shrimp and bingo. Bands played Copenhagen and Stockholm and skipped Goteborg.

Any band that doesn't have a sense of humor has a little bit of a problem.