Jens Lekman, ‘Regarding a Package’ [Listen]

The upcoming issue of Esopus Magazine features a compilation of songs by various artists “inspired by a customer-service experience in their past.” Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Lekman contributed to the collection with his tune ‘Regarding a Package,’ which tells the unusual story of a fan sending him a dead bird in the mail.

Lekman wrote the following on his website:

When I was living in Melbourne I used to get some really weird (but occasionally really fun) packages from some fans who had been able to track down my new address. There were packages with food, dust, wooden sculptures, fluids, bottled air from Ohio and on at least one occasion - a dead bird. Sealed in a plastic bag apparently but still a dead bird.

I say apparently because Australia has some of the strictest quarantine rules in the world and I only heard about it from the customs. Most of this stuff never reached me, sometimes the package would show up with a note notifying me what was missing and why it had been removed. Most times I had to call the customs and talk to them, this started taking up a lot of time.

‘Esopus 19,' which also includes tracks by Richard Swift, Dirty Beaches, Cakes Da Killa and Black Pus, is slated for a May 2 release. In the meantime, check out 'Regarding a Package' below.