explodes over a steel-drum disco beat.
That sense of fun and freedom didnt come easy.
Christmas music is usually more concentrated pop music in a way.
Its meant to make us feel good and its meant to make us like we belong somewhere.
The production on this record has more bells and whistles than usual.
Was that always the goal?Yeah, I wanted it to be a pop record.
I didnt want it to be as much of an explosion in a paint factory likeNight Fallswas.
But for this one I wanted it to be more colorful.
I wanted there to be more instruments.
I was learning about drum machines and electronic instruments when I was making this.
It wasnt a very inspired record.
So Im really glad I took a break and did Postcards.
I was really stuck.
Postcards was just a way of slapping myself in the face and saying, you could do anything!
Just go for it!
There was no pressure like when you make a record.
I could do whatever I wanted.
Was there a song that felt particularly liberated with?Id say every song.
Every song felt like, This is crazy, what am I doing?
But Im just going to have fun with it.
Every song came out of this very brief moment of just the pure joy of making music again.
Every song started like a joke with myselfIm just going to do this stupid thingthat turned into something great.
In 2015 you also unveiledGhostwriting, a project in which you crowd-sourced peoples stories and turned them into songs.
I had all these frustrations and feelings before I did those two projects.
Postcards was something that brought new life and creative inspiration into the record, while Ghostwriting was relieving myself.
I wanted to write songs about other people because I was sick of myself, basically.
I didnt like myself very much.
Ghostwriting became an outlet for that.
And then I could get back to get Jens Lekman again.
Do you find it easier to write about strangers?I really love listening to stories from people.
That was the idea of the record [originally], to make a record I wasnt on.
But I realized that if you remove yourself completely from these songs, they lose something emotionally.
They dont connect with the listener in the same way.
So I think that was important realization.
I had this rule in the beginning that I was only going to write about men.
I started writing about masculinity and the way men interact with each other.
Its about mens inability to be vulnerable with each other.
And that was a very genuine sadness in my mind at the time.
I use rules to get somewhere, just to get started more or less.
