Postcard # 52

Sample from Derek Martin - You Better Go

And that's it folks.
Thank you so so so much for listening.
Take care of each other tonight.
See you on the other side.
Much love
J

Postcard # 51

Postcard # 50

Postcard # 49

Postcard # 48

Postcard # 47

Postcard # 46

Co-written with Tenderfist from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Postcard # 45

This postcard is to myself, five years from now. I've left the 2nd half blank so I can fill in the vocals in 2020. Please remind me if I forget. Thank you.

Sample from Zé Ramalho - Vila Do Sossego

I've been really happy lately with how the projects I've worked on this year have been shaping up and actually turned out. At the beginning of this year I was longing to explore, to head into uncharted territory. So I started Postcards and started planning both the livingroom tour for may and Ghostwriting for the fall. I thought of it as a side thing, as an outlet for other ideas while I kept working on the album. But now I find that these ideas are influencing the album itself and my whole workprocess.

Ghostwriting moved me. It was emotional for me, to sit down with all these people and listen to their stories. And to slip into their slippers and be them for a while, that was something I'd love to do again. While Ghostwriting this time was what it was - an installation taking place over a few days, with every song being written in less than an hour, I find myself wanting to try something like that again but actually spend some time on the songs, maybe make a real album out of it. You guys have some good material just sitting around out there, waiting to be turned into something, like a song. It also occurred to me how interesting it would be to see other artists in completely different genres do this. Or look for stories in a specific place. I came to think of how swedish singer Kajsa Grytt did a similar thing a few years ago, where she asked interns at a womens prison to submit stories or poems that she turned into songs. I think as long as it's on a voluntary basis and you're not slipping into someone's shoes without permission, it's a great thing.

Ghostwriting also gave me an opportunity to read something like 170 stories and do a small but interesting study in how swedish and american narratives differ slightly. It made me think of Kurt Vonnegut's story graphs, where he mapped out the narrative dynamics of popular stories. I found that american stories often followed a narrative I associate with the american dream - of starting with nothing but two bare hands, working your way up, facing hardships, ending up at a place better than where you were at the start or learning a valuable lesson. Swedish stories were more ambiguous, you couldn't always tell what was up or down, they were more like Hamlet or Sopranos. I personally fell for a lot of stories that were exploring rather than came to a conclusion. But I found great stories on both sides of the ponds. And loved EVERY single story of the 170 I read.

Postcard # 44

Sample from Baby Huey - California Dreamin

The Cincinnati part of Ghostwriting is now also up on Soundcloud and will soon come up here on the website too!

Thank you everyone who submitted stories and came to the interviews for this. And thank you everyone who came to the show last friday. That was just amazing. Thank you Drew Klein and everyone else at CAC who made this happen and sorted out all the logistics of it.

Also, a special heartfelt thank you to Eddy Kwon and the string players, the Ambassadors Ensemble from MyCincinnati. Wow, just wow. That moved me so much.

What especially moved me was at the end when I was about to go off stage and Ziyad, the bassplayer, presented me with a diploma, a degree of "Doctor Of Musical Hearts". The background for this was that I had said that despite having worked with music and songwriting for over 12 years now, I'm still not much on paper, I have no degrees, no eductional merits, not much to put on a Linkedin account. This probably goes for a lot of people who work their asses of, becoming really good at something on their own. It's not something that makes me sad, but it does strike me every time I fill in applications or I'm evaluated by some authority or immigration office - I'm not much on paper. But now I am. Next time I'm asked to fill in my highest form of degree or education I can write "Doctor Of Musical Hearts". Next time I'm flying and I get to choose my title I will fill in Dr instead of Mr!

The Ambassadors Ensemble:

Every morning at 8am I walked across the John Roebling Suspension Bridge, from Covington to the CAC:

Special deal in the cafe, the beer could be served cold as well:

The Gothenburg part of Ghostwriting is now up on Soundcloud and here on my website too! Enjoy the stories and songs.
At the end of this week I'll be heading to Cincinnati to do the same thing again, I'll post those songs as well as soon as they're finished.

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to the premiere show at Röda Stens Konsthall last saturday, that was really fun.

Also, I know I'm behind on Postcards right now, Ghostwriting has taken up all the time, but I've written the songs in my head, just need a second somewhere to record them on my phone or something so I can upload them.

Postcard # 43

As I've written before here, currently I’m working on a project called Ghostwriting in which I interview people, listen to a story they would like to tell and then turn that story into a song. It will take place in Gothenburg and Cincinnati. In Cincinnati the deadline for submitting stories is tomorrow so if you have a story you would like to have turned into a song, go here: http://www.contemporaryartscenter.org/about/jens-lekman-ghostwriting-submission
Hurry hurry hurry!

Anyway, to warm up I did a testrun and I interviewed a friend. I gave her three topics: love, fear and secrets. She chose fear and told me a story about her fear of her and her boyfriend slowly turning into her parents. This song is the result, I wrote it and recorded it in under 30 mins.

Postcard # 42

My old saxophonist Frida Thurfjell dropped by and helped me write this plus added some sax to it, sad and gentle as the leaves falling outside.

Postcard # 41

Postcard # 40

This postcard is from me and the always amazing Annika Norlin. We wrote this together in a few hours and recorded our vocals in the voice memo apps on our phones. The song samples a bit from After 7’s ’Til You Do Me Right’.

Speaking of Annika, I’ll be singing on some of her songs this friday in Malmö if you’re there! I’m also DJ:ing a bit after the show.

Postcard # 39

My friend Jonas Abrahamsson who plays piano in my band came around and we wrote this together.

My project for the fall, Ghostwriting, which I will do at Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center as well as at GIBCA - the Gothenburg Biennial, is now open for story submissions.

There's been a bit of confusion about this, mainly because I had to take some time off during the summer due to exhaustion and during this time I wasn't able to be as involved as I would've liked. I confirmed a few press releases without thinking them through. But there's no major damage done. Just to repeat, here's what it's about:

Ghostwriting is a project in which I will sit down with a couple of people I’ve never met before (you could be one of them) and act as a ghostwriter for a story they would like to tell. Following a public call for story submissions, a diverse collection will be chosen. I will sit down with each participant and have a conversation, discussing their particular story. After that I will write a song out of their story, record it and then make it available to the world. The idea behind this is that I believe everyone has an amazing story in them and I want to hold it up to the world, but also to the participant as a mirror, allowing them to get a glimpse of who they are.

Ghostwriting has really nothing to do with Postcards as some descriptions have said, although I will most likely use one of the songs from each Ghostwriting session as the postcard for that week. Also, both Postcards and Ghostwriting originally came out of a longing I had at the beginning of this year to find a more spontaneous and free outlet for my songwriting.

To submit a story, you must be able to meet up in person for a personal interview at the interview dates below. This means you need to live in Gothenburg or Cincinnati or be able to travel to these cities.

In Cincinnati, the story you submit can be about anything. But in Gothenburg I chose three topics: Love, fears and secrets. I'm hoping these topics will be specific yet broad enough to inspire. As a story submitter you can be anonymous in the end, if you don't want your name attached to your song (if you write on the topic of 'secrets' for example). But we need your name and contact info to be able to call you to the interview.

Every participant will get their song on a USB stick in a nice little box in the end, as a memory and a thank you.

Here's all the links and info:

Gothenburg Biennial
Ghostwriting project link
Submit your story here (deadline oct 4)
Interviews scheduled for oct 17-18
+ Solo show at Röda Sten (I will perform the Ghostwriting songs + a mix of my other songs)

Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center
Ghostwriting project link
Submit your story here  (deadline oct 14)
Interviews scheduled for nov 16-19
+ the week ends with a very special show together with MYCincinnati

Ok, that's it. I think.
Love
J

Postcard # 38

September is the month when I often listen to FS Blumm's album 'Summer Kling'. It has become my summer transitioning into fall album. While listening to it, my girlfriend cranked up the vinyl speed from 33 rpm to 78 rpm, just for the fun of it. It sounded pretty good actually. And in my head I heard vocal melodies sung on top of it. This is what came out. The FS Blumm song is called 'Flocke'.

Postcard # 37

Postcard # 36

Sample from Karl Keaton - Love's Burn

Postcard # 35

Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here!

Gothenburg - see you at the manifestation at Götaplatsen, 17:30 tomorrow

Postcard # 34

https://www.justgiving.com/Carey-Lander

Postcard # 33

Samples from:
The Nutmegs - Story Untold
Les Baxter - Unchained Melody
The Youtube clip "Flutes - What makes them different?"

Postcard # 32

Samples from:
Guerre & Scissor Lock - Turnt Out
The Go-Betweens - Streets Of Your Town
Moe Koffman - Old Friends
The Rubettes - New York Tower
The Nutmegs - Story Untold

Postcard # 31
Sample from Ed Watson - Boogie Woman

Postcard # 30
Churchbells from St. Petri Dom zu Bremen

Postcard # 29

Postcard # 28

Photo by Ivano Giordano, from the Just Like Heaven festival, Italy.

Postcard # 27

Samples from The Whispers - Lady

Hope you're all having a wonderful summer!

xo

Postcard # 26

In november I’ve been invited to Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center to do two projects I’m very excited about:

1. Ghostwriting - in which I will sit down with a couple of people I’ve never met before and act as a ghostwriter for their story. Following a public call for story submissions, a diverse collection will be chosen. I will sit down with each participant and have a conversation, discussing their particular story that they want to tell. After that I will write a song out of their story, record it and then make it available to the world. The idea behind this is that I believe everyone has an amazing story in them and I want to hold it up to the world, but also to the participant as a mirror, allowing them to get a glimpse of who they are.
Stay tuned for more info about when and how to submit your story.

2. A performance with MYCincinnati’s Ambassador Ensemble, an amazing string sextet of young Price Hill musicians. Check out the video below, I’m very very excited about this. This will be a set of songs from my whole career, a lot of the classics, with some of the string arrangments Van Dyke Parks prepared for my show in Shanghai last year as well as new arrangments by their brilliant director Eddy Kwon.

I won the Västra Götalands Regionens Kulturpris last week! Apart from the grant I got this cool ouija board made by one of my favourite artists and cartoonists Linda Spåman. Thank you!!

It’s taken a month of rubbing my eyes and pinching my arm after the cross country livingroom tour back in may. So much hard work, so much anxiety before it started, and then so much euphoria once it turned out it was actually working. That people showed up. That the equipment worked. That every show was absolutely mindblowing.

It was an experiment, I had no idea what to expect. I’ve done similar things before, one or two houseshows here and there. But nothing like a full 15 shows in 17 days kinda trip. Four thousand and twohundredforty kilometres. It took a lot of planning, but all that planning will come in handy for the future now that I know how it can be done. It was time well invested.

My tour was focused on the smaller towns and rural areas. This was a deliberate choice. Two million people live in the three major swedish cities. Seven million don’t. Obviously a lot of those seven million like music as much as people in the big cities. But the idea that bands can only tour in bigger cities has become so cemented in our minds. Of course, finding promoters in smaller places who can offer a guarantee can be tricky. The venues cost money as does hiring a soundperson, bartender, bouncer etc. Having fans arrange the shows, often in their own livingrooms and bringing my own PA solved a lot of these issues. The venue and sound was now free and the financial risk was mine but it wasnt that big anyway. Just the gas and the lunch we had on the way. At almost every place I played there was also a guestroom and breakfast in the morning. Every host we met was kind, caring and extremely enthusiastic, I have a lot of faith in humanity after this tour.

Playing in peoples livingrooms and other unusual spaces also creates this amazing focus on the music. People show up to listen, not to drink beer and stand in the back talking. The boundary between performer and listener doesn’t disappear but it becomes more vague. Everyone becomes part of the moment. Plus playing in someones house makes for excellent comedy when you get cheered back for an encore after having stepped off stage and into the walk in closet serving as your backstage. There’s nothing less rockstar than that.

Hopefully I can do something like this in another part of the world sometime. At this moment I’m working on the album and other projects so it won’t be soon. But when it happens I will let you know and hopefully I can play your livingroom then.

In the meantime you can check out this. It was written by singer songwriter Shannon Curtis and recommended to me by her husband Jamie Hill (who mixed the An Argument With Myself EP). It contains a lot of inspiring thoughts and useful information for anyone considering doing this kind of tour.

Postcard # 25

Postcard # 24

Postcard # 23

Postcard # 22

Sample from Francis Bebey - The Coffee Cola Song

Postcard # 21

Written and recorded in a small cabin somewhere outside Röstånga

Postcard # 20

I had to do this hushed and acapella in the bathroom of the house I'm staying in because it's late and everyone's sleeping. It's been an amazing tour so far, Gävle tonight was fantastic. Thank you so much everyone who came out. Looking forward to the south of Sweden now! xx

Postcard # 19

I'm in Svanö tonight, on tour, I recorded this on my phone in the backroom of the Folkets Hus where I played. The tour so far has been absolutely amazing.

The song was inspired by a young couple I saw making out on a tram some time ago. And also inspired by a short story by Peter Stamm.

My first show in Croatia!

Zagreb, July 2nd.

!!!!!!!

Postcard # 18

On August 8th I will be playing Visions Festival in London, UK. This will be a solo show in a big cathedral. Lots of other good bands will play, get your ticketsssss!

Postcard # 17

Sample from Charles Mingus - Myself When I'm Real

Postcard # 16

"Gothenburg has been romanticized
so much that it's hard to still love it.
But give me just one of these nights
and I'll promise to speak none of it"

Postcard # 15

Sample from "A One, Two" by Biz Markie

PS. I'm DJ'ing in Linköping with Henning Fürst tonight at Klubb Din Mamma. Hope to see you there!

Postcard # 14

photo by Malin Johansson

Tickets released april 6th, 9am, click here!

8/5 - Fengersfors - Not Quite Cafe & Bistro
9/5 - Smedjebacken - In Frida & Martins home
10/5 - Svanö - Folkets Hus
12/5 - Luleå - Bistro Norrland
13/5 - Jakobstad (FI) - After Eight
15/5 - Ersmark - In Davids parents home
16/5 - Sundsvall - In Rickard and Candra's home
17/5 - Gävle - In Jennies home
19/5 - Mariehamn (FI) - Pub Bastun
20/5 - Nyköping - Generator
21/5 - Hultsfred - Klubben
22/5 - Revsudden - Dansbanan Sanna
23/5 - Röstånga - Stationen
24/5 - Tollered - Smedjan

Postcard # 13

Postcard # 12

Just spent some time snorkeling in the South China Sea

On 4th of July which in Europe is just 4th of july, I will be playing at Just Like Heaven Festival in Padova, Italy. This will be a solo show. I think I will play in an amphitheatre, the images I have seen look beautiful. You should go. You really should. It will be just like heaven - a mysterious darkness filled with stars, the stars that are you and me.

Tickets here.

Postcard # 11

My friends Most Valuable Players went digging through their early cassette recordings and found an instrumental guitar piece they had recorded many many years ago. They asked me if maybe I could write some words and melodies on top. At the moment I had just read about Voyager One's famous photo 'Pale Blue Dot'. That became the inspiration for this tiny lovesong.

Postcard # 10

Samples from the youtube clip "Smooth Jazz John Klemmer Solo Sax & Kalimba "Human" PBS"

Postcard # 9

Sample from Intense - You Are The One

Postcard # 8

Built on and contains samples from Maurice Ravel - String Quartet in F Major

Postcard # 7

Sample from "Suzanne Ciani on David Letterman"

Postcard # 6

Samples from Franck Pourcel - La Maladie D'Amour
and Hans Zimmer - Cornfield Chase

Postcard # 5

Banjo by Elin Piel, check out her bands:
Preacher and The Bear 
Mansion

(English summary at the end)

När jag började spela musik hade jag en dröm som såg ut ungefär så här: jag åker på en landsväg, kanske på en moped, solen håller på att gå ner och på ryggen har jag min gitarr. Jag stannar till på en liten ort där kvällens spelning är i någons vardagsrum eller på den lokala bibblan. Så spelar jag några låtar, pratar med publiken, säljer lite skivor och drar vidare. 
Sen fick jag förklarat för mig hur en turné egentligen funkar. Och inget fel med de vanliga turnéerna, det är ju jättekul att spela på festivaler och klubbar i storstäderna och så. Men det känns så tråkigt varje gång man åker längs E4:an och ser namnen på städer och orter som inte är Stockholm eller Göteborg och tänker på de mail man får därifrån. “Varför kan du inte komma och spela i min lilla stad också?”. 

Så jag tänkte att det är dags styra upp en turné utanför storstäderna. Och jag tror att det enklaste sättet är att vi gör oss av med mellanhänderna. Vi behöver inget spelställe - ditt vardagsrum kan vara min scen. Vi behöver ingen arrangör - du kan vara arrangör. 

Låter det intressant? Så här går det till:

Tid: 8-24 maj
Plats: På din hemort
Lokal: I ditt vardagsrum, i din trädgård, på den lokala bibblan, eller en helt annan lokal. Egna spännande idéer är välkomna! Men tänk på att grannarna också ska tycka att det är en bra idé. 
Du som värd står för: Lokal och om ni har möjlighet även boende och mat. 
Jag står för: Musik, backline och PA. 

Om du vill arrangera en av konserterna på turnén, maila senast den 8 februari till dinstad@jenslekman.com och berätta om din idé. 

Kram
Jens

IN ENGLISH: I’m doing a livingroom tour, this time only in Sweden but hopefully I can do something similar in other parts of the world another time!

Postcard # 4

Postcard # 3

Yesterday I played a wedding in beautiful Jukkasjärvi, in the very north of Sweden. The couple getting married were two australians, Erin and Alisdair. I’d never met them before but Alisdair wrote and asked if I wanted to sing for them and he seemed sweet so I said yes. And since I was going to sing for them and had to write a song this week I figured why not make the song for them. 

Postcard # 2

Sample from Abdullah Ibrahim - Mamma

Happy new year!

Here’s my new years resolution for 2015: While working on my next album, I will sit down once a week, write down my thoughts, turn them into a song and share it with you directly. Think of these little songs as postcards. Little greetings from me to you.

You see, I spend a lot of time on my songs, on their details. I sweep the streets that my characters walk on and polish every doorknob until I feel confident to let other people in. But it does lead to a very isolated creative phase.

And I’ve been longing to share my thoughts and life with you a bit more. I’ve been longing to write about things that make sense one particular day but that might make no sense once the album comes out.

Then at the end of this year we can sit down you and me and listen through these 52 songs, and remember where we were and when we were there, who we kissed and who we missed. I’m looking forward to that.

Yours truly
Jens Lekman

Art by Otto Rosenlund
Painting by Jan van Kessel de Oude