To put it as eloquently as possible, Jens Lekman is weird as fuck. His lyrics are absurd and empathetic, relatable beneath layers of irony. He’s also available for weddings.
While Lekman’s most recent album, Life Will See You Now, actually came out last February, the Swedish indie-pop oddity is touring behind it again now during a three-week lull between wedding gigs. This includes a stop at the High Noon Saloon on Feb. 7.
According to a recent interview with North Carolina-based Indy Week, the whole “wedding singer” business started as a shot-in-the-dark request. Two fans took his old song “If You Ever Need a Stranger (To Sing at Your Wedding)” literally and asked Lekman to perform at their nuptials. He did, and he enjoyed the experience so much that he’s kept doing it.
“I just did it for the fun of it,” Lekman said, “but then I realized it’s a really sweet way to see what your music means to people.”
But despite his whimsical aura, the 37-year-old keeps one foot firmly planted in reality: “Also, for me, it’s a way to make a living, to survive making music.”
That’s not to say that Lekman’s quirkiness is an act. Many of his best-known songs are apparently inspired by true stories, from chasing Kirsten Dunst around his hometown of Gothenburg (“Waiting for Kirsten”) to a guy who carries around his own 3D-printed tumor (“Evening Prayer”).
“The last couple of years, that’s how things have been working for me,” he told Indy Week‘s Brian Howe. “The story and the experience find each other.”
That’s to be expected from a musician as notoriously kooky as Lekman, whose lyrics are similar to the result of Kurt Vonnegut writing a Sufjan Stevens album.
After all, with Jens Lekman, the weirdness is always just the beginning.
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