Ci siamo quasi! Mancano meno di ventiquattr'ore al concerto di Jens Lekman di domani sera al Bronson di Ravenna (e che, come raccontavamo, ieri vedrà di spalla anche Bry Webb).
Una delle cose che negli ultimi mesi mi ha colpito di più, per quanto riguarda la promozione di I Know What Love Isn't, l'ultimo album del cantautore svedese, è la mole di interviste che Lekman ha concesso. Me ne ero appuntate almeno una quindicina di notevoli solo tra i siti e i blog principali: non oso immaginare cosa sia uscito anche sulla carta stampata. Ma la cosa bella è che pur ripetendo molte cose, com'è normale dovendo parlare di un solo disco, Lekman riesce ogni volta a trovare un dettaglio, a catturare un'istantanea, che ti fa pensare che a volte i suoi dischi siano soltanto una punta di un iceberg.
Così stasera, invece di ripassarmi le canzoni, mi è venuta voglia di ripassarmi un po' di parole:
«I don’t want the record to be something you listen you when you’re going through a breakup. I don’t think it works that well, that’s the point where I would recommend doing pushups instead. It’s because doing something physical like that releases so many sweet chemicals in your brain that it just cheers you up, makes you exhausted and you can go to sleep. Ever since I started doing interviews about this record people have been talking about it as a “breakup record” and I’m not familiar with that concept really. I don’t know [Bob Dylan’s] Blood on the Tracks, or [Fleetwood Mac’s] Rumors or any of those records. I mostly like the records that deal with the time afterwards, when you’re trying to figure out how you should relate to love and relationships and dealing with the day-to-day basis of it.»
[PopMatters]
«There’s a band called Air France, they’re from Gothenburg. They make this dance-pop music. I remember, I think it was four years ago, a year after my last record came out, and I’d been on this tour and I was trying to restart again and make music again. So I was with a member of Air France, Johan, on the harbour and we sat down, eating an ice cream and we just talked and at one point I said, “where is music heading right now?” and it felt like music is just trying to make unpopular instruments popular again. The ukulele was popular seven or eight years ago, then the kalimba was popular and so on. So were like, ‘do we really want to make a pan-flute record right now, is that where we’re headed?’ and I was like “no, we don’t”.
So I’m glad I didn’t make a pan-flute record. But I feel like what I did on this record - because I’ve noticed that a lot of people have noticed certain instruments or ‘things’ that are on the record – I’ve notice things that are not on the record and how it’s less, or more organic as a result.»
[Drowned In Sound]
«I could never listen to Morrissey because when I went to high school his music was what the bullies listened to, but he seems like a songwriter who can balance humour and despair. I think the difference is that he seems to do it from a cynical perspective. I may be wrong since I don't know his music well, but that's the feeling I get, that he leaves you with little hope. I feel like if I can't leave the listener with some kind of hope at the end of a song it's not a good song. I have to go around in circles until I've actually found a way to look at the situation with hope. It's hard but it's so cheap to just say everything's fucked.»
[The Quietus]
«TAYLOR: Let's end our conversation with some imparted wisdom. Jens, tell me what love isn't.
LEKMAN: It's the moment when someone kisses you, and you wish they didn't. And when you stay with someone just because you're scared of what it would be like not to. And when you fall for someone because they will "solve all your problems." It's the idea that you have to be with someone and that it has to be in a certain way. That's as far as I've made it.»
[Interview]
(mp3) Jens Lekman - I Know What Love Isn't
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