The Gothenburg indie pop musician and one time Melbourne resident explains how hugging a bag of frozen peas, casino demolitions, and a hypothetical marriage of convenience to his best friend in Melbourne inspired his third studio album, I Know What Love Isn’t, which drops in Australia tomorrow.
1) Every Little Hair Knows Your Name: This song was just going to end the album but I liked the idea of starting and ending at the same point. Like two bookends in a bookshelf.
2) Erica America: I was in Las Vegas once. I didn’t like that place much but while I was there they demolished an old casino that Frank Sinatra used to hang out in and the next day there was something in the air, the dust of whatever happened in that building lingering in the winds. The rest of this song is just memories, images, thoughts and feelings. They say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but couldn’t just leave these memories there.
3) Become Someone Else’s: Tracey Thorn sent me a song three years ago where she sang “Oh Jens, Oh Jens, your songs seem to look through a different lens”. It was very touching for me since I’ve been a fan since my teens but it came to me in a time when I was going through changes and my songs were going through changes too. This song is about those changes, it’s about finding happiness in being by yourself but also the longing for a hand to hold at the end of the day.
4) Some Dandruff On Your Shoulder: There’s way too many songs for the ones who’ve had their heart broken and not enough songs for the ones who have to carry the burden of breaking someone’s heart. So this one’s my attempt to write that song.
5) She Just Don’t Want To Be With You Anymore: This is about when someone breaks up with you, and you’re trying to understand, you’re making up all these scenarios: maybe she’s met someone else, maybe she just wants some time for herself. Anything is always better than the truth. I had a lot of problems getting the beat in this song right: the bass drum was too boomy and loud. I was looking for a more hollow sound and finally found it in an actual human heart. A friend’s friend works in a hospital and had the right equipment. Not sure whose heart it is though.
6) I Want a Pair of Cowboy Boots: This is about that thing when you have the same dream night after night, the kind of dream that you know exactly what it’s about. And you wake up one morning and you think “Ok subconscious, I got it the first time and now it’s getting a bit repetitive. I think it’d be nice to have a different dream from now on. And maybe in this dream, can I please have a pair of cowboy boots?” If you know what I’m talking about then you know what I’m talking about.
7) The World Moves On: In the past I used to know exactly what my songs were about when I started writing them. This time I just had to write until I figured it out. This song began with the image of me hugging a bag of frozen peas, lying on the floor. I thought “that’s a good image to start with but why was I hugging those frozen peas?” So I wrote and wrote until I slowly started realizing where it was taking me.
8) The End of The World is Bigger Than Love: I was in a miserable state and me and my friend were watching a BBC docudrama from 1984 called ‘Threads’ about nuclear war and its aftermath. It’s a very bleak and disturbing film but somehow it made me feel better. I was able to find comfort in the idea that in relation to the world and its problems, my problems seemed of little concern. I told my friend that and she said “Of course, the end of the world is bigger than love”.
9) I Know What Love Isn’t: This is about my best friend when I lived in Melbourne. We used to spend each Friday night cruising up and down the street in her old crappy Holden, listen to oldies radio, look at girls and talk about life. At some point we started talking about getting married so that I could stay in the country. We had both come out of relationships and the idea seemed so perfect, that we were gonna build a relationship on something constructed, something with a purpose, rather than a vague feeling that could change at any time. It felt so liberating and comforting but I never went through with it. Which is alright since I wouldn’t have been able to tell the story if I did.
10) Every Little Hair Knows Your Name: Ending where it started. This is about how the body remembers long after the brain has forgotten.
Words and Title Image Provided by Jens Lekman
