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.
Jens LekmanI kind of like polishing the songs that I'm working on. I'm really working hard on some specific songs.
Jens LekmanWhen 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.
Jens LekmanI 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.
Jens LekmanWhen 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.
Jens LekmanSometimes it's not like I write very specific, it's more like I add an atmosphere almost to something that might have been quite awkward in my mind from the beginning. Something has happened and I want to force myself to think of it in a more positive way. And then I force myself to write something that convinces me that this is actually something pretty good or something that I learned something valuable from.
Jens Lekman