Jens Lekman

Jens Lekman (born 1981) is a Swedish pop musician. He has released one album and several EPs since 2003. His music can be described as guitar based pop with heavy use of samples and strings, the lyrics are often witty, romantic and sad. His work is often compared to that by Stephin Merritt, Jonathan Richman, Morrissey and The Magnetic Fields.

After having recorded and released a lot of material privately 2000-2003 on CD-R under the moniker Rocky Dennis (from the movie Mask), his self-released 7" vinyl ep containing Maple Leaves caused a big hype in the spring and summer of 2003. This was mainly due to sound files circulating on file sharing networks - the EP was limited to only 250 copies. When the Maple Leaves EP was released on Service records in the autumn, this time on CD he was already a known name and the songs Maple Leaves and Black Cab was heavily played on Swedish national radio.

Early 2004 he got rid of his old alias with the Rocky Dennis in heaven EP. He also got a contract with American label Secretly Canadian, for releases outside of Sweden. Heavy touring and the debut album followed. Live performances have differed in style, at times he has performed alone with only a guitar and a CD player, sometimes doing acapella versions of his songs, at other times he has been accompanied by a whole choir and a string quartet.

His first album When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog was released in 2004, and became somewhat a hit among the alternative music press in both Europe and the US. It contained both original and modified versions of previously recorded songs. The song "You Are The Light" was released as a single, and a video was also made, which received some rotation in the Nordic MTV. In Sweden it reached #2 in the charts.

He has proclaimed that he will never again record a full album.“Jens Lekman älskar sin musik men...'Jag ska aldrig mer göra ett album'”, Expressen, 2004-12-30. However, Secretly Canadian is releasing a b-sides and rarities compilation entitled Oh You're So Silent Jens in the fall of 2005.

Sweden's Jens Lekman emerged from relative obscurity to quickly establish himself as the darling of the global indie pop set, winning widespread acclaim from fans and critics for his uncommonly witty and well-crafted pop songs. Born February 6, 1981, in Gothenburg, Sweden, Lekman exhibited little interest in music as a child, but at 14 was recruited to play bass in a friend's cover band. Within weeks he was writing his own original material, quickly accumulating hundreds of songs. Assuming the alias Rocky Dennis (borrowed from the disfigured protagonist of the 1985 American film Mask), Lekman recorded and released a series of limited-edition CD-Rs beginning with 2001's The Budgie-Album. A year later, he compiled a collection of highlights and mailed the sole copy to the U.S. indie label Secretly Canadian, but remained largely unknown until the 2003 EP Maple Leaves became something of a cause célèbre on Internet file-sharing services. The Swedish indie Service Records reissued Maple Leaves later that same year, and after abandoning his pseudonym once and for all with 2004's Rocky Dennis in Heaven EP, Lekman issued his acclaimed full-length debut, When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog, distributed in the U.S. via Secretly Canadian. The LP generated the Swedish Top Ten hit "You Are the Light," and in 2005 Lekman traveled the globe, issuing several tour-only EPs and collecting his previous singles, B-sides, and compilation tracks as Oh You're So Silent Jens. Following this flurry of activity, he announced on his website plans for an extended hiatus from performing, scrapping a planned sophomore LP and reportedly accepting a position at a local bingo parlor; Lekman nevertheless quit after just two days on the job and fully rededicated himself to his musical pursuits. This dedication paid off with the release of his best work to date, 2007's stunning album Night Falls Over Kortadela. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide