'Postcards' was just a way of slapping myself in the face and saying, 'You can do anything! Just go for it!'
I think it's healthy that people that work in a creative field look for inspiration in a different creative field.
One of the nice things about songwriting is you can be inspired by absolutely anything.
My old songs used to take place in Gothenburg; then, when I lived in Melbourne, the songs just naturally took place more in Melbourne.
I think, in a world of mouths, I want to be an ear.
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 started running to different albums, and I was starting with the short albums and moving on to the longer albums. I was interested in how they built up, in tempo and intensity. it made me interested in albums again, too.
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 still love touring rock clubs around the world, and that's something that's really a part of me. I love making albums, and I'm a wedding singer on the side; that's my parallel career. So I love all those aspects of making music.
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 was in my early 30s, and I longed for real friendships and real relationships, and I started asking myself why I didn't have that. I had a couple of male friends, but every time I would hang out with them, it felt like there was something keeping us apart.
I became paranoid for a long time: I thought that people were out to harm me.
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.
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.
Nirvana was a band that led you somewhere, as opposed to all the grunge bands that began and ended with themselves.
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.
Even if I wrote a song about math or animals or whatever, there would still be the question, 'Why did you write about that? And what does it say about you?'
I would love to hear Marilyn Manson's fans or something, what their stories would be like.
I find it quite hard to connect with the songs where I portray myself as this clumsy, adorable, love-struck man-child.
You always try different versions of yourself through songwriting. It can get a bit annoying to see them walk around and do their thing when you feel like, 'I'm not that person any more.'
I struggled with a lot of doubts around my songwriting and around what I was and what my purpose and mission were.
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.
When I was working on 'Night Falls Over Kortedala,' I was listening a lot to 'Graceland,' the Paul Simon record. I really got into the lyrics on that album. The opening line is so brilliant, the way he sets the scene.
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.
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.
My first single was based around the mishearing of the words 'make believe' - 'I thought she said maple leaves.' That kind of stuff is very central to my music and my life.
A lot of my songs are written prophetically: I write something, and then I make it happen.
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.
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.
Making albums is a very lonely process sometimes. Sitting around working on songs, feeling the pressure.
It was never part of how I imagined my music, and I watched in awe at how this ukulele troubadour image suddenly devoured the Jens Lekman I had planned so carefully.
I think when you get into your 30s, you start to realize all of the patterns you have in your life and all of the stuff that you're avoiding. It's a terribly unsung period in people's lives. I can't think about many artists who have sung about it, because it's so not sexy.
I grew up in the '90s and remember the lyrics back then were so abstract and open to interpretation. That always drove me crazy.
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?'
What I can't fit into my suitcase is probably something I don't need.
I think there are definitely a lot of subjects I don't share with people, but I'm not sure where that border is.
If there's two things I will never do, it would be grow a beard and pick up the uke again.
I've never felt at home in Kortedala, or in Gothenburg, so I always felt like I needed to go somewhere and find some kind of perspective on things.
Really, to me, a really good evening would be a comedian, followed by a band, followed by a really good DJ.
If you come to the conclusion that there is no conclusion, well, that's a conclusion, too.
I think a lot of my anxieties and fears are things that are very abstract.
Australia's beautiful, but I'm not too into Australian culture.
For me, it's sort of like a cultural democracy or musical socialism to take a stand and get out of the major cities if you can.
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 like short beards. Not a big fan of the bigger beards.
You carry all these hurts and breakups with you forever. But there is this sort of joyful realization that the things that caused you pain were real. There is something beautiful and invigorating in holding onto that.
The whole thing with playing on a stage with mics and all that has always been kind of uncomfortable to me.
I really do believe in clearing samples, and I believe that people should be compensated for them, but the laws are just so stupid.
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.
