Jens Lekman's Washing Machine Song

Jens rambles (and what was he coming down off of while writing this?):

Hello. If you live in the United States of America you might see a washing machine commercial with a song that apparently sounds a lot like one of my songs. It is not one of my songs but here's the story. I was approached about a month ago by this company , represented by a myriad of producers. They wanted my song. First, let me tell you that I've been approached many times before. This is not a new thing. I've been approached by big german car manufacturers, fast food chains with lightly dressed girls, goth-porn websites, deoderant brands ... you name it. And I've always said no.

Now here's an interesting thing, you're automatically branded as "indie" when you decline to something that probably will make you a lot of money. People think: Ah, here's someone who prefers making music to making money. But in my opinion, being "indie" these days might be as business-minded as you can be. Just like the best brewers, tailors, plumbers, chocolate factories, restaurants etc know that keeping a low profile and relying on good word of mouth might do a much better job in the long run than screaming in peoples faces. And especially now when popmusic is actually starting to become recognised as something more high-brow than it used to be, what worse move than having your song associated with a mobile phone could you make?

Now, I don't really think like this... just wanted to kill an old myth. My reason for declining is strictly connected to my gut feeling. And I get sick when I think of one my songs associated with a product. I do have a sense for business though, it's something that has developed over the years. So while reading their offer and laughing at the stupid filmclip my eyes got caught by the line "if the song has samples in it, maybe he'll be ok with re-recording it?". I quickly replied : " Hey, why don't I record something similar for you?". They were interested, I called up a trumpet and a trombone player. In less than a day I had the track re-worked. New melody, new chords, same feeling. I sent it off, weeks went by. I gave up. But yesterday I saw a comment on my Myspace site "Holy crap, this LG commercial just featured a Sweet Summernight on Hammer Hill". I got worried , I contacted my recordlabels. Today I got the verdict: It's not your song, but it's something very similar.

I havent heard it yet so I can't tell if I've been totally ripped off or not. If I have then I'm the total loser - my song gets associated with a washing machine and I get paid nothing for it. But I don't really care right now. There's too many nice things going on around here. Spring made a short visit to Gothenburg the other week. And down in Berlin it was already summer. My big projects right now involve creating a job for my sister so she doesn't have to work for Burger King (I'm thinking of starting a web shop) and trying to remember where my old favourite swimming location was situated. My mind is drifting all the time, in a nice way. I got a postcard the other day from the girl who made me break my own heart last summer. She wrote : I hope you are happy. And I am.

Jens Lekman - Washing Machine Commercial.mp3