Who are you listening to, and how much have you been influenced by your participation in The New Pornographers?
I listen to everything. As far as the composers I'm really into, [there's] Rimsky-Korsakov and Grieg. The last record actually had a lot more weirdness than this one. This one has more choruses, which would definitely be the influence of my friend Carl [Newman] as well as the rest of the New Pornographers.
Lots of indie acts have a love-hate relationship with making their lyrical subjects explicit. Some of yours can be fairly obscure -- why?
Good, classic songwriting does not adhere to a time or place. (Not that I have achieved any Cole Porter magic.) I like that. I don't like to be too explicit. I always think about the time I read the story of the making of "Strange Fruit" my Billie Holiday, it gave so much away that it ruined the song for me. My songs are like little paintings or movies. I'd like the listener to be able to latch on and put themselves in the song. I just want to comfort people.
You're often pegged as "alt-country" -- what does the tradition mean at this point?
I don't get that term either, never have. I am rooted in country, but obviously it would not seem it if this was the first record of mine anyone ever heard. I just don't think about it while making songs. I am an untrained musician so I'm just desperate to make them sound like songs.
You have a rather, um, devoted male fan base. Like your lyrics, are you a "man-man-man eater"?
The character claiming to be a "man-eater" is a tiger. It's very literal. I am not a man-eater. The notion of sex appeal is annoying. Love is complex and terrifying and something we all need. Like snake venom.
