Jens Martin Lekman (born February 6, 1981 in Angered, Sweden) is a Swedish pop musician residing in Melbourne, Australia. He has released three albums and several EPs since 2003. His music can be described as guitar-based pop with heavy use of samples and strings, with lyrics that are often witty, romantic, and lachrymose. His work is often compared to that of Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields, Jonathan Richman, and Morrissey.
Lekman recorded and released much of his material privately from 2000 to 2003 on CD-R. Because one of his songs during this time was entitled “Rocky Dennis’ Farewell Song to the Blind Girl”, Lekman was mistakenly referred to as Rocky Dennis for a while (the song was actually written from the perspective of the main character of the 1985 film Mask). Lekman says that it was a “mistake”: “someone thought that was my real name cause I had a song about him, and then radio picked up on it, and I never had a chance to change it”. He put the confusion to rest with his Rocky Dennis in Heaven EP (2004).
His self-released 7” vinyl EP Maple Leaves caused a big stir in 2003, mainly due to sound files circulating on file sharing networks. When the same EP was released on CD by the Swedish independent label Service Records in the autumn, he was already a well-known name. The songs “Maple Leaves” and “Black Cab” were heavily played on Swedish national radio. He soon signed a contract with the American label Secretly Canadian for releases outside of Sweden. Heavy touring and his debut album soon followed.
