Jens Lekman

Jens Martin Lekman (pronounced [jɛns mɑrtɪn lekman]) (born 6 February 1981) is a Swedish musician. His music is guitar-based pop with heavy use of samples and strings, with lyrics that are often witty, romantic, and melancholic. His work is heavily influenced by Jonathan Richman and Belle & Sebastian, and he has been likened to Stephin Merritt (of The Magnetic Fields), David Byrne, and Scott Walker. 2Early life Lekman was born February 6, 1981 in Angered, Gothenburg. As a child, he was not particularly interested in music, but the age of fourteen he was asked to play bass in a friend's cover band. This sparked his own song writing and he quickly came to write hundreds of songs. Gradually, he adopted the pseudonym Rocky Dennis, a name he borrowed from the protagonist in the movie Mask. Under this name, he began releasing limited edition CD-R discs, the first of which was 2001's The Budgie. The following year, he sent a collection of their songs to the American record label Secretly Canadian, who contracted him. 2Music career From 2000 to 2003, Lekman recorded and released much of his material privately on CD-R. Because one of his songs during this time was entitled "Rocky Dennis' Farewell Song to the Blind Girl", inspired by the movie Mask, Lekman was mistakenly referred to as "Rocky Dennis