JENS LEKMAN with TAKEN BY TREES at the Phoenix (410 Sherbourne), tonight (Thursday, October 4). $20. RT, SS, TM. See listing.
Heartbreak is one of pop music’s most potent themes, but for Jens Lekman writing about it is one of his biggest challenges.
In the five years since his last album, the 31-year-old Swedish musician has played solo and occasionally with the Hidden Cameras, lived nomadically in Melbourne, New York and Gothenburg, performed in backyards and at barbecues (he didn’t have a work visa) and, finally, faced the toughest romantic breakup of his life.
For an autobiographical songwriter like Lekman, you’d think the eventful half-decade would be rich artistic fodder. Instead, it led to writer’s block.
“I grew up in the 90s and remember the lyrics back then were so abstract and open to interpretation. That always drove me crazy,” relates a cold-ridden, blanket-swaddled Lekman over the phone from Bloomington, Indiana. “My aim is for every song to have a purpose – for you to be able to say ‘This song is about this.’ But love and heartbreak are some of the most abstract subjects. That’s why I resisted writing the album for as long as I did.”
I Know What Love Isn’t (Secretly Canadian) addresses the coping and aimlessness that followed the breakup, but does so in a particularly Lekmanian way: through clever wordplay, self-examination and ultra-specific personal anecdotes.
His life and music are so intertwined that he even resisted going through with a sham green-card marriage to his best friend in Australia because it meant he would never be able to write about it. (He recounts the event in the title track of his new album.)
“During the last five years, when I was struggling with the album, I tried to write songs for other artists,” he recalls. “So I tried to adopt a more general perspective, and I just couldn’t. It made me realize that I can’t write without using a situation from my own life. It just doesn’t get sexy, you know? It doesn’t have any nerve.”
Lekman eventually surrendered to this fact, and used the album to ruminate on the subject, eventually concluding on The World Moves On: “You don’t get over a broken heart. You just learn to carry it gracefully.” It’s the album’s thesis statement, but also his musical persona’s.
“If you come to the conclusion that there is no conclusion,” Lekman says, “well, that’s a conclusion, too.”
Interview Clips
Jens Lekman beautifully defines one of the perks of being a songwriter.
Lekman corresponds directly with his fans on the Smalltalk section of his website. Here, he explains how it helped him through his writers block.
Lekman claims he never wanted to make a so-called “breakup album,” that he doesn’t even like or know much about breakup albums.
Though he hails from Sweden and most recently resided in Australia, Lekman has a very clear connection to Toronto.
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