Top 136 Quotes & Sayings by Jens Lekman - Page 2

I have a very nice voice.

I realised that music controls me more than I control music. I had to write songs that were convincing me that things would get better.

I wanted to write songs about other people because I was sick of myself, basically. I didn't like myself very much. 'Ghostwriting' became an outlet for that. And then I could get back to get Jens Lekman again.

It's not difficult getting into the charts in Sweden. It's a very different musical climate, and in a very good way, I think, because artists like Jose Gonzalez or The Knife can actually get on the charts.

I start writing songs first as an entertainer, and I like funny stories that wrap up with dignity.

I really love the idea of stepping into another character and being able to sing maybe stuff that is not my thought and my own opinions, but be able to portray someone else and take a walk in their shoes for a while.

The whole thing with playing on a stage with mics and all that has always been kind of uncomfortable to me.

I'm not too fond of the typical Australian activities or culture. I'm not into surfing - that's what I'm trying to say.

When it comes to heartbreaks and disappointments, I often have to be more or less done with them to be able to write about them. Then you might ask why I would write about them at all, but I think I owe it to the Jens of the past.

I think of the Jens Lekman in the songs as a completely different person who's stealing my stories.

I don't want music to be a museum.

I've started listening to music in a new way after I started running. When it comes to running, I really got into the idea of track listings that way, too.

Summer is always best through a window.

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.

Of the times that I've been able to overcome a fear, it's been by making it something that I can understand, that I can hold on to - just something that's more tangible.

I think a lot of my songs are very silly and very stupid, written to entertain people, but in the end, I always come to that last line, and I feel that I have to wrap this up with a bit of dignity and a little tear in the eye; otherwise, the joke would be on the characters in the song.

The idea of printing out something that's as scary as a tumor into its concrete form was something that spoke to me - there is something very liberating about that idea.

It's weird talking about the album as a living being with its own thoughts and direction, especially if you're the one creating it.

I need to write a sitcom, but something with warmth, not one where the dad comes home and he's treated like an idiot.

Hmm... at some point when I was making 'Postcards,' it struck me, what the underlying themes for the record would be. It would be about choices, fears and doubts, and it had an existentialist theme to it.

My songs don't deal with locations that specifically, even if there are very specific references to them in there; they're sort of just where stories happen, not the stories themselves.

Once I release a song, it's not just about me or the people... I write about. They're my stories, but they're not really mine any more.

Ever since I started writing music, I've wanted to know what the songs are about and to be able to tell stories.

I try and take it for what it is, and I'm very at peace with the fact that when I'm done with the songs, they don't belong to me anymore. They belong to the listeners.

I think a lot of my anxieties and fears are things that are very abstract.

It's good to let go of control. That's probably something all artists and song writers will say at some point.

I think, in a world of mouths, I want to be an ear.

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.

I love playing small towns, but in Sweden, it's sometimes a little bit weird, because all small towns are just so close to bigger cities that people are not as grateful when you show up as they are in Odessa, Texas.

Older men in my family - back to my grandpa - were basically completely bald.

The 'sent' folder of my email program is really my biggest inspiration and my biggest source of lyrics. That's where I go to pick up a lot of the lyrics that I'm writing.

In the past, I used to rely on the randomness of working with samples, which was a good way because it threw you in a completely different direction. You just thought, 'What if I take this samba drum and combined it with an '80s synth line or something from this record?'

I think that's a responsibility I have, to not leave the listener with complete dread or depressing, dark thoughts, but to leave a little door open so that you can dance your way out if you want to.

Australia's beautiful, but I'm not too into Australian culture.

I actually have all these tapes, from when I was five, from when I was 10, and from when I was 15, that don't really have to do anything with each other, but they're sort of archeological in my musical history.

I think there are definitely a lot of subjects I don't share with people, but I'm not sure where that border is.

Making albums is a very lonely process sometimes. Sitting around working on songs, feeling the pressure.

I think South Korea was one of the best shows I've ever done in my whole life. The people there were crazy. It was literally Beatlemania.

I like short beards. Not a big fan of the bigger beards.

I found a favorite chord, which is B flat 7 - that's my favorite chord.

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.

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

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.

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

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 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'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 went through the break-up, I really looked for some kind of music, or art or literature that could say, "I've been in the same situation." I couldn't find anything at the moment, and that made me really sad.

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

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 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.